This section of Part 1 of our Breakdown Cover Special will talk you through how to minimise the chance of the top-ten causes of car breakdowns happening to your vehicle.
According to the AA many of the most common problems dealt with at the roadside can “be avoided with the correct preventative care”.
Breaking down is not only inconvenient; it can also be very dangerous.
This section of the first part of our Breakdown Cover special will guide you through the ten most common causes of breakdowns
Any vehicle can break down, regardless of how old or new it is. You could buy a brand new car and be driving it home from the garage on the motorway and accidently puncture a tyre, or you could be driving your 14-year-old 1.1 litre Peugeot down the road when the exhaust decides it’s time to fall off, suddenly making your small car sound like a tank.
In this five-part special, which will be released over the course of eight weeks, we are going to talk you through different aspects of car breakdowns. Part 1 ‘What are the ten most common causes of breakdowns and what can I do to prevent them?’ will be released tomorrow and will provide handy hints and tips which will hopefully reduce your chances of breaking down in the first place.
Later parts will guide you through such things as what you should do if you break down on motorways and standard roads, how to use jump leads and the importance of a good breakdown cover policy.
According to Sainsbury’s Finance, over 50 million domestic holidays are taken by UK residents each year.
The obvious thing that comes to mind when thinking about travel insurance is the medical cover it provides should you become ill or be injured whilst abroad.
It wouldn’t be silly to presume that Britons taking domestic holidays think they don’t need travel insurance because if they get ill or injured they think they will be treated under the National Health Service (NHS) as normal. Of course, they would be right about the NHS part, but possibly wrong about not having a need for travel insurance.
Travel insurance would not be needed by a Briton to cover their NHS treatment in another area of the UK but it could still be considered an essential because things can go wrong no matter where you are on holiday.
Sainsbury’s Car Insurance recently conducted research and found that 17% of UK drivers are planning on taking their cars abroad this year.
We thought we would bring you some top tips to help if you decide to take a road trip abroad in 2008.
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?
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
Yesterday we published a news story about the extra cost faced by those consumers who choose to pay for their annual car insurance premiums in monthly instalments (‘£624m bill for pay monthly car insurance customers’).
Many people choose to spread the cost of the insurance premiums over 12 months because they cannot afford to pay the lump sum in one go.
However, because the insurance company is effectively giving the customer a credit facility when they allow them to spread payments, it will charge the customer interest for the privilege. Unfortunately, the interest rates are quite high (above 20%) so the consumer ends up paying a substantial amount more for their insurance policy by paying monthly.
So, how can you avoid these interest charges?
In recent months our household finances have been squeezed by rising mortgage, utility, food and petrol prices.
For many, this will mean that a summer holiday this year is out of the equation because there won’t be any spare cash once all the bills are paid for.
However, as we all know, taking a break out from the stresses and strains of daily life can revitalise even the most tired soul and prepare it for another year of hard work.
So, if you have resigned yourself to the fact that you won’t be jetting off to warmer climes this summer, think again.
Here are our top tips to help you budget for a summer holiday including how to get your hands on a money-off voucher for Thomas Cook worth £150.
If you are going on holiday in the UK, you will probably still benefit from buying travel insurance to cover you for unexpected events such as lost or damaged luggage.
Generally speaking, holidays in the UK are covered by annual multi-trip travel insurance so long as you have at least two night of accommodation pre-booked.
If you don’t have an annual multi trip travel insurance policy, it is best if you speak to travel insurance companies about what cover you will need when you go on holiday in the UK because then you will get the travel insurance that best suits your individual needs.
It is likely that the policy you buy will be for European travel insurance cover, so you will still get medical cover. Obviously, if you are a UK resident you will be covered under the NHS anyway so you probably won’t need this medical cover. Some insurers will not give you the option to remove this in place of a lower premium, but some might.
Either way, there are still risks involved when travelling in the UK so travel insurance may well be a beneficial purchase.
Click on the link to compare cheap travel insurance
If you are thinking about taking your children on holiday with you, don’t forget to get them travel insurance cover as they will only be covered if they are named on travel insurance policy documents.
If your child were to need emergency medical treatment while on holiday, and they weren't covered by a travel insurance policy, you could end up footing a medical bill for thousands of pounds.
Travel insurance cover for children varies from provider to provider. Different companies have varying ways of defining a ‘child’ in terms of its age, different rules on who the child must travel with in order to be covered by the travel insurance policy and different limits for the number of children covered per policy.
Some travel insurance providers will insure your children for free when you buy travel insurance for yourself and others will cover children for half price.
If the provider does not offer a free or half-price deal, they will generally offer cheaper ‘family travel insurance policies’ which will provide cover for you, your spouse or partner and your children. Some providers will cover your step children or foster children under a family policy or on the adult's single trip or annual multi trip travel insurance policy.
Age
The usual age range for children is 0-17, although some companies classify 0 to 2 year olds as infants and 2 to 17 year olds as children. Some providers will only classify 0 to 14 year olds as children.
Most companies will classify 19 to 23 year olds in full-time education as children for travel insurance purposes.
Who must the child travel with to be covered?
Generally speaking, you must be the parent or legal guardian of the children travelling on your travel insurance policy in order for them to be covered however some insurers will cover children travelling with Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles if the family member has at least a single trip travel insurance policy.
Others providers specify that the policy that the child is named on must belong to a parent or guardian who lives at the same address as the child.
Number of children covered
Insurance providers vary when it comes to the number of children eligible for free or reduced price travel insurance. Some offer unlimited child places and others offer a set number of children per adult insured.
If you are jetting off soon, compare travel insurance to find the best deals for you and your children
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