The UK Insurance Blog

In the article “How to get the most from your household budget”  resources were pooled to produce some handy tips on how to stretch our money just that little further.

Moneynet.co.uk adviser Andrew Hagger says “It’s been a tough six months for our bank balances and things won’t get much easier unless we act now.”

How to make considerable savings as well as to get the best value for money that we can by reassessing our household expenditure.

How much do you spend on contents and home insurance? Could it be that another policy would provide cheaper premiums or if not at least provide better value for money?

The cost of borrowing is going through the roof, our fixed-rate mortgages are coming to an end this year and we are all trying to remain optimistic that we are going to make ends meet. Nobody seems prepared for the recent downturn in our economy. From the UK’s biggest companies like Marks & Spencer, Barclays and Taylor Wimpey to the person next door, everybody is having a difficult time of it. The article rightly points out that the person next door only has his wits about him to get through the rough times whereas the big companies can go cap in hand to their city fundraisers.

What it is necessary to do is to look close to home to discover new ways to spend our money more wisely and give our spending a bit of a boost. Begin, Andrew Hagger suggests, by seeing if your mortgage lender will allow you to change to paying interest only for a period. If you could use some breathing space from paying a £140,000 mortgage on 6% then £200 per month will be freed up towards your payments.

A gem of an idea that works instantly, is to avoid daily shopping trips. Instead, do your food shopping once a week. All those ‘in-between’ shopping trips can be costly by the end of the week!

If you plan to make any considerable purchases at all, first of all, check out a price comparison website like kelkoo.co.uk to get the best value for money.

Borrowing on your credit card can result in high interest, so do try to get the best interest rates on the market or consider switching over to a life balance transfer card.

When buying petrol or food, the adviser suggests you should use a credit card with a cash back offer such as the American Express platinum money back card. With this facility you could earn yourself an extra £25 every month for three months if your monthly food and petrol bill is £500.

Why not work out the yearly cost of your car and put the money by every month. Add to this your annual expenditure for birthdays and Christmas and you save yourself the strain of a big bill. This way you can even earn a bit of interest too!

Take a look at your energy suppliers and see if you can’t get a better deal on energy prices somewhere else. Online tariffs or dual fuel tariffs for example may prove somewhat cheaper.

Earn some extra money by sorting through unwanted items and setting up your own stand at a local car boot sale. You could make an easy £100 or so. Or if you prefer to work online then try selling unwanted items on Ebay.

More ideas include organising a work car share instead of forking out for petrol as well as removing your savings out of a minimum interest savings account so you can earn some extra on it in a high interest yield.

The last word is that if we make an effort, looking at our current household expenditure patterns some simple changes can effectively see us riding out the tough times.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

As our towns and cities once again are flooded, a recent article “More than 1/3 of Brits do not have home insurance, despite an increased risk of flooding” in Fair Investment, reveals some surprising results about British homeowners. That even in the face of homes in Britain being absolutely devastated by floods, insurance is not a priority in some households.

You would think the incidences of flooding happening all over the country would be enough to push those currently uninsured to look into acquiring home insurance. Why do we then find that a third of the general public do not feel a need for insurance. What is happening here? The article delves a bit deeper.

With ten per cent of houses up and down the UK at serious risk of flooding (equivalent to up to £214 billion worth of property, assets and land, it comes as a shock to discover that nearly forty per cent of those questioned do not have any house insurance. Breaking it down even further, it was then discovered that men are far less likely than women to purchase house insurance. Only fifty seven per cent of men have house insurance while 64% of women do.

The people at Fair Investment suggest that in this age of frequent flooding and inadequate flood defences that we should all take out home insurance to protect us in the future. Even in these tough financial times, insurance should never be overlooked when flooding could happen to anybody.

What with the new university terms set to start, the article “Freshers’ week means rich pickings for burglars” couldn’t be better timed. It is about time students had some help protecting their belongings, they will certainly have their hands full in the weeks ahead.

Shockingly, one in three students will become a victim of the dreaded ubiquitous burglar, which is all the more reason for security to be upped and contents insurance to be in place. Burglars see students at rich pickings on account of their bountiful possessions. Let’s face it, students accumulate expensive gadgets like there’s no tomorrow!

Saga Insurance have a free ‘Student Survival’ guide book to help students help themselves as well as offering really handy contents packages. The most important feature it offers is that windows and doors in student digs are checked for security which is the main point of entry for thieves as well as other ways to drastically reduce the occurrence of burglary.

The people at Saga have, if you have a contents package with them, added on to your insurance package a student appendage offering up to £3,500 protection for your children’s valuable possessions. This will entitle you to cover when possessions are in transit as well as at the new students accommodation. What will definitely appeal is that downloaded music and items of a digital content are also protected.

Before you move in permanently to your new student accommodation, check out the security of the building looking out for security lights, locks and burglar alarms. Marking all belongings with a UV marker is highly recommended as well as lights on timer switches (to give the impression you are home) and getting your student possession insurance in place.

In a recent article “Nationwide provides advice for homeowners affected by floods” practical tips are provided as to what to do in a flood emergency should you have one.

The tips are delivered to you on behalf of the Nationwide Building Society and should be noted in case what has been happening up and down the country should happen to you too.

First of all, get in touch with your insurance company. Above all else, make them aware your home is flooded. If there is a 24 hour helpline, now is the time to use it.

If there is anything you can do to prevent even more damage from occurring, get that underway as soon as possible ensuring permanent work is not being done without at first arranging this with your insurance company.

Although it is tempting to throw out damaged furniture, it is important you hang onto it until the insurance company have inspected it.

Everything that you’ve bought, keep those receipts and for damage limitation move all valuables out of reach of the water. Keep food upstairs out of the way of water damage too.

Do not use gas and electricity or drink tap water until you are told it is safe and pull all furniture away from walls.

Alternative accommodation may be included in your insurance, so make sure you look into that.

Under your comprehensive car insurance, claim for damage to your family vehicle(s).

Once the floods have subsided, these tips should make life that bit easier for those affected. Add oil to hinges and locks. This will prevent corrosion.

Drying out the house will be a lot easier if you keep windows and doors open when it is safe to do so and when you’re around to keep an eye on things. Never leave them open if you have to go out.

Once the insurance company have visited you, you will be free to remove any carpet or floor coverings as well as washing the walls and surfaces down with disinfectant.

People want to buy their insurance online, according to this informative article “New online tool proves price isn’t everything!”.

While we prefer to shop for our insurance online, a leading home insurance provider is enjoying the benefits of providing an online comparison device. Hunting round for the best policy is much more easily achieved on the Internet and more people are catching on to this fact. Defaqto provides independent information taken from market research so you can be sure there is no favouritism going on.

Changes are afoot it would seem. In a recent survey, it was discovered that 34% of insurance buying customers prefer to shop for their policies online. New insurance products being arranged online account for 25% of the insurance buying public as opposed to six years ago when the figure was only 6%.

A lot of people are influenced greatly by the price of insurance quotes rather than taking into account other considerations. While not always top on price, the group are confident future customers will be influenced by quality of service and level of cover. By providing a comparison tool link on their website, Halifax Insurance are confident their products will stand up to competition as long as the customer isn’t only interested in the price. If this fails, a cash incentive is in operation for customers booking their home insurance over the phone as well as up to a thirty five per cent discount if you book online. Food for thought indeed!

In an interesting article called “Cut this and you could be struck by lightning!” about how household insurance can save your life, a few myths have been finally laid to rest.

Just say a big thunderstorm happens and your house has been struck by lightning, would your insurance cover the damage or not? Popular opinion is that no, you wouldn’t be covered. Why is this? A common misperception is that we are not protected against so called ‘acts of God’. Not a comforting thought in the light of the crazy weather we are all experiencing in the UK.

Here and now, this is to confirm that insurance companies do protect against extremes of nature such as earthquakes, floods and gale force winds.

The article states that anyone leaving their house uninsured during this time of extreme weather is neglecting their most valuable asset. Insanity! Insurance companies appreciate we are living in times of extreme weather and offer packages taking this into account.

Sadly one in ten homeowners (about 2 million people) do not have buildings insurance and nearly five million take the risk of not taking out contents insurance.

During the aftermath of last year’s floods across parts of the UK, over a quarter of homes flooded were not covered by insurance. Sadly, it is a sign of the times that people are willing to fore-sake insurance to save money. Those floods, if nothing else, helped us to realise how vital and fundamental insurance is. If you do some shopping around, buildings and contents insurance can cost as little as 50p a day, just over the price of a Mars bar.

According to an interesting article in easier.com  about student thefts, nearly two million students will soon unwittingly become targets of thieves. This is a message going out to students as well as their parents.

Autumn, this year, universities in the United Kingdom will welcome one million six hundred thousand new students to their halls of residences. These students will have with them items with a collective value of at least one and a half thousand pounds which ought to be covered by an adequate insurance plan. If the unthinkable was to occur, insurance reimbursement will soften the blow.

According to esure, students are expected to bring with them favourite gadgets and toys of a considerable value. The message of the article was essentially to get adequate insurance cover in case of theft or loss.

I would think it extremely rare that any students out there do not possess at least an expensive mobile phone and a laptop. According to esure, at least 81 per cent of students will take with them to uni a mobile phone while 74% will be taking a laptop. With all the latest hi-tec valuables in your possession, it makes sense to exercise extra care especially when changing to some less familiar surroundings.

When packing for university, if you plan to include a laptop, a mobile, a games console, a camera or a DVD player because you can’t imagine life without them, you had better check out where you stand with your insurance.

The value of new clothes and jewellery can mount up too, especially if, according to demographic statistics by esure, you are a fashionable northerner. They anticipate that trendy students from the north will have packed a suitcase with an average of £600 worth of fashion items. Get it all insured!

If you are a parent of a ‘student-to-be’ and you haven’t even thought of getting insurance cover for your child’s valuables, don’t worry, you are not on your own. Twenty four percent of parents never even consider taking out insurance for their child’s possessions when they head off for university.

I guess, the overlying message is simple enough, that of to ‘be-ware and be sensible’. The trouble with high value gadgets, is that they tend to be small and pocket-sized. They can be stolen really easily and efficiently. For this reason, watch out who you let into your rooms, especially if a new friend has brought company in the shape of a complete stranger. You can’t have eyes everywhere so ensure your valuables are hidden well away from opportunistic attention. Or leave the really expensive valuables behind, at home, at least until you get to know your way round a bit better.

In the article “The one that got away”  fishermen are being warned they need to protect their tackle kit.

A fact that has been recently highlighted during National Fishing Week was that fishermen are easy targets for thieves. The UK’s beloved and most favourite of all participatory sporting activities, fishing, a hobby or pastime that is often spent in seclusion, has come to the recent attention of thieves. Seeing nothing in their way to prevent them from helping themselves to valuable fishing gear, they are taking advantage of the fact that fishing gear is expensive and valuable gear. A fishing rod can cost anywhere between £100 and £2000 while specialist carp fishing reels, nets and lines can cost up to £3,000.

A fact that was highlighted during the recent National Fishing Week was that fishermen are being targeted for their valuable fishing gear, totalling a ‘net’ worth of thousands.

Night fishing, increasing in popularity all the time is providing thieves and muggers with ample opportunity to take advantage of lone fishermen. As a result this kind of crime appears to be increasing alongside the sport’s rate of popularity. Crime related to fishing, in fact, has increased by 17% with the most frequent type of crime being theft of fishing tackle.

As a response to this increase in fishing crime, one of the UK’s leading insurance providers suggests we check our policies and ensure there is a personal possessions extension (all risks) which will cover us for any personal effects or sporting equipment we carry or wear.

The article “Brits leave personal goods unattended in holiday homes” highlights the fact that holiday home owners are leaving valuable belongings unattended at their own risk.

Our holiday homes are not secure! Containing collectively, over £6.3 billion worth of personal possessions and valuables, it comes as a surprise to learn that holiday home protection is not adequately provided for.

The company Zurich Private Clients are observing a pattern where their affluent clients are being targeted for burglary even when they are occupying their second homes. It seems a popular trick is to release gas into the air con system so that they can steal valuables without the victims resisting.

People with second homes are not paying attention to insurance. About one in ten have no contents insurance for their holiday home and eleven percent have claimed they have no idea if their insurance is adequate.

Holiday home owners, for some reason, seem to be a little cavalier about their security arrangements. Basic practices like fitting locks on the windows are being ignored. Don’t tell anyone, but 6% have admitted to no security at all. The message the insurance companies want to put out is that even though a holiday home is secondary their security protection should be afforded just as much attention as their first home.

They are left empty for the majority of the year, sometimes for months at a time. Two thirds of people with holiday homes claim to visit them no more often than every three months. Although offering out the holiday home to friends and relatives, many of these holiday-homers admit their homes quite often remain empty for at least a month at a time. When holiday homes in Britain have contents to the average value of £15,200, it comes as a big surprise that they have such a slap dash attitude to their belongings. Despite this however, when quizzed they claimed they were worried about the security of their holiday home, particularly of local crime and their empty house being targeted by criminals.

Never before has property been at a premium for the buyers of the UK holiday home market. Apparently, we can’t get enough! Even if we haven’t the time to enjoy our second properties for more than twice a year, we still can’t resist investing in them!

These holiday-homers – they just don’t seem to get enough! Around 18% of holiday home owners are actively seeking more properties and forty seven per cent of these are ready to purchase in 2008.

Countries that are the most popular with purchasers of holiday homes are France and Spain (24% and 26% respectively). Other destinations moving up the ranks include Cyprus and Bulgaria. Twenty five per cent of people who are hoping to buy a holiday home in the near future are thinking about purchasing somewhere in the United Kingdom. Half the holiday home buyers are hoping to find their dream home on the continent while twenty five per cent want to find somewhere outside of Europe.

Getting ready for Festival Season? Make sure you are insured! An article by Zurich Finance states that the last thing festival goers tend to think of when planning a trip, is purchasing contents insurance. Seventy five per cent of festival goers do not take out any kind of insurance when attending an event.

Speaking from experience, festival people are more likely to lose a mobile phone or an MP3, states Zurich Finance. Goods up to the value of £3 billion are expected to be put at risk at music festivals throughout the summer. The article discussed the merits of a music event as a target for thieves. People attending an annual music festival tend to go armed with mobile phones, digital cameras, iPods and MP3 players. Overall then (including any cash people may have on them for the weekend) individuals have items amounting to a collective value of about £260!

People take risks with their possessions leaving personal and valuable items in tents while they wander off for a few hours or they carry phones in their back pockets where they can easily be stolen.

Insurance companies recommend that anyone attending a festival should think seriously and get some insurance cover protecting items against theft, loss and damage. Additionally, they advise that you should leave all debit and credit cards tucked away safely at home (ensuring that you have home and contents insurance). Get yourself equipped with personal possessions insurance for protection of all that you have brought with you to the festival. If you must bring very valuable items with you, check out the availability of a secure lock-up.

When surveyed, one in ten people had personal items stolen at a live music venue or event. Spare a thought for losing YOUR favourite bits and pieces. If you don’t insure your trusted mobile phone, camera or iPod, you are very likely to regret it later on.