Finance Matters

• 28Nov

  Couple suffer Spanish insurance nightmare

  Insurance No Comments

  From This is Money:

  But their dreams of a happy retirement have been shattered and their 21-year marriage has been brought close to breaking point – all because of a bitter dispute with their buildings insurer, Axa Spain.
  Retired teacher Barrie, 67, and Janet, 68, face financial ruin. They own a property rendered uninhabitable because of structural damage caused by a leak from a water main. They cannot sell it and now owe more than £39,000 to banks, credit card companies and friends.
  The mounting debt is the result of a costly legal battle with Axa Spain, which has involved them employing architects and surveyors.
  The couple have also had to rent an apartment for the past two years.
  Janet, a former senior administrator at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, has moved back to Lewes, East Sussex, to stay with friends because she is so distressed.
  Spanish builders have told the couple it will cost about 110,000 euros (£98,000) to repair the damage – money they do not have.
  The…

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• 28Nov

  Ten easy ways to save £470 on car cover

  Insurance No Comments

  From This is Money:

  The cost of cover has jumped 5.6 per cent in the past three months, the fastest quarterly rise in the past 15 years, according to broker AA Insurance.
  The cost of comprehensive cover has risen 14 per cent in the past year. The average quote on AA’s Insurance Premium Index is £821, up from £721 a year ago.
  The AA’s measure of the ‘shop-around price’ – the average of the cheapest three quotes for each risk – jumped 13 per cent from £488 to £551.
  Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, says: ‘Most drivers are experiencing sharp increases when they renew their insurance.’
  Keith Maxwell, head of motor insurance at More Than, says: ‘Insurers can only go on writing unprofitable business for so long and we’re seeing more expensive and more frequent claims for personal injury.’
  Against the backdrop of rising prices, it is more important than ever to become a smart buyer.
  Never take a renewal quote from your existing insurer without checking the market for a…

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• 28Nov

  Health scares spark rush to insure young

  Insurance No Comments

  From This is Money:

  Anxiety about shortcomings in the National Health Service also play a part. A survey by Sure Insurance conducted at a mother and baby show in central London last month revealed that a third of parents were concerned about the ability of the NHS to care for their child.
  Consumer experts say medical insurance for children can be expensive and as healthcare is an emotional issue, parents can feel pressured to buy the cover.
  They point out that often the best specialist paediatricians and departments for childhood cancers and other serious illnesses are in NHS hospitals, so private care may not always be the best course.
  But Jason Pettit, head of sales operations at private healthcare insurer Bupa, says: ‘Although the NHS can provide excellent care, parents tell us they want to be able to choose a private hospital if they wish. Private cover also provides more choice and control over treatment – you see specialists and have tests done quickly.’
  Parents who want cover for their ch…

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• 28Nov

  Beware of cutting back on health insurance

  Insurance No Comments

  From This is Money:

  He does it not because it means another product sale – and more commission for him – but because he truly values the cover’s worth.
  Michael, 48, suffered a heart attack in February, one of the 275,000 people every year who have one. He has made a full recovery, but says he does not know how he would have coped financially without payments from the two insurance policies that he took out to provide financial protection against serious illness.
  ‘The heart attack came out of the blue,’ says Michael, who is divorced and lives in Bradford, West Yorkshire. ‘I had just eaten a bacon sandwich and thought the pain was indigestion, but within an hour and a half I was lying on an operating table at Leeds General Infirmary.’
  Michael has yet to return to work full time and thanks to the financial buffer provided by his insurance he has not had to rush matters.
  ‘I’m a one-man business so I dread to think what I would have done if I had not had the cover,’ he says. ‘I’ve been able to pay dow…

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• 28Nov

  How to fine tune your instrument cover

  Insurance No Comments

  From This is Money:

  The cost of raw materials, such as wood and gold and silver, has risen considerably. Added to this, the falling value of sterling has pushed up the price of instruments because many are imported from the Continent and Japan.
  Noel Sheehan, owner of Sheehan’s Music, the musical instrument specialist in Leicester, says instruments have increased in value across the board by at least 20%, and in some cases as much as 50%.
  ‘To give a few examples, a mid-range saxophone from Japan two years ago would have cost about £1,300,’ he says.
  ‘Today, it would cost £1,900. A clarinet from France costing £1,200 in 2007 would now cost £1,800.’
  Specialist insurer Musicguard says the average claim on its policies has risen from £629 in 2007 to £967.
  Musical instruments are covered under most standard home insurance policies, typically for values up to £1,500.
  But if householders have not updated their insurance for a few years they may be underinsured…

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• 28Nov

  Oldie insurance is not all golden

  Insurance No Comments

  From This is Money:

  In some cases, they could pay 87% more by going to these specialist insurers.
  The elderly often believe that such companies will prove to be cheaper.
  There is a massive choice when it comes to selecting an insurer, but pensioners frequently favour those brands whose marketing is aimed at them, such as Rias and Saga.
  Help The Aged and Age Concern (now combined into a single charity called Age UK) has a financial services arm called Intune which also offers a range of insurance and financial products for those aged 60 and older.
  But in many cases pensioners would do better to contact a local insurance broker or use a comparison internet site to search for the best cover.
  Graeme Trudgill, of the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA), says: ‘These companies are not the only ones that will provide cover to the over-65 market and many of them are more expensive than general insurers.
  ‘It is not just about price. Peace of mind is important, too, and a broker can check tha…

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• 28Nov

  Crook behind ‘Cash for crash’ scam jailed

  Insurance No Comments

  From This is Money:

  Mohammed Patel, 24, charged car owners £500 a time to stage accidents in their vehicles – thereby opening the way for the owners to put in massively inflated insurance claims.
  Scores of innocent motorists who found themselves driving behind Patel were put at risk when he put his fraud into practice by suddenly slamming on his brakes at roundabouts.
  He usually picked on elderly female motorists who were driving alone, as he believed they wouldn’t cause a fuss.
  His favourite trick was to disengage his brake lights so the target motorist would have no warning of the impending collision and would therefore admit liability. He staged the accidents at slow speeds to protect himself from whiplash.
  His car owner customers – who were not present during the crashes – would then often claim there were four people in the car and invent extra damage, claiming on average around £17,000 for each accident.
  Claims would include compensation for injuries, such as whiplash, damage…

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• 28Nov

  Devasting flood losses may run to £100m

  Insurance No Comments

  From This is Money:

  In Cumbria, Dumfries and southern Scotland hundreds of homes and businesses were inundated after rivers burst their banks and flood defences were overwhelmed.
  More than 12 inches of rain fell in some parts of Cumbria in 24 hours.
  But despite the damage and tragic loss of life, the floods are not being classed as a ‘major event’ on a par with the flooding in the summer of 2007 in Yorkshire and the Midlands that cost £3bn.
  Instead, the scale of damage is nearer that of the flooding in Carlisle in 2005 that caused about £250m in losses.
  Malcolm Tarling, spokesman for the Association of British Insurers, says: ‘This is not an event on the scale of 2007.
  ‘It is, sadly, the sort of event that the industry expects to see during a winter and is financially and practically able to cope with.’
  At present, insurers have agreed to continue to cover high-risk properties, so long as the Government invests in better flood defences.
  ›› What to do if you’ve been…

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• 17Oct

  Friendly societies set for spate of mergers

  Insurance No Comments

  From This is Money:

  Yet this year the dancing will be more frenetic – and not just because of the Chilli Pipers’ reputation for ‘jock and roll’. It is because the 15th annual conference of the Association of Friendly Societies will be the last.
  ‘The skirl of the Pipers’ bagpipes will provide a fitting swan song,’ remarked one member booked for the two-and-ahalfday conference costing £359.
  The AFS’s demise is indicative of the troubled state the sector finds itself in.
  For numerous member-owned societies, formed to provide working men with funeral and sickness benefits in exchange for a small, weekly payment, the writing is on the wall.
  There are 45 friendly societies that belong to the AFS with assets of £15bn, the biggest being LV=, the old Liverpool Victoria. Among their ranks are the weird and wacky – such as Oddfellows, Druids and Anglo Saxons – selling a mixture of with-profits, income protection and child trust funds.
  Most executives are male, middle-aged and friendly societ…

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• 17Oct

  Check your critical illness cover

  Insurance No Comments

  From This is Money:

  Critical illness insurance pays out a lump sum on diagnosis of a serious illness and the £50,000 payment on Meryn’s Scottish Widows policy was a life-changing sum, enabling her and husband Brian, a 38-year-old manager for a construction company, to pay off their mortgage.
  Meryn, 47, a bank administrator from Cardiff, says: ‘It was only when I contacted our financial adviser in January this year to talk about getting some insurance for our mortgage payments that a potential claim on my critical illness cover came to light.
  ‘I hadn’t spoken to our adviser in years, but I mentioned my battle against cancer in passing and it was at that point that he said I probably had a valid claim on my policy.’
  Meryn and Brian, who have a nine-year-old son, Joshua, took out a life and critical illness policy shortly after their son was born. They had continued to pay the £23-a-month premium, but had lost the documentation. At the time of Meryn’s diagnosis the policy was the furthest…

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