With the New Year having been ushered in it is worth making some financial resolutions that could save you money, whilst at the same time giving you and your family better value products. My three tips for 2014 that will hopefully give you overall better value, involve firstly, checking your mortgage deal to see if you are paying too much. Many people who are penalty free within their mortgage have allowed themselves to revert to their lenders uncompetitive standard rate, and as lenders try very hard in the early part of the year to gain market share, January is an ideal time to review your mortgage. The deals available will not only be competitive but the lower percentage to value that you are remortgaging for, the better the rate. These new deals can be as low as 1.74% for a 2 year fixed rate, as opposed to Santander’s standard variable rate of 4.74%. On a £100,000 mortgage over 30 years, using the above rates, the saving is £165 a month.
The second tip is to review your buildings and contents to ensure that you have the right level of cover and are not under insured. It is crucially important that you check your policy and are comfortable with the level of cover and the exclusion clauses in your plan. In addition you may find that you can not only have better cover, but also save on premiums by shopping around. You could be paying £100+ per year more than you need to, and you may also be able to make further savings by increasing your excess if you have savings to fund this. Finally, in this area of general insurance you may find you can save further amounts of money by cancelling stand alone mobile phone or home emergency policies, as they may already be covered by the buildings and contents policy.
The third tip for 2014 is to check your life and protection cover and make sure it is adequate. Not everyone needs basic life cover but if you have children, a partner or relatives that depend on your income to cover your mortgage or other costs, then you will probably want life cover as it will provide for them if you die. Also it is worthwhile reviewing your circumstances to ensure that if you became ill, that you have enough resources to continue with a reasonable standard of living. If this is not the case then you can purchase sickness policie, whether you have dependents or are single, that will pay you a regular monthly income to ensure that if you did become ill your family would not suffer financially. If you don’t have any cover then it is worthwhile buying, and hopefully savings made in other areas could offset the costs of the cover that you buy. For example, £6 per month for a 30 year old non-smoker can buy a £96,950 of life cover over 20 years, so it should not break the bank.
I hope by concentrating on these three areas that significant savings can be made.
Kieron Bassett Financial Services wish all our readers a happy and prosperous new year.
Kieron Bassett Financial Services has two Independent Financial Advisers who specialise in mortgages, general insurance and investment advice. Contact us on (01524) 832057, via e-mail, info@kieronbassett.com, or visit www.kieronbassett.com.
Kieron Bassett DipPFS
9th January 2014
“