Archive for the ‘business insurance quote’ Category

Products liability insurance – who needs this cover?

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

We often get asked, when people are looking for a business insurance quote, whether they need products liability insurance.

The answer to the question, which does not help, is yes, probably. There is no legal requirement, under UK law, for a business or individual to have products liability.

We first of all need to understand what this cover is. Simply put, if you manufacture or supply (with the manufacture being undertaken by someone else) a product, which causes injury, illness, disease or damage to another person(s) or property, you can be held legally liable. Now, as you can be held legally liable you would think it follows that you should have the cover, but this is not the case.

So, now we understand that 80% of UK businesses (who supply or manufacture products) need this cover, what happens if you do not have it? If I go to a supermarket and buy a tin of beans, in UK law I have a financial relationship with the supermarket. Therefore, if the product poisons me, I will claim against them. The law is not concerned with who made the product, I claim against the party I bought it from.

The supermarkets insurers would then pay out to me, with their insurers deciding whether to subrogate (or claim) against the business insurance insurers of the ultimate product manufacturers. This is where it gets interesting, every link in the chain from product manufacture to sale, which can be three, four, five or more companies, needs to have insurance cover.

The potential for a claim is low, but you really should have the cover in place. You don’t need to have the cover, no-one is going to quote UK law to you to prove you need the cover. But, if you want to get adequate protection for your business you really should give us a call to get your own product liability insurance quote.

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Business insurance – speak to a human being!

Friday, August 20th, 2010

Looking for a business insurance quote and using the net? We can guarantee if you go to the worlds favourite, and best, search engine Google, that you will be faced with an array of choices when you tap in your search term.

Getting a top three position in Google is the Holy Grail of most companies. You will find though, that the bigger the company, the more money they have to invest in tweaks and cheats to get to the top. But, the ones that appear at the top are not quote what they seem. I always thought that to get to the top means you are the best. However, being a small, independent business insurance broker, we have realised that however good, quick, competitive and/or recommended you are, this does not mean you will be anywhere near the top.

This troubles me, the top five or six in most insurance categories feed you straight through to a website where you, the customer, have to fill in all of the information and at no time at all do you get any advice, help or pointers about what cover you really need.

If you have got this far into this blog then you are hopefully thinking along the same lines. Have no fear though, for every company that has invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in advertising and search engine optimisation to get to the top, there are hundreds of independent brokers just waiting to offer you a personal service. When we say personal service, this means that you can actually speak to a human, get advice, understand what cover is or is not required.

Whilst we do not doubt that a website that offers to compare business insurance will get you a competitive price, who is there to confirm to you whether the cover is competitive as well?

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Business insurance brokers – check the FSA number

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

We are an internet and telesales business insurance broker, this means that we never get to meet any of our customers. Call centres have been around for years and it is now a fact of life that you can purchase most services and many products this way.

There is a difficulty for us though, in that we have to try even harder to get a customer to accept our services because we do not have that face to face contact. We are usually competing against other brokers, because people will rightly get quotes from more than one company.

If we gove someone a business insurance quote, which is better than there existing renewal, the holding broker goes into panic alert. They realise too late that they have maybe been complacent and have to do something to keep the business. One of these steps they will take is to try to put seeds of doubt in the customers mind about how good we really are.

The question you may be asking is, how do I know that the company that have provided me with a quote are any good? You need not worry. It used to be, pre 2005, that anyone could start up as an insurance intermediary. As long as they had agencies with insurers they could effectively do what they liked. Not that this caused any real problems, it just meant that there was no overall central control of brokers.

Then in 2005, along came the Financial Services Authority and they had to authorise and regulate every single insurance broking company in the country. If you did not, or do not have, an FSA registration number then you cannot trade. It is as simple as that. So when these competing brokers try to sow the seeds, they are really barking up the wrong tree and it is just the panic setting it that they have lost another customer to the net.

Just ask your broker what their registration number is and you can check on the FSA website whether there have ever been any disciplinary problems in the past. The likelihood is that there have never been any issues and you can quite happily carry on and dealing with a company that will offer you a better price for similar or better cover.

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Two things you need for cheap business insurance

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Gone are the days when it took many days for you to get a business insurance quote, and your policy took even longer.

In 2010, the British insurance purchasing public are now as savvy as ever and the two things you need for your quote are a computer and a phone.

It used to be that you had to go through a business insurance broker, and a local one at that. If you lived in, for example Birmingham, and phoned a broker in London, the insurers would automatically wonder why you had chosen not to speak to a local company. It was just the way of the world at that time.

Nowadays though, you sit in the Shetland Isles and speak to a broker in Falmouth who will get you a policy from an insurer in London. This blog is simply to confirm that this is now a reality. Gone are the days of the dot.com boom when most of the online businesses where very basic and couldn’t offer good customer service, because they were happy enough to have a website with their name on it.

It is easier than ever now to build your own web prescence, for less than £50. So, you are sitting there with your laptop and your mobile, but how do you know which broker is good and will offer you the service you need in the event of a claim?

The other thing you need to consider, is how well you get on with them when you phone. A simple and basic point maybe, but if they answer the phone quickly, sound professional, give advice confidently and get you a quote, in writing, quickly, this can be half the battle in choosing who is good or bad.

Gut feel is a great thing and you should not always go with the cheapest of the cheap, because we all know in the long run it may cost you more money.

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Who is my business insurance provider?

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

In the olden days, pre 2000, in the UK, if you were looking for a commercial insurance quote, you would usually recognise who the insurers were. The main brand names, Commercial Union, Norwich Union, General Accident, London and Edinburgh, Royal Insurance, Sun Alliance and Lloyds of London, would all be in the top ten or twenty of the companies most likely to provide you with your quote.

Nowadays though, you may find that when you get your documentation, there are names that you have never heard of. If you are buying a product or service, then you are always told not to trust an unknown quantity or company you have never heard.

However, when you are getting a business insurance quote, you are protected to a great deal. On the 15th January 2005, there was a massive change to the world for all business insurance brokers. You will of course have missed this change, because it only really affected us in the industry. What happened was that every single broker and insurer had to be authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in order to be able to trade.

Without this authority, you could not operate. In addition, the authority means that you have to prove significant financial capabilities. Insurers are checked, double checked and triple checked through a combination of returns sent in, audit checks and un-announced visits.

So, even though you may not have heard of the insurer, you can rest safe in the knowledge that the insurer should not be a mushroom company that has grown quickly and will disappear just as fast.

As a business insurance broker, we also have to be content that the insurer we are recommending, or quoting, will be one that has good service standards and offers the widest choice of cover, for the best premium available.

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Business insurance – rewards for loyalty

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

As with most financial services, commercial insurance providers spend more money gaining new customers than renewing old ones.

Most policies are annually renewable, therefore insurers want to insure a business not only for the first year but the second, third, fourth and so on.

The difficulty that they face is, just the same as you were once “new business” to them, you can look around and become a new customer to someone else.

You would hope therefore, that if you do not look around and are happy to renew with your existing insurer that they may make you a special deal to keep your business. This, however, is not always how things pan out.

When looking for a business insurance quote, you may go to two or three different companies. When one of them gets your business they don’t necessarily rule out price increases in years 2, 3, 4 etc.

The basic principle of insurance is that the premiums of the many pay for the claims of the few. Eventually, your time will come for a claim and you will be paid out. But, insurers have been suffering from years of increased competition, increasing claims costs, reduced customer base (because of the recession) and reduced investment costs. They need to raise their revenue and the only way they can do this is with their extremely wide “broad brush”.

Everyone’s prices go up, whether you have been with them for years and years claims free, you will still have to pay more.

There is a silver lining though, if you look carefully and speak to a good business insurance broker, you will be able to find a better deal. The deals are out there, it is just a case of finding them.

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Commercial combined insurance – what is it?

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

When receiving a new business insurance quote request from a customer, the first thing we ascertain is whether it is a new venture or an existing business.

Where a business is already trading then, in all likelihood, they will have an existing policy is force.

For many types of trade, such as shops, hotels or restaurants, a simple package policy will suffice. For more complex risks, it is more than likely that a commercial combined insurance policy will be in force.

But what exactly is included in such a policy and why are they used? The whole point about these policies is that they are bespoke. You, in conjunction with your brokers professional advice, can effectively pick and choose the sections of cover you need.

For example, a package policy may automatically include cover for goods in transit. If you only send through a 3rd party and they have suitable cover, why pay twice?

A word of warning though, if you are looking for one of these types of policies. Speak to two different advisors and get them to recommend the right policy. One of them may miss out on a few small details which could prove vital in later years.

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Free commercial insurance quote?

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Anyone who has suffered a burst pipe in the recent cold snap or any other plumbing problem will be fully aware of the costs involved. Not the repair costs, but the costs in actually getting a quote. Even as we limp out of Gordon Brown’s legacy recession, some tradespeople are still charging to visit you and give a quote.

But, the good news is, if you are looking for a commercial insurance quote you will not have to pay a single penny. You may have to set aside some time but you do not actually need to visit a broker or insurer, it can all be done over the phone.

Most brokers are happy to receive inbound business insurance quote requests over the phone. Yes, if we look at the technicalities, you are paying for a phone call, so it is not strictly free. Call us though and we usually offer to call you straight back.

You do need to prepare yourself for this type of call. If you have an existing policy, it is useful to have it to hand. It is also helpful, although many people do not like doing it, to let the broker know what you are paying. This helps them decide which insurance company to approach on your behalf.

If it is a new venture, you are best to have all of your financial projections to hand.

If you have access to email, this is even better, because the quick and efficient broker will usually send you a written quote within a few hours of your first call. If they cannot offer an immediate premium, they will usually tell you and explain the reasons why. Expect to wait a maximum of 2 working days at the outside though.

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