Archive for the ‘commercial insurance quote’ Category

Protecting your new employees

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

Recent guidance released from the Health and Safety Executive states that new employees are more likely to suffer an injury in the first six months of their employment than the rest of their working career. Of course this is not to say that the time served employee is never going to have an accident. As a business insurance broker, we have learned over the years that accidents can occur at the strangest possible times. Employees that have worked for companies for many years, never taken days off sick and are very, very careful can simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

For new employees, unfamiliar with working practices and trying to learn new things and working methods every day, the likelihood of an accident is vastly increased. The HSE have a role to try and prevent work place accidents, their website has a huge amount of relevant information for you to peruse and help you. It may seem daunting at first, but even basic steps are worth taking. There are of course things that you as an employer will do day in and day out without even thinking about. Your new employee though may need to be shown many many times before they get it right.

In addition to being patient and taking tome to tech, re-teach and teach again, you need to have employers liability insurance in case there is an accident. In 1969 legislation was passed, which has been revised many times since, which states that you must have adequate insurance in force in case an employee has an accident, suffers and illness or catches a disease for which you could be held liable. Employers liability insurance is one of the strictest covers out there. What this means, for the commercial insurance companies, is that you cannot have many exclusions, warranties, restrictions, excesses or conditions.

If you need the cover, you need to speak to an independent business insurance broker to get them to look around on your behalf to get you the best type of cover at the most competitive price.

Posted in commercial insurance, commercial insurance quote, employers liability insurance | No Comments »

Landlord insurance – contents cover

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

Landlord insurance policies, whilst based loosely on a standard household policy, do differ in many ways. With your home, you are much more likely to have one policy that covers the buildings and contents together. Whilst you can split them, most insurers will actively encourage you to place them both together, with different discounts available for the combined cover.

As landlords policies tend to be issued by a commercial insurance company, there are, as you would expect, differences. The main one being that you can obtain cover for loss of rental income (see Saturdays entry).

The other main difference is that you do not tend to get contents automatically included. With the vast majority of let properties being unfurnished, you would expect, quite rightly, the tenant to insure their own contents, because you (as the landlord) do not have an insurable interest in their TV, settees or clothes etc.

However, who is responsible for the carpets, vinyl, linoleum, curtains and possibly white goods in the kitchen? You, as a landlord, are responsible for these items and, importantly, they do not fall under the definition of buildings. Any flooring that can be picked up (even carpets) and moved falls under the definition of contents. It always has done and always will.

We always recommend to customers looking for a new quote that they include contents, even if it is only for a few thousand pounds. It makes such a small difference to the premium that it is foolish to not insure it. But you would be surprised at the number of people that do not want it, even for an extra fiver on their quote. Then, when they have a burst pipe claim and the carpets or curtains are damaged, we have to go through the process of telling them that the cover does not apply as they only have buildings cover.

We do try, and as a business insurance broker, are obliged to point out to the customer their cover requirements. If you need a quote, please always listen to the recommendations of your broker.

Posted in commercial insurance, commercial insurance quote, landlord insurance, landlord insurance quote, landlords insurance | Comments Off

Commercial insurance quotes – where, how and at what cost?

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

We are hearing in the news that the coalition government is pinning it’s recovery hopes on the entrepreneurial spirit in the UK. This is nothing new, whether you look back ten, twenty or thirty years it is always private enterprise that gets us out of a mess. The public sector, whether or not they will admit it, have not really got a clue about starting businesses. At the end of the day, we in the private sector need some help and support, but at the end of the day it is our money and our time and our brain power that gets enterprises moving.

Having got that off my chest, what do you do when you are looking for a commercial insurance quote, if you are deciding to get a new business off the ground?

Speak to one of the army of entrepreneurial business insurance brokers. We see every type of business come through our doors, to be fair some of the ones we see we just know are not going to get off the ground, let alone past their first year of trading. But, the vast majority are started up by people that you know are going to spend all of their waking hours determined to make a success of the business. But, one thing they need to do, without fail is to protect their business and it’s assets by getting a proper, commercial insurance policy in force.

How to get your quote and at what cost? The answer is to get it over the phone and the costs will of course vary depending on what type of business, what type of stock, what estimated turnover and may other factors. For a shop, restaurant, takeaway, pub etc the sort of costs are going to be between £500 to £1,000, on average. Of course they may be a lot higher, but the average costs are in this sort of range.

Posted in business insurance, business insurance broker, commercial insurance, commercial insurance quote, commercial insurance quotes | Comments Off

Business insurance – quarter renewal days.

Monday, December 20th, 2010

Many years ago, business insurance companies looked for the best way of dealing with renewals, at the lowest administration costs. Around the 1970’s they started to concentrate on certain portions of their business falling due for renewal on the same day.

Therefore, whenever you took out an insurance policy, it would run until one of these “set” renewal dates. Your policy would run for usually a period in excess of 12 months, the first time you took this out. This usually applied to business that was arranged as part of a scheme. If you had a farm, motor trade or other industrial category policy, then you would normally deal through a commercial insurance broker that had a particular scheme set up with an insurer. This was to give you better prices and cover.

The renewal dates that they worked to, where called quarter days. Basically, this was the first day of each new financial quarter, 1st Jan, 1st April, 1st July and 1st October.

This meant that both the insurer and the broker could concentrate their resources on these 4 main days and not have to deal with renewals for the other 361. This practice has fallen by the side in recent years and only certain industries, such as farming have a lot of their renewals due on 1st January. The main reason for this remaining with farming, is because this is when the farmers have a bit more cash available. They have been through a whole farming cycle and sold all of their summer crops.

Nowadays, if you are looking for a quote for a policy due on the 1st January 2011, you may struggle to find a broker that is open. Businessinsure are one of those, we are only closing for the official Bank Holidays. If you are desperately looking for cover, give us a call or an email and see what we can do for you.

Posted in business insurance broker, commercial combined insurance, commercial insurance, commercial insurance quote, commercial insurance quotes | Comments Off

Commercial insurance quotes – too much choice?

Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

Given the past few years that we have had to endure in UK plc, every business has had to cut costs to the bone as survival has been a real issue for many. One area of expenditure that everyone has been led to believe can be cut is when you are looking for commercial insurance quotes. Switch on the TV, use the Internet or read the paper and you are bombarded with messages saying that XYZ company can save you money.

So, you quite rightly decide that you will spend a bit of spare time looking for some alternatives. If you have been in business for a number of years, you may remember (not with the fondest of memories) the lengthy process you went through to get a quote. The quickest you could get would be by faxing information backwards and forwards, but most of the time it was personal visits and documents sent in the post. Fast froward to 2010, and if you take a dip into the net, you will be bombarded with so much choice, your head will spin.

So, in all seriousness, what can you do to make this process easier, quicker and less confusing. The answer to this quandary is to speak to a business insurance broker. Don’ t choose the first company you come to on the net, they have spent a lot of money to get to that position, but it does not necessarily mean that they are the best. Find one on the list that is an independent broker. This means that they have more than one company they can approach to get you a quote and are not tied down to particular insurers.

Ask them, over the phone, whether they will approach more than one company. If they do, this can be the answer to your problem of too much choice. Let someone else do the choosing for you! You still are the decision maker at the end of the day, but at least you have saved a lot of time.

Posted in business insurance, business insurance broker, commercial insurance quote, commercial insurance quotes | No Comments »

Commercial insurance – getting a quote

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Since the year 2000, there has been a real sea change in the UK as far as consumer rights are concerned. Gone are the days when you had to take whatever was offered, when you looked for a commercial insurance quote. 

Nowadays though, you have so much choice that if you have the time, you can get an endless amount of quotes and indications from as many providers as you want. There is of course, a small difficulty with this. The problem you will face is not that you do not have enough choice but that there is too much.

Whilst we always bemoan the fact that there is not enough choice, no-one wants to have too much. If you eat out regularly in different restaurants, you will, at some point, have sat down with a menu and wished there was less on the list.

As more and more people get broadband and internet access on their smartphones there are an increasing number of websites that offer financial services. In the UK there are approximately 2,000 independent business insurance broking companies. We estimate that 80% of these have some form of web presence. Many of these firms have more than one office, so you have more than the 2,000 to choose from.

This makes things easier for you when searching for that elusive quote. When you have an independent broker, with access to a number of insurers who are desperate for your business, why would you search for your quote direct from an insurer? They can only offer you one product. A broker can offer you dozens of products. This saves you having to make the choices yourself, they will recommend what they feel is best for you. If, in the rare event, they get it wrong you have a huge amount of regulation in your favour to pursue a claim against them for mis-selling.

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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.

Posted in business insurance quote, commercial insurance quote | No Comments »