Save Money...buy a classic car!

What is a 'Classic' car? According to the revenue, its a car that was registered for the first time over thirty years ago.

What are the benefits?
1. Car tax of only €48 per year
2. No Vehicle registration tax (VRT) when you import a classic car
3. No NCT requirements for all cars registered before January 1st 1980
4. Cheap Insurance (there are some restrictions on usage), certain brokers specialise in this sort of insurance.

New 2% Insurance Levy announced

The Minister for Finance published a bill today which will result in higher insurance premiums for all of us, to pay for Quinn Insurance.

A levy of 2% on all non life and non health insurance policies will be introduced before year end. This will affect Car, Home,Professional Indemnity and Travel insurance (any many more beside).

Quinn estimate that they will need to receive €600m from the State run 'Insurance Compensation Fund' to meet their solvency requirements.......the problem is that this fund only currently holds €40m.

The levy is estimated to bring in €65m annually. When you consider that we have already bailed out the banks into the tens of billions, i don't know why a 'paltry' sum like €600m couldn't be found by another method. Ultimately we are all paying for one mans massive gamble on Anglo Irish share's, why not lump it into the debt we have for the banks rather than further hurt people by levying things that we are obliged to purchase.

FS

Store Loyalty Cards

No matter how frugal you are you still need to eat, buy car insurance, put petrol in the car etc...why not get something back for it. Most large supermarkets have customer loyalty schemes, some are better than others but if used right you can get something back from the everyday things that we all need to buy.

I talk about the Tesco Clubcard scheme not out of any sort of endorsement for the brand or scheme but its simply the one I'm most familiar with and the most developed in the Irish Market.

When you do your weekly shop you receive one point for every euro spent. You might also get special vouchers of 80 or 100 points for purchasing particular items. Each point is worth a cent in vouchers that can be spent store wide. These vouchers are sent to you quarterly, or you can collect only once a year for signing up to their 'Christmas Club', this is where you can let your amassed points pay for your Christmas shopping in one fell swoop, not to shabby for simply carrying a card around with you.

That's the basics but you can really build them up quickly by using them in the Tesco Petrol stations attaching to some of their stores, you get one point for every two euro spent on fuel. This is a bit of a no brainer as their fuel is usually some of the most affordable.

Tesco also offer car insurance (underwritten by Royal and Sun Alliance) and you will receive money off for being a clubcard customer and you also get points on every euro you spend on your premium.

They also offer a simple credit card product (max credit limit €1500) but you will get points for using your card anywhere, and double points for using it in a Tesco store.

Its amazing how quickley the points build up. Pay attention to the extra points offers that they give you but remember its only good value if you intended to buy the product anyway.

FS

What the sale of Quinn Insurance could mean to you

Today Quinn Insurance announced a 2009 loss of €706 million. The troubled insurer will be sold to Anglo Irish Bank and Liberty Mutual who will operate the company as a going concern, this is good news to its 1500+ employees but may not be good news for our car and home insurance premium's.

Due to the massive loss its likely that Quinn will have to make use of the Insurance Compensation Fund, to fund this, the government could place a further levy of 2% on all non life assurance policies. More will be known later on this year.

FS

Car Insurance Renewal

Its the easiest thing in the world, your car insurance renewal comes through your letter box, you tick the box, pay the annual premium and life goes on as normal. However with just a bit of leg work you could save yourself a lot of money.

Go to your insurers website and get a new quote, almost inevitably the quote you get will be less then what your renewal is. Put a call through to the customer service, they will squirm trying to explain the difference but will of course off you the quote you received online.

The insurance company relies on your inaction when they send you the renewal and new customers usually get a better deal. MAKE THAT CALL!

Naturally i would say your best bet is to get quotes from a number of sources before settling, its a highly competitive market and you should get that to work to your advantage.

FS