Discuss. Discover. Save. - Your Money Matters™ Blog

Icesave have increased the interest rates on two of its savings accounts from 25 June.

The Icelandic bank has increased the interest rate on its Icesave Easy Access Savings Account from 6.05% to 6.30% as well as increasing the AER on its Icesave Fixed Rate Savings Account from 7.01% to 7.06%.

With these two Icesave Savings Accounts, you can choose to have your interest paid monthly or yearly and, because the bank is registered with the Financial Services Authority (FSA), be safe in the knowledge that your money will be covered under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) even though the bank is Icelandic.

The Icesave Easy Access Savings Account gives the saver online access to their money 24 hours a day, seven days a week and guarantees to beat the Bank of England base rate until October 2011 and match it until 31st January 2013. To open the account, you need a deposit of £250 and there are no catches or penalties if you withdraw your money.

The Icesave Fixed Rate Savings Account is a term account and you will therefore not be able to make any deposits or withdrawals once the account has been opened. You can open an account with £1,000 and the interest rate of 7.06% will be fixed for the entire term of the account; a time period you can choose out of either 6 months, 1, 2, or 3 years. The account also offers 24/7 online access so you can view the progress of interest being added to your account

To open either of these accounts you must be at least 18 years of age.

Click the relevant link for more information about the Icesave Easy Access Savings Account and the Icesave Fixed Rate Savings Account.

Marks and Spencer has increased the online discount for its pet insurance from 5% to 20%.

You can choose between 2 levels of cover if you choose Marks and Spencer Pet Insurance.

What’s more, you will benefit from a 24-hour helpline, manned by veterinary nurses, which you can call to get advice about your pet’s health if you take out a policy. Plus, you will receive an extra 5% discount if you insure more than one pet with the insurer.

Marks and Spencer Pet Insurance will also give you funds towards advertising should your pet be stolen or go missing. Additionally, you will benefit from a 5% discount at Best Pet Pharmacy which offers repeat prescriptions, non-prescribed drugs, pet food and dietary pet food if you buy Marks and Spencer Pet Insurance.

Click the link for more information about Marks and Spencer Pet Insurance
 

This month we are bringing you our top tips on how to protect your garden goodies from thieves and vandals because recent news has been full of stories about the increase in summer thefts from UK gardens.

Several publications have reported that Halifax Home Insurance found that garden theft goes up by 52% in the summer months, compared with the winter months.

Plus, recent research by NFU Mutual, the rural insurer, found that 33% of the people it surveyed had been victims of garden theft.

The thieves are set to come away with substantial hauls because, according to Lloyds TSB, the average garden contains goodies worth £1,237, with the typical cost of the most expensive garden item at £426.

Possibly more worrying is the fact that Lloyds TSB found that 55% of those surveyed have never even checked to see if their garden contents are covered by their home insurance policies.

Of course, the temptation is to avoid buying nice things for our gardens in case they get stolen. However, seeing as though summer sun in Britain is a rarity these days, we should be making the most of our gardens when we can and not let the thieves ruin it for us. So, how can we fight back against the garden criminals?

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The results for the compareandsave.com poll, ‘Have credit card offers improved, got worse or stayed the same over the past two years?’ are now in.

Thank you to all those people who took the time to participate in our poll and we hope you find the results as interesting as us.

Of the 301 people that took part in the poll, a massive 47.2% (142) said that they thought credit card offers had got worse over the past two years.

On the flipside, 25.2% (76) said that credit card offers had improved and 10.3% (31) said the offers had stayed the same.

The percentage of people who said they didn’t know if credit card offers had improved or not over the last two years was relatively high at 17.3% (52).

For those of you who thought credit card offers had deteriorated over the last two years, we currently have some great new credit card deals on the site.

The Capital One Platinum Credit Card is offering 0% on balance transfers and purchases until September 2009.

Plus, the Barclaycard Platinum Credit card is offering 6 months free gadget insurance which gives the cardholder £500 cover for gadgets and £500 for personal possessions.

Click the link to find out more about the Capital One Platinum Credit Card.

Intrigued by the gadget cover? Click the following link to find out more about the Barclaycard Platinum Credit Card.

We have today launched the new compareandsave.com breakdown cover poll. It is dotted around the site on most pages, so if you see it and have a few spare seconds, please have your say and make your vote.

We have today launched a new poll on the site asking you, our readers, about how much you use your breakdown cover.

Breakdown cover is a service you can buy which would mean you could call for roadside help should your vehicle unexpectedly stop working. A mechanic will come and either try and temporarily fix your vehicle or, if that is not feasible, will arrange a recovery service back to your home or to the nearest garage so it can be repaired.

We would like to know how many times you have had to use your breakdown assistance in the last 12 months, if you have breakdown cover. If you don’t have breakdown cover we would like to know if it’s because you don’t have a car or just because.

The poll is dotted around on most pages of the site and just involves a simple click on the relevant answer and then a quick click on the submit button. You will also get to see how others have voted once you have submitted your response.

You can click on the link to find out more about the breakdown cover poll.

You can now compare breakdown cover at compareandsave.com.

Breakdown cover will cover you in the event of your vehicle unexpectedly breaking down when you are on your travels.

The breakdown assistance policies you can buy vary but most basic ones will enable you to call out a mechanic to temporarily fix your vehicle to get you to your destination, or back to your home, or recover you to the nearest garage for your vehicle to be repaired.

The brilliant thing about breakdown cover is that you can still get cover even if you don’t have your own vehicle by buying a personal-based membership. With this type of cover, you can call for breakdown assistance no matter what vehicle you are in, even if you don’t own it, because it is you that is covered not the vehicle.

We are currently offering breakdown cover from a number of providers including several of the UK’s largest breakdown services including the RAC and Green Flag.

Click the link to find out more about Breakdown Cover.
 

Norwich Union is currently offering a 50% discount on its buildings and contents home insurance to people who have a 5 years’ no claim discount on their existing buildings and contents policies.

If you don’t have a 5 years’ no claims discount you will instead qualify for a 15% online discount off the price of its policies.

With Norwich Union home insurance you can choose to get additional extras such as Legal Services cover which will help you to pay legal fees resulting from a number of situations including, consumer disputes, personal injury claims and residential disputes.

If you ever have to make a claim, Norwich Union will replace items on a new for old basis, pay for replacement locks if you lose your keys and make sure your repairs are carried out by registered professional tradesmen.

Click the link for more information about the Norwich Union Home Insurance offer
 

When people think of travel insurance, they generally think of it as being something to protect them while they are on holiday.

However, some people forget that travel insurance is also there to protect them before they set off.

Most travel insurance will include an element of cancellation cover to cover the traveller if they need to cancel the trip because events such as illness, the death of a ‘close family member’ and redundancy.

When you go to buy your travel insurance, the insurer will not ask you when you want cover to begin and end but will instead ask you for your departure and return dates.

This can be quite confusing for those people wondering about their cancellation cover because it would appear it doesn’t start until the day of departure. Some people may think this means that if you can’t make the holiday on the day of departure then your cancellation cover will kick in regardless of when the insurance was purchased.

What some people don’t realise is that this cover will only apply if the travel insurance policy was purchased before the event causing the need to cancel occurs. If a family member becomes ill after you have booked your holiday but before you have purchased your travel insurance and they then happen to pass away before you go on holiday, your insurer may not cover you for cancelling your holiday because the death will not be totally unexpected.

Another possible scenario could be that you have booked your holiday and get ill in the time frame before you purchase your travel insurance. Your cancellation cover will therefore not be valid if you were ill at the time you purchased your travel insurance because you will have been aware of the slightest possibility that you may not make your holiday.

The key thing to learn from these possible scenarios is that buying your travel insurance as close to the time of booking your holiday is probably the most sensible thing to do.

If you compare travel insurance it won’t take you long to find the policy that’s right for your individual needs and circumstances. If you have any doubts about whether or not you can get insurance cover, it is probably best to make these queries before you book your holiday.

Click the link to compare travel insurance

The Halifax has launched its new All In One credit card offering 0% on balance transfers AND purchases for 10 months.

On top of these competitive interest-free periods on balance transfers and purchases the card also boasts a low typical variable APR of 15.9% on purchases and 23.95% on cash transactions.

In order to receive the 0% balance transfer offer, the transfer must be made within 90 days of the account opening and is subject to a 3% admin fee.

To qualify for the credit card you must be ordinarily resident in the UK and be at least 18 years old.

This is an offer which clearly illustrates the changing nature of credit card offers as issuers compete for custom.

Click the link for more information on the Halifax All In One Credit Card
 

Barclaycard are currently offering six months FREE Gadget and Personal Possessions Cover if you apply for one of the eligible Platinum credit cards before 5 September 2008.

The offer is running on the following credit cards:

• Barclaycard Platinum credit card with Balance Transfer
• Barclaycard Platinum credit card with Purchase and Long Term Balance Transfer
• Barclaycard Platinum credit card with Balance Transfer and Purchases

Once you receive your credit card you need to call Barclaycard to activate it before 30 November 2008 in order to get the six months FREE cover.

With the Gadget and Personal Possessions cover:

• You receive £500 gadget cover and £500 personal possessions cover
• You get £350 mobile phone insurance plus £2,000 airtime abuse cover (£500 for pay as you go customers)
• You get 90 days worth of worldwide coverage
• You can make up to three claims per year
• There is an excess of £25 per claim (this is how much you pay towards each claim)
• Items will only be covered if they are less than 3 years old
• Theft is not covered if from a commercial vehicle nor from convertibles or soft topped vehicles

When you register your insured item(s) your cover will not start for 14 days from the date of registration.

You will be able to cancel your cover at any point within the 6 month free period. If you don’t cancel the cover within the free period, and wish it to continue the cover will cost £8.99 per month thereafter, until you choose to cancel.

The offer is only available to new customers.

Click the relevant link for more information:

1. Barclaycard Platinum credit card with Balance Transfer
    
2. Barclaycard Platinum credit card with Purchase and Long Term Balance Transfer
    
3. Barclaycard Platinum credit card with Balance Transfer and Purchases
    

This offer is current as of 12th JUNE 2008. Terms and Conditions apply. For more offers please refer to the Offers section of compareandsave.com’s ‘Your money matters blog’