Finance On Wheels

The Myth of “No Blame Bonus” and other No Claims Bonus Tips

November 24, 2009 – 6:46 am

You’re sat at the traffic lights and someone hits the back of your car. You might not think that such an unfortunate event that’s clearly not your fault should affect your no claims bonus (NCB). But you might be wrong.

An insurance company will treat any claim for money against your policy as a claim that affects your no claims bonus until they’ve got back all their money. In other words, if there’s a claim, no matter whose fault, and your insurer suffers a loss, that’s a claim and your NCB will most likely be affected. Always make sure when you are getting a new taxi insurance quote from a new provider that the amount of NCB you state is the same that your current insurer thinks you’ve got - the two providers will talk to each other to validate information!

Finally - remember that ANY incident should be reported as a claim to your insurance company as quickly as possible (and certainly within any limits set down in the policy documents). Don’t be fooled by the person who runs into you and says “Don’t worry about reporting it, I’ll pay for the damage directly”, if they don’t, you’re stuck.. reporting the incident at a later date might mean the insurer says you’ve prejudiced the claim and therefore invalidated it. There’s often small print as to the reporting periods required by an insurer.

Ask what the rules are if you make a claim too - there are different levels of “step back” on different policies. It’s a small point, but worth considering if you’ve got two quotes from different insurers that seem to offer similar stuff - if you have a claim on one it might “reset” your NCB to zero, but on the other it might just “step back” two years (e.g. go from 4 years to 2 years).

And, if you’ve got no NCB, you might not be totally out of luck…

If you’re taking out a new policy, some insurers offer what’s called an “introductory bonus” as a way of getting you onto their books - basically a discount for drivers who can’t benefit from an initial no claims discount. There are rules as to who gets this, but it’s worth asking about as you might find there’s 20% discount up for grabs.

Lastly, you might be able to get a “transfer bonus” where the insurer will give you some NCB allowance because you’ve got NCB on a different type of motor policy. A typical example of this would be someone who has had a business car for years and purchases a private car.

No claims discount has a huge effect on the price of your insurance policy, so make sure you understand as much as you can about it, protect it where possible and save all your documents! It’ll be worth it in the long run!

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Do Prepaid cards get more popular?

November 20, 2009 – 7:29 am

Generally consumers are progressively spinning away from traditional bank accounts and credit cards in support of a dissimilar form of plastic cards. Consumers are normally buying them from the vendor; sometimes they directly deposit paychecks and make use of them at checkout counters or else to pay their bills online. The cards mostly advertised with a turn of phrase which is rarely used by financial organizations seeing as the starting of the crisis.

So it’s no more speculating that in 2009, consumers have been loaded with twelve billion dollars, which up from the amount about eight billion last year, mainly prepaid cards carries mastercard, visa, American Express and etc.. which can be used anywhere across the globe, As per (MAG) or Mercator Advisory Group, an R&D firm focuses on the payments industry.

An advocate advises that cards may carries variety of fees. However, prepaid cards have become more popular among to those people who can’t get usual bank accounts, many of them are migrants who may trust mainly on more expensive check-cashing institutions.

Let’s check out with the website known as visaprepaiddebitcards.com this site offers secure, original and innovative payment solutions to the prepaid card industry in US.
For more information about prepaid debit cards please visit http://visaprepaiddebitcards.com/

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Best Credit Cards after Bankruptcy

November 7, 2009 – 5:08 am

Here are some helpful tips to find the best credit cards after bankruptcy, if you have no credit or bad credit you can still own a credit card. Owning a credit card is the fastest way to shop, online or at the store, you don’t even have to go inside the gas station any more you simply pay at the pump. Writing a check can take a while and you can hold up the line at the grocery store. Also when you have cash in your hand you may spend it faster and not keep track of it like you can with a credit card.

When you have had bankruptcy and you do not think you can be a credit card holder you are wrong. You can have a credit card, and also have the chance of re-building your credit. You now have to make at least all the minimum payments to all of your creditors to help re-build your credit. Credit card companies will give you the second chance you need, by reporting your monthly statements to all four major Credit Bureaus, helping you re-build or build your credit.

Here is a few tips to help you with rebuilding your credit with a credit card is to make all of your monthly payments on time. You can make the minimum payment if needed to make sure it’s paid on time. Another way is not to max out the credit card. Keep the lowest balance possible. You do need to use it each month showing a little bit of activity on the card. If you have no activity on the card the companies will not have anything to show any of the credit bureaus.

You can find secured and unsecured credit cards after bankruptcy. A secured credit card it a great ways to reestablish you credit, the way a secured card works is like putting a deposit down on a rental. You put a certain amount of money in a savings account such as 300.00 dollars you then have a 300.00 dollar credit limit.

If you default on your payments of your secured credit card the credit card company will then take your 300.00 to pay off your card. An unsecured credit card works strictly off of your credit score, you fill out an application and the company will let you know if they can issue you a credit card or not. Having the option for a secured credit card will help you rebuild your credit after bankruptcy.

When you are looking for a credit card after bankruptcy you want to avoid high application fees. If you do pay an application fee ask what is it for. Will it automatically approve you? Will any of the application fees be put towards your credit card?

Another tip to help you out when you are looking for a new credit card after bankruptcy is to check the monthly percentage rate. Do not let the credit company charge you a high percentage rate because of you having bad credit. Also check on the annual fees, you do not want to get into a credit card that charges a large fee each year that you might have a hard time paying off.

First Premier Bank, Public Saving Bank, and First Option Visa are a few credit card companies to help you to find a new credit card after bankruptcy. If you are not sure what type of card to apply for then do more research on each card and find the benefits and disadvantages, and you will find the best card for your needs. In addition if you are not happy with these kinds of cards you can find a prepaid credit card for easy use.

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How to prevent money running through your fingers

October 30, 2009 – 5:22 am

I know this experience will resonate with some of you. The cash I drew from the bank on Monday was completely gone by Thursday and I had no real idea what I spent it on. Sure, I could guess, but that is just what it is, a guess… More importantly, until I got this are under control, it made my budgeting very inaccurate.

From my own experience and research, roughly 50% of “pocket money” expenditure is never accounted for. So, say $40 was drawn from the bank each week, $20 of it could be being completely wasted. That totals over $1000 per year.

So, what can be done to address this situation?

One way to get in control of this expenditure is to equip yourself with a little note book and perform an audit of a all pocket money expenditure over a one month period. This should be done for everyone in the household who spends cash. Set aside a page for each day and write down every cent spent that day.

At the end of the month go though the book and put all the expenditure into the same categories as in your budget and consolidate the figures. You may well be amazed just how much difference this may make to your future budgeting.

I personally perform this exercise once a year and have been doing so for several years. The first time it really opened my eyes to just how much effect getting that single area under control had on my overall financial wellness.

Have an awesome week.
Article by : Malcolm Guest author

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To Get A Payday Loan

October 24, 2009 – 7:07 am

This article will help us to apply for a payday cash loan. Built up with this knowledge to start up with an easy and painless way to get a loan.

Getting this loan is simple but still we have to sign some docs. which is mandatory. And we have to be more careful before applying for the loan; we need to check the pros and cons.
For any queries related loan we can get help from the representative for clarification.. Still, if you face any doubt of their assistance then it would be better to take some one with you. The contract form will have all the information regarding your loan it will have the rates, fees and payment terms in it. There we can find lots of lenders across the globe.

So be careful before you proceed…

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