from your existing provider on your car and home insurance. After mortgages, this is the best area to limit your spending by finding new quotes. According to the RAC, shopping around can save the average buyer £214, while buildings and contents insurance tumbles from £320 to£200. Why not get some quotes from the internet, and if you don’t spend at least one lunch hour a year finding a better deal then saving money is not important.

1. Investigate your payment protection insurance
Too expensive and agressively sold, payment protection insurance is one of the most profitable products ever devised by the finance industry. It can add £3,000 to the cost of a £7,500 unsecured loan. But many people were sold it who can’t possibly make a claim against it these people are abel to demand their money back again.

Lots of claims companies advertise on daytime television, promising to obtain you a refund but they will take 25% of whatever you win. Instead, use the Fiancial Ombudsman Service which is free and they are helping 4 out of 5 people missold . Helpfully, it offers a factsheet on how to make a complaint about PPI which you can find at financialombudsman.org.uk

2. Cancel your mobile phone insurance
It is common for people to be are strongly pressured in phone shops into spending between £60 and £70 a year on this cover. Most policies don’t cover you for the most dangerous type of risk airtime abuse (where the phone is stolen and used to make international calls), and if you lose your phone you can always claim for it under your home contents cover for personal belongings.

Just ring your bank, stop the direct debit and job done!.

3. Rethink your life insurance
You can also cancel your life insurance. Just because the life insurance was sold to you by your mortgage broker you don’t need to to stick with that provider for the life of the remortgage. the policy can be canceled at any time to get a cheaper quote. With the human lifetime improving (ie. fewer people dying), insurers have been cutting rates for more than a decade.

If you are in a job at a big employer, it is likely to offer “death in service” benefit worth as much as three times your yearly salary, and often much more. Do you really need all that life insurance cover on top as well?

4. Don’t pay for travel insurance you don’t need
Step 1 An EHIC card provides free or reduced cost treatment in EU countries

Step 2 Check your home insurance policy. Many have clauses which already cover personal belongings (ie. your suitcase) outside the home.

Step 3 Check your medical cover policy, if you have one. These requently pay treatment costs incurred abroad. when you are only travelling to Europe, the only real benefit that travel cover brings is cancellation cover. Is that worth the premiums.

For those who travel outside the EU, travel insurance is a must, though. If you go away more than once a year it is best to take a annual policy though again don’t pay for cover you don’t need. E.g., f you don’t ski or snowboard, you don’t need winter sports cover.