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  • June 29th, 2010 By Admin Categories: UK Insurance Search

    Buy-to-let property insurance, some times also known as residential property owners insurance, is needed if you own houses andor flats to tenants either on a short-term or long-term basis. Ordinarily you can buy cheap buy-to-let property insurance in the event that you rent five or less properties in the UK than is the case if you rent more than five properties, as in the case of the former you are seen as a small time landlord with a small business, whereas in the latter you are seen as a full blown property-owning company.

    Whether you plan to rent five or less properties, or five or more properties, is, however, a side issue, as in both cases youll need to ensure that you have at least the minimum level of required insurance in order to protect yourself. Consequently, the number of properties you own will have a bearing only insofar as the insurance premiums are concerned. That said, if you are looking to become a property owner with a letting business, then you need to ensure that you have the following minimum provisions in your insurance policy:

    Fire

    Insuring against any fire on the property

    Natural Disaster (also known as tempest insurance)

    Insuring against natural disasters that may occur, such as a storm where the winds tear off your roof or guttering

    Theft

    Which is especially important if you are renting out fully furnished properties. In the event that you are renting out unfurnished premises, you may wish to have a discussion with your tenants about whether or not they should have home contents insurance

    Public Liability Insurance

    This should be a must as it will protect you against any claims your tenants or any third parties (such as their guests) may have for injuries they suffer while on your property

    Lost Earnings

    There may well be times when your property remains empty; say, for example, while you look for new tenants. If you are relying on the rental income from your tenants to repay the money you borrowed to purchase the property, you need to ensure you have lost earnings insurance to compensate you during this period

    Employee Liability Insurance

    If you have employees who will visit the property for you to repair any damage, etc. or to collect the rental payments, then you need to make sure that you have employee liability insurance in case they get injured while carrying out their assigned task

    Legal Expenses Insurance

    As a property owner you may find the need from time to time to retain the services of a lawyer; for example, if your tenants refuse to pay their rent or move out of the property at a specified agreed time when you may need to get an eviction notice. As legal expenses in the UK can be expensive, you should consider insuring against this risk by having in place a provision of legal expenses in your insurance policy.

    Although the above are basically the bare minimums you need in your buy-to-let property insurance policy, you can also tailor these types of insurance policies to meet your particular needs, so make sure that you talk through your circumstances with your insurance provider, especially if you anticipate expanding the business in the near future.

    June 22nd, 2010 By Admin Categories: UK Insurance Search

    Who knows, you are going out for a long drive, and your car breaks down midway. Experts say that there is more than 10% chance of breaking down each year if your car is more than 3 years old. It is worse in the winter. You can avoid breakdowns by taking precautionary measures like re-servicing your vehicle each month. However, getting your breakdown insurance is a good option to protect you financially if your car vehicle breaks down when it is least expected to.

    Types of Breakdown Cover

    Roadside Rescue: If your vehicle breaks down outside a specific distance radius from your home, breakdown insurance would pay for the servicing amount except the charge for new parts. The company will provide you with other helps. However, the incident is at your home or within specified radius of your home, and then it wont be covered.

    Home Rescue: It covers the same as the roadside rescue; it extends the coverage to your house. It includes getting your vehicle checked at the local garage.

    Recovery Plus: It covers both home and roadside breakdowns. It provides a hire car to either return home or continue your journey. And also it covers the cost of alternative transport to enable your journey or return home to be completed. If the breakdown happens a set of miles away (specified in the policy), accommodation in a local hotel while awaiting completion of repairs will also be provided.

    Continental Cover

    In UK, European Rescue Breakdown covers roadside breakdown in continental driving. It covers the charge of repairing or bringing your car back to UK in case your car cant be repaired. However, it doesnt cover the charge of new parts. So, it is always wise to have this insurance, if you are driving across Europe as you can face fees for roadside assistance charge for every kilometer your car is being towed.

    Partners and Family

    Some policies also cover spouse or partner; however check it with the insurance company. Some companies look whether your spouse or partner is living with you at the same address. Family cover includes you, a partner and usually two children under 21 living at the same address as you. Check whether your policy covers all the persons traveling in the car.

    You need to wait nearly 25 minutes to an hour for a roadside assistance. Some policies fix the number of calls to five or six each year. You may get more if you have a joint cover or family cover. If you exceed the limit you must pay for the assistance. Policies do not cover the cost of new parts. Some policies do not cover trailers and caravans. Animals are usually not covered.

    June 15th, 2010 By Admin Categories: UK Insurance Search

    A new study by the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) shows that baby boomers need to pay attention to the very real possibility they may need long-term care. The reason: escalating long-term care costs.

    “Long-Term Care Insurance or Medicaid: Who Will Pay for Baby Boomers’ Long-Term Care?” sounds the alarm on a potential national long-term care crisis. More important, it is a call to action for individuals to include long-term care in their retirement planning, said ACLI President & CEO Frank Keating.

    The study shows that a one-year stay in a nursing home averages nearly 70,000 for a private room or more than 61,000 for a semi-private room. By 2030, the same stay in a semi-private room will cost an estimated 190,000, more than tripling over the next 25 years. Most Americans cannot save enough to cover these high costs on their own.

    “Americans are living longer than ever before. That is good news, but it has some risks. One of those risks is that many future retirees will be facing astronomical long-term care costs,” Keating said.

    The issue is of particular interest to women because they tend to outlive men. A 65-year-old woman has a 50 percent chance of needing nursing home care in her lifetime-a cost that could potentially wipe out her retirement savings.

    What can be done? Life insurers recommend long-term care insurance.

    Long-term care insurance is a vital component of a sound financial plan for retirement. It helps people maintain independence in retirement if they require long-term care services. Long-term care policyholders don’t have to rely on government programs or their family to pay for care. Moreover, the product has evolved over the years. It now offers a wide range of services in a variety of settings. Some policies may include reimbursement for respite care, medical equipment, care coordination services and even home modification.

    “Long-term care insurance provides retirement security to millions of Americans. But more need the protection it offers. With long-term care insurance as part of a retirement plan, Americans are better equipped to protect their life-long savings and maintain their standard of living,” Keating said.

    June 8th, 2010 By Admin Categories: UK Insurance Search

    You might not have realised it, but boat insurance is the oldest kind of insurance there is. People have been insuring their boats since the 17th century, and over time a number of standards have arisen. The chances are, though, that youre probably much more familiar with car insurance so the good news is that car insurance and boat insurance are actually very similar.

    Basically, there are three situations you can be insured against: your boat (or its cargo) being damaged, your boat sinking, and your boat hitting another. Although few countries make it a requirement that your boat must be insured (considering how many boats sail in international waters), you would be very wise to at least buy the third party insurance, in case you hit a boat that is very much more valuable than your own. You will probably find it quite unnecessary to insure your boat against total loss unless it is very valuable it is mainly practical for large ships, and especially for ones carrying valuable cargo.

    As with car insurance, policies come with an excess to discourage small claims for boat insurance, this is usually quite a large sum of money, as the intention of the insurance is to cover you against substantial losses instead of just scratches and dents.

    There are also a few kinds of insurance you can buy that are unique to boating, although it is unlikely that you will ever find yourself in need of them. If you get Increased Value insurance, your policy will pay out at your boats market value if it is more than the amount you insured it for only useful if you expect your boat to go up in value. Finally, if youre thinking of sailing into a warzone, you might want to get war risk insurance. Of course, you might also want to get your head checked out, if you know what I mean.

    June 1st, 2010 By Admin Categories: UK Insurance Search

    Third Generation Insurance Shopping Has Arrived!
    Traditional insurance shopping was revolutionised with the introduction of online insurance quote systems, both through direct online insurers, and online brokers. For many years, this remained the only way to shop online for insurance, but did not maximise the full potential of what the internet really could do for the shopper. The 3rd generation of insurance shopping websites is now here, and it means great news for consumers.

    The old days.
    In the(bad) old days, people had to phone around various insurance companies to get quotes for their car insurance. This was a time consuming process, but due to the variations in insurance premium from company to company, very often it was worth spending the time on. Instead of going direct to insurance companies, many consumers preferred to use insurance brokers who would shop around for them. This in theory was great, except for one thing – different brokers could charge different rates for the same insurance products. To compare insurance, consumers still had to phone around a number of brokers, many of whom only worked normal day time office hours.

    The Internet Revolution (kind of).
    With the growing popularity of the internet, things looked better. A number of internet based insurers and brokers offered the chance to shop around 24 hours a day and find cheaper insurance, with online discounts being offered to consumers. While this allowed people to shop for cover in the evenings, they were still faced with the same old problem that different broker sites would quote different prices for the same insurance.

    The Aggregator Arrives.
    In recent times, a new breed of insurance shopping website has arrived. These sites (aggregator or comparisons sites) allow you to fill in just one set of quote forms, and instead of you having to visit lots of different broker’s websites and filling in the same information time and time again – they do it for you. Sites like quotezone.co.uk do this. You enter your details as you would on any other insurance site, but instead of getting quotes from one broker, you can get over 20 insurance quotes in one place. So, for 2 minutes work , you save yourself filling in forms on 20 websites, and get all the prices back in real time one after the other.

    May 25th, 2010 By Admin Categories: UK Insurance Search

    Comprehensive major medical insurance is an insurance scheme with a low deductible and a maximum coverage limits including inpatient care, outpatient care, x-rays, laboratory tests, and diagnostic office. The comprehensive major medical insurance is designed to soothe the financial crisis caused due to the increasing hospitalization charges. The policy offers a coinsurance provision, which mingles the basic coverage with all the other major medical coverage.

    There are several benefits of taking a comprehensive major medical insurance policy. Some of the major benefits include:

    High Sum Assured

    The comprehensive major medical insurance policy will cover a major portion of the hospitalization charges incurred by the insured. This helps the insured not to worry about his hospitalization charges.

    Pre-admission diagnosis expenses

    The comprehensive major medical insurance policy covers the fees paid to a medical specialist for laboratory examinations, diagnosis and x-rays. The reimbursement will be paid only if the examinations are conducted on the recommendation of a qualified medical practitioner for the assessment of an injury or illness. The insured will only get the reimbursement if heshe is later hospitalized for treatment.

    Outpatient expenses for kidney dialysis treatment or cancer

    The policy also provides reimbursement for any outpatient expenses incurred for the insured for kidney dialysis or cancer treatment (chemotherapy and radiotherapy).

    None Social Medical System reimbursement

    Some insurance companies provide reimbursement of more than 75% of the expenses incurred. This includes those medicinal drugs which are out of the coverage of Social Medical System.

    Ambulance fees

    The comprehensive major medical insurance also covers the expenses incurred for an insured for hisher local ambulance transportation due to illness.

    No claim bonus

    Most of the insurance companies offer a no-claim bonus. That is, if the insured does not make any claims during a year, his annual payment limit will be increase by 6% in the next renewal year.

    Nowadays there are several insurance providers offering online comprehensive major medical insurance policy. This is considered as an added advantage for those looking for comprehensive major medical insurance. This helps the customers to access online insurance quotes to know more about the premium and coverage plans offered by different insurance companies so that he can easily find out the most affordable package for his needs.

    There are lots of insurance companies offering comprehensive major medical insurance. So it is the risk of the customer to select an ideal one which suits him the best. Various comprehensive major medical insurance follows different schemes and hence the payable amount varies a lot. Hence before sticking into any policy it is better from your part to select those insurance providers who offer a maximum benefit ceiling. After all there is no point in having a comprehensive major medical expense insurance that leaves unnecessary burden on the customer. It is all about thinking rationally, the thought process backed by sound research and market study, and using your discerning ability to maximum use.

    May 18th, 2010 By Admin Categories: UK Insurance Search

    Now that so many term life insurance policies are available online, it makes sense to use this option when you are looking for protection for your family, you can take your time to consider all the different types of term insurance, and the different rates available. There’s a ready supply of information, which puts you in a position of knowledge and will help you to make the correct decision.

    There are several different labels applied to term insurance, but basically it comes down to three different types.

    First, there is Level Term Insurance. This is designed to pay out a lump sum on the death of the life or lives assured, this type of policy can be used to cover immediate expenses i.e. funeral estate taxes outstanding debts, this type of term insurance can be written on either a joint or single life basis.

    Perhaps the best-known type of term insurance is that associated with a mortgage, which not
    unsurprisingly is called Mortgage Term Insurance. It is designed to cover the declining balance on the outstanding mortgage on your home. It is a very cost-effective type of term insurance because it is covering a reducing liability as a mortgage comes down so does the level of cover. This type of life insurance can also been written on either a single life, or join life basis.

    The third main type of term life insurance is Family Income Benefit, unlike the previous types, as its name suggests this type of policy is designed to pay a regular income, rather than a lump sum. This type of policy has been rather overlooked until recently, but now that interest rates are so low, it is gaining in popularity, because of the extremely large amount of capital that is required to be invested to produce a reasonable level of regular income. By taking the Family Income Benefit route, you can sometimes save as much as 50% of the premium cost.

    All the above types of policy can have various additional benefits added for instance, critical illness cover, guaranteed insurer ability options, automatic renewable options, etc obviously not all companies offer all the benefits, and it does require you to compare the cost of the policy with the benefits provided. However, by shopping for your life insurance online, you are better able to do this for yourself and hopefully will end up making the correct decision.

    Term insurance is a very low-cost option, and while some would argue that it is better to go the whole of life route, with such a low-cost option, there is no need for any family to be without some life insurance or term insurance protection.

    Roger Overanout

    May 11th, 2010 By Admin Categories: UK Insurance Search

    Buy-to-let property insurance, some times also known as residential property owners insurance, is needed if you own houses andor flats to tenants either on a short-term or long-term basis. Ordinarily you can buy cheap buy-to-let property insurance in the event that you rent five or less properties in the UK than is the case if you rent more than five properties, as in the case of the former you are seen as a small time landlord with a small business, whereas in the latter you are seen as a full blown property-owning company.

    Whether you plan to rent five or less properties, or five or more properties, is, however, a side issue, as in both cases youll need to ensure that you have at least the minimum level of required insurance in order to protect yourself. Consequently, the number of properties you own will have a bearing only insofar as the insurance premiums are concerned. That said, if you are looking to become a property owner with a letting business, then you need to ensure that you have the following minimum provisions in your insurance policy:

    Fire

    Insuring against any fire on the property

    Natural Disaster (also known as tempest insurance)

    Insuring against natural disasters that may occur, such as a storm where the winds tear off your roof or guttering

    Theft

    Which is especially important if you are renting out fully furnished properties. In the event that you are renting out unfurnished premises, you may wish to have a discussion with your tenants about whether or not they should have home contents insurance

    Public Liability Insurance

    This should be a must as it will protect you against any claims your tenants or any third parties (such as their guests) may have for injuries they suffer while on your property

    Lost Earnings

    There may well be times when your property remains empty; say, for example, while you look for new tenants. If you are relying on the rental income from your tenants to repay the money you borrowed to purchase the property, you need to ensure you have lost earnings insurance to compensate you during this period

    Employee Liability Insurance

    If you have employees who will visit the property for you to repair any damage, etc. or to collect the rental payments, then you need to make sure that you have employee liability insurance in case they get injured while carrying out their assigned task

    Legal Expenses Insurance

    As a property owner you may find the need from time to time to retain the services of a lawyer; for example, if your tenants refuse to pay their rent or move out of the property at a specified agreed time when you may need to get an eviction notice. As legal expenses in the UK can be expensive, you should consider insuring against this risk by having in place a provision of legal expenses in your insurance policy.

    Although the above are basically the bare minimums you need in your buy-to-let property insurance policy, you can also tailor these types of insurance policies to meet your particular needs, so make sure that you talk through your circumstances with your insurance provider, especially if you anticipate expanding the business in the near future.

    May 4th, 2010 By Admin Categories: UK Insurance Search

    Who knows, you are going out for a long drive, and your car breaks down midway. Experts say that there is more than 10% chance of breaking down each year if your car is more than 3 years old. It is worse in the winter. You can avoid breakdowns by taking precautionary measures like re-servicing your vehicle each month. However, getting your breakdown insurance is a good option to protect you financially if your car vehicle breaks down when it is least expected to.

    Types of Breakdown Cover

    Roadside Rescue: If your vehicle breaks down outside a specific distance radius from your home, breakdown insurance would pay for the servicing amount except the charge for new parts. The company will provide you with other helps. However, the incident is at your home or within specified radius of your home, and then it wont be covered.

    Home Rescue: It covers the same as the roadside rescue; it extends the coverage to your house. It includes getting your vehicle checked at the local garage.

    Recovery Plus: It covers both home and roadside breakdowns. It provides a hire car to either return home or continue your journey. And also it covers the cost of alternative transport to enable your journey or return home to be completed. If the breakdown happens a set of miles away (specified in the policy), accommodation in a local hotel while awaiting completion of repairs will also be provided.

    Continental Cover

    In UK, European Rescue Breakdown covers roadside breakdown in continental driving. It covers the charge of repairing or bringing your car back to UK in case your car cant be repaired. However, it doesnt cover the charge of new parts. So, it is always wise to have this insurance, if you are driving across Europe as you can face fees for roadside assistance charge for every kilometer your car is being towed.

    Partners and Family

    Some policies also cover spouse or partner; however check it with the insurance company. Some companies look whether your spouse or partner is living with you at the same address. Family cover includes you, a partner and usually two children under 21 living at the same address as you. Check whether your policy covers all the persons traveling in the car.

    You need to wait nearly 25 minutes to an hour for a roadside assistance. Some policies fix the number of calls to five or six each year. You may get more if you have a joint cover or family cover. If you exceed the limit you must pay for the assistance. Policies do not cover the cost of new parts. Some policies do not cover trailers and caravans. Animals are usually not covered.

    April 27th, 2010 By Admin Categories: UK Insurance Search

    A new study by the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) shows that baby boomers need to pay attention to the very real possibility they may need long-term care. The reason: escalating long-term care costs.

    “Long-Term Care Insurance or Medicaid: Who Will Pay for Baby Boomers’ Long-Term Care?” sounds the alarm on a potential national long-term care crisis. More important, it is a call to action for individuals to include long-term care in their retirement planning, said ACLI President & CEO Frank Keating.

    The study shows that a one-year stay in a nursing home averages nearly 70,000 for a private room or more than 61,000 for a semi-private room. By 2030, the same stay in a semi-private room will cost an estimated 190,000, more than tripling over the next 25 years. Most Americans cannot save enough to cover these high costs on their own.

    “Americans are living longer than ever before. That is good news, but it has some risks. One of those risks is that many future retirees will be facing astronomical long-term care costs,” Keating said.

    The issue is of particular interest to women because they tend to outlive men. A 65-year-old woman has a 50 percent chance of needing nursing home care in her lifetime-a cost that could potentially wipe out her retirement savings.

    What can be done? Life insurers recommend long-term care insurance.

    Long-term care insurance is a vital component of a sound financial plan for retirement. It helps people maintain independence in retirement if they require long-term care services. Long-term care policyholders don’t have to rely on government programs or their family to pay for care. Moreover, the product has evolved over the years. It now offers a wide range of services in a variety of settings. Some policies may include reimbursement for respite care, medical equipment, care coordination services and even home modification.

    “Long-term care insurance provides retirement security to millions of Americans. But more need the protection it offers. With long-term care insurance as part of a retirement plan, Americans are better equipped to protect their life-long savings and maintain their standard of living,” Keating said.