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Gender discrimination is a horrible thing. Men who hold open doors for you, offer to pay for dinner and carry your bags, might be what most women want, but we also wish for equality.

We should be more careful about what we wish for.

Who would have thought that gender discrimination might actually be working in our favour? That the stereotype of men being faster, more reckless drivers than women could be saving us money? Unfortunately though, that’s all about to change.

On 1 March last year the European Court of Justice ruled that insurance premiums can no longer be affected by gender, meaning that insurance companies will no longer be able to charge men and women different premiums based purely on their sex.

The gender insurance directive will come into force on 21 December 2012 and is likely to cause a fair bit of upheaval in the insurance world, both for the industry and for consumers.

What will happen and what does it mean for women?

Currently gender does play a part in the calculation of certain types… Continue To Read This Post..

Public liability insurance is a means by which unlikely but devastating events can be incorporated into a business strategy. Nothing is completely predictable. There is no absolute law that says an object released in a gravitational field will fall. However, the probability of such an event occurring is so close to 100% that it near as makes no difference.

We are able to aim at points in space and time with incredible accuracy. We are able to predict how gravity will behave but are still unable to say with certainty that it will be so.

Liability insurance both public and private exists to service areas of doubt and uncertainty. Accidents happen. Ships sail with their bow doors open. Bits of aeroplanes fall off. Something goes wrong in a canning factory and suddenly thousands of people have a tummy upset, or worse.

Insurance reduces the downside risk. It asks first about the likelihood of a particular event occurring. It then asks what the actual consequences of such an event would be. Finally it puts a price on the worst possible outcome.… Continue To Read This Post..

Healthy New Year’s resolutions can help your financial health—not just your personal well-being. Beyond the hard slog of the January detox, permanent lifestyle changes can have a big impact on your life insurance costs.

It certainly seems that it pays not to smoke, as one example. Being a non-smoker could cut your life insurance bill by nearly two-thirds, according to a November 2011 study of UK life insurance prices commissioned by TotallyMoney with Moneyfacts.

The average difference in premiums starts out small when you’re younger but increases as you age. For 25-year-old males, smokers pay £732 more than non-smokers on average over a 25-year policy term. However, for 45-year-old males over a 25-year policy term, smokers pay a substantial £6,951 more than non-smokers for the same cover. That’s just the average difference in life insurance premiums!

The highest variance in life insurance premiums between smokers and non-smokers is large. For 45-year-old males, smokers could pay as much as £11,727 more than non-smokers for the same life insurance cover over a 25-year policy term.

There are other factors that… Continue To Read This Post..

Consumers could face a hike in the cost of home and motor insurance in the wake of the recent storms that battered the country.

Insurers have reported a sharp increase in the number of claims made over the past few weeks as a consequence of the gale force winds that caused devastating damage to homes and cars across the UK.

Swiftcover yesterday reported a 250% increase in the number of home insurance claims it received. Direct Line said it dealt with 300% more claims in the first three days of January compared to an average year, while AA Insurance said claim rates had doubled.

The Co-Operative received more claims in the first four days of 2012 they would usually expect throughout the whole of January.

Ian Crowder, a spokesman for AA Insurance, told the Telegraph: “Major weather events like this, causing widespread damage are not going to help insurance costs come down.”

The most common claims relate to damage to roofing, fencing, gates, guttering and broken windows. Car insurance firms are reporting a rise in the number of claims made… Continue To Read This Post..

When you’re thinking about trying to take care of your family, it goes without saying that you really want to give them the best life possible. But you also have to remember that there could be a time where you’re not there for them, like in the event of your death. Instead of leaving your family with uncertainty, fear, and doubt that they’ll ever be able to get their life together, you really need to make sure that you’re looking into life insurance.

Now, you might assume that you can’t afford life insurance cover in any way, but that’s just not true at all. It’s better to check into getting good life insurance that can be handled on just about any budget that you can think of. When these are the parameters that you’re looking for, it means that you really need to check into getting term life insurance. We recommend term life insurance before any other because it’s very affordable. You get to know a set time that your coverage will last. Most people get term insurance to cover… Continue To Read This Post..

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has launched an investigation into the spiralling cost of car insurance.

The launch of the trade watchdog’s probe comes in response to premiums rising by 21% over the past two years. OFT researchers found that prices rose by 12% between 2009 and 2010 alone, with a further 9% in the first three quarters of 2010/2011.

Insurance industry bosses have been quick to blame price hikes on the rise in personal injury claims, but the OFT investigation will also look at the increased cost of third party non-injury claims, which include credit hire replacement vehicles and third party vehicle repairs.

The OFT said it “has reasonable grounds for suspecting that there are features of the UK’s private motor insurance market that restrict and distort competition relating to the provision of third party vehicle repairs and credit hire replacement vehicles to claimants.”

These included private motor insurers responsible for meeting third party claims for credit hire replacement vehicles and/or vehicle repairs appear to have only limited control over the choice of provider, and rival private motor… Continue To Read This Post..

If you’re a company running a large fleet, you definitely want to get the best deal you can on your motor insurance, yet even small operators with a single company vehicle will see benefits from reducing their premiums. However, the key thing to remember is getting the best value for money, rather than just going for the cheapest quote: this could leave you with insufficient cover, a mistake that could prove extremely costly later down the line.

Begin by considering your company’s insurance needs: do you regularly make journeys out of the country? How old are your vehicles? Do you have drivers aged under the age of 25, who typically cost more to cover? How many vehicles are in your fleet? Staveley Head commercial motor insurance offers fleet cover for companies running five or more vehicles, so you may be able to make savings this way by combining them on a single policy.

There are many other ways to reduce the overall cost of your motor insurance. If you pay for your cover in a lump sum, rather than monthly,… Continue To Read This Post..