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Re: New this week
New this week
- <LI class=publication>The Guardian,
- Saturday June 14 2008
- Article history
Tesco is changing the way it offers home insurance to make it more like its food products. From June 22, it will be presented in three guises - Value, Standard and Finest. It says the Value cover will typically cost 30% less than the Standard. The Finest version will include unlimited buildings cover and £10,000-worth of cover for contents away from home, as well as a host of other benefits including "ID fraud detection and assistance".
"Customers have told us they understand Value, Standard and Finest, and in the current economic climate, we want to do everything we can to help them get exactly what they want to pay for," says a spokesman. For more information go to tescofinance.com
Banking
A little-known rule change means banks can refuse to compensate victims of online fraud if they do not have "up-to-date" anti-virus protection, it emerged this week. The Banking Code has advised customers to "use up-to-date anti-virus and spyware software and a personal firewall". Now a new section states that if someone has not done so, they could be judged to have acted "without reasonable care," and may be liable for losses resulting from fraudulent activity. IT services group Unisys says this might be tricky to police. "The technology required to check every single online customer's settings ... would be expensive, invasive and, in a way, a piecemeal response."
Tax incentives
With Bike Week starting today, it is a good time to tell bosses how they can have a fitter workforce - courtesy of the taxman. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) says employers can help staff buy a bike out of their income before tax and national insurance, with the company picking up the VAT - almost halving the cycle's list price. Equipment such as lights and helmets can be added in. The main rules are that the benefit must be available to all employees and, broadly, more than half of their journeys are travelling from home to work. Employers can also pay staff 20p a mile tax-free for using their own bicycles for business travel.
Annuities
Norwich Union is to bring in "postcode-rated" annuities, following a similar move last year by Legal & General. Postcoding recognises that people living in inner cities typically die earlier than those in leafy suburbia. Pensions expert Nigel Callaghan at IFA firm Hargreaves Lansdown expects more insurers to follow. But he warns that the extra paid to those in unhealthy areas could mean lower payments to those at a desirable address. "More insurers will adopt postcoding, or pay more to those in poor health. Annuity buyers will increasingly be offered a rate that reflects their own life expectancy, rather than one from a large pool of people. So it's vital to shop around rather than accept what your pension provider offers."
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