21st January 2013 - QBE technical claims brief

Our insurer partner QBE have issued their latest claims brief. Please click here to download the report in pdf format.

This issue looks at how QBE foiled a fraudulent claim for £500,000 and how a claim made against two Police forces for negligence was upheld by the courts due to Police having protection from these types of claims.

29th October 2012 – Road Safety

Our insurer partners, Ageas Insurance, have sponsored the Road Safety Foundation showing its support for the annual GB EuroRAP analysis for at least three years, measuring road safety across 27,000 miles of motorway and A roads where the majority of UK road deaths occur.

Click here to see the a map giving a full colour breakdown of the most high risk and low risk roads in the West Midlands / Oswestry area.

28th June 2012 - Coversure Community Project 2012

Coversure have been proud to announce the sponsorship of the Sensory Garden for the blind and disabled in Cae Glas Park, Oswestry as part of our Community Project initiative for this year.

Pictured is Director, Darren Roberts with Oswestry Major, Cynthia Hawksley at a re-opening ceremony.

The sensory garden was designed to offer a space where the blind and disabled could go and experience the touch and smell of some of the most fantastic plants and herbs available.

We provided and planted many plants such as Lemon Grass, Whispering Oats, Hebe’s, Fuchsia’s, & Sweet Williams to herbs such as Thyme, Lavender, Rosemary, Curry-mint, Eucalyptus, Spearmint, Apple-mint, Pineapple-mint, Sage, Chives, Basil, Parsley & Fennel.

It was a shame that the garden closed many years ago due to lack of available funding and it was an honour to be able to pledge our future support to this fantastic local project and see it in all of its former glory once again.

10th May 2012 – Protect yourself from Floods

The UK’s Met office issued weather warnings recently for heavy rainfall and strong winds so our insurer partner Allianz issued this informative Flood Risk Management Guide.

As a lot of our policyholders in Oswestry & Wales are either near coastal waters or rivers we would recommend taking a look at the guide here.

17th March 2012 – Fire Safety in Commercial Kitchens

Our insurer partner LV= have produced this fantastic Risk Bulletin on Fire Safety.

If you have a commercial kitchen as part of your business or trade then please take a few minutes to read this guide.

17th March 2012 – Employers Liability Tracing Office

Our insurer partner Allianz have produced an informative and helpful guide on supplying Employers Reference Numbers to their insurers.

Many policyholders still do not realise that from the 1st April 2012 it will be a compulsory requirement to provide this data but this handy guide in pdf format answers many questions about the subject including where to find the required information.

Please have a look at the link here.

17th February 2012 – Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992

Our insurer partners at QBE have provided a document specifically on manual lifting and handling “residual risk”.

If you have any employees who are involved in Manual Handling and Lifting, this documents is very helpful and has some input from former weightlifter and world record holder, Davy Snowden.

Please take a look at the document here.

2nd February - Employers’ Liability Tracing Office (ELTO)

The Employers’ Liability Tracing Office (ELTO) is an independent industry body designed to help find the insurer of the employer where the claimant is suffering from a disease/injury caused at work.

At the heart of this process is a centralised database – the Employers’ Liability Database (ELD) which will contain all new and renewed EL insurance policies, and old EL policies that have new claims made against them.

Please note from 1st April 2012 all Employers’ Liability insurers will collect data from new and existing policyholders with Employers' Liability (EL) Insurance.

You will be asked to supply the client’s Employer Reference Number (ERN), which is a unique tax identifier for employers, at new business or the renewal of a current policy. The Employer Reference Number (ERN) is often referred to as an employer’s PAYE reference.

The Employer Reference Number (ERN) is mandatory and in order to be able to setup a new policy or renew the Employer Reference Number (ERN) details will be required.

This data will be collected by the Employers’ Liability Tracing Office (ELTO) and be fed into the national Employers' Liability Database (ELD) allowing employees to access (via the ELTO website at www.elto.org.uk) their employer’s EL Insurance details going forward.

For further information please read this Information Document, visit the official ELTO website at www.elto.org.uk.

8th December – Hints & Tips for Winter Driving

Here in Oswestry we always see more claims during the winter than at any other time and although some accidents can’t be avoided, there are some simple hints & tips you can follow to make sure you are as safe as possible if travelling on the road during the winter.

One of our Insurer Partners Allianz have issued the attached guide to prepare yourself and your vehicle.

5th December 2011 – Clarification on Winter Tyres

The Association of British Insurers who represent 90% of the motor insurance market has confirmed that there should be no extra premium to pay when fitting winter tyres.

This is as long as the tyres are fitted in accordance with the manufacturers specifications and are in a roadworthy condition.

If you are fitting new wheels, this could be classed as a modification to the vehicle and should be referred to your insurance broker for clarification.

If you are in any doubt, please pick up the phone and ask us for advice!

21st November 2011 - New Shop Insurance Package for Oswestry businesses!

A brilliant new Shop Insurance Package at an amazing price and specially tailored for Oswestrys independent shops is now available with Oswestry’s Coversure.

Already insuring over 400 businesses in and around Oswestry, Coversure is pleased to announce a policy that combines a reduction in price with a fully comprehensive Shop Insurance Policy.

Darren Roberts, joint Director, believes this is the right policy for independent shops in the current economic environment. “Times are tough for retailers, so we wanted to present a Shop Insurance Policy that was incredibly competitive but at the same time not sacrificing any of the cover. This policy ticks all those boxes and we are offering it to Oswestry’s independent retailers to consider when they next take out their shop insurance”

For Oswestry shops, in a wide range of selected trades, the premiums start from just £200. It’s a fully featured policy, well designed to cover all the standard retail risks.

Best of all, if you did need to make a claim on the policy, you can pop round to Coversure and their team will walk you through the process and handle the paperwork. That is service!

To find out more about Coversure’s Shop Insurance Package, either call into their office at 12-14 Beatrice street or give one of their experienced sales staff a ring for free on 0800 3081 300. If you’re on twitter, contact Darren @CoversureOsw

Or, right idea but wrong time? Let them know your renewal date and they will contact you a couple of weeks before!

3rd October 2011 - Coversure Sponsor the Cae Glas Park Bowling Club

To help with the campaign to save Oswestrys bowling green from closure, Coversure Insurance Services have sponsored the Cae Glas Park Bowling club. Next year it is hoped that the Cae Glas green could even have its own league team but councillors are still warning that the 70 year old bowling green could be lost if people do not use it enough.

It costs around £2,500 a year to keep the green open and the majority of the money needs to come from paying customers but at only £1.60 a session or just £1.00 for juniors, it is worth every penny!

Please dig into you pockets, show your support and have some fun aswell!

28th July 2011 - FSA review reveals aggregators could be misleading clients

A review by the Financial Services Authority has found that aggregators such as Confused, GoCompare and Moneysupermarket could be leading consumers to purchase insurance policies that are not suitable for them.

The FSA has sent a letter to the aggregators asking them to consider whether they are introducing, arranging, or even advising customers on purchasing insurance, which may lead to aggregators needing to be authorised to carry on their activities in the insurance market.

There is also growing concern that due to websites listing policies by price, customers may be misled into thinking all policies are the same and the only difference is the price, which is far from the truth.

24th May 2011 - Stay Insured - Stay Legal!

From June 2011 there will be new penalties for anyone who keeps a vehicle that has no insurance. You don't even have to be driving to be caught.

The Motor Insurance Database is promoting the new motor insurance law and the penalties you could face with a national marketing campaign on the television and internet. You can also view the video here

For further information about how this affects you, contact us on 0800 3081 300.

1st May 2011 - The Employers' Liability Tracing Office (ELTO)

ELTO has replaced the previous voluntary Employers’ Liability Code of Practice (ELCOP) tracing service, which was in place since 1999 and helped around 20,000 claimants trace the EL insurer to pursue a claim.

The ELTO service has been introduced by the insurance industry to make it easier to search for Employers Liability insurance policies using a central database – containing all new and renewed EL insurance policies from April 2011, policies from before April 2011 that have new claims made against them and policies that were identified through the previous tracing service. This means that as a broker we will be requesting the Employers Reference number for any policies where there are employees.

Further information can be found at http://www.elto.org.uk/

1st April 2011 - New Website launched for HGV Insurance

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new HGV website - www.coversurehgvinsurance.co.uk

Benefits of the site include:

• Instant Quote & Buy Online
• Instant policy documents
• Our lowest truck rates – guaranteed!
• Cover for owner operators
• Cover for haulage or own goods use
• Protected bonus from just 1 year
• FREE protected bonus from 6 years
• Dedicated claimsline
• Annual European Green Cards
• Optional cover available for goods in transit and liability

Please visit the site to try it out or if you know the owner of a truck above 3.6 tonnes please let them know!

1st January 2011 - Changes to IPT & VAT

The Government announced in June 2010 that with effect from 4th January 2011

• VAT (Value Added Tax) will increase from 17.5% to 20%
• IPT (Insurance Premium Tax) will increase from 5% to 6%
• IPT (Insurance Premium Tax) higher rate will increase from 17.5% to 20% affecting all travel policies, some motor insurance and some white goods.

If you have any questions or would like any further information please contact a member of staff at our Oswestry office or you can find more information on the HM Revenue and Customs website - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/index.htm

27th October 2010 - New Motor Insurance Law

From January 2011 a new law gives the DVLA more power to combat keepers of vehicles that are not insured.

The DVLA will compare its records with details of vehicles on the Motor Insurance Database and the keeper of any vehicle that does not have insurance could face a fixed penalty of £100, have their vehicle seized and disposed of, and have a court prosecution with a maximum fine of £1,000.

Even if you do not intend to drive your vehicle, you will need to insure it or declare it as SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification).

If you want to check that your vehicle is insured, visit the free service at www.askmid.com

For more information on this please visit www.direct.gov.uk/stayinsured

10 Year Anniversary
Coversure Oswestry has been open for 10 years! See the pictures of the team at the anniversary celebrations!

We would all like to say a big THANK YOU to all of our customers for helping us reach this milestone and we look forward to the next 10!

Twitter
Coversure have joined the Twitter community! Follow us at @coversureosw on Twitter

The Best of Oswestry
Coversure have joined The Best of Oswestry! Only the very best businesses in Oswestry are featured on the site and we are extremely proud to have been recognised.

Find out more details at http://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/oswestry

Linked In
Are you interested in business networking?

Do you want to join a free website that offers new business opportunities and free advice without the early mornings and cold breakfasts?

Take a look at our profile on Linked In http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/darren-roberts/23/8b5/796 and add me to your network.