Unfortunately, the average house insurance policy does not incorporate cover for an old leaky roof or a roof that is need of maintenance.   If you receive storm damage, then this is normally covered in your the policy – damage due to normal wear and tear of your roof is usually not covered.  Don’t get caught out and make sure you keep your roof free of water inception, fix your leaks and ensure that your roof tiles are in good condition – if you don’t it can often come to more cost to repair the damage.

What to Do If Your Roofing Is In Need of Repair?

Either you can repair it yourself if it’s within your knowledge, but if you do, be sure to take all safety precautions and deploy a safety person if using a ladder.

Much better to find a local roofing specialist that is competent and trained to traverse roofs, erect scaffolding correctly and more importantly with the skill to repair your roof properly and one that will last.  If you’re based in the South Yorkshire area and in need of a roof expert with experience, view all roofing services sheffield for a fast, friendly trusted and efficient roof repair that will last decades.

Finding an appropriate public liability insurance quote that is right for your needs and the needs of your organisation can be quite a daunting task as there are hundreds of online quote engines, independent insurance consultants and price comparison websites. It is of paramount importance that you attain honest and independent advice about the type of liability cover that you require.

Furthermore, it is vital that you protect yourself against false information and misleading liability insurance providers whose aim is to make as much money as possible out of your insurance policy. Here is an easy guide to finding and securing a Public Liability Insurance Quote that is perfect for you.

Phone or Visit Public Liability Insurance Providers

By talking to different Public Liability Insurance providers on the telephone or by visiting them directly can really help you to understand what type of policy is right for you. It’s important to call or a visit a few different providers so that you can weight up the different policy offers in order to determine which policy works for you.

Search for Public Liability Insurance Providers on the internet

Using the Internet for insurance quotations has become very efficient with the various price comparison websites and by going through the search engine results. The advantage is that you can get multiple public liability insurance quotes from 1 source, helping you through the leg work of get individual quotes from the different suppliers. Using a Search Engine on the other hand is also a good method because most reputable (and larger) providers would usually be found on the first page of the search engine results page.

Locate an independent insurance broker or 3rd Party Insurance website that provides information on a range of providers

This is probably the easiest method as an independent insurance consultant or broker will often help you with selecting a policy that is perfect for you through an analysis off your needs. Another great advantage of using an independent insurance consultant for gaining Public Liability Insurance Quotes is the fact that the broker or consultant will go out and attain multiple quotes from multiple providers on your behalf.
Most importantly, ensure that you have had a thorough look at the different providers of Public Liability Insurance and to also ensure that you have been advised by a few different websites or brokers.

This unique transport system is basically an online portal to meet other transport freight providers where customers exchange information about vacant loads and trucks.  It is utilised by hauliers and freight forwarders in addition to manufacturing companies wishing to transport goods to and from europe.

TRANS.IE  is the ideal place to search for reliable and low-cost carriers from Ireland, freight orders and transactions and new business contacts in the transport industry.

The logintrans system has many functions to match up customers and free lorry loads, but very importantly has a built in financial security element, in that it verifies the financial status and risk factors of all a parties, ensuring that you can be safe that the transaction and operation is a viable one.    Trust in finance and reliability is one of the key factors of its success and its usage throughout Europe. / Ireland and the UK.

Every month, the logintrans system supports over 1 million  transport offers  - trucks, freight and transport orders.

So what is life insurance used for:

Life insurance can be used for many things once you are gone. It can be used for your paying for your funeral, higher education expenses for your children, paying off your mortgage and any other expenses your family may have after you are gone. There are many other reasons for having life cover. It saves your family from having to sell your personal property to take care of any expenses that occur with your death. It can also be used to keep them from having to give up things they are used to having such as music lessons or their home.

Life cover isn’t as expensive as some people may think.  There are several different policies that can cover what you need and still fit within your budget. You don’t even have to know everything about buying a policy. Many websites offer many quotes and even assistance finding the right policy for your situation. You can buy now and always shop around later for a better policy if your life has a change such as changing jobs, moving, or even an addition to you family.

Just make sure to read all of the policy, including the small print and all of the terms and limitations to make sure that nothing surprises your family when the time comes to receive the benefits of your life cover policy. Nothing makes you feel better about leaving your family behind when you die, but it does help when thinking about their continued well-being after you are gone.

Unfortunately, taxes and natural disaster do occur, and as much as we pray that they cause too much damage, that prayer seems to go unheard.

Last month, the 3^rd largest economy in the world, Japan, was devastated by two natural disasters; once caused by the other. When an earthquake measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale hit off the northwest coast of Japan, it not only caused massive damage on land it also triggered a tsunami which crashed ashore flooding earthquake destroyed areas with several feet of water. Buildings that were, at one moment, standing erect, were brought to ruin in the next minute, then completely washed away in the next. Thousands of lives were lost, and billions of pounds of damage were reported. But Japan can rebuild with help from you.

So what can we do when natural disasters strike? We can offer our services as volunteers. Unfortunately, not everyone has the immediate funds to purchase airfare or supplies. Fortunately, payday loan providers are right around the corner. They can offer an immediate cash loan that you can use to buy plane tickets, or purchase much needed supplies and ship them to the aid stations. You can never do enough to help.

If you’re payday isn’t for another week, but help is needed now; don’t wait. Consider comparing payday loans from an approved provider  and get the help you need, and just pay back the loan when your salary arrives.

The losses incurred in 2005 as a result of lost, stolen and counterfeit cards will be greatly reduced as a result of the widespread use of Chip and PIN, according to APACS.

Thanks to such innovations consumers can, with some justification, feel that their personal finances are being protected from fraudsters but what about small and medium sized businesses (SMEs)? Are their interests being well-served as part of the banking industry’s approach to curbing card fraud? More importantly, what are the practical steps that SMEs can take to ensure they do not fall victim to online con-artists?

Card fraud affects most business areas, but is of particular concern for e-business. Cardholder-not-present fraud (CNP) was the biggest single type of fraud in 2004, accounting for £150.8m of the total. This has risen in line with the growth of businesses offering transactions made by fax, phone or online, not just the internet. Unfortunately for businesses, in the case of online transactions, authorisations on the web are not a guarantee that the cardholder is aware of the transaction or that the individual placing the order is the genuine cardholder.

Every time an unauthorised card transaction occurs, the retailer in question is liable for an expensive chargeback fee. In many cases the business loses out twice over; once to the fraudster and then again to the card company who will charge a fee on the fraudulent sale. It’s not difficult to see how this could seriously impact on a business’s bottom line. For a small business, this type of loss can be devastating.

Unfortunately the value of chargeback fees is always in-line with the value of the original transaction and is not in any way linked to the size of the company that has been defrauded. No special allowances are made for SMEs in cases of online fraud; a small business with just a few members of staff will have the same level of liability as a large multinational company. To make matters worse, by their very nature smaller businesses are at increased risk of falling prey to scams as they have fewer resources to combat them.

Earlier this year the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) called on ministers to do more to protect small firms from scams. This came hot on the heels of the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) launch of ‘scam awareness month’, a campaign to raise awareness of financial fraud among consumers. The OFT is able to serve ‘Stop Now Orders’ on those trying to scam consumers but a clause in the 2002 Enterprise Act denies the self-employed and businesses similar protection.

It is, of course, unlikely that smaller businesses will have the resources to come up with their own bespoke fraud screening service. However, one simple way smaller businesses can have confidence they will not fall prey to costly scams, online at least, is to use a trustworthy cardholder authentication service.

In addition to fraud and as an added incentive to merchants to implement appropriate security systems, from 30th June this year, all businesses who take more than 20,000 online payments a year will be required to comply with new Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. These rules govern the handling and security of sensitive information. In practical terms, this means that companies must scan networks four times a year and carry out an annual audit (at a cost to themselves) to ensure their compliance with the new security standards. Companies who do not adhere to these rules may have their merchant acquiring facilities withdrawn and hence not be able to trade.

Although these changes are potentially time consuming for SMEs to implement it is absolutely crucial that such systems are put in place. In the event of card fraud, banks will quite simply not talk to businesses that do not have these standards in operation.

Growing numbers of businesses now use a real-time payment service such as SECPay to process online card payments. Those merchants that use such a service will find their obligations under PCI are fulfilled automatically. This is part of SECPay’s payment service.

In addition to easing the massive burden of collecting relevant data, real-time payment services also provide businesses with all-important security systems to minimise many of the risks associated with collecting card payments online. Mastercard’s ‘SecureCode’ and Visa’s ‘Verify by Visa’ authentication systems work to fight fraud by checking previously registered identification details to confirm a cardholders identity, by either PIN or password. These systems are the electronic commerce equivalent of Chip and Pin. Both systems are available to SECPay’s clients free of charge, giving them additional peace of mind when trading online. These schemes move the liability for most fraudulent transactions to the card issuers and not the merchants.

Even with the authentication schemes in place merchants must still be conscious of fraud levels and actively take steps to prevent fraud. They can still have acquiring facilities withdrawn if fraud levels rise, so just because the expense is carried by the card issuer it is not an excuse for complacency. In addition Mail Order / Telephone Order transactions are not covered by the VBV and Securecode schemes so vigilance is especially important here. In addition with fraudsters being squeezed by Chip and Pin on one side and VBV/Securecode on the other, fraud will tend to migrate to Mail Order / Telephone Order. SECPay provides a number of products to help detect the occurrence of fraud and to aid merchants in mitigating it’s effects.

So many anti-fraud measures appear to come from a system that actively works to protect the rights of the consumer but does not make good business sense to merchants. Many measures are difficult for businesses to administer and implement. It is good to know, therefore, that there are steps businesses can take with a minimum of fuss to ensure they are better protected against online fraud.

The decision comes on the back of recent customer data analysis which found that a large percentage of retailers that join SECPay in the New Year do so due to difficulties processing payments during the festive season. IMRG has predicted that 25 million shoppers will spend over £7 billion online in the run-up toChristmas

Chris Dipple, Chief Technology Officer at SECPay says: “As another record online Christmas fast approaches retailers must ensure that their sites can cope with the increase in traffic.”

He continues: “Retailers simply cannot afford to miss out on this year’s promised festive bonanza. Retailers have largely eliminated fulfilment and delivery problems but have not addressed how their sites stand-up to peak volumes of traffic.”

The SECPay service offers e-retailers extra peace of mind through a low cost payment processing back-up service to existing payment gateways. For just £100 the company is offering to provide online traders with a full back-up payment service until 31st January 2007.

Chris Dipple comments: “Last Christmas we received a number of distress calls from retailers who had lost the ability to process payments. This year we are pre-empting the situation by offering retailers the ability to set-up a back-up service with SECPay.”

SECPay is a fast-growing processor of real-time card payments for goods and services bought over the internet. It offers over 3,500 web merchants a gateway into their choice of any UK acquiring bank for authorising debit and credit card transactions. In the year ended 30 June 2006, SECPay’s revenue and profit before tax and interest, were £1.9 million and £0.3 million respectively. The service complements that of PayPoint’s existing PSP subsidiary Metacharge, which works with selected acquirers only and offers settlement and risk management services in addition to an authorisation gateway.

Dominic Taylor, Chief Executive of PayPoint, said: “SECPay enhances our position in the rapidly growing internet payments market and complements our recent acquisition of Metacharge. We now have a full range of payment processing services to offer internet merchants and a significantly larger merchant base.”

About PayPoint

PayPoint is a leading branded payment collection network used, primarily, for the cash payment of bills and services and prepayments for mobile telephones and energy meters. There are over 16,000 retail outlets using PayPoint’s payment terminals.

PayPoint began trading in 1996 and initially collected payments through its network of retail agents for its founder client investors, who included British Gas, BT, BBC TV Licensing, London Electricity (now part of EDF Energy) and four water companies.

Clients include many of the UK and Ireland’s major energy, cable, mobile and fixed line telephony companies. PayPoint’s blue chip client list also extends to numerous water companies, local authorities and housing associations and a growing transport and travel base.

In November 2006, PayPoint entered the internet payments market through the acquisition of Metacharge Limited.

SECPay has agreements with the majority of acquiring banks and we are always happy to offer advice and assistance to help you with your application.

SECPay has agreements with: