Save money on your insurance
Everyone know's not to accept the renewal price from your insurance company on your Home and Car Insurance policies. After mortgages, this is the most effective area to save money by seeking alternative insurers. According to the Daily Mail, On average you will save £214 by shopping around, while home and contents insurance tumbles from £368 to £227. The internet makes it incredibly simple to find quotes, and if you don't spend at least one lunch hour a year finding a better deal then I wish I had as much money as you!.
1. Claim back payment protection insurance
Too expensive and agressively sold, Loan protection insurance is one of the most profitable types of insurance ever devised by the finance industry. It can add £3,000 to the cost of a £7,500 unsecured loan. But many people were sold it who can't possibly make a claim against it these people are able to claim their ppi back.
Lots of claims companies advertise on daytime television, promising to obtain you a refund but they will take 25% of whatever you win. Instead, use the Fiancial Ombudsman Service which is free and on average they are helping 80% of those missold . Helpfully, it offers a factsheet on how to make a complaint about PPI which you can find at financialombudsman.org.uk
2. Cancel your mobile phone insurance
It is common for people to be are strongly pressured in phone shops into spending between £50 and £90 a year on this insurance. Most policies don't cover you for the most dangerous type of risk airtime abuse (if your phone is ued to call overseas, and you can claim for a lost phone on you contents cover.
Cancel your direct debit with the bank and the insurance will lapse.
3. Rethink your life insurance
Life insurance is not for life. Just because the term insurance was sold to you by your mortgage broker doesn't mean you have to stick with that provider for the life of the remortgage. You have the option to cancel at any time and find a better deal. With the human lifetime improving (ie. fewer people dying), insurers have been cutting rates for a log time.
If you are in a job at a big employer, it is likely to offer "death in service" benefit worth up to three times your yearly salary, and often more. Do you really need all that life cover on top as well?
4. Don't pay for travel insurance you don't need
Step 1 Obtain a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) from ehic.org.uk or at your local Post Office. This has replaced the old E111 forms and gives you reducedcost or free medical treatment in EU countries and Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. You may even obtain treatment faster, as you won't have to rely on a hospital waiting to receive authorisation to treat you from an insurer.
Step 2 Check your home insurance policy. cover is often provided when outside your home.
Step 3 Check your health insurance policy, if you have one. These often pay treatment costs incurred abroad. when you are only travelling to Europe, the only real benefit that travel cover brings is cover in the event of a cancellation. Can you justify paying the premiums?.
You mustn't travel outside the EU with out travel insurance cover Policies that last for a year and cover you for more than one trip always make sense if you go away more than once a year though again don't pay for cover you don't need. For example, if you don't ski or snowboard, you don't need cover for winter sports.