Online Travel Insurance Available with Hedon Insurance

Hedon Insurance will get you out of a fix with your travel insurance

If you’ve left it too late to buy your travel insurance and you’re getting earache from your partner, don’t be tempted to ‘wing it’- as the consequences if you find yourself taken ill and needing significant medical assistance whilst abroad are potentially ruinous. Medical bills can rapidly escalate to tens of thousands of pounds if you are taken seriously ill whilst overseas and if you are unable to show a means of payment essential treatment could be withheld.

It’s not worth contemplating, so just click here and you can arrange your cover online, 24 hours a day.

You can arrange ‘Single Trip’,‘Annual (Multi Trip)’ travel insurance, either restricted to ‘Europe’ or for cover ‘Worldwide’, as well as special packages for ‘Winter Sports’ enthusiasts.

You’ll like the prices too – we’ve negotiated great rates for our customers and the policy provides generous coverage for the majority of problems that you may encounter whilst travelling or at your destination.

Visit our online travel insurance website for full details and a quote!

Buy Travel Insurance on line

Permanent link to this article: http://hedoninsurance.co.uk/515/online-travel-insurance-available-with-hedon-insurance/

Smart Keys – smarter than their owners?

How smart is your car key? If you drive a modern vehicle it may well be smarter than you think and, as a number of owners are currently finding, the keys are actually proving to be far smarter than their owners.

I thought a smart key was just the motor industry’s way of setting motorists up for an expensive fall should they be careless enough to lose one of the new breed of intelligent keys. Lose a Mercedes smart key for instance and it could cost you up to £300 to replace it – which does just seem a little ludicrous – but when you consider what a key can now do it is cheap at half the price (well almost).

For example, did you know that a smart key has a memory chip inside it which wirelessly updates itself when the ignition is turned off to record, amongst other things, the distance travelled on the last journey as well as the total mileage that the vehicle has covered? No, I didn’t either.

This bit of treacherous telemetry was obviously devised to try and help prevent members of the motor trade being duped by owners ‘clocking’ their vehicles – the key will always know the mileage covered, even if the car’s odometer doesn’t.

But now Smart keys are even being used to solve ‘crimes’ – crimes usually involving the vehicle’s hapless owner. The Sunday Times recently published a catalogue of case studies where owners had sensationally failed to outsmart their car keys.

The highlights were : a man fromHartlepoolwho claimed that his Mini had been stolen. Upon subsequently surrendering the keys to his insurer these were interrogated by a Mini dealer who was able to establish that the car had in fact been driven by the owner 1500 miles since it was reported stolen! He received a suspended sentence and community service but above all, he will always carry the shame of not being as clever as a car key.

Another man who failed to outwit his key, was found guilty of crashing his car under the influence of alcohol when police were able to establish that his car, which he alleged had been stolen, was last driven using the key which was still in his possession.

All of you armchair criminals out there, thinking ‘Well surely the easy solution here then is to simply ‘lose’ or ‘destroy’ the key’ have obviously never tried to make an insurance claim for theft without having the keys to the car. Just for the record, insurers are incredibly reluctant to pay out on a car theft where the owner cannot provide the keys, as they will argue that you were negligent in allowing the key or keys to be lost.

So what is the future for smart keys? Basic engine management and diagnostic information can already be retained on the key – so if you are ever tempted to think of having your car ‘stolen’ after a failed MOT, at the prospect of major repairs or a major service bill – the key could once again be the smoking gun in your pocket!

Just imagine the joy that these keys could have brought to Peter Falk’s 70’s detective, Columbo. He would have undoubtedly had the majority of his crimes wrapped up before the first ad break had the smart key been about in his day. Thank goodness it wasn’t.

Permanent link to this article: http://hedoninsurance.co.uk/494/smart-keys-smarter-than-their-owners/

Hedon Insurance Opens New Cottingham Office

Hedon Insurance brings broking back to Cottingham’s high street

The opening of our new office this month will bring insurance broking back onto Cottingham’s high street for the first time in several years.

The firm has been steadily expanding in recent years from our East Riding base and we now employ 14 people. The new, generously sized office in Cottingham at 195 Hallgate will be our fourth and is intended to establish a foothold for the firm in the North and West Hull markets. The new office will be managed by the firm’s experienced sales adviser, Paul Welsh.

One of the firm’s motivations to open an office in Cottingham was to use the considerable experience we have built up in recent years obtaining insurance for people in East Hull and nearby villages affected by the storm and subsequent floods of 2007.

‘We are expecting to be able to help homeowners in Cottingham and its surrounding villages make some significant savings on their home insurance – as we understand the issues involved’ explains Paul Welsh ‘we have experienced the same issues in the villages to the east of Hull and we have developed an understanding with some of our insurers of the risks involved’

Managing director, Anne Walters, is similarly confident that the firm’s brand of service will be well received in Cottingham. ‘We are delighted to be coming to Cottingham. I am sure that people in Cottingham, Willerby, Skidby and Beverley will like the Hedon Insurance experience.’

‘We have become well known locally for maintaining the ‘traditional’ style of insurance broking, having local offices where our customers can deal face to face with an adviser for most types of insurance.’ Anne Explains.

This personal, face to face service approach has resulted in a steady increase in our market share in recent years, as an increasing number of people have become disillusioned with the way many insurers have centralised, become call centre based or gone online.

‘There is still thankfully a large number of customers who value a personal service’ explains Paul ‘We know our markets, we have more insurers at our finger tips than the majority of people can access themselves on-line, our premiums are competitive and we’re there for them if things go wrong.’ Paul Continues.

‘The bottom line is that people can spend hours doing their own research on-line and then still end up crossing their fingers!’ muses Paul ‘They’d be much better just coming in and seeing us!’

The new office has the same phone number as our other offices
Hull 707 800

Permanent link to this article: http://hedoninsurance.co.uk/375/new-cottingham-office-opens-hedon-insurance/

Motor Insurance

We are all braced for what effect the fairly recent EU’s Gender Directive on Motor Insurance will have on the motor insurance market.

For those of you who may not have seen or taken an interest in the news item a couple of months back – you need to start paying attention, particularly if you insure a vehicle.

The gist of it is that insurers will no longer be able to differentiate motor insurance rates on a gender basis, or if you prefer – to discriminate.

This should be great news if you are a young man and a disaster if you are a young lady.

If you are a young lady, you are going to face a significant hike in your premiums when the legislation comes into effect in December 2012.If you’re a young male driver, you could be able to bag yourself a nice Tag Heuer watch with your savings.

The UK insurance industry does not seem to have seen this one coming, and has neither prepared itself for it nor is it able to challenge it – as it is a directive.

What we have here is a classic example of what happens when you apply the ‘principles of fairness’ to real life, and insurance in particular.

Insurance rates are based on the probabilities of an event occurring and the likely cost of restitution if it does. Yes, insurers are very similar to bookies, if you like! To assess risks they use statistics (what has happened in the past) like a bookie takes account of a horse’s previous outings.

Insurance premiums are, therefore, based on the statistics that they collect and their direct experience in a market.
They have no interest in the chemical structure or the gender of their customers and it is wrong that they should have such measures – which to even the most un-opinionated would register as counterintuitive – foisted upon them by a European edict.

The reason that the insurance industry charges so much to insure young male drivers is because they ‘statistically’ have more claims – in fact, if you take the time to speak to a few underwriters, they would charge young male drivers even more, if the market could stand it without driving them to be an ‘uninsured underclass’ – as it is a completely unprofitable line of business.

Conversely, females are a more equitable risk for insurers as the actuaries can prove that they have less accidents and the accidents they do have, cost the insurers less.

No. Underwriting should be based upon facts not some EU court’s definition of ‘fairness’. It should be left to the market to work out. Imagine, having statistics that inform you how to run a responsible and profitable business and then being told that you cannot use them. Instead, you have to cross subsidise the risks across different types of customers – because a European Court deems that to be fair?

I have a horrible feeling that it won’t end there. I can see discounts for pensioners being the next victim of the ‘fairness’ offensive, whilst the life insurance industry is no doubt braced for being told that it cannot charge sick or old people more than they charge healthy under 25’s.

I did think at first that this one might be a news item on a ‘slow’ news day but, I regret that this one is coming your way and soon, I as a male will gratefully accept my lower premium, but it will be a hollow victory that our European Friends have won for me.

Permanent link to this article: http://hedoninsurance.co.uk/246/motor-insurance-car-insurance/

Buildings and Contents Insurance

It’s now over four years since the 2007 storm. In just 24 hours between 25th and 26th June 2007, 100mm (about 4”) of rain fell on Hull and the surrounding district, causing devastation to almost

9 000 homes.  It was likened at the time to 20 Olympic sized swimming pools falling on the town every second!

The subsequent flooding of almost 9 000 homes has had a major impact on the buildings & contents insurance market locally. Refusal of cover, high excesses and, in some cases, refused claims (due to failure to disclose the flooding risk) have all been suffered by local residents.

Few Insurance firms are better placed to comment on the matter than Hedon Insurance, with offices in : Hedon, Hornsea and East Hull, we insured a sizeable number of the properties affected by the 2007 storm. Our lines were jammed for days dealing with claims.

‘Since 2007, we have had to change our approach to property insurance in order to keep our client’s cover realistically priced and effective. But, since the fourth year has passed, we have been very successful at getting cover for clients, at realistic rates, with some insurers’ observes Managing Director, Anne Walters.

The Storm and subsequent flooding affected the operations of 1300 businesses locally and 3000 families were forced out of their homes. The cost of property insurance claims locally was enormous, running into hundreds of millions of pounds.

It wasn’t therefore surprising, perhaps, that Scientists’ declarations that it was a ‘one in a hundred years event’ failed to convince the underwriters at most of the UK’s leading insurers that it would be another 99 years before such conditions were seen again!

‘What happened is very difficult for insurers to legislate for going forward’ explains Anne Walters ‘Floods tend to be caused by high sea levels or rivers and streams breaking their banks – this flooding was caused by a failure of the region’s drainage system to cope with a storm, on a scale which has never been witnessed locally’

‘In the face of such claims, it is natural that insurers would view the risk posed by properties in the region differently’ Anne continues ‘And that they would need to reflect the recent claims position locally in premiums going forward. Some customers were given a hard time by insurers in the year following the storm although things are getting better now’

Buyers now have to be very careful when completing insurance application forms. Insurers often ask questions such as : ‘Do you live near water?’ or ‘has your home ever flooded?’ or ‘is it free from flooding and in an area free from flooding?’ The problem is that a lot of people in our area would have to answer ‘yes’ to one of those questions now.

And so the problems begin. Failure to disclose a known flood risk is likely to invalidate your property insurance in the event of a claim.

‘A lot of ‘online’ insurance quotations will either not ask about flood risk specifically, assuming it as being ‘in the negative’ in a long list of assumptions that you ‘click’ in acceptance of, or if a risk of flood is declared they will decline to quote. People who believe that they would be considered to be at risk of flooding need to be very careful when they ‘click the box’ what they are agreeing to ’

‘I am usually comfortable with people exerting their freedom of choice to buy their cover from wherever they like – it’s a market, after all. However, for people living around here, I would definitely suggest that they stay with local firms to ensure that the person arranging the cover will take into account ‘local factors’ – such as flooding risks’

The key to getting the best terms for cover that will stand up to the test of a claim is to be absolutely honest when answering all the questions on the insurance proposal form. Do not be tempted not to disclose significant facts – like your house has previously flooded – you’d be surprised what insurers databases can tell them! If you have made a claim previously – remember to mention it and include the important details. Finally, even if you do go on to shop around, make sure that you speak to a local broker and get some advice relating to any local issues.

Hedon Insurance can confirm that insurers are still open for business in Hull and the surrounding area. ‘With few exceptions, we can still get competitive cover for customers in areas that were caught by the storm’ Anne Walters concludes.

Permanent link to this article: http://hedoninsurance.co.uk/244/buildings-and-contents-insurance/

Taxi Insurance

It’s been a tough market for taxi insurance over the last 12 months with several companies pulling out of the market and those that have remained have significantly hiked their rates.

Hedon Insurance are, therefore, extremely pleased to have negotiated some great new rates for taxi insurance in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire with some of our providers.

The new premiums rates are proving extremely competitive in the market place and have resulted in us completing business on a high percentage of the enquiries that we have had over the last 3 months, which has created a buzz in our specialist taxi unit on Holderness Road.

‘I am pleased that we have managed to get some good rates to go with the premium face to face service that we provide for our taxi customers on Holderness Road.’ Said Paul Welsh.

It is worth knowing that if you visit Hedon Insurance’s Holderness Road offices with the correct documentation, our specialist taxi team will get you quotes, explain the cover, provide full written details, put you on cover and issue your certificate while you wait.

Permanent link to this article: http://hedoninsurance.co.uk/242/taxi-insurance-hedon-insurance/

Travel Insurance

People’s motivation to purchase travel insurance varies tremendously from one person to another but whatever, motivates you – you can discuss  your requirements and arrange your travel insurance ‘face to face’ at any of Hedon Insurance’s offices.

Protecting yourself and your possessions is what motivates some, protecting the costs incurred in booking the holiday in case the holiday is cancelled or the tour company fails is another motivating factor, but perhaps the biggest risk you are taking by going abroad is being taken ill.

There’s a limit to how much value you can fit in a few suitcases, there’s a limit to how much you can actually spend on a holiday for two weeks, but there is virtually no limit on what being taken ill whilst on holiday can cost.

Every year, the newspapers are full of horror stories where families have faced financial ruin because a family member has been taken ill (and uninsured) whilst abroad.

Applying and carrying a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) will undoubtedly help within countries in the European Union but if you are travelling outside of this area you must take out adequate insurance to prevent a potential financial disaster.

If a serious enough health condition strikes outside of the European borders, the rate that you can rack up medical costs is absolutely mind blowing.

The average cost of a medical emergency abroad is currently about £1333. In the USA the average medical bill is £4726 and the average cost of the most common medical investigation abroad – chest pains/heart conditions – is a painful £8 148.

Get taken seriously ill and your life’s work can be completely consumed in a matter of weeks – one night’s intensive care treatment in Florida could set you back $8500 and bills of up to $60 000 dollars for a injury and short convalescence are not unheard of.

So, don’t think it just about the loss of your budget airline flight ticket, the contents of your suitcase or volcanic ash – think of travel insurance as your guardian angel, should ill health strike, as that is what you are paying it for.

Remember, you can discuss your requirements and arrange your travel insurance ‘face to face’ at any of Hedon Insurance’s offices but, if you’ve left it a bit late and you’re sat at the airport, you can apply on-line at our website – www.hedoninsurance.co.uk – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even at Gate 12; the insurer will even text you details of your cover, so no printer required!

Permanent link to this article: http://hedoninsurance.co.uk/240/travel-insurance-hedon-insurance/

Financial Services

Are you hiding from the truth? Are you a member of ‘the savings gap’ club – are you one of the 7.5 million people in the UK who have no savings whatsoever? Are you one of the 12.7 million people, not paying into any form of pension, hiding from ‘the pension time bomb’ ? Effectively, pretending that you are never going to retire?

All recent financial research confirms the horrible truth that a large proportion of people are failing to plan adequately for their futures and an increasing number of people are heading for financial meltdown as a consequence of not planning at all.

Not having any spare money is the excuse most put forward for people failing to save, but this is just another way of saying that they are currently living beyond their means and are spending too much!

Failing to plan for your future is becoming an ever more dangerous strategy, as state retirement ages increase and the real value of state benefits falls.

For people over 65, £137.35 per week for a single person and £209.70 for a couple is the current minimum (and effectively the maximum state support) pension income guarantee, with average household utility bills amounting to around £350 per month – people on this level of income are going to have severely limited financial options and corresponding lifestyles. Is that what you want for your retirement?

But, it isn’t just about your retirement, it’s also about the decades ‘in between’. It’s an increasingly special person who has an uninterrupted career from school to the receipt of their pension, and there are an increasing number of people who are effectively forced to ‘retire’ early as they come out of work in middle age.

Without something ‘behind’ them in the form of savings, adapting to life with very little income comes as a very sharp lesson indeed and is very difficult to escape from once you become ensnared.

If you’re starting to feel uneasy reading the above, it’s not too late to change your course and achieve a better balance in your current and future planning.

An independent financial adviser can help you to re-appraise your financial life, help you avoid haemorrhaging money, set up simple savings habits and protection programmes that put you back in charge of your destiny.

For further details of how to link up with an independent financial adviser, locally, please contact any one of our offices.

Permanent link to this article: http://hedoninsurance.co.uk/237/financial-services-2/

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