Saving Money for your Home Budget
Are you wasting money on unnecessary insurance policies?
More often than not the insurance policies which you are sold over the phone and in stores really aren’t worth it. This isn’t always because the sales people are shady, greedy characters (although sometimes they can be) but it’s because they don’t know your personal circumstances, only you know whether the cost of the insurance plan is beneficial to you.
Below we compiled four insurance policies which you might be surprised to find you don’t need. There are of course some legitimate situations in which you do need these things but by using this post as a check-list you can attempt to trim away some of the expense from you monthly outgoings.
Children’s life insurance
A cruel joke surely? But think about, does your child really need to be insured? Most people take out such a policy to cover funeral costs should the worst happen, but in essence you can do the same thing by using a savings account.
Your child won’t be able to touch the money but you can use it if the worst does happen. On the brighter side of this, the interest you can accumulate in the first 18 years of your child’s life could be a great boost to their finances if you don’t have reason to touch the savings account.
They could then use this towards their first car, home or a gap year, and you won’t have plunged money into an insurance policy unnecessarily.
Pet insurance
Any pet owner will baulk at the thought of not protecting their treasured pet, they are members of the family after all and treatment in an emergency can be expensive.
On the other hand though, so can the insurance policy. If you add up the year on year cost of this expense you might realise that you could probably save more and afford the treatment outright, the average pet may only need an expensive vet treatment once in their entire life and while it is expensive it is not as expensive as twelve years of insurance payments.
Look carefully at what your insurance covers too, there have been many stories of late where owners have taken their pet for treatment only to find that the insurance simply doesn’t cover it for one reason or another.
Mobile Phone insurance
There are two camps of people when it comes to phone insurance: those with the latest, most expensive model, and those with a simple model on a cheap tariff. The former will surely need phone insurance but the latter might consider not taking out such an expense.
Some insurance policies can be up to as much as £14.99 a month, adding up to over £170 in a year, this can be more than some handsets are worth outright in the first place. Not only that, but stop and think about how many times you’ve lost or damaged your phone in the last four years…can’t think of an occasion?
Then you’re probably careful enough to do without the cost of phone insurance. Much like with the pet insurance there are also loopholes in phone insurance where the company won’t pay out, so use caution when you do purchase a policy.
Car Rental insurance
The key to this fourth and final insurance policy is to check over the details. Only you will know what you are covered to drive, the rental company will try to sell you the insurance no matter what, both to cover their vehicles and to maximise their profits.
Some drivers have a car insurance policy which covers the driver no matter what vehicle they are in, and in this instance you won’t need another policy on top of that. Always read before you sign to see that the cover you are getting suits your needs, a careful driver renting for the day in the UK probably won’t need the huge expense of rental insurance.
These are just four policies which, when given thought, might not be needed. It all depends on your personal circumstances, if you are unsure about the outgoings from your money however then you might consider a self-tax assessment from a company like Murray and Lamb. Our friendly advisors will help you decide whether a discussion with us could help put your finances back on track and in your control.
