Compare Credit Cards, Pet Insurance and Savings Accounts

Direct Line has announced a change to the way their comprehensive car insurance works.

The company say that “these days it’s almost impossible to protect your car from being vandalised” and, as a result, they have changed their car insurance policy so that the innocent party doesn’t end up footing the bill for criminal activity.

Take out Direct Line comprehensive car insurance and, if you’re a victim of vandalism, you won’t lose your no-claims discount when you claim to have the damage repaired.

On top of this, if you go to one of their recommended garages to get your car repaired, they will clean your car inside and out for free.

In 2006/7 there were 1,895,000 cases of car vandalism*, so it is not unreasonable to be thinking of how your car insurance works in case you are unfortunate enough to become a part of this statistic.

Another great thing about Direct Line car insurance is that if you’re hit by an uninsured driver, Direct Line will waive their excess and your no claims discount will not be affected, as long as you have comprehensive cover.

Plus:

• If you buy online, you will be given a 10% online discount
• Named drivers on your policy will earn their own no claims discount
• Receive an extra 10% discount if you insure a 2nd car with Direct Line

Click here to apply for Direct Line Car insurance

*Source: Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Crime in England and Wales 2006/7

Direct Line is currently offering a great deal on their buildings and contents insurance.

If you buy both buildings and contents insurance from the company before 31 March 2008, they will give all new customers 1/3 off the price.

On top of this there are other benefits such as:

• Exclusive 15% discount for new customers aged 50 or over

• Free identity theft assistance when you take out both buildings and contest cover at the same time

• UK only call centres for all calls and claims

• 10% online discount

• Automatic £5000 or 10% increase in cover for the few weeks before and after Christmas or a family wedding

• New for old cover

• 24 hour helpline.

More information on this fantastic Home Insurance offer from Direct Line

Barclaycard has changed all of its 0870 numbers to 0844 numbers.

To call customer services you now need to ring: 0844 811 9111 where lines are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

To alert Barclaycard to the possibility of overseas card usage ring the ‘Going Overseas’ line on: 0844 811 9091.

For ‘Additional services’ the number to ring is now: 0844 811 9141.

Calls to 0844 numbers are cheaper than 0870 numbers and should cost no more than 5p per minute, plus 6p call set-up fee (current at January 2008). The price on non-BT lines may differ.

Click for more information on Barclaycard

Related articles: ‘How to compare credit cards’

Don’t you just hate it when a company asks you to ‘put it in writing’? Are you someone who has a problem but don’t know what to say to get it resolved?

If the answer to these questions is yes, then compareandsave.com has just the thing for you.

In our ‘Tools’ section, you will find a number of letter templates which can be used to fix some of the more common problems you will face in the world of personal finance.

All you need to do is enter in your specific details where prompted (in the green brackets; don’t forget to make your text black) and you’re problem will be well on its way to being fixed.

The letter templates are free to use and can either be copied and pasted into ‘Word’ (or similar) or they can be downloaded as a Word document (rich text format) by clicking on the ‘Downloadable version’ link.

We will be adding new templates regularly so be sure to look out for new arrivals in our monthly emails and newsletters.

If you have any suggestions for letter templates, we would love to hear them so don’t hesitate to let us know and we will see what we can do.

If you have recently checked your credit report, read our ‘How to improve your credit rating’ guide and now need to inform relevant parties of errors on your credit report you may be interested in these template letters:

•  Inform credit reference agency of duplicate linked address entries on credit report

•  Inform credit reference agency of linked address errors on credit report

•  Inform organisation of duplicate credit search on credit report

•  Inform organisation of incorrect information on credit searches

•  Inform organisation of unknown credit searches

• Inform borough council of Electoral Roll errors on credit report

If you are currently experiencing financial difficulties and need to inform or negotiate with your creditors, you may find these letter templates helpful:

• Negotiate with priority creditors

• Negotiate with non-priority creditors

• Ask creditors to freeze interest

• Ask creditors to reconsider offer

• Inform non-priority creditors you have no money to offer

Or, you may be one of the thousands of people who wish to reclaim their bank charges and would therefore be interested in these template letters:

• Reclaim bank charges with interest

• Reclaim bank charges without interest

At the moment, everybody is talking about where they are off to on their much-needed annual holidays.

If you are about to book your holiday, or wish you could if it were just that bit cheaper, then you will definitely be interested in this great offer from Barclaycard in partnership with Thomas Cook.

Those who apply for a Barclaycard Platinum and get accepted will have the opportunity to earn themselves a £150 Thomas Cook discount voucher for use against the holiday* of their dreams.

On top of this, you will be paying a competitive typical APR of 14.9% (variable);
INSERT INTO `module_blog_posts` VALUES pay 0% interest on balance transfers for 14 months (2.9% handling fee applies) and pay 0% interest on any purchases for 3 months.

What’s more, if you use your Barclaycard Platinum to pay for your holiday, Thomas Cook will let you off their usual 2.25% credit card booking fee.

You become eligible for the £150 Thomas Cook discount voucher when you spend £50 on your new Barclaycard Platinum within 60 days of opening your account.

The discount voucher can be used on any holiday for a minimum of 2 people for 14 nights.

Don’t miss out on this great offer. Apply online before 3rd March 2008.

Go to our Barclaycard Platinum page to start the (beach) ball rolling.

*Stay safe! Don’t forget your travel insurance! Why not use our ‘compare travel insurance’ table to see how much you can save on your premium?

Sainsbury’s have today reduced the AER on their ‘High-interest saver’ from 6.00% to 5.75%.

This is likely to be as a result of the recent 0.25% drop in the Bank of England base rate earlier this week.

However, if you hold this account, don’t be put off by the drop in AER. Sainsbury’s deal is still a generous 0.50% above the Bank of England base rate, which now stands at 5.25%.

If you have previously taken out the account with a higher AER, the interest rate guarantee will mean that you will receive at least this rate until December 2010.

View more information on our Sainsbury’s ‘High-interest saver’ page

ISAs?

If you are aged 18-24, then 15% of you will think that an ISA is an iPod accessory. If you don’t fall into this 15%, then another 10% of you will think it’s an energy drink.

These shocking figures come from Credit Action and prompted us at compareandsave.com to put together a ‘Guide to savings accounts’ for our readers.

It’s not really surprising that so many of us are confused by all of the technical jargon that flies around when it comes to talking about money and financial products. Savings accounts can be particularly confusing these days, what with the introduction of online savings accounts and Mini and Maxi Cash ISAs.

So, to help you out a bit, we decided to decipher all of the terms and abbreviations and come up with a guide that has all of the information you need in one place.

After reading our guide, why not compare savings accounts using our easy-to-read, straightforward comparison table. Once you have found an account that best suits your needs you can simply click on the apply button and be one step closer to getting  a savings account that will give you more of a return than poor old ‘Mr Piggy’ ever could.

Tesco are currently running a promotion for its new car insurance customers.

If you get a car insurance quote and then go on to buy Tesco car insurance between 07 February and 02 April 2008, Tesco will give you a £50 voucher off either your shopping or your fuel at Tesco stores.

In order to qualify for this offer you need to:

1. Have a Tesco Clubcard (if you don’t have one you can apply for one online at http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/clubcard/ or by picking up an application leaflet in store)

2. Call or go online for a quote

3. Enter the promotion code shop50 on your online application in the promotional code box

4. Enter your full Clubcard number

5. Take out the policy before 02 April 2008

Here are some other great reasons to consider Tesco car insurance:

• Enjoy up to a 65% no claims discount

• Up to 15% discount if you apply online

• Multi-car discount if someone in your home already has insurance with Tesco

• Up to a 50% discount for named drivers when they choose to get their own car insurance from Tesco

• Exclusive discounts and freebies from Nationwide Autocentre including free ‘Car Essentials pack’ worth £5.95, free ’15 point car safety check’, 20% off your next MOT, 10% off on all repairs and 15% off a full service.

Read more about Tesco Car Insurance here

Tesco has introduced a new home insurance offer to replace the hotpoint offer they were running last month (we wrote about this in “Tesco home insurance offer – don’t miss out”).

If you get a quote from Tesco for your home insurance between 07 February and 5 March 2008, they will give you a 50% discount when you buy the policy.

The 50% discount includes existing introductory phone and offline offers as well as an additional discount to make the figure up to 50%.

This offer is only valid for new home insurance customers in their first year only.

Here are some other great reasons for you to consider Tesco for your home insurance provider:

• Tesco home insurance can provide you with buildings and/or contents insurance.

• For added protection, they offer personal possessions cover, accidental damage cover, and family legal protection as optional extras.

• Cover includes up to £1000 worth of stored information (e.g. music on an iPod)

• Tesco have a dedicated claims team and a 24hr household emergency helpline.

• If you enter your Tesco Clubcard details when you buy your policy, you can earn Clubcard points and use your Clubcard vouchers towards the cost of the policy

You will find more information on the Tesco home insurance offer here

These days having pets isn’t cheap. That’s why we thought we’d tell you about a great way to cut on some of the cost.

Direct Line is currently offering up to £20 towards the cost of your pet’s vaccinations if you insure your pet with them before 31st March 2008. The offer is redeemable within the first 12 months from the start of the policy.

It may seem like an unecessary expense in times of the credit crunch but having pet insurance should cover you from having a large vet bill when your pet unexpectedly becomes ill.

If you have more than one pet to be insured direct line will give you a 10% discount.

If you only have one pet to insure, don’t worry because those that apply online also get a 10% discount.

If your pet does need that trip to the vet, Direct Line can pay the vet directly therefore reducing the hassle during such a stressful time.

Your pet will be covered per condition therefore there’s no restriction on how many times you can claim and you will only have to pay a fixed one-off excess for each condition.

What’s more, if you’re hospitalised, they will also pay up to £1000 towards the cost of boarding your pet.

Apply for the ‘Direct Line pet insurance offer’