Archive for July, 2009

Investigating insurance

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

I had an e-mail in June reminding me I’d signed up to share my car insurance quotes with an online company called Consumer Intelligence in exchange for £50 and so began my sojourn into insurance investigations.

I’d already had a look on Confused.com and been offered a slight reduction with Endsleigh who I have favoured in the past, I was tempted as I know their customer service to have been exemplary in the past but then I’m a bargain hunter at heart so the search went on.

I’ve been insured with Lloyds TSB for two years which has served my purposes but honestly I would have probably changed insurers had I not been so lazy with the renewal last year. Prompted by CI and their required 6 predetermined calls I ended up with a great quote from the Co-operative and all was looking good. I’ve had insurance with the Co-op in the past and found them to be a decent company to deal with.

My renewal was coming up just over £300 which wasn’t especially appealing, I’m a firm believer that my insurance should go down each year, holding a steady figure is of no interest to me. The Co-op were offering a saving of around £55 and I had the potential to further beat that figure down with an extra saving by signing up online.

Keeping my knowledge of Quidco in mind I went searching the site for offers which could tempt me or at least cashback on the quote I had with the Co-op and sure enough two popped up. One for an immediate £1.50 payout on a quote with Gocompare.com and £70.00 cash back on my Co-op quote and I was about to hit the send key when I noticed the quote on Gocompare.com, three companies were able to undercut my current quote and each had cashback with Quidco.
The lowest was £235 with Kwik Fit with £42.50 cashback and a free MOT. Fabulous!
There is a glitch though and the same will apply on many insurance websites, watch out for all the many added extras, they’ll add things like windscreen cover and breakdown cover and legal cover at figures like £25 here and £18 there but they all add up. If you want the bare bones be sure to read the details and keep your final figure where you want it.

So, ultimately, I’ll have a £50 payout from CI, a £42.50 payout from Quidco for the Kwik Fit insurance and a further £1.50 for the quote on Gocompare.com, a free MOT at a saving of around £40 and my insurance was hammed down by almost a third. Once I claim all payouts and savings my fully comprenhensive insurance will have cost me £101 and a couple of hours of my time. Furthermore, any work on my car by Kwik Fit will be at a 10% discount over the coming year which is useful to me since one of their branches is near my place of work.

The Co-op quote would have been £288 minus £71.50 cashback on Quidco and the £50 from CI, not quite such a good deal in the end result but still a good saving on my renewal.

It’s worth going through this same process for all insurance policies you take out each year, it’s a little time consuming but generally the savings are apparent.

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Posted in Findings, offers, Savings | 1 Comment »

Another budget break

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Someone kindly sent me the information about Haven holidays newspaper promotion recently and as a result I’ve managed to book another 4 day caravan break for a measly £60.00 on a 4* site. The onsite facilities are excellent, the caravan is a luxury model and it’s a real bargain.
Newspaper promotional holidays seem to have a bit of a reputation, understandable in some cases since it tends to be the tabloids rather than broadsheets but in these times surely that’s better than nothing at all?

The Sun is the usual suspect for the high profile advertising which goes alongside the £9.50 holidays but it’s The Daily Mail who advertised the most recent offers. Both offer low cost holidays on caravan sites around the UK. That could be Butlins, Haven or Park in most cases.
Read the reviews here on Bview before you book to be sure the site meets your requirements.
The Guardian have overseas holiday offers in their promotions in conjunction with other companies which might be worth investigating for short notice international departure dates.
Local city newspapers tend to work in association with travel companies to create offers which depart from local venues and often for excellent prices. My local paper The Sheffield Star has it’s own holiday shop.

Thomson send me regular emails with their offers. I’m not in the market for a trip overseas until later this year though so I’ll be waiting until a little closer to the time and checking out companies like ebookers and last minute.com in order to maximise on the savings available.

One final note, if you do buy a cheap or last minute break be very sure to check the small print. I bought my holiday fully aware that I would receive a bill for cleaning and utilities on top of my £60.00 bill. If I’d not read the small print that could have come as a shock since the company also billed me for entertainment passes and linen, both of which are optional but bump the final cost to almost double. I cancelled the linen as I can take my own free of charge and the entertainment passes are not required. You might find with international destinations that you’ll need to source insurance, transfers or otherwise separately so be sure to read closely before you pay.

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Vouchers Revisited

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

You might remember back in March BView made it possible for businesses to add vouchers and promotions to their listings. Our voucher directory has been growing ever since and now includes tens of thousands of vouchers, making us the largest single source of vouchers in the UK.

If you’re business isn’t displaying a voucher, you might be missing out.

Why should I add a voucher?
By adding a voucher your business will be included in the BView voucher directory. Businesses from our voucher directory are seen more across the BView site. Businesses with vouchers will have the edge over those without as everyone likes a bargain – it gives the customer one more reason to choose you over a competitor. You’ll also be included in our fortnightly newsletter that gets sent to tens of thousands of BView members

We’ve also been working hard to build distribution partners to get your offers seen by the widest audience possible. Just last month we partnered with Google so that vouchers from BView businesses are displayed as part of the listings on Google Maps. We’re putting the finishing touches to other exciting partnerships too!

What does it cost?
Nothing.
It’s completely free.

Any business on BView can add a voucher as part of their standard profile. Once you’ve claimed your listing just click on the “Add a voucher” link from the menu on the right.

What sort of special offer should I make?
This really depends on your business. Percentage discounts are always popular, but you might prefer to offer a free gift, or 2 for 1 deal. Mail order companies find that free delivery is always a winner, and if none if these suit you, then you could try a free quote or initial consultation.

How do I add a voucher?
If you haven’t already, then start by claiming your business on BView.

Once you’ve done this just login and follow the “Add a voucher” link displayed in the green box on the right hand side of your profile. It should be straight forward from there!

If you’ve got any suggestions, feedback or voucher success stories then please share them below in the comments.

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600 more restaurant offers

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Just added: 600 more restaurant offers

This is a quick update to say we have just completed work on a new partnership with 5pm to bring all of their restaurant offers to BView. If I was a betting man I’d also take a punt that the BView restaurant offers directory is now the largest in the UK.

Happy eating!

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The Positives from the Negative

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

One topic that comes up quite often when speaking to business owners on BView is the impact a poor review could have on their businesses reputation.  They shouldn’t be so worried though. This article tells how the odd negative review of a business can make a potential customer trust those other perfect scores that little bit more – it makes feedback seem balanced, and obvious that the business has nothing to hide.

In my experience, any time I seek out a new business to work with I’ll seek out those few negative comments, not so I can find out what could go wrong, but more importantly, so that I can get an idea of how the company responded when things turned bad.

Earlier in the year when a reviewer complained that our offer of a Google Adwords voucher for new business members was “rubbish” for existing advertisers we took the time to address their concerns, and hopefully made the promotion a little clearer for everyone.  Another great example of how important negative feedback is to can be seen in Louisa E’s comments. We worked hard to address each of the issues she raised about the site and are confident BView is better because of it!

BView knows how important it is to give business owners an opportunity to put their side of the story across and explain what went wrong and how they’ve set about resolving problems or complaints raised by reviewers. Through BView, businesses can add a response to any review left for their business, and this is a valuable way of showing how important customer satisfaction is to your company. If you’re looking for some more examples when a bad review ended up making the business look good, read this.

Potential customers will understand that no business gets it right every time for every customer and will be encouraged to see a businesses working hard to recognise where they’ve made mistakes and what they’ve done to correct them – and to make sure it doesn’t happen again!

Don’t forget that all feedback will have a positive impact on your businesses SEO (it’s visibility to search engines) so if you haven’t already, invite a few of your customers to review you on BView.

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Posted in Business, Findings | 3 Comments »

Out and about for nowt (as we say in Yorkshire)!

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009


I decided to make a short notice break away from the norm and galloped off to the coast for a few days of relative peace, naturally, for the purposes of research I had to do that on a budget.
So, having already spent a couple of days sharing a caravan at a Park Resorts site I decided to maximise the savings to be had. Park offer a saving for any repeat bookings in one season and since I was mentioned on the occupancy list last time, I’m entitled to the saving this time. The best savings are to be made when booking again before you leave and that applies to any of the sites around the country.
I managed to book a pretty big caravan for four on the East Coast for a long weekend and from there the plan was to explore.

En route we travelled through Hull, hardly a fine example of tourism but with it’s own appeal in the form of The Deep a large sea life centre just off the main roads. We got in for the family ticket price of £28.50 and there’s the option to upgrade that ticket at no extra cost to a year long pass, all they ask is for a donation next time but it isn’t compulsory. So, that’s a years entry into The Deep for around £7 each. You can even make use of the local tourist information board who often provide online printable vouchers or key phrases to quote and make even greater savings at attractions around the country.
We even managed to find some places of interest with free entry, like Wold’s Way Lavender Farm and we picked our own fruit at a farm down the road before driving home via Wentworth Garden Centre.

Park even assist with savings, for example you can buy entry for The Sea Life Centre in Scarborough at great reductions instead of the ticket sales at the venue. Alternately look at the internet site and find vouchers on site or sign up for Bview’s local listings to get an up to date link to the latest offers in the area.

No matter what type of holiday you want or even if you just want a day out or two, it’s worth searching around the internet for reduced price entry to visitor attractions and events all over the UK and really making the most of the sunshine.

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