According to data collated by the Halifax home insurance division people in the UK have a bicycle stolen at a rate of just over one every minute.
The actual rate is one every sixty-five seconds, worsening from one every seventy-one seconds last year. The data also shows that London is the most dangerous place to own a bicycle, perhaps unsurprising as the bike is a popular form of transport in major cities like this. A Halifax spokesman suggested a simple way to cut the rate of bike theft would be to use a simple U shaped lock when the bike is left unattended.
The Halifax insurance spokesman also suggested looking at garden security, since many bicycles are kept in garden sheds or just in the back garden itself. Simple security is not expensive and could mean a home insurance claim is not needed.
Direct Line home insurance will now include an automatic 10 percent increase in the level of cover for contents around the time of a wedding.
The extra contents cover Direct Line insurance offer is for the period 4 weeks before and after the wedding itself and is designed to offer peace of mind for all the extra items that will be there in the build up to the big day and of course all the presents afterward. The fact that there will be more people around and a greater risk of accidental damage is also critical.
For anyone interested in this aspect of contents cover it is the Direct Line Home Insurance and Home Insurance Plus policies that both feature this additional benefit.
According to a recent survey conducted by Santander over 40% of homeowners who took out a home insurance policy did not read their insurance agreement before taking out a policy.Homeowners that do not read the full terms and conditions of the contract run the risk of being under insured, as they are not fully aware of what their insurance cover actually covers.Research has shown that some policyholders who thought that they were covered for a particular level of coverage like accidental damage, were in fact not covered at all, and face the expensive task of replacing the items at their own expense. This of course could have been avoided had they read the level of cover included on their insurance policy. All homeowners want the best level of cover at the cheapest price for buildings insurance and contents insurance, but they must check to see that the cover meets their insurance needs before taking out a policy. Not all policies are the same and that is why it is so important to read the terms and conditions very carefully making sure that it does in fact meet the right level of cover to protect their home and their possessions.See our home insurance comparison table for more information or our guides and tips pages.
