Government-backed scheme has started offering cover to at-risk householders, but there still are exclusions
Flood Re, the scheme designed to offer affordable insurance to 350,000 UK homes at high risk of flooding, has finally opened for business. But thousands of householders may have to switch home insurer to take advantage.
Developed by the insurance industry, with government backing, Flood Re was set up after insurers said they were no longer prepared to offer universal flood cover to households who had been flooded in the past.
Billions of pounds have been paid out by the industry in recent years following a series of devastating flooding events, across the north of England and in Cumbria in particular.
Flood Re, which offers subsidised cover, received the final go ahead from financial regulators last week, and opened for business on Monday. Continue Reading...
Published By - Theguardian.com - Sports New, LifeStyle News, Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis: Saturday 9 April 2016 07.00 BST
In the first half of 2015, £2.5bn was spent in the UK using contactless cards. I’ve lost mine, and I’m now living life in the slow lane
Here is my problem. I have lost my debit card. This might seem like a minor hindrance. I haven’t, say, lost a limb. But I have lost the means to go about my everyday life as I usually would.
I rely on my contactless debit card as if it were a chip in my wrist. (And I don’t have a credit card, because I was always taught never to have credit cards.)
I use my contactless debit card for everything. When I encounter people who do not have contactless, I reel in horror. It’s almost as if they don’t have mobile phones. Or faces.
I get wildly irritated by shops and pubs that do not accept card payments, because it’s 2016. In supermarkets, if I have to use chip and pin, I can barely contain my fury. In a world in which being five minutes late to a tweet is considered embarrassingly tardy, it takes an awfully long time to use a chip and pin machine.
It has been estimated that contactless payment can halve the time it takes to pay with cash, but in my opinion, that’s a conservative estimate. Contactless is like swimming in liquid gold; cash is wading through treacle.
Published By - Theguardian.com - Sports New, LifeStyle News, Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis: Friday 22 April 2016 15.28 BST
