Motorists are being warned about driving over the legal limit now that the evenings are lighter and more people spend their evenings in beer gardens.
According to the car insurer Swinton, the warmer nights bring an increase in people socialising after work. However, if a motorist is caught drink driving they will have conviction code DR10 (driving or attempting to drive while unfit through drink) on their licence and could get up to 11 points. They may also face a sizeable fine and can expect a large increase on future car insurance premiums .
Steve Chelton, Insurance Development Manager at Swinton, said: “Now that Spring is here, nights are getting lighter and warmer and people are more likely to go and meet their friends in a beer garden after work. Read more…
Insurers can currently take gender into account as a risk factor to calculate not only insurance premiums, but also the annuity income they will offer to their pension savers.
However, from December 21, 2012 insurers will no longer be able to charge different premiums for men and women. We set out the winners and losers from the new ruling.
MOTOR INSURANCE
The biggest losers will be female drivers under the age of 25, who will almost certainly see their premiums rise by between 25 and 50 per cent. Currently young women are offered better rates as they are safer drivers than young men.
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Insurers are preparing to plug the growing gaps in state healthcare provision as the National Health Service faces the most radical reform in its 62-year history.
Providers are launching new policies, or tweaking existing plans, as evidence emerges that the NHS is being stretched by the need to find up to £20bn in efficiency savings, and undertake structural reform.
The Royal College of Nursing recently said that some NHS trusts were already cutting jobs and services “at an alarming rate” with up to 27,000 nursing positions earmarked to go. Some
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Hundreds of thousands of bank customers who have had their complaints against payment protection insurance (PPI) companies turned down will soon find out if they are in line for compensation.
At 10am on Wednesday morning a crucial high court ruling will decide whether banks must examine old cases that claim customers were mis-sold the controversial form of loan cover.
About 6.5m PPI policies are sold each year, but since mid-2007 there has been a flood of complaints about policies sold when they were not needed.
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Less than a week after taking a £3.2bn hit for the mis-selling of loan insurance, Lloyds Banking Group finally has some good news; it was named “Bank of the Year” today.
The award was in recognition of the the bank’s support for the commercial sector, where it is lending quite generously to small business and corporates.
Banks, insurers and investment firms will be liable to pay out £50,000 more in compensation to wronged consumers from next year.
The Financial Services Authority has increased the amount that can be awarded by the Financial Ombudsman in redress to wronged consumers from £100,000 to £150,000.
The announcement comes days after the FSA fined Bank of Scotland £3.5m for poor customer complaints handling practises.
This is the first time that the compensation sum has been revised since the limit was set in 2001, and comes as the Financial Ombudsman, which acts as a mediator between businesses and clients in dispute, has attracted more attention than ever for its role in the fight between banks and customers over controversial payment protection insurance policies.
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