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Dental Insurance. The Nhs In Dental Shambles It's truly shambolic say many dentists referring to the recent overhaul of the NHS dental service. The situation has become so bad that dentists are leaving the NHS in droves. Seven out of ten dentists have either quit the NHS or have signed their new NHS contract temporarily and “under dispute”. This means that come July this year they have the right to refuse NHS patients and switch entirely to private practice. The hullabaloo is all about the new NHS contract which many... Mortgages And Loans. Islamic Finance Avoids Interest. Two million Muslims in the UK face an ethical dilemma if they want a mortgage or a loan. Conventional mortgages and loans all require the payment of interest and “riba” as interest is called under Islamic law, is forbidden by the Koran. British financial institutions are increasingly catering for Muslims' specialist needs through a number of alternative arrangements that respects the teachings of the Koran. Here are just two of them: Ijara with diminishing Musharaka – t... Mortgages. Exit Fees To Be Capped. In the last 3 to 5 years we have seen rises of up to 450% in the exit fees charged by lenders when borrowers redeem their mortgage. But at last the Financial Services Authority (FSA) ha seen the light and is going to crackdown on these increases. Lenders have been telling new borrowers about the exit fees currently charged, but the lender has retained the right to increase those charges at any time and without advising borrowers. This amounts to a free hand to increase the... Travel Insurance. Also Get A European Health Insurance Card. Hands up all those who remember the old E111 medical forms you were supposed to have if you travelled in Europe? I can see all those blank faces! Well, great news is that it doesn't matter any more. The E111 form was replaced at the beginning of January 2006 by a new European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). This EHIC is valid for up to 5 years and entitles you to the same level of medical care in the country you're travelling in, as would be enjoyed by the residents of th... Home Insurance. Flood Alert The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors warns that if you can't get insurance for your house, you're in big trouble. Mortgage lenders won't lend on houses that are uninsurable and as a result its value could fall by up to 80%. It's a high flood risk that's most likely to make your house uninsurable. According to a recent survey, 6.5 million homes are already at risk from flooding of which 1.5 million are in high risk areas. The government has completed flood defences ... Car Insurance. Involved In An Accident With An Uninsured Driver? Uninsured drivers are ten times more likely to drink and drive and three times more likely to be convicted of driving without due care and attention. They also cause one accident every six months. In fact one in twenty motorists regularly drive without insurance. It's therefore not perhaps surprising that, one in ten of all motorists have been involved in accidents with uninsured drivers. The question is what to do if you're involved in an accident with one? At the time of... Medical Insurance. NHS Consultants Go Private! The funding crisis in the National Health Service is so dire that at least 4,000 frontline jobs might be axed say the Royal College of Nursing. “There's no doubt that there will be an impact on patients”, says their spokesperson. “This is not the sort of thing that is going to be resolved by cutting back on chocolate biscuits in the boardroom. The staff that we are looking at losing are not office based, they're people who are providing frontline services.” Little surprise th... Life Insurance Available With Tax Relief. At last you can buy life insurance and get tax relief. The breakthrough results from changes in the Gordon Browns' latest Budget speech but the tax relief is only available on a new special sort of life insurance policy. You can't get tax relief on your existing life insurance policies. These new policies exploit a loophole in the new Finance Bill and should result in savings of between 5% and 15% for standard taxpayers and around 30% for higher taxpayers. But there are... Life Insurance. How The New Regulations Affect Policies Written In Trust. In his spring Budget the Chancellor Gordon Brown announced swinging measures to tackle the use of Trusts being used to avoid Inheritance Tax. The immediate reaction amongst the financial and legal fraternity amounted to panic and confusion. Within ten days of the budget speech the estimates of the numbers of people that could be hit by the new anti-trust provisions hit 4.5 million. Then, following the publication of the draft Finance Bill, the estimates fell to 1 million ... Life Insurance. Bargain Life Insurance When You Take Out A Pension Policy At last, a real life insurance bargain – but as always there are strings attached! If you take out a new pension policy after 6 th April 2006 and within the same premium pay for life insurance cover, then you can use your pension contribution tax allowance to reduce the cost of your life insurance. This means if you're a standard rate taxpayer, you'll receive 22% tax relief on your life insurance premiums and relief at 40% if you're a higher rate taxpayer. The combine... Buy To Let Mortgages. Boom Time Returns. After last years crisis of confidence the buy-to-let market is again booming. Earlier worries that interest rates were on the up and property values would crash are firmly behind us. So, fuelled by rising rental yields confidence, landlords have been snapping up new properties and remortgaging for cheaper deals. In the final three months of last year, rental incomes increased by an average of 3.3%. At the same time the rental yield, income as a percentage of the property'... Mortgages. Higher Lending Charges Are Outrageous. After you scraped together a modest deposit for your new home you may think you're home and dry. Think again. On top of there's the surveyors and solicitors to pay. Then the government want a slice. You've got to pay stamp duty at 1% of the property's price (if the house costs more than £250,000 the rate of stamp duty increases – see the information at the foot of this article). Phew! You're lucky you'll just make it – you'll be a homeowner at last! Then out of the blue t... Loans Are Lenders Cheating On APR’s? A pound from one lender is as good as a pound from another. So when you're shopping for a loan, the key issue becomes the interest rate. Consequently, when you read press advertisements and visit web sites, the Annual Percentage Rate of interest (APR) highly influences which lenders or loan brokers you apply to. After all, the government introduced APR's as a standard calculation that every lender has to use, precisely to help the public make reliable comparisons. But who... Critical Illness Insurance The Non-Disclosure Problem If you're in the unfortunate position of having to make a claim on your critical illness insurance policy, the last thing you want is insensitive hassle or apparent non co-operation from your insurer. But according to numerous newspaper articles, that's precisely what's happening. The core problem is that before they'll pay out, the insurer will always want to make exhaustive enquiries about your past health record. Whilst you'll have provided them with lots of similar inform... Personal Finance. Student Loans Debts Do Not Go On Your Credit Record. Every time you apply for credit, for example a credit card or a loan, the lender will request to see your credit history from a credit reference agency. The information they hold is so detailed that there's really no need for us to fill out that long application form, because within a fraction of a second they can see all they need to know from Experian, Equifax or Callcredit, the three main credit reference agencies. You would be very surprised to see just how much they know... Car Insurance, Save On Premiums! Everyone has to agree to an excess of some kind when getting a car insurance policy – it's the way the system works. Basically it means that if you have an accident and your car needs to be repaired, you will have to pay a set amount towards the bill. If the accident is your fault, you lose the money. If the accident is not your fault, the third party insurer reimburses you for the excess payment. If your car is written off, then your insurance company will deduct your excess... Tell The Truth With Life And Critical Illness Insurance Insurers treat the non-disclosure of information on an application form very seriously indeed, and it is the most common cause for the rejection of a life or critical illness insurance claim. This true story explains that the situation isn’t always black and white, and demonstrates the severity of the penalty. We have changed some details to protect the anonymity of the policyholder. Ms W had to have an operation to eradicate cancerous lymph nodes from her groin, and imme... Pet Insurance. Podgy Pets Need A Diet Plan Is your pet overweight? Four out of every ten pets are obese says one of the UK 's largest pet insurers. Owners are overfeeding their dogs and cats with massive portions and fatty foods as well lots of treats from the table. This had led to a huge increase in the number of pet insurance claims for health problems brought on by obesity. Petplan has revealed that during the last five years it has seen a 60% increase in obesity related claims amongst the 800,000 pets it ... Credit Problems? Tackle Them Head On. Hate opening the post? Dread receiving the bill and Bank Statements? Sounds like your finances are becoming a problem. The ostrich solution never works when it comes to debts – they just don't go away that easily. Take a tip - there's never a better time like the present to tackle a debt problem – as soon as piling bills give you a knotted feeling in your stomach, face up to the problem. Here's some practical advice. Make savings on your credit card bills. Sav... Car Insurance. It's Getting Increasingly Expensive When You're Elderly. There were 550 serious accidents last year where the driver was over aged 70 and where driver was either killed or badly hurt, reports the Institute of Advanced Motoring . That statistic represents 8% of the national total of 7,035 similar accidents. That means that the over 70's's have more, very serious accidents per mile than any other sector of the population. This view is supported by the Association of British Insurers whose research shows that drivers aged over 70 are ... Car Loans Drive Down The Cost Most car buyers spend hours researching the makes and models of car before deciding which to buy. Then four out of ten rush out to the showroom and sign up for the car within 30 minutes of stepping inside. But will their painstaking research extend to sourcing the cheapest finance package? Probably not. Whilst around 50% of new cars bought privately are purchased on finance, nearly 20% sign up in the showroom for the finance deal offered by the manufacturer. Unfortunately... Credit Cards Shamed Into Cutting Charges The Competition Commission one of the governments watchdogs, has at last moved to shame credit cards in to cutting their charges. The long overdue move comes after the Commission concluded that the credit card industry was overcharging customers between £55 and £100 million each year through excessive interest rates and other charges. And this has been going on for a least 3 years! The main culprits by far are store cards where interest rates are as high as 30.9% - even th... Car Insurance, Essential Information About Excess Payments An excess payment is the fixed contribution you must pay each time your car is repaired through your car insurance policy. Normally the payment is made directly to the accident repair garage when you collect the car. If your car is declared to be a write off, your insurance company will deduct the excess agreed on the policy from the settlement payment it makes to you. If the accident was the other drivers fault, and this is accepted by the third party's insurer, you'll b... How To Pay Less On Home And Contents Insurance Buildings Insurance went up again last year, costing homeowners another 1% a year, taking the average to just over £205 for a year's insurance. Contents insurance also went up, this time by 2% - now it costs the average homeowner £151 a year. However, some lenders are hiking prices even higher than that – Norwich Union for example, raised its prices by a whopping 6% last year. The question is - why? There's so much competition out there, you'd expect prices to be falling, ... Car Insurance Top Tips The car insurance industry has got really competitive in the last few years, so prices haven't really changed much. There are now over 100 car insurers to choose from, so there are some very good deals out there for those who are prepared to shop around. 23% of motorists still choose to insure with the same company as the year before, but they could undoubtedly save money if they did check out some other companies. Motorists could be forgiven for not getting other quotes, ... Credit Cards Watch Out When Using Your Credit Card Abroad Going on holiday or business to Spain, France or Italy this year? Then watch out for a new ploy to overcharge your credit or debt card. Many restaurateurs and retailers in these countries now have the facility to get you to authorise your bill in euros but then they recharge your card in sterling. That sounds innocent but there's a sting in the tail. The retailers charge you an additional service fee of up to 4%! The system is called dynamic currency conversion (DCC). ... Car Insurance How Can I Lower My Premiums? During the last few years, the average car insurance premium has virtually been at a stand still. The reason is price competition. There are now over 100 car insurance companies fighting for your business and competition is fierce. There are always bargains to be found as companies cut their premiums to attract motorists in the hope you'll remain loyal and stick with them in following years. Indeed, every year, 23% of us renew our motor insurance with our existing insurer. ... Car Insurance. Uninsured Cars To Be Crushed Are you one of the one in twenty motorists who regularly drive without insurance? You'd better watch out - your car could be heading for the crusher and shipped off to the world's biggest scrap smelter in China! New powers now allow the police to seize, impound and crush any car found on the road without insurance. A pilot scheme was introduced in Durham last spring. Since then, police have impounded more than 1,200 cars. Of those around half have been crushed into cubes ... Life Insurance And Critical Illness Insurance. Cancer Tests To Increase Women's Premiums Ladies, if your mother or any other female blood-line relatives have a history of breast or ovarian cancer then from next year onwards, you could face higher insurance premiums. You could even be refused cover altogether. When these women apply for life and critical illness cover, the insurance industry wants to ask them whether they have been tested for the gene mutations BRCA1 or BRCA2. These are the gene complications that increase the chances of them developing these ... Credit Cards – The European Credit Card Sting Traditionally, using plastic abroad has always meant big charges. Things are a lot better these days, but they have taken a downward slide again in some European countries, as they get the option to add an extra charge to your bill. In France, Italy and Spain, many of the bigger restaurateurs and retailers have a system called DCC – dynamic currency conversion. It means they can convert your payment straight into sterling for you, at the till. This may sound tempting, but... Travel Insurance – Is It Necessary For A UK-Based Holiday? Just over a month ago, my boyfriend and I decided to visit the beautiful city of Edinburgh for our 5 year anniversary. We live in Dorset, so we didn’t want to spend the whole time travelling. To make the trip easier on ourselves, we decided to fly there, and used a travel agent to organise the week long holiday. Imagine my surprise when I saw an additional £27.50 on the quote for travel insurance! We were only going to Edinburgh, not Pittsburgh! I was offended that they th... Remortgaging – Is It Worth Being A Rate Tart? Mortgage lenders call people who switch mortgage lenders to follow lower rates ‘Rate Tarts’ – as if that’s going to put them off! These are tarts with brains (not hearts) as we all know that the best way to get the cheapest deal is to shop around, and that’s what they’re doing! The mortgage lenders are in heavy competition with each other to attract the most customers, and although some offer other incentives like free valuation and set up fees, it’s the interest rate tha... Interest Only Mortgages – FSA Makes Move To Protect Homeowners Abbey recently stated that over 25% of homeowners decide to take out an interest-only mortgage. It's not hard to see why – the monthly payments are significantly less, just look at this example based on a 25 year £125,000 mortgage at 5%. The interest only mortgage will cost £525 per month - but the repayment mortgage is £735 per month – an additional £210 a month – that's a lot of money! At the root of the issue are the first time buyers – they simply can't afford the rep... Pet Insurance – What's The Point? A survey published by Mintel recently revealed that 1 in 3 pets need an unplanned visit to the vet every year. So the odds that you'll be making a claim on your pet insurance are higher than the chances of you claiming on your home & contents policy or your motor insurance. The word “unplanned” is key here. We don't mean routine treatments such as vaccinations or worming, you won't find a pet insurance policy that covers preventative treatments. Nor you will you able to g... Should Your Life Insurance Policy Be Written In Trust? According to one of the largest UK life insurance companies, just 1% of life policies are written in trust. That is disgraceful and reflects poorly on the financial industry. Let's explain. If your life insurance policy is “Written in Trust” then, in the event of a claim, the insurance company pays out directly to the beneficiaries you name on the policy. The significance of this is easily missed. It means that if the policy is “Written in Trust”, the proceeds fro... Regulations Tighten On Interest Only Mortgages More than 25% of homeowners are paying for their homes with an interest-only mortgage say the Abbey. The reason is obvious – their monthly payments are much less. For example, a £125,000 interest only mortgage at an interest rate of 5% and repayable in 25 years time, costs £525 per month - but on a repayment basis the monthly cost rises by £210 to £735 per month. Understandably, this level of cash saving has proved highly popular with first time buyers struggling to get t... Millions Forced To Opt For Private Dental Treatment This April the Government is forcing a new service contract on dentists that includes a new pay scale, changes to their working hours and surgery arrangements. Now dentists are not a cantankerous profession, but there's widespread irritation and disillusionment amongst them at the Governments seemingly heavy-handed action. And they're determined not to be pushed around. As a result thousands of dentists are registering their refusal to accept the new contract and have giv... Are Your Home Insurance Premiums Constantly Rising? Last year the UK's average premium for Buildings Insurance increased by 1% to just over £205 and the average for Contents Insurance rose to £151, up 2%. But within the market we've seen some much bigger rises – if you're with Norwich Union you'll have seen your premium rise by around 6%. So what's going on? Every year we see premiums rising. Surely with so much competition in the home insurance market, you wouldn't expect to see such inexorable rises in premiums? Let'... Tell The Insurers Everything When You Apply For Life And Critical Illness Insurance. The failure to disclose information, especially medical information, is the most common reason why an insurer will reject a claim on a life or critical illness policy. To help underline some issues, we want to tell you a true story - but we've concealed the policyholders' name and a few other aspects to preserve anonymity. Mrs A was fighting a secondary infection following surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes in her groin when she received further bad news. Her critica... Keyman Insurance – A Business Essential If you own your own business, you'll have insurance in place for your buildings, stock and vehicles, and you will be likely to have public liability insurance. You may also be insured for professional indemnity and legal costs – but have you considered insuring your most important assets – your key staff? In the UK there are 3.9 million small, often family, businesses with up to four employees – if one of those key staff were to die or fall seriously ill, it could mean th... The Offset Mortgage – Why Is It Growing In Popularity? The biggest innovation in the mortgage market in recent years, the offset mortgage, is now starting to take a significant share of the market. Now, only six years after they were introduced, the offset and the current account mortgage account for 10% of all borrowed mortgage capital. According to one of the UK's largest mortgage lenders, as many as 25% of existing mortgage holders could save money in the long run by choosing an offset mortgage. If you're one of those poss... Payment Protection Insurance – Is It Worthwhile? The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been looking into the issue of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) and the way that it is sold to people taking out loans in the UK. The list includes many of the UK's biggest banks and building societies, and it is single-handedly earning lenders over £1 billion a year. The point of PPI is that if a loan borrower becomes unemployed or unable to work though accident or illness, the loan provider will cover their payments until the... Mortgage Protection Insurance – The Essentials It's tempting to sit back and relax once you've moved into your new home – but hang on, have you made sure that you're insured against all the risks that could stop you from paying your mortgage? Many things could go wrong and make it impossible for you to work, and in this article we go through each risk, and assess how important it is that you take that into account. If you are responsible for a family, then it is particularly important that you take heed of the following f... Life Insurance – 66% Of Applicants Face Loaded Premiums If you're lucky, you'll get a life insurance quotation that you are happy with, progress to application, and get yourself insured within 48 hours at the original price quoted. Unfortunately this isn't the case for 66% of applicants - who face delays and loaded premiums. So why is this happening? Well, life insurance companies provide quotes based on the ‘perfect person' – which basically means you must be 45 or under and in excellent health, have no hereditary illness in ... Health Insurance – Not As Straightforward As It Would Seem Most of the seven million people covered by health insurance in the UK have a policy provided by their company. As such it is a useful benefit, but many of us assume that it will cover any kind of health issue and this is definitely not the case. The insurers exclude a wide variety of possible claims, and this article will explain those in detail. Health insurance has a very specific purpose – to get people suffering from short-term, curable health problems straight throu... Life Insurers Use The Body Mass Index To Tighten The Belt On Fat People Overweight people are in the firing line again. Life insurance companies are increasing premiums up to four fold for fat people. They've always charged more for those of us who over-eat, but during the last year the penalties have got worse. In moves to tighten the belts further, the life insurers are lowering the weight limits they use to categorise people. This tougher move means that those who are merely overweight and would have previously qualified for a standard pre... Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance The Do's And Don'ts When you've taken out a mortgage you've make a long-term commitment to maintain the monthly repayments for the full duration of the mortgage. That's going to be over many years but you're making that commitment without the benefit of a crystal ball – no one knows how your circumstances are going to change, for good or bad. So that must represent a big risk. Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance (MPPI) is one of a range of insurances that includes life insurance and critical i... Remortgaging – Is It Still Worthwhile? Mortgage lenders have a derogatory name for people who switch mortgage lenders to follow lower rates – they call them “Rate Tarts”. The author has a much more apt description – Shrewd Shoppers! After all, who spends more for exactly the same product, in this case money, when you can get it cheaper elsewhere? After all a £ from one lender as effective as a £ from another! The mortgage market is highly competitive and as long as lenders use price as the main weapon in their... What Do The Terms APR, AER And EAR Mean? Mortgage lenders have a derogatory name for people who switch mortgage lenders to follow lower rates – they call them “Rate Tarts”. The author has a much more apt description – Shrewd Shoppers! After all, who spends more for exactly the same product, in this case money, when you can get it cheaper elsewhere? After all a £ from one lender as effective as a £ from another! The mortgage market is highly competitive and as long as lenders use price as the main weapon in their... Foreign Currency Mortgages – What Are They And What Are The Risks? 99.9% of mortgage borrowers raise the money they need to buy their home in pounds sterling and pay the prevailing UK based interest rate. But it does not have to be that way…….. Whilst by its' own historical standards, the UK's domestic interest rates are low, they are still significantly higher than in the Eurozone, America, Switzerland and indeed, Japan. Therefore, you can currently borrow the money you need in Euros, $ dollars, Swiss Francs or Yen, secure the debt agai... Life Insurance – Why Does The UK Have A £2.3 Trillion Protection Gap? According to Swiss Re, one of the world's largest re-insurance companies, less than half of the UK population has any form of life insurance protection. They then go on to put a figure on the value of this protection gap. Using an average income of £20,000 and assuming that the value of protection needed ranges between 5 and 10 times income, they put a value on the protection gap at £2.3 trillion. But in all probability, whilst the gap is huge, £2.3 trillion is likely to ... Buying A Second Hand Car? 19 Tips To Avoid Getting Your Fingers Burnt. • Do your homework. Read up about the model of car you're thinking about. Will it perform as you will want? Be aware of any known mechanical problems with that particular model and remember to check them out when you take it for a test drive (see tip 15). • Look up the current second hand values for the car. Try starting at www.what car .com. Also get some of the second hand car magazines and your local paper. Check out the prices being asked for similar cars. • Car I... Critical Illness Insurance – The Press Are Giving Insurers A Hard Time. Recent stories in the press have again lambasted the insurers over critical illness insurance. The core problem is that a critical illness claim is not as straightforward as, for example, a claim under life insurance. With life insurance it's going to be hard for the insurance company to argue that you're not dead! By their very nature, critical illness claims are much more complicated. The insurer will need to satisfy itself that the claim is validated in three key areas... Big Changes On The Horizon For Critical Illness Insurance. In recent years sales of critical illness insurance have flagged. The primary cause is the huge 70% increase in premiums experienced during recent years. For many, critical illness insurance has simply priced itself out of the market. It's not that critical illness insurance is a bad idea. After all it pays out a lump sum if the policyholder is diagnosed with one of the many critical illnesses listed on the policy and the policyholder survives at least 28 days from diagno...

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