FSA says shop around for Loan Payment Protection Insurance
Due to the thousands of complaints it received from the public about the mis-selling of PPI (Payment Protection Insurance), the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has for three years been investigating the way that PPI is sold. Last Year the FSA announced that it would undertake a further and far more extensive investigation into the PPI selling methods, particularly to test whether:
1. When borrowing money, customers are told that PPI is optional.
2. Customers are given clear information about the PPI product and its cost.
3. Customers are given the assistance they need by the Lenders to be clear about what they are eligible for under
the policy and what the exclusions are that will affect a claim.
4. When advice is given to a customer the advice should only recommended a policy that meets their individual needs. This includes sales material where PPI products and services marketed and sold in the UK are designed to meet the needs of the consumer.
5. All customers should be offered a fair refund if they cancel their policy. Customers do not face unreasonable post-sale barriers imposed by firms to change product or switch to an independent PPI provider, submit a claim or make a complaint about the policy.
This year the FSA both outwardly and as part of a commissioned mystery shopper exercise visited 150 sellers of
Loan Payment Protection Insurance, the PPI product that had received the most number of complaints, who sell LPPI alongside their unsecured personal loan offerings.
The FSA investigation found that:
“ 1. There have been improvements in two of the outcomes above, namely in making it
clear that PPI is optional and providing refunds on virtually all single-premium
policies, but little or no improvement in the remaining three, including the disclosure
of price and policy details as well as firms’ consideration of eligibility and suitability.
2. Around two thirds of firms visited and nearly all of the firms mystery shopped failed to meet the ICOB requirements.
3.Around 30 percent of firms visited and less than 50 percent of firms mystery shopped failed to insure that customers are given the basic information necessary to make an informed decision about this product; and many PPI products do not appear to be designed to meet the needs of the customers to whom they are sold.
The FSA have stated that they believe that customers would generally benefit from a more flexible Loan payment protection product that can be tailored to meet their needs and is targeted accordingly, and that they expect firms to take active steps to ensure they are meeting the three investigation outcomes identified as problem areas.
If you are lucky enough to get a loan in the current economic climate, do not take out the PPI that a lender is offering, because it will cost you at least four times the premium than that offered by independent companies such as British Insurance or Personal Accident. It pays to shop around and you’ll probably be offered better cover with less exclusions, so the only worry you’ll have is how to pay off your loan
Labels: loan payment protection insurance
Boat Insurance quote comparison site
You've only got to search on the Internet for all the popular personal lines insurance such as Car Insurance or Home insurance or even gas bills and you'll find the lisitngs dominated by the big insurance comparison sites.
Now this is great if you are Joe Normal and aren't too particular about the cover you get, but these sites don't help me find cover for my 12 foot laser sailing dingy.
So it was refreshing to search through lists of results to find a site that actually finds me quotes and price comparisons for my small boat without having to fill in reams of questions just to get cover from one operator.
Small boat insurance company BoatInsurance.org.uk have made the process very easy and quick and can offer instant online cover for all boats under 23 feet in length and in my case for under a tenner. Definitely worth a visit if you own a small boat and want to save time and money! Boat insurance can cover sailing dinghies, sailboats, motorboats, motor cruisers, catamarans, sailing boats, small yachts, keelboats, powerboats, speedboats, RIBs, small multi hulls, wind and sailboards, jet skis and personal watercraft, rowing boats, kayaks, canoes and all watercraft under 23 feet.
Visit
http://www.boatinsurance.org.ukLabels: boat insurance, small boat insurance
Mortgage Indemnity Insurance Explained
We often get told 'we've got mortgage indemnity' or 'we don't need
mortgage payment protection as we've got mortgage indemnity'. So we thought we had better put the record straight on the differences between the two.
If you are paying
mortgage indemnity insurance (which you shouldn't be) you are paying for a lender to be protected should you fall foul of the credit agreement and not pay the loan or mortgage.
Mortgage indemnity is insurance that your lender may ask you to take out for its protection in case, at some future stage, you fall significantly behind with your mortgage payments and your lender has to repossess your property and sell it. If the property is sold for less than the amount of your outstanding mortgage, your lender can claim on the mortgage indemnity to recover some (or all) of its loss.
You should be aware that mortgage indemnity does not cover you. You must repay all the money owed under your mortgage, whether or not your lender makes an indemnity claim.
Mortgage payment protection insurance or MPPI protects your mortgage payments should you lose your job or get sick. Most mortgages can be covered for under £20 per month if you go to an independent supplier such as
Personal Accident or
British Insurance.
MPPI, or
mortgage payment protection insurance, is private insurance that borrowers may take out to insure against sudden loss of income due to unemployment or health-related difficulties. This type of insurance is also known as Accident, Sickness and Unemployment insurance or ‘ASU’.
It is a good idea to take out MPPI, or some other form of income protection insurance, because state benefits do not normally cover mortgage interest during the first nine months you are out of work. The above independent suppliers will offer insurance cover that is suitable for you and your circumstances - and can cover you if you are self-employed, on a fixed term contract, or have a pre-existing medical condition.
Labels: income protection insurance, mortgage payment protection insurance, mortgage protection insurance
Tesco Half Price Home Insurance
On the day that Inflation figures are published showing a slight drop due mainly to the correction of oil prices, retailers are reporting massive drops in sales over the last quarter and the usual pre-Christmas rush to the High Streets just isn't happening. TV channels have been interviewing the public and it seems just like house prices the canny consumer is waiting more than ever this year for Sales.
Some industry commentators are predicting record Christmas sales for online businesses as consumers shop around in the Internet for the best bargains.
At Insurance Blog we're more prone to take a cautious view of events as, for example, these very same consumers will need a credit card in order to purchase online and as credit card debt is everywhere and has yet to be properly addresssed by the lenders, we predict that the Internet Sales will suffer just as much as the High Street, which at the end of the day may well fare better given the last minute Christmas rush that is bound to occur.
Given this background UK Insurance distributor TESCO is offering a massive giveaway of fifty percent on its home insurance Quotes are valid for 90 days and must be made before the 7th January (twelth day of Christmas included).
With exceptional cover at what were already low prices this has got to be one of the Insurance Bargains of the year - so far.
Additional Covers included for FREE
Tesco Home Insurance:
* - Further 5% discount for Tesco Car Insurance customers
* - Clubcard customers get an even better price
* - We'll pay any switching fees up to £25 when you switch from your mortgage lender
* - All our calls are answered in our UK Call centres
* - 24-hour emergency helpline
* - Home Repair network – all repairs are undertaken by vetted builders and all costs are paid directly to them with no fuss or hassle
* - Any work undertaken is guaranteed for 12 months
* - More price options available with Value cover offering basic essential cover and * - Finest cover offering inclusive benefits such as a Concierge service and free ID Fraud assistance
We await the others - watch this space
Labels: credit crunch, Home Insurance, tesco home insurance
Insurance Cyber Network up for Sale
Here at Insurance Blog we love to speculate and predict outcomes, usually based on probability, for our own personal chest beating and so we can turn around after the event and say 'told you so!'
After all isn't that how Insurance operates!
But we're not averse to a bit of rumour or gossip as well especially when it could involve a lateral shift in the way Insurance is sold on the Internet, which soon will in one form or another BE for most products the only way insurance is transacted and sold!
Word has reached one of our intrepid contributors that an Insurance / Investment Company with a very large warchest has been making approaches to some of the best Internet Insurance marketing companies who run the major independent insurance directories out there in Cyberspace, with the intention of aquisition. One company is believed to be in advanced talks with a Broker Network to the purported sum of five million UK pounds
Now this is hardly surprising stuff, but it's made very interesting for two reasons.There are currently around 10 to 20 very large agglomerates of insurance brokers and underwriters and investment companies out there in the UK who have reached their current size in the UK Insurance market today through aquisition of companies and Insurance Brokers and accounts and books of Insurance business and physical businesses and buildings.
So does this mean that there are no more available smaller real-world businesses to buy and they've finally turned their attention to what is available in other distribution channels?
ORThey've looked enviously at the way that Moneysupermarket.com etc. and all the other comparison / aggregator websites dominate the Search Engines for all the major keywords in their market, and have realised that these types of cyber insurance networks could give them a platform on which to compete and maybe take advantage over the single comparison site big Google payers, for just about every niche insurance market.
If the latter is true, which I doubt their business foresight or acumen, then we would see a serious shift in the way Insurance is sold on the Internet.
A large cyber insurance network would fit many a large insurance (broker or company)network with little or no painful business integration and could be assimilated in the existing business corporate Internet structure on a transitional basis with little or no disruption to current processes. The cyber network would create hundreds of links during any assimilation which by its very process would create and pass enough page rank to compete with all those comparison sites that buy links. Very powerful stuff. It would also give a rapid ROI as many of these cybernetworks dominate the niche insurance products cyber markets and search engines.
There are currently equally, about 20 of these insurance cyber networks out there. You can easily come across their websites everywhere in all Insurance Internet niches. In many places they are managing the complete online lead generation for individual insurance companies and brokers. They are easily recognisable from their generic or keyword domain names and are often managed by small teams of so called Webmasters.
So got any ideas whose after who?
We believe we can narrow it down to possibly three candidates for the honeypot simply by looking at who dominates the google query for 'insurance directories' and niche products keyword searches.....as for the wolf...hmm we'll keep you posted if we hear anything but there are some very predatory broker networks and companies out there at the moment... so expect some big announcements soon!
Realising that Moneysupermarket and the other Insurance comparison websites that dominate the search engines front pages for keyword searches like 'Car Insurance'
each spend over
£5 million each week in Adwords and other PPC advertising perhaps £5 million for one of these internet website networks is small beer in the bigger scheme of things.
Even more worrying, especially for the niche players and the public is if the likes of MoneySupermarket.com or one of the other insurance comparison sites who retain their search engine postitions by buying lnks, see £5m as a very cheap investment indeed.
Isn't agglomeration a wonderful thing. Did you use to collect football cards when you were a kid?
Expect a goldrush!
Labels: Insurance companies, insurance marketing, insurance news, Internet Marketing
Insurance SEO
Hi all you SEO experts out there - I hear you're all making millions.
Today I thought I'd share a secret or two with you about SEO for Insurance as a little thank you for helping to get this site to the top of Yah and Gog in a couple of months - without trying!.
1. It most definitely is about the domain name - you are what you say you are which is what people want and search for!
2. Out of the 200+ variables that google assigns to and then translates into a canonical value for a given node (webpage) and then runs its multivariate algos over to determine SERPS automatically - domain name can carry as much weight as title tag especially if it is natural language!
3. Domain name + great original content + natural linkage + refreshing content = Sucess which is deemed to be White Hat
4. Time - aged domain names over 5 years old and unused are immediately trusted by the SE's - and rightly so as the investment has been long term!
5. Insurance domain names are white hot property at this current moment as canny investors adjust their long term investment plans, and they are changing hands rapidly as the smaller investors cash in to the aggregators and long term big boys. Expect 7 figures plus for exceptional collections and even a modest long established site in the financial sector will fetch £50K+.
Buying a green or brownfield website/domain name gives instant SE ranking with short term ROI and long term ambitions!
Labels: insurance domain names, insurance marketing, Internet Marketing
Banks reduced to selling HOME INSURANCE - Tesco outguns them
Like many others in the UK I must have sat down and watched the Location Location Location Credit Crunch special wondering how much my house was worth - or not.
But did anyone notice the subliminal message throughout ' program sponsored by...' and all the Bank adverts in the commercial breaks selling - HOME INSURANCE
Well I suppose it had to expected, after all Banks couldn't sell us pensions in the pre crunch market, now they can't offer us
credit, loans, mortgages or plastic since they messed the market up between them and now, uh what's left, oh yeah lets sell them HOME INSURANCE.
You must have seen that pathetic annnoying ad from Nat West with those idiot bankers trying to sell products - Well sorry Nat West the UK public don't differentiate - Bankers are Bankers! Now the same prats are all fighting over home insurance.
Don't buy into it as in most cases you are better off going to the source rather than the super affiliate. Check the small print to see who underwrites the cover - bet it's not the bank!
The only exception to the rule is the best buy home insurance cover - which does vary by campaign and this month is without doubt Tesco.
So if you're looking for standard home insurance savings at the current time, look no further than TESCO HOME INSURANCE who have today slashed their rates by a massive 50% and offfer further online discounts. The cover underwritten by UK Insurance is in our opinion far wider and better than the bank offerings with features such as unlimited buildings sums insureds.
Today Tesco Personal Finance launch their latest offer on Home Insurance – Get 50% off your premium when you get a quote for Tesco Standard or Finest Home Insurance by 7th January 2009 and then buy that policy.
Offer applies to new customers in their first year only when you get a quote for Tesco Standard or Finest Home Insurance by 7th Jan 2009 and then buy that policy. Quotes are valid for 90 days. This offer Excludes Value and Buy to let Insurance.
Additional benefits of
Tesco Home Insurance:
Further 5% discount for Tesco Car Insurance customers
Clubcard customers get an even better price
We'll pay any switching fees up to £25 when you switch from your mortgage lender
All our calls are answered in our UK Call centres
24-hour emergency helpline
Home Repair network – all repairs are undertaken by vetted builders and all costs are paid directly to them with no fuss or hassle
Any work undertaken is guaranteed for 12 months
More price options available with Value cover offering basic essential cover and Finest cover offering inclusive benefits such as a Concierge service and free ID Fraud assistance
Labels: Banks, Home Insurance, tesco home insurance
