Save money on your insurance

Never, never just accept a renewal quote from your insurance company on your car and home insurance. After mortgages, this is the most common area to reduce your outgoings by obtaining other providers. According to the Daily Mail, shopping around can save the average buyer £214, while home insurance cover tumbles from £385 to £250. 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 I wish I had as much money as you!.

1. Claim back Loan protection insurance
Pricey and poorly sold, payment protection insurance is one of the most lucrative products formed by the finance industry. It can add £3,000 to the cost of a £7,500 Personal loan. Many whom were sold PPI were always unable to claim against it This money is now eligible to be claimed back.

Lots of claims companies advertise on daytime television, promising to obtain you a refund but they will take 25% of whatever you win. Instead, call the FOS they are helping 4 out of 5 people missold . 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
It is common for people to be are strongly pressured in phone shops into spending between £50 and £70 a year on this cover. Most policies don’t cover you for the most dangerous type of risk airtime abuse (if your phone is ued to call overseas, and you can claim for a lost phone on you contents cover.

Just ring your bank, stop the direct debit and job done!.

3. Rethink your life insurance
You don’t have to keep you life insurance policy for the whole of the policies term. Just because the life insurance was sold to you when you took out a mortgage you don’t need to to stick with that provider for the life of the home loan. You have the option to cancel at any time and find a better deal. With the avergae age of death improving (ie. fewer people dying), the insurers have been reducing premiums for many years.

If you are in a job at a big employer, it is likely to offer “death in service” benefit worth at least three times your annual 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. For most holidaymakers, who travel to southern Europe once a year, the only real benefit that travel cover 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.

You mustn’t travel outside the EU with out travel insurance cover If you go away more than once a year it is best to take a annual policy though again don’t pay for cover you don’t need. For example, if you don’t ski or snowboard, you don’t need winter sports cover.