Life Insurance Staveley
Saving Money when Buying Life Insurance
Everyone likes to save money but it's important to keep in mind lower premiums may not be the best way to save money in the long term when buying life insurance. The first consideration is there are two quite different types of life insurance - term life insurance and permanent life insurance -- and multiple ways a policy can be purchased. This complexity basically demands the buyer to do some background research, and carefully compare life insurance quotes. Life insurance is not one-size-fits-all and when comparing your options make certain you are comparing apples-to-apples to get the best low cost life insurance.Before you buy a life insurance policy you should decide what type of policy is best for you and focus your efforts on financially sound life insurance companies. Check each company out with independent insurance company rating agencies and eliminate any that don't get high ratings. The obvious step in terms of saving money is to take your time and compare life insurance quotes from a number of companies to get an idea of the range in costs. These numbers can vary by hundreds of dollars.
You should find out if you qualify for group life insurance through an employer or other organization because group rates are often much less expensive than individual life insurance. Group life insurance also comes with the benefit of possibly not requiring a health check to qualify for the plan. Another benefit is your premiums may be deducted from your paycheck so you're less likely to miss a payment.
Once you are ready to buy life insurance go ahead and check around one more time to compare life insurance quotes from a number of insurance providers your previous research determined are financially sound. Once again the same policy can cost hundreds of dollars more or less from different companies. Here is where the initial low premium can catch you. Some policies have low premiums that rapidly increase over time, and other life insurance policies have higher upfront premiums, but don't rise as dramatically. Look into the big picture to see which policy actually costs more after five year or longer. You might find the more expensive policy initially is significantly cheaper over time.
Two more places to save money with life insurance is in discounts. Look for premium discounts that kick in at certain coverage levels, such as a discount that makes $250, 000 in coverage actually less expensive than $200, 000 in coverage due to a premium discount. The second place is how you pay your premium. Paying yearly is often less expensive than paying more frequently, such as paying a monthly life insurance premium.
Shame on Accent Properties Boulder Colorado
10 Jun 2011 at 6:43am
Next page: Life Insurance Sefton
Life Insurance Staveley News
Council workers' pay 'down 13%'
22 Feb 2012 at 4:22am Filed under: News
The pay of council workers has fallen to 1990s levels following years of below-inflation settlements and wage freezes, according to a new study.Unison said wages had declined by 13% in the last three years alone, with extra cuts to pay and allowances at local level making the situation even worse. More than a quarter of local government workers now earn less than the so-called Living Wage of £7.20 an hour, forcing many to claim benefits and tax credits, said Unison.
In contrast, the pay of council chief executives increased by 58% between 1998 and 2007, said the report, published ahead of wage talks between local government employers and unions.
%VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar%
Unison's head of local government Heather Wakefield said: "For many local government workers and their families, it's a daily struggle to stay out of poverty. They're doing vital work caring for the elderly, the vulnerable, for young children, and as job cuts hit, they're picking up the pieces doing even more, for ever-diminishing wages.
"Hundreds of thousands - especially women - are being hit hard by the Tory-led coalition's unfair pay policy. This unprecedented squeeze cannot continue. The local government employers must come forward with a decent offer on pay this year."
Peter Kenway, from the New Policy Institute, which wrote the report for Unison, said: "Local government workers are portrayed as part of a pampered public sector. With two-thirds of them in manual or clerical jobs, doing important and sometimes essential jobs, this report shows what a distortion that picture is.
"Since the last time pay went up, in April 2009, prices have risen 13%. Everyone is feeling the pinch but a fall in living standards this big is much more than that."
Around 1.7 million people work in local government in England and Wales, with three out of four jobs done by women and more than half employed part-time.
Unison's head of local government Heather Wakefield said: "For many local government workers and their families, it's a daily struggle to stay out of poverty. They're doing vital work caring for the elderly, the vulnerable, for young children, and as job cuts hit, they're picking up the pieces doing even more, for ever-diminishing wages.
"Hundreds of thousands - especially women - are being hit hard by the Tory-led coalition's unfair pay policy. This unprecedented squeeze cannot continue. The local government employers must come forward with a decent offer on pay this year."
Peter Kenway, from the New Policy Institute, which wrote the report for Unison, said: "Local government workers are portrayed as part of a pampered public sector. With two-thirds of them in manual or clerical jobs, doing important and sometimes essential jobs, this report shows what a distortion that picture is.
"Since the last time pay went up, in April 2009, prices have risen 13%. Everyone is feeling the pinch but a fall in living standards this big is much more than that."
Around 1.7 million people work in local government in England and Wales, with three out of four jobs done by women and more than half employed part-time.
More stories
Council's CCTV cameras cost £515m
Town banishes charity muggers
Council pays the price for data breach
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Read more...
Biggest (and oddest) mobile phone threats
22 Feb 2012 at 4:00am Filed under: Mobile
Dave Thompson/PA Archive/Press Association Images
So what are the strangest, and what are the biggest risks to your mobile?
The phones We are now more wedded to our mobiles than ever, and would be more likely to leave the house without our keys than our ever-present phones.
However, as more of us carry increasingly expensive gadgets, there is more chance that we make an expensive mistake while we are out. Specialist insurer www.gadget-cover.com says that the number of claims for mobiles has doubled in the 12 months to January. So it's worth being aware of the risks we are taking with our phones, and protecting ourselves against them.
The risks According to uSwitch, there were over 1 million mobile phone insurance claims in 2010. The lion's share is for accidental damage. uSwitch says that by far the most common damage is when the phone falls out of your pocket - closely followed by it falling down the toilet (which happens to 101,000 people a year).
Next in line for claims were those left in shops, bars, restaurants and taxis. Many of these were at the tail end of a night out, when it may seem vital to make a call, but callers may be in too advanced a state of refreshment to remember to put the phone back in their pocket.
In fact, just 11% of claims are for phones that are stolen - which puts it fractionally ahead of the risk of dropping the phone down the toilet or leaving it in a taxi.
It seems, therefore, that the biggest risks can be avoided if we take a little more care, leave our phones alone when we are on a night out, and have somewhere sensible to keep our phone, which means it isn't going to fall out whenever we use the loo.
Strangest claims However, you cannot prepare for all eventualities. Gadget-cover raked through its archives and fund some particularly unusual claims. Two (which were eventually rejected as fraudulent) stand out for their eccentricity.
Carmi Korine says: "One attempted claim arose when a customer's son went on holiday with a friend and his friend's parents. The phone was alleged to have disappeared one night when, whilst they were all in bed, a naked guy came in to the parents' room and got in the bed with them.
"The father then awoke and kicked the naked guy out of their room, but before leaving, the naked guy put on the customer's son's trousers, which were on the floor, and left. The phone was said to be in the trousers which were taken by the naked guy. The parents did not think the incursion was strange, and carried on with their sleep. There was no sign of forced entry.
Takeaway "The second incident is also alleged to have involved a loss of trousers. The claimant's son was coming home from a takeaway shop. He said he walked into a back street in order to wait for a cab, which he had called for earlier.
"Whilst waiting for the cab in this back street, a woman, who he described as looking like a prostitute, walked up to him and began touching him and pulling down his trousers. The customer says her son tried to push the 'prostitute' away but was ineffective in his efforts as he was carrying his takeaway in one hand.
"The woman managed to pull his trousers all the way down to his ankles and, after a while, she left and he later realised his phone was no longer in his pocket. The customer's son was so traumatised he did not leave his room for three days."
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Read more...
'Win a farm' flops as no-one buys the farm
22 Feb 2012 at 3:30am Filed under: Shopping & Deals
David Cheskin/PA Archive/Press Association Images
It's an appealing notion, and one that garnered 267,000 entries in desperate pursuit of the rural idyll. The trouble was that the way they ran the competition meant no-one won.
The competition The company printed up promotional packs with a unique code on each, but although 267,000 of these codes were entered into the site, none of them was the winner. The owner of that lucky pack must have chucked it out without bothering. There was no mechanism in place to deal with this situation, so there was simply no top prize awarded.
The company admitted it on Facebook, and fans of the page were decidedly unimpressed. Those commenting pointed out that a draw would have seemed more fair, that they could have had a fall-back in place, allowing them to pick another code. Others felt cheated, and some even asked whether the whole promotion was a scam.
%VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar%
Defence Nigel Parrott, Group Marketing Director at New Covent Garden Soup Co told AOL Money: "We appreciate that people are disappointed that the 'win a farm' prize wasn't won, we are just as disappointed and we take the feelings and comments of our customers very seriously. We had 267,000 entries to the competition, had all packs been entered, someone would definitely have won."
Annie Swift, chief executive of the Institute of Promotional Marketing said there was nothing wrong with the competition itself, saying: "The IPM looked at this promotion before it went live, as we do with thousands of these promotions every year; there was nothing wrong with the terms and conditions. It was legal and it followed the CAP Code, the rules which cover promotions like this."
Disaster However, the promotion has left a nasty taste in the mouth for many consumers. What started out as a competition costing the company millions of pounds in order to generate good publicity has ended in a sorry farce. Parrott said: "We are now reviewing how future promotions should be run and are taking these comments into consideration."
The Facebook commentators, meanwhile, continue to demand that the company finds a way to award the prize.
But what do you think? Does it seem fair to you? What should the company do now? Let us know in the comments.
More stories Why a 22-inch Domino Pizza would be free Milk collectible give-away valued at £1k Five things your bank should do, but doesn't
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Read more...
Five bank branches to close each week
22 Feb 2012 at 3:08am Filed under: Current Accounts
Bank branch closures are an emotive subject. And promising not to close branches - or at least, appearing to give that promise - has landed two of the nation's biggest banking names in hot water. Last week the Advertising Standards Authority banned two television ads from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest. In them, the banks claimed that they provide banking services wherever and whenever they are the "last bank in town". However, the ads attracted complaints for being misleading since there is at least one area (Farley in Yorkshire) where NatWest closed a branch despite being - you guessed it - the last bank in the town.
RBS mounted the defence that its claim to provide "banking services" did not necessarily mean keeping the branches open, but that was dismissed.
It's just the latest sad chapter in the disappearance of many high street bank branches up and down the UK.
Disappearing branches A report last year from the Campaign for Community Banking Services (CCBS) demonstrated just how banks and building societies are no longer the reliable presence on the high street they once were.
Since 1990, the number of branches has fallen by 7,555 - that's almost 50%! And while things have slowed somewhat over the past decade, there were still 1,889 closures.
In 2010 alone there were 180 closures, while 2011 saw a similar number disappear.
How we compare According to the research by the CCBS, the UK now boasts about 160 bank branches per million inhabitants. This jumps to 190 when you include building societies. Here's how that number compares with our continental cousins:
| Nation | Branches per million inhabitants |
| Spain | 940 |
| Italy | 560 |
| Germany | 470 |
| France | 420 |
Deserting whole communities It's not just about how many branches we have as a nation - it's exactly where those branches are located that matters. And more CCBS data suggests a number of communities are at risk of losing their branches altogether.
There are 414 rural communities where only one bank remains, and 466 urban communities in the same boat. Some of these branches are now 'protected' as a result of pledges by the respective banks to maintain that branch presence. That said, there's no guarantee how long those pledges will remain in place.
Here's the breakdown of where you will find the sole bank communities:
| Region | Rural sole bank communities | Urban sole bank communities | Total |
| North East | 14 | 24 | 38 |
| North West | 31 | 52 | 83 |
| Yorkshire & Humberside | 19 | 45 | 64 |
| Merseyside | 2 | 23 | 25 |
| East Midlands | 28 | 19 | 47 |
| West Midlands | 15 | 41 | 56 |
| East of England | 34 | 44 | 78 |
| Greater London | - | 55 | 55 |
| South East | 51 | 50 | 101 |
| South West | 42 | 37 | 79 |
| Wales | 34 | 12 | 46 |
| Scotland | 144 | 64 | 208 |
It's only going to get worse The CCBS believes we are likely to see even fewer branches on the high street in the next few years. It believes that the number of branches in Britain will fall from 9,550 today to 8,000 by 2018. That's the equivalent of five branch closures a week.
As a result, both the CCBS and the Forum of Private Business are lobbying the Government to pressure big banks into sharing premises in order to stem the tide of the biggest banking brands, that many people rely on, vanishing altogether.
Some rare good news However, not all banks and building societies are cutting back their presence on the high street. Yorkshire Building Society has announced it plans to open 12 new branches over the next two years.
The mutual has made big strides already in growing its branch network thanks to its mergers with Norwich & Peterborough Building Society and Chelsea Building Society, which has resulted in its number of branches rocketing from 135 to 224 over the last three years.
And Lloyds has made clear its intentions to maintain its branch network (for now anyway) with the pledge not to close any more branches over the next three years.
Do we even need bank branches? All this raises the question of exactly what purpose the bank branch fulfils in 2012. With so many people doing their banking online now, is there even a need for branches to exist?
From my own point of view, the only times I go to the bank are when I need to pay in a cheque. That's no more than a handful of times a year, and with cheques in their death throes, I won't even have to do that too much longer.
What do you think? Is it inevitable that more branches will disappear? And is that automatically a bad thing? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Read more...
PPI row payouts hit £1.9bn in 2011
22 Feb 2012 at 2:45am Filed under: Debt
Nearly £2 billion of compensation payments were made last year to settle claims from the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI).The figure of £1.9 billion revealed by the Financial Services Authority included £441 million in December - the largest monthly sum so far. However, consumer group Which? urged banks to do more to step up the pace of redress and help consumers avoid the use of claims management companies.
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said last year's compensation of £1.9 billion was still only a quarter of what lenders expected to refund.
%VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar%
He added: "Too many people are still finding the claims process too lengthy, the banks must streamline the process to make it easier for people to claim. Otherwise this leaves an open goal for claims management companies that charge people a hefty fee for putting in a claim which is easily done yourself for free."
Which? said anyone who thinks they may have been mis-sold PPI should contact their lender directly or visit its website at which.co.uk.
The banks have set aside an estimated £7.6 billion to compensate consumers who were mis-sold PPI but based on an average fee of 30% the compensation could be worth more than £2 billion to claims firms.
Barclays, which has set aside £1 billion to cover mis-selling claims, has issued figures showing PPI fuelled a 67% jump in the number of complaints in its general insurance and protection business to 122,922 in the second half of 2011.
It has not disclosed how much it has repaid customers so far but said excluding the PPI figure its volume of complaints was down 29% in the half-year compared with 2010.
Consumers took out PPI to help repay their loans if they fell ill for a long period or became unemployed, but a widespread mis-selling scandal emerged.
More stories
The FSAs ten biggest fines
Santander fined over limited cover
FSA closes 'sale and rent back' market
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Read more...
Ofgem's plan for fairness in energy market
22 Feb 2012 at 2:30am Filed under: Utilities
Fiona Hanson/PA Archive/Press Association Images
So what is going to change, and how will it affect you?
Unfair market The problem, as Ofgem sees it, is that the wholesale energy market isn't open, transparent or fair enough to enable smaller companies to buy simply and cheaply, and therefore compete with the Big Six providers. As a result, it says, the market is being hampered and consumers are missing out on potential competition.
With the Big Six supplying around 99% of the domestic retail market and owning a large proportion of Britain's power stations, independent suppliers have found it difficult to compete to win customers, and to buy the wholesale power products that they need.
The answer? Its solution is mandatory auctions. There has already been quite an opening up of electricity auctions, which sell electricity for delivery on the day or on the couple of days following the auction. Between September and December last year the volumes sold a day in advance increase five-fold.
Ofgem Senior Partner for Markets Andrew Wright, said: "Since Ofgem announced that the Big Six companies needed to change radically their ways, they have made progress. We have seen pledges to simplify tariffs, moratoriums on door-step sales and now auctioning of power in the short-term market. This is to be welcomed."
Long-term However, there is still little movement on forward markets - which enable companies to buy energy further in advance.
This is useful to them because if they think prices are going to rise then they can buy the energy ahead of time at a lower cost. They can then pass the savings onto consumers, and come at the top of the best-buy tables, winning more market share and enabling them to compete with the larger companies.
The aim, therefore, is to force the Big Six to run more auctions for long term energy. They still have an opportunity to act before their hand is forced, but if they continue to drag their feet, Ofgem is ready to step in and force the issue.
In time, therefore, we should see smaller companies able to buy more of their energy in advance, and therefore be able to compete more effectively with the Big Six. The question is whether they use their new power to cut prices and improve life for consumers, or whether they will follow the example of the bigger players and focus on feathering their own nests.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Read more...
GPS jammer safety worries rise
22 Feb 2012 at 1:30am Filed under: News
GPS might be useful in your TomTom or Garmin satnav. But criminals are increasingly turning to GPS jamming to hide their tracks.A new Sentinel jamming report will reveal that increasing numbers of jamming monitors are being used by criminals - and the consequences for your safety - whether you're on land, sea or in the air - can be profound.
Collision chances GPS jamming can mean that ships (or planes) can potentially give out false information to other craft about their position - significantly increasing the likelihood of a collision, hindering communication between crew and coastguards, for example, or airport ground control staff.
"The spread of the jamming technology," said Consultant and Location and Timing system expert, Professor David Last, "with devices available online for only £50, makes a major incident at sea, whether accidental or intentional, a real danger. In the English Channel, the world's busiest seaway, I personally believe we will see such an incident in the next decade."
An incident at US Newark airport is a good example of the current worry. In 2009, navigation aids at Newark airport began suffering brief reception breaks. Investigators from the US Federal Aviation Authority took several months to identify the issue. In the the end they tracked a driver who regularly passed on the New Jersey Turnpike - with a GPS jammer in his vehicle.
Moonlighting But GPS jammers, more broadly, can operation in a variety of situations. From van drivers moonlighting to parents picking up their children in their company vehicle, using the technology to suppress GPS signals, and their whereabouts.
"Whilst the identification of the threat is well established, and through roadside monitoring we are making great strides in the detection and location of these devices, the final stage, mitigation, is still some way off depending on the application and industry sector," says Sentinel.
"The question for the authorities is what we are going to do once the owners of these jammers are identified and how can we prevent others using them."
The full findings of the Sentinel survey will be unveiled at the GNSS Vulnerability 2012: Present Danger, Future Threats conference, National Physical Laboratory.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Read more...
And you thought you knew what an iPad looks like
22 Feb 2012 at 1:17am Filed under: Investing
I bet you think you know what an iPad looks like. If asked, you'd probably describe it as a small flat tablet computer boasting a 9.7-inch display and sporting an Apple logo on its back. Wrong.
It actually looks a lot like an entirely different Apple product: the original iMac.
The year was 1998, shortly after Steve Jobs' return to Apple. One of the first eye-catching products that Jobs and design guru Jony Ive came up with was the iMac all-in-one, which continues to be among Apple's primary product lines.
%VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar%
Having competitors copy Apple's innovative design is hardly a new phenomenon, and a small Chinese computer maker named Proview took note of the iMac's style and decided to respond in kind, even down to the carrying handle on top of the machine. Thus, the "Internet Personal Access Device," or iPAD, was born.
Source: Proview.
The company has said it spent $30 million developing the iPAD and produced between 10,000 and 20,000 units between 1998 and 2009, when Apple bought the trademark from a Proview subsidiary through a shell company for roughly $55,000 in anticipation of its own iPad tablet. Proview is now disputing the trademark's ownership and wants even more dollars, with demands as high as $2 billion, or more than 36,000 times the original amount.
Proview is in bankruptcy, hoping that scoring some of the Mac maker's money will help it pay off some of its creditors. It alleges that the subsidiary that sold the moniker didn't have the full rights to the name.
Apple shares hit $500The company is going for the jugular with its attack, requesting a ban of imports and exports across China's borders, which has the potential to cripple Apple's supply chain as iPads are assembled in the country. Various courts are going back and forth, with some siding with Apple while others have Proview's back; much of this case is still up in the air, complete with appeals on both sides.
The iPad isn't the only offering to have faced trademark hurdles. The iPhone and iOS names, which are now largely associated with Cupertino, originally belonged to Cisco Systems. The two tech giants settled long ago over both names. It also bought the FaceTime name for its video-calling service from a security software company of the same name, which has since changed its name to Actiance.
This iPAD trademark dispute isn't Apple's first, and it certainly won't be its last.
This article originally appeared on Dailyfinance.com.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Read more...
