Competition for your Holiday Insurance
Competition for your Holiday Insurance - Holiday Home owners will be delighted to hear that there are now a record number of companies fighting to arrange your travel insurance. Competition is strong and premiums are now at an all time low. In a report, it is claimed that there are now over 175 separate distributors fighting for an industry that generates business of 700.00 million per annum. Whilst this completion is good news for holiday home owners wishing to obtain cover, some insurers will be unable to sustain the low premiums being charged and will without doubt be forced out of the market. If you travel regularly to your second home, it may be an ideas to try to obtain a quotation for an annual policy as prices for these are now at rock bottom.
Provident Insurance for Sale - more shake up in the UK motor insurance industry as Provident Financial agrees to the sale of Provident Insurance, a motor insurance provider. Provident insurance are a well known product provider to the high street broking community and offer a range of Comprehensive & Third Party products, they have special rates for female drivers. The purchaser of the business is Car Care Plan a subsidiary of GMAC insurance and the agreed price is thought to be in the region of 170 million pounds. In 2006 Provident Insurance reported turnover of 161.00 million pounds and made a pre-tax profit of 41.00 million. The sale has been brought about by the groups capital restructuring plans. Brokers will greet this news with hope that the new owners continue with Provident as a product provider of high street motor policies and perhaps will even extend the range of products on offer.
Insurance Fraud a problem - New figures released suggest that insurance fraud is now reaching worrying proportions. Fraud is most evident in the car insurance industry and inevitably, it does increase premiums for all customers. There are two types of fraudsters at work in the UK insurance industry, the honest policyholder who will slightly inflate a claim if he or she can get away with it, and the professional fraudsters that deliberately sets out to make false claims. Not only car damage or bogus Theft claims are attempted by the professional fraudsters but in particular personal injury claims, which can cost many thousand of pounds. In 2005 there were nearly 3 million insurance claims made in the United Kingdom and it is believed that fraud was involved in a significant number of cases. Insurers are fighting back though and recently Aviva, owners of Norwich Union introduced voice stress analysis to help ascertain if people are telling the truth or not. From an individual policyholders point of view it is worth pointing out that insurance fraud is a crime, if you are found guilty of it, not only will you receive a criminal conviction but it will prove very difficult to obtain insurance at a future date. On insurance proposal forms and declarations, insurers always ask if you have had any insurance cancelled or refused, and answering this question in the affirmative will probably mean your proposal will be declined.
HSBC & Aviva in joint venture - HSBC and Aviva, the owners of insurance giant Norwich Union have announced plans for the creation of a joint venture which will be branded HSBC Insurance. The new deal will see Norwich Union market and distribute products to the banks 10.2 million customers. This new joint venture is seen as muscle flexing by HSBC who although active in insurance broking for many years have never really delivered on value for money products. HSBC are delighted at the tie up and are confident that the Norwich Union brand name, quality of cover and product competitiveness will be a real bonus to it's customers.
Heath Lambert up for Grabs - The name Heath Lambert is well known in insurance broking circles, they provide a broad product range but now it would appear, they are up for sale. The company wishes to keep it's retail operation sections and sell of the non retail business. Representatives of the company have approached other companies operating in the sector with view to disposing of the specialist wholesale decision for an amount believed to e 20 million. Heath Lambert have a strong retail association with brokers, they provide amongst other things Home Insurance products and have launched several; Internet ventures. It is believed that the company wish to restructure as in time, concentrating on retail insurance sales alone will make the company a more attractive proposition for a take over bid. Perennial takeover company Tower gate have of course been mention as the company most likely to buy the retail business but this is of course being hotly denied. Towergate are known to have a war chest of funds to make acquisitions and the recent appointment of Patrick Snowball, former head of Norwich Union is likely to see more acquisitions in the near future.
Will Interest Rates Rise? - It is broadly expected that interest rates will rise today to 5.5%. However doubts are now being raised over whether the bank of England actually needs to raise rates by this amount. Evidence is emerging that high street consumer activity may be cooling. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said that despite a hot Easter period which boosted sales of clothing and shoes, sales growth was down to it's lowest level in half a year. This down turn in sales could be a result of consumers factoring a rate increase that has been widely tipped for the last two months and actually making a conscious decision to save money. Consumer spending is the key to interest rates and it has not been ruled out that back to back increases may occur. Homeowners will be watching the news closely today to see if a rate rise is announced and many believe that today is a good day to'bury" bad news as Tony Blair is expected to announce his resignation and that will certainly over shadow everything else.
