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Michael Challiner's Articles in Arts

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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... 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... 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... 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 ... 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... 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... Personal Finance. Credit Agencies Refused Access To Information About Student Loans These days, when you apply for a mortgage, loan or other form of credit, the lending industry will automatically scrutinise your personal credit history. In practice, you hardly need to tell them anything as within a fraction of a second, the lenders computers will lock into your credit file held by any one of the big three credit agencies; Experian, Callcredit or Equifax And you'll be amazed what they know about your finances! For many years now banks, building societies... Mortgages. First-Time Buyers Let Down By The Governments Homebuy Scheme. Late last year, accompanied by the usual razzmatazz, Gordon Brown announced the Governments new “Open Market Homebuy” mortgage scheme for first-time buyers. Under the Homebuy scheme, first time buyers take out a mortgage for 75% of a home's value with no deposit and the Government and the mortgage lender will in practice buy the remaining 25% of the property. Then when the borrower eventually decides to sell the property, the borrower will receive 75% of the net sales pro... Life Insurance Take A Last Gasp And Count The Savings! We're not being insensitive, honestly! We're talking about your last gasp of smoke – have you given up smoking recently? Did you know that smokers paying up to 60% more for their life insurance cover compared to non-smokers. So, besides the health dividend and the money saved on cigarettes, insurance companies will chip in with lower life insurance premiums. And the insurance savings aren't to be sneezed at! A typical policyholder could save at least £10 or more per month... 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 ... 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... 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, ... Fraud. Beware Of The Fraudsters According to Which, the consumer watchdog, about 5 million of us have been targeted by fraudsters and have lost money as a result. Fraudsters are clearly finding rich pickings! So what are the most widespread scams and how do you steer clear of them? Here are six scams to be aware of. You've won a lottery prize Here you receive a letter, or e-mail telling you that you've won a big prize on some lottery you've never heard of. All you have to do is pay an administra... 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... 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... 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). ... 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 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... 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 ... 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 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... 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... 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, ... 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. ...