Pennies for thought

Car insurance can often be one of the biggest lump sum expenditures you will encounter throughout the year. You can pay car insurance monthly and this will inevitably cost more in the long run so if you can afford the full year you make a small saving there.

The trouble with insurance policies though is that there are too many to choose from! The main thing to take in consideration when buying is that you only purchase from reputable companies. If you save a few hundred pounds on a policy and then they won’t pay out for whatever reason then it is a dead loss.

Buying online will generally save you money but if you do not understand the policy make sure to phone them and inquire before purchasing. Other companies that operate fully online can keep costs down and pass on the savings to you but again be sure they are reputable.

Comparison websites are not always the cheapest option either when a lot of the bigger companies with better deals opt out from using comparison websites.

There are a few little tips that will help you keep your premium down
- Don’t over value the cost of your car
- Don’t go for the lowest excess you can
- Don’t opt in for extras you can get cheaper else ware
- Buy the policy online if possible

Over valuing the cost of your car is just adding cost to your premium and will not gain a penny from this unless the car is written off

The best way to view picking an excess is as an amount you can stretch to affording in one working month. If you can afford £200 don’t choose any lower because this will raise your premium and having the realisation of having to pay expenses out of your own pocket will have you driving safely in no time.

Always review the optional extras when buying an insurance policy and make sure you are not paying for things you don’t need. Windscreen cover is always a worthwhile extra if repairs are free but breakdown cover can quite often be picked up cheaper else ware.

The majority of the time when you get into a bump you will pay outside of insurance anyway due to the rise in premiums you will incur. Little things like calling the insurer for general questions are even logged and put against your policy with bigger companies.

Ok this post will not save you money but it my save a lot of your time, so I guess if you believe time is money then your in for a saving!

A lot of big Internet companies (Play and Amazon to name a couple) offer very low prices and free delivery making them a lot more appealing than buying on the highstreet. Internet shopping is a great way to save a few pounds and I swear by it but there is something you should take in to consideration before buying.

Most companies will have a few different payment options available for each product that vary in price and delivery timescale. The more you pay the better service you will recieve and thats a given but make sure you find out who will be delivering under the ‘free’ option. In most cases the company will be using the lowest and most cost effective delivery service (which just so happens to be the worst!) the Home Delivery Network.

My personal experiences with this company have been regrettable to say the least. Here are the flaws they make in just attempting to deliver two products.

1. Give my post to a random neighbour (I don’t even know them!)
2. Leave expensive parcel on my unsecured doorstep for anyone to take during the day.
3. Package mysteriously goes missing (presumably stolen by HDNL or off my doorstep!)
4. Package left on the doorstep is of course is broken!
5. Waited in all weekend for delivery attempts that never happened and they claimed a note was left.

Just don’t bother with the hassle and pay the extra couple of pounds and save yourself the huge headache of phoning up companies. HDNL surprisingly enough will just keep leading you on saying it is coming and have no complaint department! The retailer will sort out the missing or broken product but even then it has to be redelivered by the same incompetent people.

You don’t have to take my word for it, a simple Google search will get you 1 star ratings and stories about post left in bins, parcels given to strangers and so on. So I urge you to just avoid this comapany like the plague as the couple of quid saved will only end up being spent on Polyfilla for the damage you made to your walls in sheer frustration.

It is good for the online retailers to give us these low prices and free delivery but we as consumers deserve a certain level of professionalism and customer service that we are simply not getting here.

If you are looking to keep data from an old machine, for some extra storage or backing files then this is an option worth thinking about.

Buying pre-built external hard drives can be expensive and building your own will offer you more space and customisation for your money. You need to work out your requirements and this can be done in a few simple steps.

1. SATA vs IDE hard drive
The purpose of this blog is not to get too technical so all I will say is that SATA drives will generally be quicker and easier to connect up. Size of drive is down to personal preference but you have never really have too much space.

2. Connection type – USB (1.0 or 2.0) Firewire (400 or 800)
You ca n choose from Firewire or USB, Firewire comes as 400 or 800 but both are  quicker than USB 2.0 which makes them a good option if you have a port available. Another benefit of Firewire is being able to daisy chain drives saving you ports on your machine. I would recommend a drive that supports Firewire or both for large data transfer but otherwise USB will do the job fine.

3. Enclosure specs
Once you have selected the first two options it narrows down your choices and design is obviously down to personal preference. Make sure sure obviously that your enclosure supports the type of hard drive you have bought. You can buy ultra quiet fan enclosures but these will cost a little extra.

This should not only save you a bit of money but also make sure that you have an external hard drive tailored to your exact requirements.

Most of us will generally work out reliability of a product by price scales or staying safe with household brand names. With the rising incentive of unbiased online product reviews we can also get a general overview of the product quality but not the reliability.

A good tip to find out the reliability of a product is to go instore and ask about certain products at the counter. Each product has a log of how many have been sold and how many have been returned.

It is always worth checking out reliability of a product as the false economy of unreliable products is not a worthwhile saving. When you spend out the extra you also get the additional quality of the product over the time.