Comparing home insurance quotes, instead of allowing the auto-renewal, could save each household £132 per year; the independent research has also concluded that 29% of UK homeowners automatically renew with their existing provider.

The survey revealed that 15% of those loyal customers do not believe that a better deal can be found, whilst 14% simply cannot be bothered to try.

A UK resident will, on average, stick with a home insurance provider for 3 years, whilst ultra-loyal over 55s stay for an average of 3.6 years.

Shockingly, around 10% of Brits have been with the same provider for at least ten years.

Julie Owens, head of home insurance at moneysupermarket.com, said: “Shopping around for the best deal is quick and easy; by not doing so Brits are effectively watching their hard earned cash go down the drain.”

“While home contents insurance is not a legal requirement, I would urge every household to have combined buildings and contents insurance in place. Comprehensive policies will cover your home against problems such as subsidence, burst pipes, personal liability and even boiler breakdown in some cases, all of which could land you with a bill for thousands of pounds.”

“This is in addition to more common incidents such as theft, burglary or loss of possessions away from the home. Without having cover in place you could end up having to foot a very expensive bill.”

If you don’t investigate your options, you could genuinely be throwing money away. Consumers can normally find plenty of online discounts and offers for most types of insurance, as the providers are constantly competing for each other’s customers.

Using a comparison website is a fast, easy and effective way to find the best deal; you can check out our home insurance comparison table here.

Image: Principle First

Lucky southerners living in sunny Bournemouth have the cheapest average premium of £103.98, which is £60 less than the national average.

York and Glasgow are the runners-up with an average of £109.22 and £110.73 respectively, closely followed by Tidworth, Nottingham and Leicester.

The data, based on a year’s worth of home insurance premiums quoted to over 2 million people, also shows that Greater London postcodes are the most expensive, but there are no surprises there.

The top 10 most expensive average premiums were all quoted in Greater London areas; Stanmore, in Harrow, topped the list with £286.50, closely followed by Golders Green with 280.59, and Dulwich with £279.07. This unenviable list also includes Mill Hill, Northwood and Edgware.

The top 3 are paying close to 75% more than the UK average, and up to 176% more than the money savers in Bournemouth.

Julie Owens, head of home insurance at Moneysupermarket.com, said: “Many homeowners just don’t realise their postcode is a big contributing factor to how much they pay for their home insurance premium, and that it can really hike the price.”

“Similarly, if your property is classified as being in a ‘high-risk’ area - whether for crime, flooding or even subsidence - it will be reflected in your insurance premiums. Living in a more affluent area will also increase premiums as property and contents values will generally be higher.”

The car insurer and breakdown specialist has suggested that people will choose day trips over weekend jaunts, and has warned that the extensive traffic volumes will last until unusually late in the evening on Friday. It is also expected that Monday afternoon and early evening will see very high volumes, as well as Tuesday morning.

Popular destinations will include theme parks and beaches (providing the weather holds out), and shopping centres such as Bluewater and Lakeside will certainly be swamped with shoppers.

Motorists are advised to plan their route before setting off, and a contingency route would certainly be a good idea. Local radio stations and route planners are great tools that will help you experience an easier journey.

If you are planning on visiting a theme park such as Alton Towers or Thorpe Park, allow extra time for your journey to try and account for peak times.

Your fuel consumption increases when you use lower gears, so don’t forget that traffic jams will result in higher petrol and diesel usage; make sure you have enough for your journey

Always check your oil and water levels, as well as type pressure and wear, to minimise the possibility of a breakdown.

Most importantly, drive safely and enjoy your bank holiday.

41% of reported thefts committed against tourists involved cash, whilst stolen cameras accounted for 20% and 16% involved snatched credit or debit cards. Almost a quarter of thefts took place in the accommodation of the holidaymakers, and 11% of victims were targeted by pickpockets. 10% of those affected had possessions stolen from their car.

A quarter of the thefts took place in Spain, followed by France and then the UK.

Jennifer Thomas, a spokesperson for Direct Line travel insurance, said: “Many people are looking for ways to save money on the cost of a holiday in the current economic climate, but cutting back on travel insurance could end up being an expensive mistake”.

“Holidaymakers should protect themselves by ensuring that they have travel insurance in place to cover against any losses should the worst happen.”

16% of victims admit that they have no travel insurance, despite the obvious risk to their personal possessions whilst they are going away on holiday.

Holidaymakers can find a comprehensive and diverse selection of travel insurers through comparenow.com, with single and couple/family packages available for various durations. Discounts include 15% through Churchill, 10% through Halifax or Asda and 5% through Argos.

Alliance & Leicester and Santander-owned Abbey bank will formally merge at the end of May, putting Santander in charge of all the accounts held with either bank. Santander can then legally exercise its right to use customers’ cash to clear overdue monies; this is known as ‘set-off’.

Marc Gander, speaking on behalf of the Consumer Action Group, said: “This is grossly unfair. Banks seem to be able to change the terms of the agreements they have with customers when they see fit.”

“People will have opened a savings account with one of these brands in the knowledge their money was safe. Now, if they have a debt at what was a completely different bank this money will be used to pay it off.”

In addition, any accounts with Santander-owned online bank Cahoot will be included in the move. Those who could be affected now have three months to get their finances with these banks up to date and in order, before the move by Santander will come into effect.

Nothing can happen until the High Court approves the formal merger of Abbey and Alliance & Leicester, but this is likely to be a formality.

Any borrower wishing to take out a £5,000 loan will see a similar increase; the rate has leapt from 5.83% to 10.84%. Average rates on a £10,000 loan have increased from 2.73% to 8.75%, whilst rates on a £15,000 loan have also seen a big jump; 5.79% to 9.08%

Tim Moss, head of loans at Moneysupermarket.com, said: “Unfortunately, although not unexpectedly, providers are hitting consumers in the pocket by increasing their margins across the board.”

“The days of cheap loans now seem a distant memory, as banks appear to be less willing to compete in the unsecured loan market, and it is those borrowers who are looking to borrow small amounts who have to pay more”.

Many borrowers would, in fact, be better off borrowing slightly more than they originally intended because this could reduce the total amount repaid. A £4,600 loan from Alliance & Leicester comes with an APR of15.7%, with the total repayment working out as £5,714. Borrowing an extra £400 would lead to an improved APR of 8.9%, resulting in a total repayment of 5,687; a saving of £27. Although it’s not much, any saving is a good saving.

When this figure is broken down, it equates to £47,000 per household. At a time of economic difficulty, many UK workers are having to go without a pension. Fronting a massive bill for someone else’s retirement fund, whilst having to sacrifice their own, will be a difficult pill to swallow for UK private sector workers.

In March 2008, the government said the public sector bill was a massive £770 billion, but now the UK is left with a staggering number that breaks the dreaded trillion pound mark. Back in May 2009, the BBC revealed that half of UK adults were not putting aside any form of pension fund, mainly due to affordability and debt.

Dr. Ros Altman, pensions expert and former Treasury adviser, said: “We are heading for social strife when private sector workers rebel against paying other people’s pension. I’m not saying that public sector workers don’t deserve generous pensions. They do. But so does everybody else.”

This news means that the public sector pension bill will account for 80% of the UK’s total economic output in one year.

It is thought that illegal dog breeds are being used both as status symbols and weapons by many of their owners. The 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act banned ownership of the pit bull terrier, the Japanese tosa, the dogo Argentino and the fila Brasileiro. Police were also granted additional powers, enabling them to take whatever action necessary to deal with any breed of dangerous dog if it loses control in a public place.

Labour has proposed compulsory third-party insurance, micro-chipping and an amendment to the current Dangerous Dogs Act. The suggested amendment would result in any injury on private property being covered by the Act, protecting workers who have to visit homes in order to do their job. A spate of attacks on children, postal workers and telecoms engineers has triggered calls for definitive action that would ensure compensation for those injured.

The CWU postal union general secretary Billy Hayes said: “Thousands of our members are attacked at work every year. This reform cannot come soon enough.”

The RSPCA and the government want to encourage sensible ownership of dogs, and these new proposals are seen as the best way to enforce changes in the behaviour of those acting irresponsibly.

With confirmation expected soon, it is worth checking out pet insurance policies; there is a 33% online discount with Tesco, 2 months free with Direct Line and policies starting at £4.44 per month with More Than. These insurers all offer policies that incorporate third-party cover.

Women who hit 35 on their next birthdays, can save up to £40.56 if they’ve quite smoking and are on a 15 year level term assurance (without critical illness cover) and with a sum assured of £75,000. Men who are 25 on their next birthdays can, with 30 year level term (with reviewable critical illness cover) with a sum assured of £125,000, can net a saving of £151.56 annually.

Astonishingly, a smoke-free 45 year old male will make a maximum saving of £276.60 annually for his 10 year level term policy (no critical illness cover), with a sum assured of £50,000.

Aviva revealed that 15% of their customers are still smoking, and, according to the Office of National Statistics, two thirds of British smokers do want to quit. The habit comes at both a financial and physical cost, with information about quitting available at smokefree.nhs.uk. This site will provide you will details about how smoking affects your health, and also allows you to operate a smoking cost calculator. If your pack of 20 cigarettes costs £5, and you smoke 20 a day, it is costing you £1825 annually; the equivalent of 30 Premier League tickets, or 6 weekends in Paris.

If you combine that figure with the potential difference in your life insurance premium, then you could be saving £2,000, maybe even more! More importantly, you will massively decrease your own risk of heart disease and lung cancer.

Aviva policyholders must be smoke-free for 12 months in order to be classed as a non-smoker. No Smoking Day is Wednesday 10th March.

Image from NoSmokingDay

The Telegraph recently revealed that one in five Britons have three or more credit cards, with 17% using one of their cards at least once a day. A quarter of the UK’s 30 million credit cards saw an increase in interest rate over the last year, with credit card debts of £2,000 now taking two years to clear if you pay back £100 a month.

Roughly 15% of the UK’s total household debt of £1.46 trillion is attributed to consumer credit; this includes credit cards and unsecured loans. Credit cards alone are now accounting for £61.5 billion of the debt.

With consumers finding it increasingly difficult to get credit at an acceptable rate of interest, they are looking to cards such as Vanquis; average rates are 39.9%, but rates as high as 60% are possible because the advertised APR for all credit cards only needs to apply to two thirds of borrowers. Provident has also stated that it turned down 830,000 applicants, so many will be looking to payday loans in an attempt to survive through financial difficulties.

Chris Tapp, director of debt charity Credit Action, said: “The rates on these cards are very high… The fear is that while some of these people will hopefully have been put off, many will have to turn to doorstep lenders or payday loans companies which can charge exceptionally high amounts.”

Payday loans are essentially one step beyond the last resort; borrowers can easily be looking at interest rates above 1000%. Website PaydayUK.co.uk advertises a typical APR of 1737%, with QuckQuid.co.uk trumping that figure by showing a typical APR of 2356%. Even more astonishing than this is the APR offered by MiniCredit.co.uk - borrowers will be faced with a brain-shatteringly high rate of 3457%. On top of this, the word ‘typical’ means that 33% of applicants could be looking at a higher figure than initially advertised.