Tips for saving money on your insurance

from your current provider on your Car insurance and home insurance. After mortgages, this is the most common area to reduce your outgoings by seeking other providers. According to the AA, On average you will save £214 by shopping around, while home insurance tumbles from £368 to £227. Getting quotes on the internet is easy, and if you don’t spend at least one lunch hour a year finding a better deal then saving money is not important.

1. Reclaim Payment Insurance
Pricey and poorly sold, Payment Insurance is one of the most profitable products formed by the finance industry. It can add £3,000 to the cost of a £7,500 secured loans. A vast proportion of people who were sold PPI are unable to claim against it these people are able to claim their ppi back.

Many companies will attempt to claim the money back, but you will pay a 25% premium on the monies awarded. Instead, use the Fiancial Ombudsman Service which is free and which is currently upholding around four out of five complaints about being missold PP . Helpfully, it offers a factsheet on how to make a complaint about PPI which you can find at financialombudsman.org.uk

2. Cancel your mobile phone insurance
Naive youngsters are strongly pressured in phone shops into spending between £50 and £90 a year on this kind of insurance. Airtime abuse is not covered which is the greatest risk (where the phone is stolen and used to make international calls), and if your phone is lost your home and contents should coiver it.

Mobile phone insurance is easy to cancel just stop the direct debit.

3. Rethink your life insurance
Life insurance is not for life. Just because the life insurance was sold to you by the provider of your mortgage doesn’t mean you have to stick with that provider for the life of the home loan. You have the option to cancel at any time to get a cheaper quote. With longevity improving (ie. fewer people dying), the insurance companies have been lowering the cost of life insurance for many years.

If you are in a job at a big employer, it is likely to offer “death in service” benefit worth as much as three times your yearly salary, and often more. Do you really need all that life insurance cover on top as well?

4. Don’t pay for travel insurance you don’t need
Step 1 An EHIC card provides free or reduced cost treatment in EU countries

Step 2 Check your home insurance policy. Many have clauses which already cover personal belongings (ie. your suitcase) outside the home.

Step 3 Check your medical insurance policy, if you have one. These often pay treatment costs incurred abroad. If traveling to Europe, the only real benefit that travel insurance brings is cover in the event of a cancellation. Ask yourself if that is really worth premiums that are often pounds 100 or more for a family.

For those who travel outside the EU, travel insurance is a must, though. Policies that last for a year and cover you for more than one trip always make sense if you go away more than once a year though again don’t pay for cover you don’t need. E.g., cover for winter sports.