Remember last winter and the freezing snow on the roads.  It soon melted away, but sweeping the roads clean of ice and grit left a plethora of cracks, including A roads and main routes into cities and primary motorways, looking like the crater face of the moon.

With the projected local authority road maintenance budgets cut this year, there are still a fair number of roads yet to be repaired and filled in.  Neglected roads with pot holes are more than a nuisance and repeated bumpy rides, especially in a van with a load in the back, can take its toll on the van as well as damage the contents like your tools.

The RAC is reporting that these poor road surfaces are causing damage to many commercial and private vehicles effecting hauliers, couriers and professional tradesman including the white van man.  Your car or van Suspension is one area that needs to be maintained with heavy loads to enable a safe journey, but reports show that many people are delaying or not bothering with repairing their vehicles due to high costs.  Quotes for commercial van insurance may take a hit on this causing an unwanted increase in van insurance costs. With rising fuel costs on top of this, it’s easy to see why people are not forking out on repairs. Whatever the outcome, making sure your business is covered for the unpredictability on the roads is always recommended to ensure piece of mind in case of an accident. The risks are just as high as ever!

The financial security of your family has probably been one of your biggest concerns up to now. You could have taken care of this in different ways, from working hard to paying the bills and providing them with a good standard of living, to running the household and providing the best environment you can for living in. What you may not have done is think about what your contribution is actually worth to your family, and how they would manage if you were unable to support them in the way you do now due to being diagnosed with a serious illness. Critical life insurance is a policy that protects against these, and anyone with dependants should seriously consider it.

If you were to die unexpectedly, or develop a serious illness that meant you were unable to work, would your family still be financially secure? Even if you do not work, would your family be able to afford to pay others to take over all of the work you do around the home? We often don’t like to think about things like this, but unpleasant as they are it makes good financial sense to plan for them just in case things go wrong.

Critical life cover combines elements of two different types of policy so that you get the best possible value for the cover, and it can lead to substantial savings when compared to buying both types of cover separately. You are covered from a life point of view, so that in the event of your death your family will receive a lump sum. You are also covered for sickness, so that if you develop a serious illness you will also receive a lump sum payment.
Many people who opt for this type of insurance use it to protect their family from losing their biggest asset, their house. That isn’t the only reason for doing it, though, as even if you are mortgage free you can take out the cover and receive the cash benefit in the event of a claim. Life and critical illness insurance comes in two basic forms, term or whole of life. Term policies run for an agreed length of time, while whole of life are just what they say – as long as you pay the premiums, the policy is in place your whole life and is guaranteed to pay out on your death or diagnosis of a listed disease, whenever that may happen.

• Decreasing term cover reduces the amount you are insured for each year, in line with your outstanding mortgage balance if you have a repayment mortgage. It is usually bought to protect a repayment mortgage, and as the amount of the mortgage decreases every year so does the sum insured.

• Level term cover keeps the insured amount the same year after year. If you have an interest only mortgage and want the certainty of knowing the full amount is covered until the end of the term, then you might find this one attractive.

The life aspect of the policy is fairly simple. It will pay out a tax free lump sum if the holder dies while the policy is active. The critical illness cover can be a little more complex at first glance.

Critical illness cover

Critical illness cover policies usually cover a range of serious diseases or illnesses, from heart attacks and strokes to some forms of cancer. It is important when you apply that you provide your medical history as completely as possible, so that the risk can be calculated and any claim cannot be rejected because you didn’t mention something important. Almost anyone can apply for cover, and generally the younger you are and the better your medical history is, the cheaper the policy will be.

The cover that can be given by these policies is limited to a number of illnesses and diseases, and the list of conditions is maintained by the Association of British Insurers. From the list, providers are free to choose what they include in each policy, except for seven specific conditions which each policy typically has to include. These are coronary artery bypass, heart attack, cancer, kidney failure, stroke, major organ transplant and multiple sclerosis.
You should be aware that exclusions or conditions may apply to any policy, even to those illnesses which are listed in the policy details. To give a couple of common examples, heart attacks may only be covered if they have been confirmed by the use of an electrocardiogram, while related chronic conditions such as angina may be excluded altogether. Certain types of cancer may also be excluded, while prostate cancer will be covered except in the early stages. Most policies will exclude illnesses related to HIV / AIDS and drug use, as well as self inflicted injuries.

When choosing a policy, it is important that you find one that suits you. The cheapest policies do not always provide the best value, as they may contain a number of exclusions that could prevent a successful claim. Expensive policies on the other hand may charge you for cover that isn’t really relevant, such as relatively rare diseases that you are unlikely to develop. Some policies can include life insurance, which will be an extra cost if you have already taken it out separately. You should also be aware of the small print that could prevent a successful claim, as some include statements that declare you will only be covered if you cannot carry out your current job, rather than any job. The key to finding the right policy is to balance all these elements, making sure that you are getting the cover you need at a fair price.

You can choose a policy that runs for a fixed term, for example alongside your mortgage, or you can have an open ended policy that continues until you make a claim or reach the upper age limit for cover.

Generally speaking, the earlier you take out a policy the cheaper it will be. This is not just because younger people are less likely to develop critical illnesses, but also because the cost of medical treatment is rising all the time.

If you have to claim on a policy, the insurer will require medical confirmation of your condition before agreeing the claim. There is usually one months’ delay before any payment is made, and you will then receive the amount detailed in your policy as one lump sum. This payment is tax free, and once you receive it you can use it for any purpose you want. The benefit is also only paid to living policy holders, so generally speaking the shorter the gap is between a claim and payout the better it is for the holder.

The market for critical life insurance is crowded and competitive, with many policies available to choose from dozens of providers. While you will probably have a good idea of your own needs, and will be able to compare costs using tools like comparison websites, you should always seek independent advice before taking out a policy. An authorised advisor will provide you with a statement that outlines the costs and main points of each policy, and will be able to explain any details or small print as required. They may also have access to a wider range of policies, and may be able to offer good deals on complementary policies like life cover. For more information about critical illness cover or life cover, then visit www.quotelifecover.com

We offer debt help. We are Office of Fair Trading registered and are licensed debt adjusters. We are also data protection registered. This means that we are qualified to give quality, confidential debt advice and credit counselling. We have an experienced team and we pride ourselves on providing quick and effective debt management solutions. We operate on a national basis throughout the UK. We deal with debts ranging between £3000 and £250,000.

The principle behind a debt consolidation loan is that if a person owes money to multiple creditors, they borrow a large, lump sum to repay their creditors and are then left with one creditor and one monthly repayment. The idea is that the repayments on this single, larger loan will be lower than the sum they are currently paying.

This works very well if the person can easily afford the repayments and they are just looking for a way to simplify things and bring down the interest rates. However, there are many people that struggle to meet the repayments each month. Some of these even find that their outgoings each month exceed their income. These people are classified as being in debt and a debt consolidation loan will not actually get them out of debt and will not alleviate the problem. A debt management plan is a method for reducing their debt and allowing them to become debt free. It will consolidate all their repayments into a simple monthly payment and it does not involve them taking out another loan.

Debt Management is a system to help those in debt become debt free. Our Debt Management Plan is a simple, systematic way of dealing with your debts.

Our clients pay us a single, monthly fee and we then distribute this between each of their creditors. This means all their debts are consolidated into one single, affordable payment. Not only are they consolidated into one monthly payment, in almost all cases we can reduce the total amount they pay each month by up to 75%. This is due to the fact that their creditors know they have a debt management company working on their behalf and we can work to get the creditors to lower or freeze their interest rates. Also, they no longer have the stress of dealing with their creditors; we do it for them!

The simple payment they pay is based on their income and expenditure. This means that legitimate living expenses such as mortgage, phone and food are removed from their income so they only pay what they can afford.

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