Flood risk to home insurance

Published on Saturday 21 June 2008 15:19

THE Association of British Insurers has warned that half a million homes could become uninsurable unless more money is invested in a long-term flood strategy.

Insurance covering damage caused by heavy rain will become harder and more expensive to obtain, with those living in homes in areas at significant risk of flooding standing little chance of finding cover, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

Flooding last year cost the insurance industry 3bn.

Nick Starling, the ABI's director of general insurance, said: "Last summer's floods were no one-off. Planning for the future is essential to minimise a repeat of last year's terrible floods and to ensure that flood insurance protection remains widely available."

Lost and found

LLOYDS TSB is launching a nationwide drive to reunite customers with more than 69m held in unused bank accounts.

The bank has joined forces with a specialist search agency to track down customers holding accounts that have been inactive for 15 years or more. In line with the banking code, Lloyds TSB writes to all customers with inactive accounts. If they do not reply, the bank makes the account dormant to reduce the risk of fraud.

Lloyds TSB has around 120,000 inactive accounts in the UK and hopes to return an average of 575 to each customer. One in 10 of these accounts contains more than 1,000.

Standard dividend

STANDARD Life shareholders should have received their final dividend of 7.7p for 2007, which was due on May 30. This brings the dividend for the year to 11.5p per share.

An average shareholder with 1,421 shares will have received 163 for the year, 54 for the interim dividend and 109 for the final dividend.

New mortgages

YORKSHIRE Building Society has launched two new mortgages with a fixed rate of 5.99% on a two or five-year term. The mortgages are available for house purchase and re-mortgage customers. The two and five-year deals have fees of 1,995 and 2,495 respectively. Both have a maximum loan to value of 75%.

Holiday plastic

CONSUMERS have to be vigilant when deciding which credit card to take on holiday, as many charge 2% for overseas usage, adding an extra 20 to every 1,000 spent.

For instance, Saga's fee-free deal only applies to purchases made within Europe. Nationwide and the Post Office offer 0% interest on purchases for three months and 0% interest on balance transfers for 10 months. This, however, is subject to a balance-transfer fee.

Abbey does not charge a balance transfer fee, though its interest-free period is much shorter, just six months.