Protect Your No Claims Bonus By Using An Accident Management Company

 Protect Your No Claims Bonus By Using An Accident Management Company  No Responses »
Dec 012011
 

There has been a lot of media attention about on purpose accidents where certain types of idiots risk both your life and theirs trying to get you to crash into them in such a way that your insurance company pays out because it looks like you are at fault.

Obviously the main thrust of the media’s interest is all about how this is affecting everybody’s ongoing car insurance premiums, but the more human side is very much about the personal tragedies that can occur when things go wrong.

I recently saw a television programme that I occasionally watch called BBC click where they showed that quite a lot of the larger commercial hauliers and blue-chip organisations had started to install front facing cameras with recording facilities built-in to all their vehicles. According to the report, this had saved them huge amounts of yearly insurance premiums but even more importantly proved who is at fault, shortened time in court and ultimately made their drivers safer.

Some of the on-board camera footage included in the report was astounding. At one point a very large articulated lorry was proceeding on the nearside lane of a motorway at least 65 to 70 miles an hour when a beat up old saloon car appeared suddenly from a slip road. When I say appeared suddenly, what I really mean is that it dived in front of the truck with less than 30 cm to spare! This caused the truck to jack-knife and it nearly overturned putting the driver as well as themselves in severe danger. It wasn’t clear that this particular piece of footage was what you would call an on purpose accident, but either way the car driver was a complete idiot all the same.

Obviously for the big companies and road haulage firms, installing such devices is a very sound commercial investment, however for the average car driver this isn’t really an option.

Now a few months ago I was on my way to a morning meeting when a small lump of clay, about the size of a fist fell off the back of a truck. It bounced along the motorway and because it was very busy and there was a 50 mile an hour variable speed limit in place I had absolutely no way of avoiding this debris hitting my car. If I had tried I would have caused a much larger accident and put myself and other road users in danger. I could literally see it coming at me in slow motion and I just knew it would hit my car which it did and scratched the front nearside wing causing about 200 worth of damage.

I did try to follow the truck off the motorway but it suddenly left via one of those works traffic only slip roads and so I was not able to stop the driver and point out what had happened. I’m sure he was blissfully unaware of the fact that he was losing some of the cargo but there was nothing I could do at that point.

This meant that I had to then contact my own insurance company and give them the only information I had which was the registration. Unfortunately it ended up being a long drawn out six month issue because the driver would not accept any responsibility and so in the end I had to take care of the claim and expense myself.

Now the on purpose car accidents and the clay falling off a truck are just two common problems that happen to drivers up and down the country all the time and the downside is that you end up getting penalized by the insurance company even when it was clearly not your fault. You very often have to pay excess fees, many policies don’t offer a free car rental and worst of all your insurance premium goes up because you wind up losing your no claims bonus.

There is however, a remedy which I did not know about until recently which acts as an added insurance to protect against accidents which are not your fault. The way it works is if you are unlucky enough to be in this situation the accident management company will deal with the claim on your behalf and you won’t have to lose any no claims bonus, pay excess fees or be faced with higher future payments. Many accident management companies also offer you a free car rental within twenty four hours and if your car is written off you are allowed to keep using the car rental until your paid out. Each company varies slightly in exactly what they have to offer but the points just mentioned seem to be common benefits to this type of insurance.

 Posted by at 3:41 am

Families In Fear Of Redundancy Offered Cheap Income Protection Insurance Alternative To Savings

 Families In Fear Of Redundancy Offered Cheap Income Protection Insurance Alternative To Savings  No Responses »
Nov 052011
 

Unemployment in the UK rose by 128,000 in the three months to October reaching 2.64 million. This the highest figure since 1994.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released this on 14 December 2011 and confirmed the jobless rate was up from 7.9% for the previous quarter and had risen to 8.3%. Employees are beginning to wonder if their employer will be the next one to cut back their workforce and what they could do to protect themselves and their loved ones.

With the Euro Zone crisis still ongoing and now (even) talk of an economic slow down in China, the cold hand of uncertainly is reaching across the global economy. Consequently few firms in the UK are investing in new staff and extra capacity. They have every reason to expect demand to remain flat, if not fall back dramatically in the event of the Euro troubles triggering a serious double dip recession. Headline job losses in both the retail sector and travel are feeding the UK’s increasing jobless total. British consumers, squeezed by inflation hitting the essentials and paying higher taxes, are cutting back their spending. The high street is being hit hard.

With no improvement in the prospects for private industry and the accelerating job losses in the Public Sector, the numbers being made redundant can only increase. Most certainly the time taken for people to secure alternative work following redundancy will lengthen as ever more people chase fewer jobs.

For anyone who does not have much saved and loses their job, surviving for a long period with no wages coming in is very hard indeed. Furthermore, repossessions are now rising according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Many more people will find their homes at risk as lender patience runs out. Therefore, it has never been more important for individuals to have money to fall back for paying their critical bills if they are out of work. For families especially, if the ‘bread winner’ is made redundant and they have little saved, they will need urgent financial help to keep a roof over their heads.

It is the risk of redundancy to people currently in steady work and the need to keep money flowing into their households that Income Protection Insurance is designed to cover. This product is also called Lifestyle Protection Insurance by a major Building Society and other specialist providers. This type of financial protection Insurance will pay out for up to a year (some cover 2 years) if the policyholder is unable to work due to accident, sickness or unemployment.

The buyer chooses the monthly benefit they want to be paid. It is usually restricted to between 50 percent and 70 percent of their gross pay (that is pay before any deductions for Income Tax or National Insurance). Therefore, for most people, it may not offer them as much money each month as when they are at work, however it is enough to pay their bills and make even limited savings stretch much further. Buyers of these products usually select a monthly benefit of around £1,000 as they will also qualify for State Benefits or perhaps have a partner who can share the financial burden during their search for another job.

It should also be remembered that this cover pays out the same monthly benefit if the policyholder is unable to work for medical reasons. Some people can suffer badly in terms of their mental health following redundancy, searching for another job for months and receiving repeated rejections can trigger clinical depression. Therefore, in addition to cover for unemployment, the sickness part of this short-term Income Protection Insurance can be a financial lifesaver as well.

There are a huge number of UK families who are financially vulnerable, with budgets stretched to the limit each month. For them, saving a meaningful amount to cushion the blow of unemployment is simply impossible. However, they might be able to find the equivalent of £5 to £10 a week to pay for an Income Protection Insurance policy. Otherwise they would be extremely vulnerable to a break in their employment that lasts more than a month or two. Compared to the cost of resorting to pay day loans or the financial penalties of restructuring debts, short-term Income Protection Insurance offers a very cheap alternative.

For more information about short-term Income Protection Insurance including a free comprehensive buyers guide, please visit i:protect Insurance specialist UK providers of low cost financial protection products.

 Posted by at 3:36 am

Top Tips To Find The Best Deal For Short-Term Income Protection Insurance And Mortgage Insurance

 Top Tips To Find The Best Deal For Short-Term Income Protection Insurance And Mortgage Insurance  No Responses »
Nov 042011
 

For Motor or Home Insurance buyers in the UK, the obvious place to start looking for premium savings are on the Price Comparison sites. However, doing the same to buy short-term Income Protection Insurance or Mortgage Payment Protection cover could prove to be an expensive mistake. This is because this type of insurance is a niche product. Tips from an expert are essential for anyone looking to buy a policy to pay their mortgage and other bills if they cannot work.

In fact, a lot of people are unaware that this type of insurance exists. Short-term Income Protection Insurance is the cleaned up replacement for the now widely distrusted Payment Protection Insurance. It has just cost UK banks billions to compensate their customers for miss-selling Payment Protection Insurance. In fact, no surprise, most high street banks simply do not sell this any more. Fortunately leading Insurance companies decided to call the new cleaned up and highly regulated product a fresh name; short-term Income Protection Insurance. This distinguishes this type of cover so buyers will know that they are looking at the new type of policy that the Government’s Regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has approved. The FSA now undertakes the enforcement of the new strict rules governing how this product is sold very seriously indeed.

So just to confuse things, Britain’s biggest Building Society and several specialist providers decided to call this cover Lifestyle Protection. At least this stands out as being a totally different name from the disgraced Payment Protection Insurance. However, the FSA on their Money Advice Service website still call short-term Income Protection a version of Payment Protection Insurance! The first tip to getting a good deal is simply to know what the reliable and trustworthy suppliers now call this product.

At least the FSA’s independent and unbiased Money Advice Service website does explain the difference. It also allows anyone to find these products and compare prices on their comparison tables for every policy of this type offered in the UK. Because the regulator has made it compulsory for every provider to place details of their products on their website, it offers a huge range of over 400 different products to chose from. Up until the FSA created this point of reference, there was nothing like it anywhere in the UK, however most of the public are still unaware that this valuable research tool is provided to them absolutely free.

The commission charging commercial price comparison websites – those heavily advertised brands on TV – simply cannot come close to the Money Advice Service offering. It is also the only place to find and compare the low cost direct products that do not appear on the TV comparison sites.

Using the FSA’s Money Advice Service website, anyone can:

Look in one place at a huge range of products from all of the big brands as well as the low cost specialist providers
Have the confidence they are getting a true price comparison across the market
Get the best deal that suits their needs
Know every provider listed is authorised by the FSA offering a product they closely regulate

This is excellent information, but the Money Advice Service website can be complicated to navigate. It is hard at first to find an individual type of insurance policy for example. This is because the Money Advice Service covers so many types of financial products, not just short-term Income Protection Insurance. It is essential to preserver or to pick up on-line a simple guide to finding the lowest price on the Money Advice Service website these can be freely downloaded from one or more specialists providers. These guides provide a ‘road map’ to quickly navigate the Money Advice Service website.

Once on the right section of the Money Advice Service website, a single click will then take the individual from their chosen product to the provider. Then they can either buy the policy or simply look up more details before making their mind up. Most importantly, it allows a buyer to narrow down their choice and focus on the providers that offer the best deals.

The second tip to get good value; some of the smaller specialist providers, offer the same product as many high street brands, at less than a third of the price. The Money Advice Service website is very informative regarding the often staggering differences between the prices charged for the same cover. This is mainly a consequence of the big players in the market offering this insurance as a premium product or brokers taking a substantial commission for individual sales advice. If you do not require bespoke advice from an intermediary, there are massive savings to be had for going direct.

What’s covered? By far the majority of policies pay out for up to a year if the insured person is unable to work due to accident, sickness or unemployment. Benefits are chosen by the individual according to their needs. Three of the leading UK specialist providers confirm that the majority of their customers chose an average monthly benefit of £1,000. For this cover their customers mostly pay a premium of between £20 and £40 per month. The actual price depends upon the buyer’s age and the waiting period they select. The waiting period is similar to an excess on a motor policy, but it is the number of days before the claim is paid rather than a monetary amount.

If an individual were to walk into a Mortgage Broker or Financial Advisers office, the policy and price they would be offered reflects the personal service offered. It is easy to be charged double the price for the same cover, so it pays to do some research on line before visiting a broker. For anyone happy to buy on-line the process is straightforward. No medical evidence is required or an extensive lifestyle or health questionnaire needs to be completed. Contact details and a dozen or so questions mainly about the applicant’s current employment tend to be the average.

The final tip to get a good deal is concerning when to buy short-term Income Protection Insurance or the similar Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance. This is a critical point. The individual must not be aware of any impending employment problems such as scaling back of their organisation or a pending takeover. This is because most insurers will decline to accept any application where there is a significantly higher than average probability of redundancy. Therefore the only time to apply for this product is when the individual is still in a steady job.

For more information about short-term Income Protection Insurance and Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance including a guide to the FSA’s Money Advice Service website and free comprehensive buyers guide, please visit i:protect Insurance a leading specialist provider of low cost on-line financial protection products.

 Posted by at 3:33 am
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