The National Debtline which was set up by the Government to help people in financial trouble, is being overwhelmed by callers. A major Sunday paper has reported that 8 out of 10 of its test calls went unanswered even after holding on whilst the phone rang out for ten minutes. The Debtline recognises the problem reporting that January was its busiest month since its foundation 19 years ago and admits that it failed to answer two thirds of the calls made to its telephone numbers.

The Credit Counselling Service and the Citizens Advice Bureau have also reported record demand with hundreds more calls per day than this time last year. And in the last quarter of 2005, bankruptcies were up by 46% over the same period last year.

If this evidence is anything to go by, there are a lot of people out there realising that they’ve pushed the boat out too far when it come to taking on loans, credit cards and other forms of debt.

For those that simply can’t solve their financial crisis, there are two options. An Individual Voluntary Arrangement (known as IVA’s) and Bankruptcy.

IVA’s are a more lenient form of insolvency whereby you pay back a percentage of what you owe, typically 30 – 50%, over five years. But don’t think that an IVA is an easy way out – it’s a legal agreement between you and your creditors and is administered by a specialist insolvency company. If you don’t keep to the agreement you can be forced into full bankruptcy at any time. But at least after five years it’s all behind you and whilst your credit rating will b battered it won’t be out for the count.

The more extreme option is bankruptcy. Under the 2002 Enterprise Act, bankrupts debts can be discharged after just one year as opposed to the three years it took previously. For this reason, more and more people are biting on the one-year bullet. Everything you own other than the essentials for living, become the property of your receiver to be sold to pay off as best as they can, your creditors. Special arrangements are put in place for your home if this is jointly owned.

Then at the end of the year you are free to go your way to rebuild your financial life. Credit will be impossible to obtain for 12-18 months but after that doors start to open and life gradually get back to normal – just learn from the experience and make sure you don’t repeat you mistakes.

Technocrati Tags[debt] [advice]

The Office of Fair Trading is at last preparing to take the big banks and other financial institutions that issue credit cards to task over charges. On credit cards, the average fee for exceeding the credit limit has climbed 40% to over £22. The charge for missing or late payments has also soared to over £22.

The OFT believes that these charges represent an illegal and unfair penalty as the banks true costs of dealing with these situations are much lower. So it seems that the OFT is likely to try and cap such charges at a figure closer to £15. The banks certainly won’t be too keen on this, as such a decision would cost them in the region of £400 million per annum. We understand that the OFT could make an announcement in just a few weeks time.

In a parallel action The Bank Action Group is taking legal action on charges levied on current accounts and overdrafts. During the last 2 years bank charges on these accounts have run up by as much as 31%, taking the average to around £30. The Bank Action Groups case is being led by Stephen Hone who is using the same reasoning as the OFT, as he asks the High Court to agree that charges are too high and as such represent an illegal penalty.

These actions are made at a time when the UK’s Banks are booming. The top five clearing banks, HSBC, Barclays, RBS-Nat West, Lloyds-TSB, and Halifax-Bank of Scotland, have recently announced profits up 17% at a staggering £35,000,000,000 – yes, £35 billion!

We think the Banks can afford to trim their charges – don’t you?

Four out of every ten pets are obese says Petplan, one of the pet insurance providers.

Owners are overfeeding their cats and dogs with mamouth sized portions as well loads of sneaky treats from the table. This had led to a flood of insurance claims for pet illnesses brought on by obesity.

Indeed Petplan has revealed a 60% rise in obesity related claims during the last five years amongst the 800,000 pets it insures. Says Simon Wheeler, a spokesman for Petplan, “More and more owners are feeding their animals the same over-indulgnt food they eat themselves”. As a result it is reported that some pet insurers are considering exclusions for obese animals.

Obesity in pets can causes many of the same problems it does in their owners. An overweight pet is liable to a host of related problems, including: joint, ligament and tendon difficulties, diabetes, breathing and heart challenges. Obese cats can also develop skin conditions from being unable to groom themselves properly. The overall impact on your pets’ comfort and longevity can be disastrous.

The good news is that it’s easier to trim your pets weight down than it is for you to fight the battle of the bulge. After all, your pet can’t open the refrigerator door on their own, nor can they grab the car keys for a trip to the fish and chip shop or phone out for a Chinese. Your pet is wholly dependent on what you give it to eat. So if it’s fat, that’s your fault. And the remedy’s in your hands. Although you might shudder at the idea of exercise, your pet will always up for a brisk walk, perhaps playing with a toy on a string, or a game of fetch.

How can you tell if your pet is overweight? Healthy pets will always have some padding on them - but a little is plenty! Run your hands over their ribs. You should be able to feel their ribs and the skin should move easily back and forth. Your pet should also have a noticeable waist at the bottom of the rib cage, a small tuck-in around the stomach. Step back and take a look from the side - if your pet looks pregnant, it’s overweight. Then look from above, it’s equally bad news if you see a bump out from the middle into an apple shape. Even birds, can get obese. Look for rolls of fat or a thicker breast.

Certain breeds and species are more liable to weight problems. In dogs, Labradors especially fatten up easily, as do beagles and some spaniels. Less-active cats such as Persians are far more likely to gain weight than the go-go breeds such as Siamese. And in birds, Amazon parrots are contenders to become perch potatoes.

Crash diets aren’t a healthy solution for pets, especially not for cats, who can develop a fatal liver problem if forced to slim down too quickly. No pet gets fat overnight and it shouldn’t be forced to slim down any more quickly. The best course of action is to feed only at prescribed meal times, cut out those tip bits and introduce more exercise. Your vet can also advise you on special diet foods. Do all of this gradually but please be committed – your pet’s life depends on it.

Technocrati Tags[pet] [insurance]

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What is an Excess payment?

An excess is the fixed contribution you must make towards the repair of your car when you make a claim on your car insurance policy. This payment is normally made directly to the repair garage when you collect the car. If your car is a write off, your insurance company will deduct the excess from the settlement payment it sends to you.

If the accident is proven to be the other drivers fault, you will be able to claim your excess payment back on the other person’s insurance policy. But what happens if the other driver is uninsured?
We all know that it’s a legal requirement under Section 143 of the 1988 Road Traffic Act to have insurance against third party liabilities. Reliable estimates of the incidence of uninsured driving in the UK are hard to come by and for the obvious reasons, those that are involved in breaking the law have every incentive to keep their activity as private as possible. But calculations by the Department of Transport suggest that around 5% of vehicles in the UK are being driven without valid insurance. Uninsured driving is increasingly being regarded as a major social problem since this group of people not only imposes costs on honest motorists in the form of higher premiums, but their presence on our roads also represents a serious risk to other road users.

Clearly then, driving without insurance is not a victimless crime. The costs associated with the damage to persons and property caused by uninsured drivers are largely paid for by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau which is funded in its entirety by the industry, or by your insurer. Ultimately therefore, if you are involved in an accident caused by an uninsured driver you’ll get you car repaired but you’ll not be able to reclaim your excess.

What is a compulsory Excess?

A compulsory excess is the minimum excess value your insurer will accept on your policy. Minimum excesses do vary by insurance company and according to your personal details and driving record. Whilst the average excess is around £100, younger drivers could be faced with as much as £500 whereas a mature experienced driver with a good driving record, could be asked to pay just the first £50.

What is a voluntary Excess?
In order to keep your insurance premium down, you may volunteer to pay a higher excess than that demanded by the insurance company. Your voluntary excess is the amount over and above the compulsory excess which you agree to pay in the event of a claim on the policy.

My car has now been repaired and but the garage will not release my car until I pay the policy excess to them. Is this right?

Yes, this is the normal practice but be sure to inspect the car when you collect it to satisfy yourself that the repair is perfect. Then make sure you retain their receipt for your excess payment as this will be required if you are reclaiming against a third party’s insurance. Just in case of disputes, it’s also a good idea to make sure you have a repair schedule, which lists all the repairs that were made to you car.

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Technocrati Tags[car] [insurance]

There are now over 100 car insurance companies trying to attract your business and competition is so strong that in recent years, average premiums have virtually been at a stand still. However, bargains are always available as companies cut their prices to increase their market share in the hope you’ll remain loyal and stick with them in the following years. In fact 23% of us automatically renew our motor insurance each year.

It’s the Internet that’s been the revolution for car insurance. It makes shopping around so easy without the need to make loads of phone calls and thread yourself through the automated phone systems loved by so many call centres.

But remember that the lowest premium does not always give you the best policy for your motoring needs. You need to check out whether a courtesy car is provided if your car were in for repair and what claims excess you’d need to pay. You might also want legal insurance cover and automatic windscreen replacement. The availability of an accident helpline is also very useful when you’re in the middle of an emergency. You’ll need to phone the broker or insurance company you’re proposing to deal with in order to check these points out.

The 17 Top Tips

· Concentrate your Internet shopping on car insurance brokers. Their systems will automatically search for the best quotes from 30 or more insurance companies and save you a lot of time. You can them call them and discuss the relative merits of the top quotes they get for you.
· Make sure your car is garaged at night. Insurers know that cars left on the road are more vulnerable to damage and theft. If you don’t have a garage at least keep it on your drive.
· Make sure your estimate of the mileage you do each year is updated. If you move home or change your job you may have shorter commuting journeys and your premium should drop.
· Your job can influence your premium. Journalists, landlords and footballers all pay more! Go for something a bit more boring! Civil servants and accountants pay less!
· If you’re not married, do so! Married men, particularly under 30 attract lower premiums than their single counterparts.
· If you’re under 25, try adding an older experienced driver as a named driver. But not too old – try to keep to drivers under 60. (Premiums start to rise again after 60!) An experienced driver with a good driving record may help to reduce your premium.
· Offer to pay a higher accident excess. The average is about £100, but some companies are pushing these up in an attempt to offer a lower headline premium. If you increase you claims excess, your premium could well fall significantly.
· If you have an old or cheap car, consider just getting 3rd Party Insurance. Get quotes for comprehensive and 3rd Party and weigh up the savings.
· If you’re aged between 18 and 21, consider pay as you go insurance. Norwich Union has introduced the first pay as you go policy, which charges you for the mileage driven. It charges more for the miles driven between 11pm and 6am. The system works through a GPS black box which is fitted to your car for a one off installation fee of £199. The box tells Norwich Union how far you travel and they send you an invoice every month.
· Take more driving lessons. New drivers can cut their insurance costs by up to 35% by having passed Pass Plus lessons. These provide extra training for night driving, motorway driving and driving in rush hour traffic. Lessons cost between £15 and £30 per hour. (www.passplus.org.uk). Reductions will also be available if you’ve taken a course with the Institute of Advanced Motorists (www.iam.org.uk).
· Check out the insurance group for any car you’re thinking of buying. New cars are categorised in to 20 insurance groups with 1 being the cheapest and 20 the most expensive.
· High performance and high spec cars attract thieves and are more expensive to repair so they always cost more to insure. Consider a car in a lower insurance group.
· Try very hard not to speed! Most insurers will ignore one fixed penalty fine but after that your insurance will rise.
· If you’ve got 4 years no claims discount pay the extra get it protected.
· Get a Thatcham approved engine immobiliser or alarm fitted. It could save you between 5-8%.
· Fit audio satellite navigation. Some insurance companies have found that audio satellite navigation can cut the accident rate by letting drivers concentrate on the road. Insurers will soon give insurance discounts if you have it fitted.
· Got more than one car in the family? Some insurers will give a discount for insuring them all one family policy.

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Technocrati Tags[car] [insurance]

Women whose family line has a history of ovarian or breast cancer could face higher insurance premiums or be refused cover altogether under proposals from the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

The insurance industry wants the right to ask these women when they apply for life and critical illness policies whether they have been tested for the gene mutations that increase the likelihood of them developing the cancers. But before the insurers can include these questions on their application forms, they must receive approval from the Genetics and Insurance Committee, the organisation that advises the Government on this sort of issue.

The ABI will soon be requesting this Committee for permission to include the controversial questions which ask women whether they have been tested positive for BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations. It’s these genes that are present in 1 in 10 new cases of ovarian cancer and 1 in 20 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed. Women who have damaged BRCA genes have a 14 – 18% chance of developing breast cancer sometime in their lives and approximately 1 in 850 women in Britain inherit a faulty BRCA1 gene.

A note posted on the web site for the Genetics and Insurance Committee said, ” The Committee expects that the Association of British Insurers will submit in late 2006/2007 four revised and updated applications for the use of adverse results from the predictive genetic tests of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes (breast/ovarian cancer) in helping to determine insurance premiums for life and critical illness insurance”.

To date, in the UK insurance application forms are only allowed to ask for the results of predictive tests for Huntington’s disease and then only when the application is for cover exceeding £500,000 for life insurance or over £300,000 for critical illness insurance or over £30,000 for payment protection insurance. This policy is set by an agreement entered into by the ABI which is due to expire in 2011 but Harpal Karlcut, Chairman of the ABI’s Genetics Working Party, is reported in the insurance magazine “Cover”, as saying that the Association would like changes.

“We are looking to get approval for the breast cancer test by the end of the year. The two breast cancers are the next conditions that we will look at but after that we don’t see the need to look at other conditions”. He then went on to add a rider saying, “We do keep an eye out for what diseases may come up in the future but there is nothing else on the horizon”. We add another rider – yet!

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Technocrati Tags[life] [insurance] [critical]

Millions of patients face re-registering for NHS treatment with a new dentist as 4,000 dentists threaten to quit the NHS over new NHS service contracts.

Since 1997 almost 10,000 dentists have left the NHS and the exodus of a further 4,000 expected this April, will throw the service into total turmoil. The cause is a controversial new contract being implemented by the NHS in April.

Over recent years over 400 charges have been introduced for NHS treatments and at the time, this broke the camels back for many dentists – they simply went 100% private. The new row is about the removal of six monthly check ups and not allowing people whose teeth are in good condition to make a return visit within 3 years. Somewhere mixed in with his are disagreements about surgery opening hours and changes to the way NHS dentists are paid.

The result is that wherever places on NHS dental lists become available, the queues stretch around the bloc! Many will be refused HHS treatment by their existing dentist. Clearly, many patients will be profoundly frightened to find themselves without dental care. If they can’t find an NHS place, their only alternative on the NHS will be to attend an NHS Community Dental Practice and join the daily queue - that is if they know where the nearest one is and they can get there!

The alternatives are go private and pay as you go, or get some form of dental insurance. Some dentists have even introduced what amounts to their own insurance scheme – a practice in Felixstowe has introduced a scheme where all adult patients have to pay a service charge of £11 per month. This then entitles them to free check-ups and discounted charges for treatment. In practice this is around the same cost as many dental insurance policies.

If you decide that going private backed with insurance, you’ll find the “most welcome” signs on many dentists’ doors. But there are lots of policies available with a wide range of benefits from cover for just emergency treatment, to cover for a full dental service. Your best bet is to use your search engine to look for dental insurance sites. You’ll find lots of insurance company sites, but the best solution is to go for specialist online brokers who can search the whole dental insurance market and present a range of alternatives for you.

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Technocrati Tags[dental] [insurance]

According to the consumer watchdog, Which, about 5 million of the 28 million of us who have been targeted by fraudsters, have lost money as a result. Someone is clearly finding fraud highly profitable.

So what are the most common scams and how do you avoid them? Here are five to be thinking about.

The “Money locked up in an account” scam.

This is a really common fraud. It normally starts with an e mail giving a long and involved sob story about someone or some business, which has a very large amount of money tied up in an account and, through the most unfortunate of circumstances, they cannot get the money out. To do so, they need a UK bank account to have the money paid into. Of course, if you help them they will give you a big slice of the money. And the money is always held in a some obscure country, often in Africa.

Once you have replied and taken the bait, they come up with a story that for the money to be transferred to your account, they need you to send a payment, often thousands, to cover the administration or legal costs of enabling the money transfer. The actual details always change but the essence of the story remains remarkably consistent.

Will the payment arrive and will you ever get your money back? Of course not! In fact after you’ve made a first payment, they’ll ask for more! The up front payment needs to be increased and unless the extra is sent, the money you’ve already sent will be lost. You think you’re now in a catch 22 situation. But if you send more money, we can guarantee you’ll never see it again.

Millions of these emails go out each month, so if you get one delete it.

Boiler Room scams
This is a hard-selling technique to persuade you to buy investments on the promise of great returns that turn out to be worthless. Others sell shares in companies that don’t even exist. There are also related scams which involve investment currency or futures or options.

More often than not the initial contact is by telephone and a typical target will be a middle aged professional man ho has some investment experience. They often trace their targets by examining the share registers of UK quoted companies.

If you receive a cold call from a company trying to sell you investments, ask for their registration number with the Financial Services Authority. If they won’t supply the number, put the phone down. If they give you a number call the FSA’s helpline and check out that the firm is indeed registered (0845 606 1234). Never commit yourself until you are absolutely sure that the company selling the investments is reputable. 9 times out of 10 it will not be – so you have been warned!

Credit Card Fraud
The requirement to use PIN numbers will greatly reduce card fraud. But purchases through the Internet use the “card holder not present”, not PIN numbers.

That means that if a fraudster gets your card details he can happily buy on the Internet and fade into the mist with the goods he has purchased and sell them for cash.

To reduce your chances of being caught by this sort of fraud, you should sign up with Verified by Visa or Mastercard Secure Code. You’ll find further advice on www.getsafeonline.org and www.cardwatch.org.uk.

Phishing
Fraudsters are also very active on the Internet trying to persuade you to divulge details of your bank accounts, PIN numbers and security codes.

The fraud starts with a bogus e mail supposedly from your Bank. The e-mail normally asks to you confirm your account details for security purposes. Sometimes it says that unless you complete the confirmation, your account will be frozen. But security is the least of their aims – once they have your details, they’ll simple empty your account!

Be aware that Banks will never ask you to send details of your accounts etc to them by e-mail. If for any obscure reason they did need some confidential information, they would ask you to visit a Branch.

Identity Theft
It has been estimated that an identity theft takes place in the UK every four minutes.

If fraudsters can pretend to be you, they can apply for credit and open bank accounts in your name. This inevitably leaves a trail of debt and criminal activity all conducted in your name.

All they need is a credit card statement and a utility bill in your name. Watch out for the bin men! Better still, buy a shredding machine and shred any personal letters, bills and documents you want to dispose of.

According to the Institute of Advanced Motoring, there were 550 accidents last year where the driver was over aged 70 and where driver was either killed or seriously hurt. That represents 8% of the national total of 7,035. That’s more serious accidents per mile than any other group.

This view is backed up by the Association of British Insurers whose research has shown that over 70’s drivers are 13% more likely to make a claim than the drivers aged between 40 and 50.

Bearing in mind that the number of elderly drivers will double during the next ten years, this represents a problem for the insurance industry, police and indeed all of the emergency services. Not to mention the drivers and their families!

The response from the insurance industry is predictable. Some insurers already class drivers over 80 as high risk drivers – along with the under 25’s - and charge them premiums to match. But some companies are already progressively loading premiums once the driver reaches 60. Then at 70, you’ll find that insurance companies start to refuse cover. Esure and Norwich Union won’t quote after that age and by the time the driver reaches 80, the field has narrowed to just insurers who specialise on elderly drivers. Age Concern and Help the Aged both offer policies that have no upper age limit. Cornhill will only accept new policyholders up to age 84 but if you’re already their client, there’s no upper age limit. Saga and RIAS are also happy to consider older drivers.

As insurance is priced by risk, a 75 year old male driver can expect to pay 33% more than if he were aged 50, whilst 80 year olds pay boy-racer premiums! So if you’re in your early 50’s you may be smiling at the lowest premiums in your life - but it won’t last for ever!

And women fare even worse. Whilst younger women are safer drivers than their boy friends, men improve with age (where have we heard that before!) and women become more accident prone. Consequently, elderly women drivers pay the highest rates of insurance.

It’s a biological fact that reaction times and eyesight deteriorate as you get older. And with traffic consistently becoming heavier and road networks ever more complicated, elderly drivers can more easily become confused. Even a delay of a fraction of a second can be the difference between an accident and a miss. This now results in more insurers insisting on a medical before agreeing to insure elderly drivers. Your best plan is to build up a good no claims record and as soon as possible, get No Claims Protection. This will cost you a bit more but it’s well worth it. Then be sure not to claim for any small bumps.

But there are simple steps that older drivers can take to minimise their likelihood of accidents and make themselves more insurable. It’s often about those little things and being aware of likely problems. For example, car parks are a perennial problem. If you know that, before you get back in your car, walk round it to see how much clearance you’ve got. And then edge out carefully making sure that other drivers in the car park aren’t driving into the area you’re pulling or reversing into. Then if age has stiffened you neck all-round visibility is a bit more difficult, take extra care at junctions and when reversing. Remember not only to move you head but also swivel your shoulders, that way you’ll increase your arc of vision.

Many of the contracts for older drivers contain special provisions designed to assist them. For example, on Saga’s policy, previous company car drivers can carry over any no claims record they had and if a couple are insured and the main driver decides to give up driving, then the remaining driver can take over the no claims record. Other policies will also provide full cover for anyone who has to take over driving in an emergency and Cornhill will even make a cash payment of £250 if the DVLA stops you from driving for health reasons associated with age.

In a move to reduce the numbers of accidents involving the elderly, the problems of deteriorating health are also being considered by the Government. It’s reportedly considering the idea of mandatory health checks for elderly drivers whilst some local councils are introducing initiatives of their own. If you live in Torbay the council has launched a scheme to encourage families and Doctors to take more responsibility for encouraging elderly drivers who are not quite fit enough drive, to give up. A road safety spokesperson for Torbay said,” The problem is that the elderly can’t always see themselves when it’s really time to give up driving, so those closest to them must take responsibility for that.”

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Institute of Advanced Motorists confirms that older motorists are aware that they cause more accidents. Apparently seven out of ten older drivers surveyed would like to take a course to refresh their driving skills on motorways and six out of ten were concerned about improving their performance at junctions and on unlit roads. In response to these concerns, the Institute is extending its advanced tests to older non-members to help them improve and build up confidence. The tests will also help identify any serious problems that really should encourage the driver to hang up their car keys.

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Technocrati Tags[elderly] [insurance] [car]

February is the peak month for foreign holiday bookings but watch out – don’t pay over the odds for your travel insurance.

In case something happens and you have to cancel, you’ll need insurance cover from the minute you make the booking. Take our tip – don’t buy the insurance from your travel agent or tour operator. If you want to save money, and in all likelihood get more extensive cover, buy online.

A travel policy for two for two weeks could easily cost more than £100 through a travel agent and you’ll save as much as 50% online. If you’re planning to have a number of holidays this year you’ll save even more money by buying an annual travel policy – again, the bargains are online.

And as I said in one of my previous articles on this Blog, you should even consider travel insurance for holidays in the UK. A policy will insure you for cancellation charges for hotels and travel arrangements, loss of luggage and personal affects and return transport if you’re ill. The only rider is that the holiday must be for a minimum of two nights and be more than 25 miles away from your home.

Technocrati Tags[travel] [insurance]

In terms of your family budget, your mortgage is probably the area in which you could find the greatest savings.

If you haven’t re-mortgaged for some time and you’re paying your lenders standard variable rate, then you’re almost certainly paying over the odds. Of course you’ll need to weigh up the costs involved such the administration charge, legal fees and survey fees but a good mortgage broker may well find you a deal where most of those are included in the package or at a special offer rate.

Re-mortgaging could also help elsewhere. It may also be worth looking at any other outstanding debts you have – for example, your credit cards and any other secured or unsecured loans. These could probably be added to your mortgage and make your monthly outgoings more manageable. But if you do this, it would be prudent to overpay your mortgage as soon as possible to pay off the extra debt you added to your mortgage facility.

Some good mortgage deals to wet your appetite are:

Fixed Mortgage - Alliance & Leicester 4.49% fixed till March 2008

Discounted Mortgage – Dunfermline Building Society 4.2% for 2 years (No tie in conditions.)

Discounted Mortgage – West Bromwich Building Society 1.79% till March 2008. Tie in conditions apply.

Offset Mortgage – Hinckley & Rugby Building Society 4.85%

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Technocrati Tags[mortgages] [refinance]

If you’re one of the one in twenty motorists who regularly drive without insurance you’d better watch out. Your car could be heading for the crusher!

New rules now enable the police to seize, impound and crush any car found being driven without insurance. Since a pilot scheme was introduced in spring last year, the police have impounded more than 1,200 cars and over 650 have been crushed into cubes. Operation Takeaway, as the pilot was called, has been so successful that police forces throughout the UK are rolling out the scheme supported by a revised database that enables them to check the insurance status of every car in the UK.

Now if you’re caught driving without insurance you must hand the car keys to the police at the roadside. This applies to everyone – it doesn’t matter whether the lack of insurance is just an inadvertent mistake or a conscious evasion.

You then have 14 days to show the police a valid insurance policy and recover your car. And other costs will mount up. You’ll have to pay the cost of the police recovering your car (circa £105) plus the secure storage that could easily cost £15 per day. So, if you recovered your car at the last minute, you could be in for a bill from the police for £315.

And if you don’t reclaim the car, it can be crushed into a metal cube and shipped off to a scrap smelter in the Far East.

During Operation Takeaway, the crushing of the cars was part funded by Direct Line. They have estimated that the scheme has prevented as many as 2,000 accidents.

And the Durham police who operated the test, found that many of the cars they impounded were not roadworthy. A spokesman for the police said, “ Uninsured drivers are often guilty of many other offences, such as having neither MOT certificate or driving licence. We are doing everything in our power to get these illegal, dangerous drivers off our roads”.

The problem of uninsured drivers is much bigger than many of us think. According to the Department of Transport 1 in 20 motorists regularly drive without insurance. Research from the Association of British Insurers also shows that it’s these drivers who are amongst the most dangerous on the roads. They are three times more likely to be convicted of driving without due care and attention and, on average, cause one accident every six months.

And who pays for the uninsured accidents? Law abiding motorists. The average car insurance premium includes an additional £30 to cover the cost of damage caused by the uninsured. That adds up to £500 million per year paid out by the UK’s law-abiding motorists!

But that’s not the end of it. If uninsured car is in collision with you, it’s still recorded on your policy as “fault claim”. This means you’ll have to pay the excess on your policy and, unless you’ve got Claims Protection on your policy, your no-claims bonus will be hit. Over a two-year period the loss of bonus could easily cost you £275 in extra premiums.

The move to crush cars has been warmly welcomed by the Association of British Insurers. They have long criticised the leniency of punishment handed out to uninsured drivers but they still want the courts to get tougher. Offenders are typically fined between £150 and £200 with time to pay and this is appreciably less than the average car insurance premium – this cannot be true justice!

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What if i am a Young Driver
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What if i am a Fast Car Driver
What if i am a Women Driver
What if i am a Classic Car Driver

Technocrati Tags[car] [insurance]

In April this year the Government is forcing dentists to accept a new pay scale and changes to their working arrangements.

Now dentists are not known as a belligerent profession, but there’s widespread disbelief amongst them at the Governments heavy-handed action. And they’re resolved not to be bullied. As a result thousands of dentists are refusing to accept the new terms and are planning to quit the NHS at the end of March.

For clients the result will be mayhem. Many asking to be treated on the NHS will simply be turned away. Those dentists who do accept the new NHS contract will have treatment waiting lists a mile long.

So, if you need emergency treatment for a broken tooth or an abscess, you’ll be forced to search out a community dental service operated by the NHS itself. For most this means a long journey to find one with hospital style waiting on arrival. Dental treatment will simply take you the whole day!

For many that leaves private dentistry as the only alternative. That means you’ll get an appointment when you want one rather than waiting for ages on the NHS. But it can be expensive. The only good news is that there are ways to keep costs manageable.

You basically have three main options: dental insurance, capitalisation schemes or cash plans. Let’s explain.

Dental Insurance
In response to the market place, there are now a growing number of insurers offering dental insurance. The following are typical examples:

Western Provident has been offering dental insurance for many years. Its Providential scheme provides a basic level of cover with fixed monthly premiums for those aged between 18 and 49 of £12.48. Premiums rise with age up to £15.90 per month for those aged 50 to 69. Policyholders have to pay the first 25% of all costs but are able to claim up to £250 per year towards routine treatment including check-ups, visits to the hygienist and fillings. You can also claim up to £1,000 per year for emergency treatment including accidental dental injury but the payout is limited to £250 per treatment.

Universal Provident offer basic insurance from £6 per month. This covers up to £1,000 per year on routine work but will not pay for check-ups. Dental emergencies are covered up to £5,000 per year and accidental damage up to £1,000.

Lots of policies also limit the number of treatments they will pay for each year. A policy from Boot’s limits claims to two check-ups, four fillings and one crown a year up to £500. Their policies cost from £9 per month.

Capitalisation Schemes
These are more expensive. Before taking up the policy, your dentist makes an assessment of your dental condition and places you in one of five treatment categories. This will determine how much you pay. The poorer your dental condition, the more you pay.

For example, Denplan’s dental care policy costs between £9 and £30 per month with, we are told, an average fee of £16.

Cash Plans
The third alternative is a composite health cash plan which includes dentistry. Health cash plans pay towards a wide range of health treatments; for example, dentistry, opticians, hospital treatment, physiotherapy, chiropody and allergy testing. The policy spells out exactly the maximum value that can be reclaimed each year for each type of health treatment and most cash plans offer three or four grades of benefit level. The more you pay, the more you can claim back. Some cash plans allow you to reclaim 100% of the cost up to the annual maximum per health category, some will only pay a percentage. For examples of cash plans visit www.hsa.co.uk and www.securehealth.co.uk and click on cash plans. Within these policies, the maximum cover for dentistry tends to be in the range of £70 to £200 per year.

Searching for a Dental Plan
As with all sorts of insurance, you’ll find it cheapest on the Internet. Search for “dental insurance” but make sure you’re using the UK variant of your search engine – otherwise you’ll come up with thousands of American web sites!

The best sites to visit are either those, which enable you to compare plans or where you can make it easier for yourself by using a specialist dental insurance broker. With these brokers, you submit your details and they’ll tell you the options and best dental policies available for you. If you do want to apply direct to an insurance company, you can still do it on the Internet - but there’s no guarantee that you’ll stumble on exactly the best policy for you amongst the many hundreds available. We recommend the broker route.

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More Dental Insurance Faq’s

Further reading How does Dental Insurance Work ?
Futher reading What is covered by Dental Insurance ?

Please be particularly wary about card security whilst you’re abroad, especially in Eastern Europe. Card fraudsters love business travellers and holidaymakers. That’s because they have that bit more time to use the card before it’s blocked. Chip and pin technology is a major problem for fraudsters but there are still risks to watch out for. A report we read recently highlights the problem.

Mr C was on business in Prague when a pickpocket stole his wallet. It was highly inconvenient but not he thought, the end of the world. He thought that the chip and pin technology would protect him. Imagine his horror on returning to the UK, to find that within three days of losing his wallet all his credit and debit cards had been emptied of thousands of pounds. How’s that possible?

Well, it’s a rather common fraud. A trained fraudster had watched and recorded the pin number he used at a cash machine and a pickpocket accomplice had followed him from the dispenser to steal his wallet. Armed with both the credit card and its pin number, the fraudsters had a field day. That’s because Mr C, like 1 in 3 of UK cardholders, uses the identical pin number for all his cards. Naturally, the fraudsters tried the known pin number on all the cards in the wallet. Hey presto – they all worked!

And yes, it also happens in the UK.

So, two points here. Always be very security conscious when you use your pin numbers - not only abroad. Secondly, use different pin numbers for your cards. Work some easy way of remembering them. For example, use the first, second, third and fourth numbers from each of the numeric clusters on the card or some combination from them. Or better still, if you have a better memory than me, memorise a number for each card!

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More Articles On Credit Cards
More Credit Card FAQ’s
Further reading - What is sentinel card protection ?

Going on holiday to France, Italy or Spain this year? Then beware of a new trick to overcharge your credit or debt card.

Many retailers and restaurateurs in these countries now have the ability to ask you to authorise your bill in euros but then they charge your card in £sterling. This may sound innocuous but there’s a sting in the tail. The retailers charge you an additional fee of up to 4% for the service! The service is called “dynamic currency conversion”.

Guidelines from Visa say that British cardholders should verbally be given the option to either have their card charged in euros or to authorise in euros and then be charged in £sterling when the transaction goes through. In practice, it seems that few of us are being offered the alternative. Many retailers are automatically charging us in £sterling - and with the extra fee! The lack of explanation may be down to the language barrier but we are a little more cynical than that! Even where an explanation is given, we doubt whether many retailers and restaurateurs will clearly spell out their extra service fee. After all to them, extra profit is extra profit!

Our advice is that when abroad in France, Italy or Spain, always insist that your credit card transactions are processed in euros. That’s because some UK card operators such as Saga, Lombard Direct and Nationwide will convert euros to Sterling completely free of charge. Others, such as cards from our high street banks, do charge a mark up of 2.75% called a foreign currency loading fee – but even that’s cheaper than the retailers 4% dynamic currency conversion charge.

In fact even with a 2.75% loading fee, it can still be cheaper to shop with your credit card rather than converting your cash before leaving these shores or converting it abroad at the bureau de change. That’s because the exchange rates used by Mastercard and Visa are often far better than you can get for your cash and travellers cheques. And don’t be fooled by the commission free slogans outside the bureau de change. They might not charges fees but their currency rates are never too cheap – after all, how else can they make a profit?

And here’s another bit of useful advice. Unless you have an emergency don’t use your cards to withdraw local currency. That’s because you’ll be charged interest from the minute the cash leaves the cash dispenser. Remember, there’s no interest free period on cash withdrawals.

Not looking forward to opening the post? Dreading the Bank Statement and the bills? Then the odds are that your finances are becoming a problem.

There’s never a better time like the present to tackle a debt problem – as soon as you get that knotted feeling in your stomach, face the problem head on. Here’s some good practical advice.

Save on your Credit card bills

Savings can be found by switching your balances to cards with lower interest rates. Take advantage of the 0% deals on balance transfers such as those offered by Mint – they’ll give you 10 months interest free but with a 2% balance transfer charge. The best transfer free 0% deal without a balance transfer charge comes from Marks and Spencer. Their deal lasts 6 months.

And ensure the interest you pay on any new purchases is reasonable – better still, now you’re cutting back, try not to use your card at all! If you do expect to use your card a bit, then HSBC offers 0% on balance transfers and new purchase for 9 months but again they have a 2% balance transfer charge.

The credit card companies may hate you for it but regularly move your balances between cards to take full advantage of their deals. When you’re a month off the end of a deal, start looking for a new card and get the balance transferred.

Cut down your monthly expenditure with a Debt Consolidation Loan

The purpose of a Debt Consolidation Loan is to take all your existing loans and credit card balances and roll them together into one loan that gives you a single lower monthly payment. This is achieved by reducing the overall rate of interest you pay and spreading the loan repayments over a longer period of time.

But as with everything there are pitfalls to watch out for. When you’ve transferred the balances to the Debt Consolidation Loan, don’t start reusing the old credit lines you’ve just paid off. If you do, you’ll simply end up digging yourself into another hole and make your situation much worse!

And there’s another aspect to consider. If you’re consolidating into a fairly big loan and you’re a homeowner, the lender may want to secure your debt against your home. If this is the case, think carefully. Remember, if you fail to maintain the agreed repayments, the lender can apply to the courts to force you to sell your house. That would not be good news!

Seek help

There’s lots of help available to assist people resolve their debt problem. A good starting point is the Citizens Advice Bureau. They’ve 3,200 branches throughout the UK so the odds are there is one near you.

Then there’s the National Debtline. This is a free, confidential and totally independent source of advice. Call them on 0808 808 4000 or visit their web site www.nationaldebtline.co.uk. There you find a free information pack with a personal budget section, debt advice and free fact sheets.

You can also try the Foundation for Credit Counselling. Based in Leeds, it’s the umbrella charity for the Consumer Credit Counselling Service. Through its free national telephone service and eight centres, CCCS is able to help people with debt problems wherever they live. Their specialist advisory service has already helped thousands of people in the UK by providing counselling on personal budgeting, advice on the wise use of credit and, where appropriate, managing achievable plans to repay debts. Look up their web site at www.cccs.co.uk or call them on 0800 138 1111.

Debt Management Plans

If you have debts exceeding £5,000 spread across three or more creditors, a debt management plan could be something worth considering. But you’ll need to be able to put aside at least £100 per month to help settle the debts.

Basically, you agree to pay your creditors a single fixed amount each month. A debt management company then receives this sum and allocates it between your creditors. In return, your creditors agree to freeze the money you owe so no more charges or interest pile up.

Some debt management companies charge you a fee for providing this service but others, including the Consumer Credit Counselling Service and the National Debtline, are paid by the creditors.

Individual Voluntary Arrangement

An IVA is a formal agreement made through a county court to pay off your debts. In return for your creditors writing off a portion of your debt, you pay an agreed monthly sum for between 3 and 5 years. You can also make lump sum payments during the period and this will shorten the IVA period.

But IVA’s aren’t for everybody. They’re best suited to people who have a reasonably high level of income or a lump sum to contribute as the set up costs can run into several thousand pounds. And if you fail to maintain the agreed payments you can quickly be made bankrupt. A specialist Insolvency Practitioner handles all the negotiations regarding the value of your debt to be written off and they also administer the payments to your creditors.

Bankruptcy

This must be the very last step but it is a step that more people are choosing – in the last twelve months, bankruptcies have increased by a third.

In a bankruptcy all your assets, including your home, may be sold to repay your creditors. Then after a year, all your debts are written off and you are free to rebuild your finances. But the record of your bankruptcy will remain on your credit history maintained by the big credit agencies such as Experian and Equifax for seven years. This will decimate your credit rating and for the first year or two, make it very difficult to obtain a mortgage or any other form of credit.

At last the housing market is on the move. The numbers of mortgages agreed in December and January were some 50% up on the same period in 2004.

During the 2002 to2004 period we saw a steady decline in the number of house sales but already this year the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is predicting that we will see a steady increase.

House prices themselves stalled 20 months ago but in December, prices rose by 1.4% - the biggest increase since July 2004. The rising trend was confirmed by the Bank of England which recorded similar rises in both the number and value of mortgages.

The housing market had been creeping up ever since the quarter percent drop in interest rates to 4.5% last August. But this is the first real sign of a big improvement. Pundits now seem to be predicting that prices will accelerate in the first half of 2006 with growth flattening off in the second half. It is clear that the public’s confidence in property is now returning, brushing aside the gloomy predictions by some City commentators last year that prices would crash 20-30%.

In our view, double-digit price increases will be difficult to achieve in 2006. That’s because incomes are rising around 3% and even at existing price levels, buyers are already stretching to afford the finance. Of course we’ve always seen price hot spots and if the rumours of huge bonuses for merchant bankers in the London are true, then Canary Wharf and Greenwich may catch alight!

However, the wider economic climate is still a cooling - a trend that’s being exacerbated by soaring fuel costs. As a result, increasing house prices will present the Bank of England with a quandary. Observers were forecasting that the Bank of England would cut interest rates by a quarter percent this spring followed by another similar reduction later in the year. But if house prices continue to rise, the Bank will be loath to encourage the housing market too much for fear of sending prices markedly higher again.

Our bet is that nationally, house price rises will be in the 6% to 9% range this year.

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