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Life Insurance – What Price Privacy? There was a time when people were entitled to their privacy, unless they had committed a criminal offence. Sadly those days are long gone and most unlikely to return. It may have started with the Government authorising the taxman to enter your home, and denying you any right of refusal. It seems to have developed from that point, giving a free hand to almost anyone who could put forward a good case for intruding into your affairs. Private companies have not been slow to ge... Endowment Policy – Careful Cancellation Essential Back in the 1980s word went around that there was a wonderful new way to pay your mortgage. In those days the process of getting and running a mortgage was almost sacrosanct, and little variation was available. A fairly common route to take was to open an account at the Building Society of your choice, and to put in as much money as you could, the intention being to prove to said Building Society that you were prudent and could be trusted with their money. When the time fo... Incautious Borrowing The level of personal debt in the UK is spiralling, with reports of an average of £31,000 owed by people contacting the Consumer Credit Counselling Service for help, and this figure excludes mortgages. We have all seen television and magazine advertisements for debt consolidation providers, who claim that if you are struggling with your debts they can provide an ‘easy solution’. They claim that they can roll all your debts up into one simple monthly payment, so effectively... Find A Great Remortgage Deal Don’t pay more than you need to for your mortgage. There’s almost certainly a far better deal out there than your current one. Maybe it’s time to get up-to-date with the new mortgage deals. As far as your mortgage is concerned, you might be pleased to know that you can probably save an appreciable amount each month, by re-mortgaging. If you’ve been in your home for some years, you will have built up appreciable equity in it. You could re-mortgage to improve or extend your ... Mortgages - Ad Infinitum There are some exiting developments in the mortgage market with the birth of a new mortgage designed in order to allow home owners to pass on their mortgage debt in the event of their death. Whilst some people might think this is a rather odd thing to do, read on for the full story:- The new inter-generational mortgage – surely to be known by something less tongue-twisting – is a product which has the promise of parents being able to pass on the mortgage debt on their home... Life Insurance - Smoke Signals No-one said it would be easy but giving up smoking is really worthwhile and it’s a perfectly achievable aim. Why not join the band of ex-smokers, starting from today? If are you now a reformed smoker, we have some even better news for you. You can expect more than increased life expectancy and a vast improvement in your well-being if you quit smoking. The saving in your life insurance premiums will be noticeable too. Whilst it’s true that you might have to wait a little w... Credit Scores Explained Research has recently suggested that consumers who apply for loans and other forms of credit too often through comparison websites may risk damaging their credit rating. It is estimated that 8.7 million people have bought financial products such as loans, credit cards and insurance through using comparison websites over the past year. However, research shows that the sites could be leading consumers to adversely affect their credit rating as many of the comparison, or a... Life Insurance – When You Are Gone Immortality is no big deal. Just imagine getting up on a Monday morning 52 times a year for the rest of eternity. Really only two advantages of eternal life spring to mind – you could start reading ‘War & Peace’ and know that you would have time to finish it, and you wouldn’t need life insurance. However, as mere mortals, maybe we shouldn’t start on a very long book and we should take out life insurance, because we none of us know just how long we have got. Not particular... Mortgages. Pay Back Over 40 Years. Mortgages are traditionally taken out over 25 years, 30 years at a push – but house prices have got so high that many would be homeowners have found themselves completely unable to get on the property ladder. Mortgage lenders have found a solution – offer a mortgage over a longer term so borrowers can afford the repayments. The catch is – the borrower pays a lot more in the long run, and the lender’s profits increase exponentially! However, for many, it is the only way ... Critical Criticism Critical illness insurance is designed to pay out a lump sum if you are unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with one of a list of medical conditions specified in the policy documents. There is a wide variation in the length of the lists, some covering as few as eight illnesses and one a staggering 140, but this is a slightly different version, which pays various sums, according to the severity of the condition. Heart disease and cancer head the list on all the policies. Ver... Heavy Drinking Can Increase Life Insurance Costs. Britons are drinking too much, shout the headlines. Out of those who live in Great Britain, two thirds say they drink to excess at least once a week and almost a quarter hurt themselves while they are intoxicated. This is according to a report by the Drink Aware Trust and the British Chiropractic Association. But binge drinking is not just a health issue, but a financial one as well. It hits you not just in the pocket through the excess weekly spending on alcohol, but it c... Life Insurance – When Only The Best Will Do! We’re all too used to hearing about rising prices. But there’s one thing that now costs less than ever – good life insurance! Intrigued? Read on … No-one likes to think about the worst that could happen. But proper life insurance cover could protect your family, providing them with the means to cope financially should you pass on. Life insurance cover is divided into three main types. Here is our jargon-busting guide to de-mystifying what they are, and what they mean: ·... Smoking – More Expensive Than You Think? Are you a smoker? Have you ever tried to give up the habit? The chances are that you have, but like any addiction it can be (and usually is) extremely difficult to stop, and even attempts to cut down rarely last very long. Part of the problem is that smoking can be very enjoyable, but only too often something can turn up which will instantly remove the enjoyment. Unfortunately that ‘something’ will very often be loss of health. The insurance industry is well aware of this ... A Stake In The Future For Older People. Growing older should be a time for sitting back after a lifetime of work and enjoying the fruits of your labours, without having to worry about whether those fruits will ripen to their full glory or wither and die on the branch. However, the increase in life expectancy coupled with pension and investment problems has tended to result in some rather unfortunate changes. Currently the official retirement age is 65, but many retire before this – leaving work at 60 is normal f... First Mortgage – Steps To Saving The property market is in good shape. Prices continue to rise and sold signs are popping up like mushrooms. This is all wonderful news and we’re all going to be property-rich. Spare a thought for the first time buyer! Gaining that elusive first step on the ladder must seem in insurmountable task. Would-be homeowners have to save for a considerable length of time, as the average deposit is now around £12,000, having risen from around £4,000 ten years ago. Small wonder the ... Mortgage Outfits Challenged On Exit Fees You might have heard of an exit fee. It is the charge that the mortgage lender makes a person pay if they want to get out of a money borrowing agreement before the end of the term. Another name for it is a redemption penalty. Well mortgage lenders are making large amounts of money on these exit fees at the borrower’s expense. In fact, as more and more people have tried to ditch their mortgage when a better deal comes along in the last five years, the money lenders have bee... Buy To Let Mortgages. Landlords Face New Rules. As landlords know, there’s a huge demand for small self-contain units, especially in University towns. But as from the start of this tax year, landlords are faced with the necessity to have a building licensed for occupation if the property is on at least 3 floors and several unrelated tenants occupy it. Whilst this represents a problem for those less scrupulous landlords, it will serve to help those landlords wanting to enter that market. That’s because the tighter regula... Headline Rates Are Not Everything There are various ways of working out the interest rate on your mortgage and an unbelievably wide choice of mortgages out there. All may not be what it seems, however. Don’t make the mistake of thinking interest rates are the “be all and end all” of the mortgage search. If you’re paying interest only on your loan, with no capital repayment, the date that interest is calculated makes no difference, but otherwise it’s not quite so simple. Some building societies offer loa... Watch That Mortgage Bank of England interest rates have been steady since August 2005 and even that move was southwards. Why then are thousands of mortgage customers up in arms about an unexpected and unwelcome increase in the cost of their mortgages? Customers of the Nottingham Building Society have been staggered to receive letters from the Nottingham advising them of an interest rate rise, via an increase in its SVR (standard variable rate). Mortgages linked to the SVR have had the interes... Mortgages – Buy To Let A Wise Bet Buy-to-let is often seen by private investors as an interesting alternative way to make their money grow. Certainly it offers the chance of double benefits for the owner. There is the income from letting the property and the hopeful increase in the value of the property. Unlike the mortgage which you raise when you buy your home, which is based upon your earnings, a buy-to-let mortgage is normally based on the income which can be generated from the letting of the property.... Foreign Mortgages. New Horizons? There has been a tremendous boom in overseas property ownership. Whether for personal use as a family, holiday or retirement property or as an investment property, the market shows no sign of slowing down. In the excitement of making the decision to go ahead, it’s easy to overlook the importance of taking professional advice with regards to the legal situation. The law in respect of property and mortgages abroad is very different from that in the UK. Local practices, cu... Mortgages. Home Condition Reports Will Not Be Mandatory You may have heard about the introduction of the Home Information Packs starting in June 2006. One controversial part of the Pack was to be a Home Condition Report, a mandatory survey that the seller of the property would have to have carried out in order to sell the property. However, although the Packs are going ahead, the Home Condition Report won’t be a compulsory part of it. So firstly, what exactly is the Home Condition Report? It’s the same as a survey, but instead ... Your Mortgage – Time To Switch? Would you like to save money on your mortgage? Over 50% of homebuyers are wasting money by paying over the odds for their mortgage every month. This is normally due to the fact that they’re paying their lender’s standard variable mortgage rate. These standard variable rates are frequently 2 percentage points higher than lots of the best market deals, so the simplest way of saving money is to switch deals. If someone has a £100,000 loan and switches from a standard variable... Re-mortgages – Get Up To Date If you’re thinking of improving your home, investing in buy-to-let or holiday property or maybe consolidating your debts, you’re probably thinking of re-mortgaging. If your current mortgage is now some years old, you’re probably out of date on what’s available. Forget the old “one size fits all” mortgages. Mortgages today are varied and there’s probably one just waiting for you. In view of the fact that there are around 4,000 different loans available, obviously we can’t c... Re-Mortgaging Cost Cutters It is a fact that if you’ve had a mortgage for a few years, you’re likely to be paying more than you need to. Remaining loyal to your mortgage provider doesn’t get you any rewards. Their outstanding offers are reserved for their new customers. Many people could cut their mortgage repayments by 33% by simply re-mortgaging their home. Check out some of the advertisements in the weekend newspapers, look on the internet, even phone your current lender and ask what up to dat... Re-Mortgaging – Look Into It Are you paying more than you need for your mortgage? If you’ve had a mortgage for a few years, do you know even what your interest rate is? Once the initial mortgage deal is done, you tend to forget about it. The payment goes out of your account with alarming regularity. If you’re on your lender’s standard variable rate, there’s no doubt that you can save money by re-mortgaging. There’s nothing complicated about arranging to re-mortgage your property. People are doing it a... Buy To Let – Decision Time Maybe you’re planning ahead for your retirement? The popular choices for funding this important provision are mainly to be found in either the property market, via buy-to-let, or the stock market. Interestingly enough, if you’d invested £100,000 in residential property in 1983 it would have been worth around £555,000 by 2006, commercial property in that time would have risen from £100,000 to £997,000, whilst the same amount invested in a FTSE All Share tracker would have r... Mortgages - Short Term Memory Do you, in common with millions of other home owners, have a short-term mortgage? If so, it’s very easy to set up the monthly repayment and then get involved with so many other aspects of your life that time slips away and before you know it, the two or three year period of your loan is coming to an end. Whilst many lenders write to their customers towards the end of the loan period, it isn’t compulsory. When you sign on the dotted line for your mortgage deal, you are issu... Mortgages - An Important Date A helpful reminder from your mortgage broker may be just what you need to save yourself a whole lot of trouble. The FSA (Financial Services Authority) is very happy with the way rules for renewing two or three year home loans are working out, but mortgage brokers tell a different tale and are less impressed, saying that borrowers are confused and could be out of pocket over the system. When your short-term mortgage is coming to an end it would be helpful if you could re... Everlasting Mortgages What does the term “inter-generational mortgage” mean to you? If you’re not up to date, then read on for more information on this revolutionary move. It seems that there is a distinct possibility that lifetime interest only mortgages, which we could pass on down the family, may be the answer to a lot of home buying problems and worries. The way the scheme works is the borrower takes out an interest only mortgage. This means that your monthly repayments are for interest ... Investing In Your Children’s Future According to new research, children attending private schools have more chance of outshining their state-educated counterparts when it comes to qualifications and eventually high paying jobs. They also stand an improved chance of winning Oxbridge places and are admitted with lower grades. There are around 2,400 privately run and privately funded schools in the United Kingdom. Children as young as two years old can be enrolled into pre-prep school nurseries before going on ... Loan Applications – What Rate? The introduction of “personal pricing” into the loan market has caused confusion for the consumer regarding exactly what rate they’re likely to be quoted when it comes to a loan. Add to this the fact that if they fish around for quotations for alternative rates they’ll be penalised for making too many loan applications and the state of affairs is far less then satisfactory. HSBC, Barclays and the Halifax have adopted this personal pricing policy, It used to be the norm for... Loans And Credit Cards – And Bankruptcy Not so very long ago the moral climate in this country was very different. People had more time for each other, and more time to examine and compare their own moral standards with others. One of the many results of this was an almost unspoken pride in making your own way through life without looking for handouts from the state or elsewhere. This resulted in a high degree of poverty in the working classes and the unemployed with their determination to be in debt to no one, ... Loans - New Cars For Old Thinking of buying a new car? Unless you’re paying cash, presumably you’re looking for the best way to finance the car of your choice. For people who choose to buy a new car every two or three years, personal contract purchase, or PCP, is gaining in popularity. Your car dealer or the manufacturer effectively lends you the balance of the car, after you’ve paid a deposit of 20 to 25 per cent. A fixed trade in price is promised at the end of the deal. An annual mileage limit ... Loans – Check Your Options Have you heard of Zopa? Zopa stands for Zone of Possible Agreement and the aim of this internet company is to match small lenders and borrowers. Borrowers and lenders are put in touch with each other, thus excluding the traditional lenders who normally arrange the deals and saving money in the process. Obviously growing in popularity, in just 18 months, Zopa have attracted over 88,000 members. Around two thirds of these are borrowers. Lenders are happy with the arrangem... Disabled In Debt Disabled people have lower incomes but often have extra costs associated with their impairment. This situation drives two out of five disabled people to seek loans and other forms of credit to meet the demands of higher living costs on a below-average income. The result is that many people are being driven into ‘problem debts’, which are often loans they are left unable to repay. The Leonard Cheshire disability charity is calling on the UK Government and the credit industr... Need A Loan? Guess The Interest Rate How do you find the best interest rates if you’re planning to apply for a loan? Until relatively recently, it was simple. There were plenty of lists of comparative rates published in table form on various websites. You could take your pick and investigate the terms of the cheapest lenders. This approach is not so easy any more. Many banks are choosing to use a new system where the rate offered is dependent on your personal credit profile. At first glance, this appears to b... Loan Repayment – Watch Those Extras! Following a complaint made by Citizens Advice in 2005, claiming that aspects of the payment protection insurance (PPI) market were severely harming the interests of consumers, a report has been published by the Office of Fair Trading. Payment protection insurance is designed to safeguard borrowers’ ability to keep up loan payments and in theory it should make it easier to avoid getting into debt. If the borrower suffers an illness, an accident or loses their job, then PPI ... Car Loans – Take Your Pick You may be one of those fortunate folk who know precisely want they want when it comes to replacing your car. Or maybe you’re the type who treks from garage to garage trying to find perfection. After a while all these cars merge into one and you can’t remember which extra was standard with which car. Your wife and children threaten to leave home and the cat and dog are less than impressed too. Maybe at this stage you turn your only friend, the computer, for inspiration and su... Personal Loans Increase But At What Cost? At one time, borrowing money from the bank would have involved getting out the best suit and grovelling to the manager. These days, banks ring customers at home and ask them if they want to take out a loan. In fact, they almost give you hard time if you’re not borrowing. Just as it’s never been easier it’s also never been quicker. You can pick up the phone and arrange to borrow money as quickly as you could book a table at a restaurant. About two-thirds of the way up... Uk Debt Increases: But It’s Nothing To Do With A Mortgage Debt charities have reported they are hearing from an increasing number of people whose spending is out of control. On average, people who turn to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service for advice owe £31,000 which does not include their mortgage. The rising trend means more Britons will need to reduce interest and actively manage debts. The large sums involved also mean that more will find themselves in the dangerous territory of unregulated loans. But in their des... Check Your Footprints Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the …….. credit cards? Would you be surprised to hear that we lead the world the number of credit cards in circulation? There are around 74 million credit cards out there and outstanding balances add up to around £56bn. Not everyone pays the same rate of interest. Rates charged by lenders vary and you can be charged a higher APR (annual percentage rate) than those advertised. Some people may find it difficult to find credit from any source a... Life Insurance - Plan For Life The very best time to arrange life insurance is when it’s furthest from your thoughts. Take a typical young man. He’s at the start of his career, possibly still living at home, but thinking of looking around for a flat. He has a car and the insurance that he arranged for it was probably his first step in the insurance ladder. If he decided to take out some life insurance, whilst he’s still young, fit and healthy he’d get the best possible rates. Probably the most valuable ... Life Insurance - One More Step On The Insurance Ladder The recently over 60’s are the post-war baby boomers. Their insurance needs are very different from that of a young family or someone just starting out in their first job. A typical 60 something couple will have raised their family, finished paying off their mortgage and are into or nearing retirement. More and more of this age group of people spend part of their year abroad or maybe are planning to move to the sunshine on a permanent basis. Maybe it would be a good ide... Life Insurance – Think About It. Not everyone needs life insurance. If you don’t have any debts or maybe only minimal ones which would be covered by your disposable assets should you die, then you’re fine. Not everyone has dependants and as long as there would be enough funds to settle your affairs and pay for your funeral, then you wouldn’t be leaving your next of kin any headaches. Not too many people are in this position though. Most have people who depend on them. If you’re the main breadwinner of the... Life Insurance. Cut The Pounds – Cut The Premium Obesity is becoming a real problem in the UK. In the past twenty years the number of overweight adults has snowballed and latest figures estimate that more than half of the population of UK women are classed as overweight or obese. It’s even worse for men, with six out of ten coming into the “tubby or worse” classification. Unfortunately things don’t look so good for the future, either. A survey of children ranging in age from two year old toddlers to the mid-teenagers rev... Life Insurance - Women Furious Over Insurer Gene Testing Thousands of women with family histories of breast and ovarian cancer could pay higher insurance premiums or even be denied cover altogether under new proposals from the insurance industry. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) is expected to lodge an application for permission for its members to ask women whether they have been tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. The faulty BRCA genes are responsible for about five per cent of the 41,700 new cases of breast c... Endowment Policy: Another Forgotten Option These complicated financial products combine life insurance and investment growth in one package. They were most commonly used as a way of repaying a mortgage and were most popular with homebuyers in the eighties and nineties. The reason so many people bought them was because home loan firms and middlemen such as estate agents earned large commissions for selling. The charges tend to be 'front-loaded' meaning most of it is paid up front and therefore, for several years you... Life Insurance - Your Family, Who Cares? Like the ostrich, are you sticking your head in the sand when it comes to insuring yourself? According to recent statistics from the insurance industry, sales of the most basic personal protection insurance products, i.e. life insurance and income protection, have been falling, despite reductions in premiums. Maybe people think if they ignore the need for such insurance, it may go away. It’s never going to happen to them – it can’t. But it can and it does. Lack of income p... Life Insurance Cover – A Good Deal The cost of life insurance has fallen over the past few years and there’s now more choice than ever, at prices that won’t break the bank. If you have a family you could provide security for them by taking out adequate life insurance cover. In the tragic event of your death they would have enough to cope with, without added financial worries. There are various types of life insurance and here we cover the types of term policies on offer. · A level term policy pays a o... Life Insurance And Alcohol Are Not A Good Mix Alcohol is regarded as an antiseptic or a preservative in some cases, but its effect on life insurance costs can be anything but benign. You will almost certainly be asked for information about your alcohol consumption when you apply for life insurance, and it is likely that NHS guidelines will be consulted to determine whether you within the safe level. If your drinking is deemed to have reached the ‘potentially dangerous’ bracket, the cost of your policy may come as a consi... Life Insurance – Doctors Reports Improved. Insurance companies are not in the business of taking on risks without first obtaining as much background knowledge as possible. This applies whether they are insuring your house, your car, your possessions or your life. There is however a difference in the operation of such policies. Whilst there is nothing surprising in those seeking competitive prices being prepared to change insurers as necessary for cover for the material items in their lives, a change of insurer for lif... Life Insurance Bargain Time How can any one know what’s around the corner? It’s probably something you’d prefer not to dwell on, but accidents and fatal illnesses can happen, with the result that your family could be left to look after themselves. Apart from the shock and distress suffered by them, there is the financial aspect. Could they deal with the financial commitments and any debt without your income? This is where life insurance can give you and your family peace of mind that, should the unthink... Critical Illness Insurance. How Critical Can You Get? There’s a new critical illness policy on the market which attempts to go some way with regard to sorting out the perplexity regarding exactly what is, and is not, covered when it comes to claiming on the policy. Traditional critical illness policies tend to cover up to 35 listed medical conditions. Policyholders could become seriously ill with a condition that doesn’t fall into the scope of the policy and find that their illness is not covered, whilst others may be diagnos... Life Insurance - How Well Are You Covered For Skin Cancer? In the good old days (?) before the industrial revolution the economy of this country was largely based on agriculture, and so most of the working class employees spent long hours outside in the fields. Inevitably their skin would have been well bronzed, and in time it became a distinguishing mark of the lower classes. To ensure that no one could possibly mistake them for working class, the fashion of the time for the upper classes, especially amongst the ladies, was for a... Sub-Prime Mortgages – Think Twice The fastest growing sector of home loans market is what we class as specialist mortgages. Specialist mortgages have developed to serve the mortgage needs of people who don’t fit into the more conventional model buyer. In the case of self-employed buyers, the introduction of self-certification mortgages has made things much simpler. A statement of earnings is normally all that is needed, provided the business has been up and running for couple of years. Normally, a 25% depo... Car Insurance - A Cautionary Curfew Insurance is very, very expensive for a certain group of drivers. Unfortunately, statistics prove that newly qualified young men are a particularly poor insurance risk. A risk that rises significantly between the hours of 11pm and 6am. Naturally all parents want to help their children to gain a degree of independence and the vast majority of 17 year olds are keen to learn to drive. Several years of running their offspring around and keeping their social diaries, as well as... Who Needs Loan Protection? If you’re taking out a loan, beware of being misled into taking out payment protection insurance. From a recent questionnaire, it appears that around 25% of consumers were under the impression that by taking out this expensive and often totally unnecessary insurance, they were actually improving their chances of getting their loan. This is simply not true. What payment protection insurance, or PPI, is supposed to do is to ensure that the borrower is able to maintain their ... Life Insurance - A Weighty Issue As a nation, we are getting bigger. By 2025, according to the latest government statistics, around 33% of girls and 25% of boys will be classifiable as clinically obese. ‘Obese’ is defined as overweight to the probable detriment of a person’s health. In fact the rate at which UK children are getting fatter is set to increase, becoming the worst in the world even above the USA. An estimated £4 billion a year is lost through obesity and related conditions through time off wo... Home And Contents Insurance. Stolen Goods Achieving High Sales It’s hard to convince a would-be burglar not to bothering breaking into a house, when the figures relating to the sale of stolen goods say so strongly otherwise. A survey carried out by Halifax Home Insurance has revealed that one third of people buy goods that they know were potentially stolen. Why? Because the deal is too good to resist. A top range digital camera could cost £200 or more, if you’re offered it for £50 then would you be able to say no? And we’ve all seen good... Car Insurance - Freedom, Independence & Higher Premiums They’re in their early 20’s, freshly out in the world and earning good money, driving flashy cars that are absolutely dripping with expensive extras. Who are they? They’re the latest “in crowd” women. They are demonstrating their freedom, independence and individuality and are apparently earning the money to fund their ladette lifestyle. Their souped-up cars with their throaty sounding wide exhausts, fancy spoilers and alloy wheels can be heard approaching from a distance ... Critical Illness Insurance - Of Critical Importance Twenty per cent of critical illness claims are turned down. That means for every five people making this important claim, one will have it rejected at this crucially important time. The whole reason behind taking out critical illness cover is that, in the event of you becoming critically ill (that is being diagnosed with one of the listed illnesses described in your policy documents) a payment will be made. The reasoning behind your decision to take out what some consider ... Mortgages - Fair Shares There’s a lot of interest being shown in a totally new shared-equity mortgage, which will hopefully help a wide range of first time buyers to get into the property market. Shared equity is not new and schemes have been around for some years which mainly involve housing associations but these were designed for the needs of low income tenants and council tenants. A new government scheme called Homebuy which will allow property buyers to raise a mortgage of 75% and the bal... Private Education – Finding The Money The decision to send your child to a private school is a very personal one. There are parents who make this commitment soon after, or even before, their child arrives in the world. The child’s name may be put down for the parent’s choice of independent school. Quite often the school may be the one which a parent attended or one chosen because they wish the child to be educated according to a particular religious belief. There are also private schools catering for children ... Home And Contents Insurance - Cute, Cuddly And Costly Not everyone will remember the road safety campaign aimed at toddlers and small children and called the “Tufty Club”. Tufty’s full name was Tufty Fluffytail and the cute and very sensible squirrel was the logo for the scheme. Road safety scenarios were acted out using roll-out plastic crossings, pedal cars and children acting as “lollipop ladies”. Squashed fruit and flattened footballs demonstrated what would happen should you not obey Tufty’s rules. The club started in the e... Critical Illness Insurance Buying Online. You can buy pretty much everything over the Internet these days and this most certainly applies to insurance. But the process of buying something over the telephone or Internet means that you do not have the benefit of having a person in front of you to explain something in depth if you do not understand. Another thing is that as a growing number of people begin to start buying products online, there are new problems that occur – teething problems shall we say that keep cr... Mortgages. House Prices – Bricks And Mortar Or Millstone? House prices have been rising steadily for some time, and this situation has been fuelled by low interest rates. Danger signals should be seen by those buyers who have invested too heavily and who could face problems (and even repossession) if there is a rates ‘correction’. Sales and prices do not, on the surface, show any signs of falling back, but rising unemployment and the resulting fall in demand could be a marker to future trends. If interest rates increase, anyone w... Permanent Health Insurance. No Payout For Me Sufferer. ME, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, is a recognised illness. However, some of the big health insurers see it quite differently, as the case of Miss A demonstrates. Miss A has been living with ME for eight years, an aggressive form which has kept her wracked with pain and completely unable to work and support herself. Living on benefits totalling £180 a week, she depends on her boyfriend and family to look after her. It could have been very different, because Mis... Unconventional Job? You Need An Unconventional Loan! Many people have dreamed of starting their own business, and it can certainly be satisfying. But what happens when you need a loan? If you’re self-employed, even if you have an excellent credit history, you may find it hard. Even though the banks are more flexible these days, and loaned out £41.2 billion to those working for themselves or with less than perfect credit scores, an amazing nine million people were turned down for a loan last year. Supposing you’ve found a job... Lucky Dip For Loan Applicants Things are not looking too rosy on the loans front. It appears that there are huge problems with debt in the UK. Banks are increasingly nervous about the state of things and feel that lending is risky at present as a result of this. The result is an increasing number of rejections of loan applications. Most of the major banks have taken the decision to introduce a new process, called “personal pricing”, which involves the matching of the rate offered to the result of your ... Buy To Let – Dream Or Nightmare? Are you thinking of investing in a buy-to-let property? A great number of people have done so already and according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, individuals taking out buy to let mortgages rose by 483 per cent in the five years to 2005. The vast majority of these landlords probably have no trouble at all with their tenants, either by luck or careful vetting, but you may need strong nerves to watch a new television series entitled “Tenants From Hell”, featuring real-... Car Insurance. Speeding Fines Play Havoc With Car Insurance Premiums Speed cameras are now a regular feature on our roads, and have successfully reduced accidents, while raising millions of pounds in fines. Such is their prevalence, that one in four households have a driver that has been caught speeding at least once. With the conviction comes three points on the licence and a £60 fine – but research carried out by the AA has shown that there are more costs to consider, and that’s on the car insurance. The AA’s research showed that on avera... Critical Illness Cover – A Wider Scope Critical illness insurance offers cover for certain specified conditions such as cancer, heart problems, kidney failure, loss of limbs, etc., The cover is quite simple and straightforward, in that if you are diagnosed with one of the severe illnesses listed in your policy a payment is made. On average 35 conditions would be considered as falling into this category with most companies. There is just one company, Virgin, who vary the cover by offering severity-based payments wh... Home Insurance - Take Cover Are your house contents insured? Really? Are you absolutely certain? If you’re under insured, from a legal point of view, you may as well not be insured at all. Your insurer may well simply scale back your claim by the amount you’re under-insured, but they would be within their rights to reject the claim totally. Many people under-estimate the value of their personal possessions. If you go through your home, room by room, and make a rough mental note of the contents, you m... Mortgages. The Costs Of Moving House Based on an average priced property, it now costs an incredible £5,551 to move house in the UK and with mortgage lending hitting record highs it is now more important than ever that anyone moving or buying their first home is aware of any hidden costs. Buyers tend to get caught up in the excitement of choosing a new home and run the risk of paying the price financially by not ensuring they get the best value from their mortgage. If you’re willing to bargain over fixture... Car Insurance: Mini Bike Shocks Ahead Car insurance takes a significant portion out of a lot of people’s incomes, but for younger drivers it can be beyond reach on a low income. Under normal circumstances a new driving licence is a clean one, with penalty points for motoring offences not making an appearance until after at least a little time on the road. These two facts make motorcycle ownership a much more attractive proposition for impecunious young people. There is however a noteworthy exception to this. I... Better Medical Reports For Life Insurance In about every four in ten cases when someone applies for Life Insurance, the insurer has to obtain a medical report from a General Practitioner. They need the reports when someone has declared that they have a medical condition on their life insurance application form. The applicant then has to give consent that the insurance company can gain a medical report from their GP. The GP gets called on to supply information about the specifics of that medical condition and any o... Loans - Why More Of Us Are Turning To Credit Unions These days items of not just want, but need, tend to be becoming more and more expensive and with interest rates constantly rising at the banks, credit unions are becoming the more financially attractive alternative. Credit unions are financial co-operatives owned and controlled by their members who combine savings to offer low-cost and flexible financial products to their members. Each union has a 'common bond' which determines who can join. A ‘common bond’ is simply h... Home And Contents Insurance. Don’t Let Vermin Ruin Your Roost Pests and vermin are costing homeowners money – a survey carried out by ICM revealed that in the last year, one in ten homeowners have had to pay a bill as a result of damage caused by the little critters. Most of the damage is caused by the five most common pests: mice, wasps, grey squirrels, rats and hornets – and which year on year invade our homes, causing all kinds of damage. The problem is that although most home and contents insurance policies cover the results of a... Life And Critical Illness Insurance - Good Health? In common with the rest of Europe, life expectancy in Britain is increasing. A man can now expect to live to 76.2 years and a woman to 80.7 years. This is wonderful news, but unfortunately we also learn that Britain is not keeping pace with most of Europe in another health aspect. Healthy life years, as well as life expectancy have been the subject of a recent EU study and the results were based on questionnaires which were completed by some 60,000 householders. The focus ... Mortgage Debt Warning As House Prices Boom Many surveys have identified the lack of first-time buyers as the reason for the slowdown in prices as house prices have reached such a level that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get onto the property ladder. Mortgage lenders are also becoming more careful about lending levels and the size of mortgages they will grant which limits the price potential house-buyers can pay. The number of new loans approved for house purchases in March 2006 was 27 per cent higher ... Travel Insurance - Insurers Discriminate Against Those Who Battle Cancer Dealing with the ugly disease cancer is one of the most distressing things anyone can face in their lifetime. First the person has to come to terms with the fact that they have the life threatening illness, then they undergo a long and grueling process of chemotherapy which takes its toll not just on themselves but on their entire family. And then, once their chemotherapy treatment is over, there is always the chance that the cancer will again resurface. So you can imagine... Loans And Credit Cards - Claim Your Money Back On Illegal Charges It is a new rule that may have the banks running scared. As of May 31, money lenders are no longer allowed to charge sky-high penalties for late payments on credit cards, store cards, mortgages, loans and overdrafts. The most they are, in fact, allowed to charge is £12. And if they do not make the changes to these charges by this date, it is possible that these money lending outfits will be taken to court and made to pay up. What this means is that outfits like Halifax, wh... Car Insurance - Safety First Child Restraints September 2006 will see the introduction of new laws regarding child restraints in cars. Current laws state: - · Children aged three to 11 (inclusive) and less than 150cm tall are permitted to travel in an adult seat belt if no child restraint is fitted. New legislation says: - · Children aged three to 11 and under 135cm have to be seated in child seat or booster (designed to be used with an adult belt), suitable for their age and weight. Children taller than 1... Plain And Simple – Cutting Car Insurance Costs According to the Association of British Insurers we can expect, over the next 50 years, an incredible 150% rise in the number of car drivers aged 70 and over, who hold a full driving licence. The fact that the “baby boomers” are now reaching retirement and people are generally living longer is a major factor in this calculation. They also forecast that this group of older drivers will go from the present approximately 4 million to over 10 million by 2050. It is expected th... Loans. Take Control Over Your Money – Start Your Own Credit Union When you are on a low income, it is very difficult to get credit. And yet, most of us could not manage certain purchases outright, even if we get a decent wage. This is where the Credit Union offers a real alternative. Run by a volunteer board of directors which are elected by its members, a Credit Union is basically a financial cooperative, owned and controlled by its members. They offer affordable loans and encourage members to save. By law, the maximum a Credit Union... Mortgages: The Age Problem. Pensioners should be sitting pretty regarding mortgages shouldn’t they? After all, they should by now have completed their payments and be the sole owners of their homes. Sadly, for some 600,000 pensioners this is not true – they are still paying off their mortgages, and not just for a couple of years after retirement. For example, over 20,000 who still have to reach the final payment are in their 80’s. Couple this with the research from the Prudential which reveals that a... Watchdog Wary Over Critical Illness Insurance. You have taken out a critical illness insurance policy so that if you ever are in the unfortunate situation of developing a life threatening condition, you will be compensated. But what if you wind up with a critical illness that is not guarded against on the insurance policy? What many people do not realise, and what can be of real concern, is that you may find that after you have purchased critical illness insurance you are only covered for up to 35 listed medical condit... Getting Travel Insurance When You’ve Had Cancer. If you have been a person who has previously had cancer and wants to go on an overseas holiday, you may find that you have your work cut out for you when it comes to finding an affordable travel insurance policy. In fact, there are some insurance firms which will not offer any insurance at all to those who have had or do have cancer. Of the companies that do offer insurance, they sometimes charge you more than the cost of your flights. For instance, one company, Free Spiri... Tracing Lost Life Insurance You know what it is sometimes like trying to find your financial documents. You file them away in a safe place, thinking you will know where they are. But the one day that you need them you cannot remember where they have been hidden. It can often be the case that they actually become permanently lost. It is understandable how this can happen with the very nature of something like life insurance. But here is an interesting fact about life insurance policies. There are i... Car Insurance: Mini Motorbike Offences Drive Up Premiums They are tiny bikes that reach great speeds and make a lot of noise. But police have had enough of youths creating havoc on mini-motorbikes and now have powers to seize the annoying and sometimes dangerous toys. What’s more, if children are riding these miniature vehicles on the pavement or road, they face prosecution just like adults. Any penalty points handed out by the court will be kept on file and activated as soon as they are old enough to apply for a driver’s licenc... Life Insurance Cover – Fat Chance The Government predicts that by 2025, obesity rates in children will be a frightening statistic. It is thought that around 33% of girls and 25% of boys will be clinically obese. This means overweight to the extent that their health will be likely to suffer. The rate at which UK children are getting fat is the worst in the world. There are experts that believe that the UK will top the tables as the most obese country, overtaking the USA. Obesity and conditions related t... Loans And Credit Cards. Bankruptcy On The Up New figures have been released showing that in 2005, 67,800 people were declared bankrupt. In the second quarter of 2006 alone, around 26,000 people became insolvent in England and Wales, a rise of 66% on last year. The way it’s going, it looks like the number of personal insolvencies in 2006 will top the 100,000 mark. So why has bankruptcy become such big business? The main reason is because so many people live beyond their means. Dubbed the ‘spend it like Beckham culture... Student Loans And The Price Of An Education The average student entering higher education will now leave university with debts of around £10,000. This is made up from a combination of student loans, credit cards and overdrafts. This figure however is set to sky rocket as Barclays predicts students graduating in 2010 will be facing £30,000 of debt. Although some figures show that graduates can expect higher than average earnings, students may not actually be in well-paid jobs for a number of years after graduating le... Mortgage – Changes Ahead? Borrowers should be aware of some of the changes taking place in the mortgage industry after two building societies recently implemented rises in their SVR (standard variable rate). As the last Bank of England interest rate has remained steady for over 11 months, and especially as the last move was downwards, this has angered and surprised their customers. The two societies are N&P (Norwich and Peterborough) and the Nottingham. Borrowers with either of these societies whos... Some Information On Buy To Let Mortgages; Are They Right For You? The government predicts an increase of more than 2 million UK households over the next 10 years, due mainly to an increase in EU immigrants and a trend of smaller households. This obviously leaves a good opportunity for would be buy to let landlords, especially with the better buy to let rates we are currently experiencing and the extra tenants wanting accommodation. So, what are the requirements of buying to let? Well, the main requirement of a buy to let mortgage is that... City Watchdog Probes Money Lenders Over High Risk Mortgages. A ‘subprime borrower’ is a person with a bad credit rating. This can range from someone who has missed a few credit card payments to someone who has been declared bankrupt. For banks and mortgage brokers, these types of customers are lucrative because the risk attached to them is justification for charging sky high interest rates. These customers are so lucrative that the market for them is worth £30 bn a year and many new companies are getting into the market. Figures show t... Pet Insurance – A Good Idea! Ever thought about taking out insurance to guard against pet theft? It is probably something you think most people have never needed to worried about. But that is quickly starting to change. Statistics reveal that pet theft has overtaken mobile phone and ipod robberies to become the most rapidly growing crime in the UK. Each year, there are 50,000 dogs which are snatched from their owners. Of those victims, 40,000 had pet insurance. This sort of insurance can offer help in... Private Medical Insurance. Experimental Treatments Could Now Be Covered. Private medical insurance policies can be very particular about what they do and don’t cover. For example, if you are insured with Bupa, then you will only be covered for experimental medical treatment if it is part of a bona fide medical trial or study. And Norwich Union Healthcare stipulate that treatment is only covered if it is considered to standard practice in the UK. So what happens if your doctor recommends that the best course of action would be to have a newer ty... Home Contents Insurance Can Cover Street Theft You see people these days talking on their top-of-the-range mobile phones or listening to their costly MP3 players everywhere. So it can come as no surprise that latest police statistics reveal that the number of street muggings and robberies increased by 8% last year. Statistics from the British Crime Survey of 45,000 people shows that the number of gunpoint robberies jumped by 10% for 2005. Perhaps the most startling result from the research is that robberies alone have ...
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