Older new drivers can save money on their car insurance!

Much cheaper quotes if you sit your pass plus driving test – whatever your age!
Old and no discount!
Insuranceblogger has always lived in a city close to bus and train routes so I never felt the need to learn to drive. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to drive I did , but life moves so quickly and before I knew it, I was reaching my forties and  I still had not taken any driving lessons. As public transport was not as frequent and with train prices escalating I treated myself to a driving course and I loved it!
I passed my test with flying colours. Couldn’t believe it first time!
Passing your test is fantastic, but reality hits home when you find out the real cost of driving especially purchasing car insurance, when you are not entitled to no claims bonus. No claims bonus is a way insurance companies reward their customers for not claiming in the year. The more accident free years the larger the discount. I knew that new drivers had to pay more, but I had wrongly assumed that this only affected the youth of this world not me I was nearly forty! My days of fast cars and driving at high speed were long gone I just wanted to be able to get from A to B in my little car.
Luckily, I spoke to a member of my family. He has just passed his test and had found it really expensive to purchase car insurance. He told me that he had taken an extra driving course arranged by the Driving Standards agency and had saved himself a fortune.

Specialist Home Insurance is often Cheaper!

It’s that time of year again when frost and ice damages your property and your home is at higher risk to fire and pre Christmas theft!
Home Insurance has really suffered during the recession of the last two years as homeowners have cut out what are often mistakenly seen as marginal expenses. Consequently the potential market is larger now which explains the plethora of Home Insurance ads you see on TV all day long at the moment!
Wherever you live, you should have protection for your buildings and contents and this is of particular importance if you have invested a lot of time and money in your home. In this case you may be much better off if you visited an online specialist home insurer, who can provide you with a range of quality policies to choose from, which will protect ALL of your property.
Specialist Home Insurance is often cheaper if you have own a non-standard construction property which includes a range of covers for buildings of thatched and stone construction through to blocks of let flats. You should also consider going to a specialist home insurance broker or provider if you own a large multi bedroomed house or have specialist contents insurance requirements.
For home owners in the UK, purchasing the best insurance cover is of the most significance. Lots of people individuals, even so, usually do not take the time to examine the terms and conditions proposed by the home insurance policy they buy from a price comparison website. These same persons often realise too late, that their cover is not enough. This is most often the case for those who are in possession of high value homes.  Below is some detailed information about ways to provide proper coverage for a high value home with specialist home insurance.
Specifically What is a High Value Home?

Insurance company failures predicted as Euro Solvency rules are applied

QIS5 set to see an increase in Insurer failure rates:
As final implementation of Solvency II looms ever closer, more and more industry experts are now predicting a complicated and worrying time for a growing number of insurers. Willis Re have recently admitted their own fears for the UK’s smaller regional insurers, predicting that many more companies are looking likely to fail in QIS5 than did so in the previous such exercise QIS4.
In a recently released report the global insurance brokers reinsurance arm announced that Quantitative Impact Study (QIS) 5 is shaping up to be a far tougher test than its predecessor, of which only 11% of insurers failed. Whilst claiming that the failure rate will be “much higher, especially for smaller regional insurers” the report also warns that the smaller players as well as regulators will have multiple problems particularly when developing and reviewing  internal models. One of the major reasons the report singles out the smaller players is the fact that they are often unable to benefit from the   diversification credits that are available.
Commenting on the report, Willis’ MD for analytics and head of international enterprise risk management, David Simmons said “Solvency II and IFRS will have profound implications for all insurance professionals in Europe, but the repercussions will be felt worldwide with the new IFRS being adopted by most major economies in 2013 and the rise of Solvency II-like regulatory regimes worldwide.”
Meanwhile, the International Underwriting Association (IUA) has warned that the government’s plans to reform financial regulation within the UK are currently being heavily undermined by the demands being placed on insurance regulators as Solvency II implementation draws nearer. With demand for high quality regulators now often comfortably outstripping the supply, a lack of qualified and competent staff is proving to be a very real concern.