Tag: <span>uk</span>

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Everybody likes to go off on holidays, and for the adventurous (and thrifty) among us, there is nothing quite so appealing as going backpacking. Unfortunately, for those traveling outside of the nation’s border backpacker’s traveling insurance is required. Well, okay it isn’t legally required, but to not purchase backpacker travel insurance in the UK would be much too big a risk for even the wealthiest citizen.

The reason that you will need to buy backpacker travel insurance in the UK is that you will need protection in the event of loss or illness while on your trip. If your bags get stolen or you get sick, you will need coverage. The insurance coverage is good not only in the event of a medical situation but in the situation of theft. For example, if the bag with your passport gets stolen, your insurance will help you get back home (as will the British embassy in whatever country you’re in at the time).

Yes, we acknowledge that it is a terrible thing to fork over money for something that you honestly never want to have to use. Sadly, that is the way the world works these days.

What is good to know is that traveler’s insurance covers a wide variety of concerns.

Backpacker’s traveling insurance can cover the following concerns:

Medical Emergencies: this will cover the cost of any emergency medical attention that you might need.

Personal Liability: this covers any damage to another person or his/her property that is your fault.

Baggage/Possessions: this covers you in the event that any of your personal items get stolen or lost. It also covers the costs of replacing lost identification (like your passport).

Repatriation and Rescue: this covers you in the event of an emergency medical rescue, like if you need a helicopter rescue.

Holiday Cancellation: this covers you if you need to cancel your trip before you’re done traveling. It will also compensate you for any expenses that you might not be reimbursed for (deposits on Hotel rooms).

Travel Delay: This will cover you for any money that you might end up losing because of a delay in departure. This part of your policy usually specifies a minimum length of delay that must lapse before you’ll be covered.

Personal Money: this will reimburse you for any personal money or traveler’s checks that might get lost or stolen while traveling. Usually, the limit on this reimbursement is very low, so check your policy.

Sometimes backpacker’s traveler’s insurance will also cover skiing and sports. Certain sports like winter sports, bungee jumping or other extreme sports get extra coverage. Sometimes you have to ask for this coverage specifically, so if you plan on taking part in any of these events, make sure they are covered by your backpacker travel insurance in the UK.

While it might seem superfluous to spend money on a policy that is best left unrecouped, it is better to spring for the insurance anyway. You don’t want to be caught unprepared when not in your nation’s borders.

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Source by Aden Winthrop

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Office Chairs UK is a large outlet of brilliantly efficient office chairs. The selections are of excellent quality. They have a tremendous group of all the top choices of meeting, desk, reception and task chairs. Want to make your office look professional and tastefully lovely try our web selection of Tub, Giro or allermuir chairs.

Working from 9 to 5 or having a home office many times results in you spending hours in an office chair. A poorly designed chair can only add to back problems, tired shoulders and poor leg circulation. A good office chair makes working so much more comfortable. A neck rest and height adjustment makes a great deal of difference in the comfort of an office chair. Spending hours standing on your feet is a difficult task but sitting for hours at a time day in and day out is equally as hard.

These well made chairs give comfort to the lower back and support to the spine. These chairs are designed in a number of smashing styles for your office or home office. Theses chairs are styled to roll from one desk area to the next considering it is inconvenient to get up each time there is a task to take care of.

Look at the selection available online and in retail stores to decide which in your favorite choice. There is a chair to fit your style and your sitting needs. These chairs are not only limited to the office but add one to your library desk, they are versatile and extremely functional. The selection on our web site is wide enough to give you more than enough to choose from.

Using a well-constructed office chair will make your work easier. There are so many great brands, Connection, Hands, Elite and HAG all have styles that allows your back to stay supported while your body to take care of the work you need to do. Glide from cubicle to cubicle while you get the work moving. Our online store carries chairs to fit a low cost budget, chairs for the mid office price and the top-level executive budgets.

Office chairs can come in different fabric designs and multiple colors to fit your office colors, giving your work environment a greater pleasure to be in. Create such a beautiful environment in your office it will be a pleasure to work in. Use your desk chair to enhance the productivity of your daily routine by complimenting your office and your work.

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Source by Mel Davey

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A visit to the dog track to watch the greyhounds can be a great fun night out. Though to the uninitiated or first time visitor it can be a little confusing given the various different types of bets on offer if you fancy a little flutter. You need not bet much to have some entertainment shouting home “your” dog and you can pick up a good return for a small outlay. To give you an understanding of all those different types of bet, let’s take a look at them together.

At UK tracks you will be able to bet with a traditional bookmaker. They will usually offer win only odds although some may offer a market without the favourite. In other words, the bookmaker will omit the dog he thinks is going to be the favourite and give odds for the other five dogs.

If you decide to bet with a traditional bookmaker be advised that some will have minimum stakes so it is worth asking them about this first. You back a dog to win and it does then you collect. If you have chosen to back a dog “without” the favourite then for you to win that bet your dog must win or finish second to the favourite (the dog the bookmaker has omitted).

You do have another option which offers you a much wider choice at the track and that is to place your bets with the Tote. A number of different bets are available via the Tote. Your money is pooled with all others who have bet the same way and then all winning bets are settled after the race based on a dividend declared. The amount of the dividend is calculated on the amount of money in the pool and the number of winners. So what can you bet on via the Tote when at the track?

Win only: Just like it sounds. You back one dog to win. If it does, you collect.

Place: This involves backing one dog. If it wins or finishes in second place then head to the payout window.

Forecast: Pick two greyhounds to finish first and second in that order. For example trap 3 to win and trap five to be second. You may also do a reverse forecast which is picking two dogs to finish first and second in any order. If your two selections finish first and second then you win. Beware that a reverse forecast consists of two bets. So if you ask for a £1 reverse forecast it will cost you £2.

Trio: Pick three greyhounds to finish first, second and third in that order. Just like a forecast though with an extra dog to select. Trio dividends can be quite large though that does reflect how difficult it is to find three to finish in the correct order. You can opt for a trio “all ways” meaning your three selections can finish first, second and third in any order though that is six bets. So if you ask for a 50p trio “all ways” that will cost you £3.

Jackpot: Pick the winner in each of (usually) six races specified by the track. A way to win a potentially large pool for a small outlay. Just a £1 stake cam come up trumps if you pick all six winners. It is possible to select more than one dog per jackpot race though the more you select the greater your total stake so do bear that in mind. For example if you go for two greyhounds in three of the jackpot races then that is eight lines as you multiply up. In that example an eight line 50p jackpot will cost you £4. It’s not unlike buying a lottery ticket in principle and you can generally ask for a lucky dip ticket of random selections.

So there we have looked at the different types of popular bets available on UK greyhound racing. A typical meeting has around 14 races. It’s a great social night out with friends to perhaps have a couple of drinks over a meal and watch the racing.

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Source by Andy Machin

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Whenever you purchase a buy to let residential property for investment purposes, there are only four areas where you can make money which are commonly known as the profit levers. This article assumes that you are buying with a mortgage as most property investors do these days.

PROFIT LEVER 1 – DISCOUNT

Whenever you buy an investment property you should always aim to buy with a discount no matter how small as this will multiply many-fold over the term of your purchase when in conjunction with profit levers 3 and 4 below.

But it is important that when you do your research on your potential purchase, the numbers stack up even without the discount as you should not rely on the discount you might achieve to bring the purchase into a positive position.

Also, you should do your own diligence on comparable properties to ensure that any discount achieved is real and is no due to the price being inflated artificially to enable discount.

PROFIT LEVER 2 – RENTAL INCOME

The monthly rental income is the bread and butter of every property investor and is the gift that keeps giving. This is the money that pays all the bills for the property and the balance, after meeting the bills and putting your contingency into a separate account for rainy day issues, is your profit and can be used as wages for you or saved for future investments.

With rental income, it is important to ensure that you are knowledgeable about the local market rents and to ensure that each year you raise the rent by between 3-5% to keep you in a position to enable future remortgaging of the property

PROFIT LEVER 3 – REFINANCING

Every 2-4 years, you need to look to remortgage your investment properties with a view to releasing a lump sum income from the additional equity generated on your property.

This is achieved as the UK property market grows steadily and the value of a property doubles, on average, every 8-10 years so you are looking at an annual year on year rise of around 8% so after a few years, you can see a significant growth in your property equity.

By drawing out this equity on a regular basis, you receive a tax-free sum which can be used to but other income producing assets like more houses and investments or to use some, or all, of it to treat yourself!

PROFIT LEVER 4 – EQUITY GROWTH

As mentioned above, with the growth in the UK property market, a typical residential property will double in value, thanks to compounding, in around nine years. The equity of 25% that was held initially in the property is retained even with the refinancing activities that will have been carried out.

For a property initially purchased at, say, £100k, there will have been £25k deposit as initial equity equivalent to 25% of the purchase price left in the deal so with the growth in value of the property, this initial 25% will still remain as the equity portion of the growth, but will have also doubled in value to £50k although this money can only be recovered on the sale of the property and would be subject to taxation.

These are therefore the four areas where profit can be achieved on each and every investment property you buy so when you are doing your due diligence, always do your calculations based on these areas of profit.

Remember – you make your money when you BUY a property, not sell it!

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Source by Dave P Thomas

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Trademarks are tools to protect the reputation and the goodwill of your brand. Any sign unique to your business such as words, logos or slogans may be registered as a trademark.

Scope of protection

Trademarks give you an exclusive right to use the protected sign in the country or territory where you register. The national UK trademark system, for instance, grants trademark protection with the borders of the United Kingdom, while a Community Trade Mark extends to all 27 member states. Those businesses that purely trade is this country will just want to register a UK trademark. For example if you run a restaurant and have no intention to extent your business in other countries, the UK is the only country that is relevant to you in respect of trade mark application.

However, if you later decide to enter new markets with your business and want to extend the scope of your trade mark protection it is possible to use base UK trademark as the first step towards registering in other countries.

UK or EU trademark

Deciding whether to opt for a UK or an EU trademark depends almost entirely on the present and future needs, and intended strategy of your business.

It is important to have a clear strategy for your business and to discuss these intentions with your solicitor as using a brand name on the internet will, in some cases, mean that you are using the mark worldwide. But if you only have the right to the brand name in the UK, other business may be able to prevent you from using your chosen brand name if they have a registered this or a similar brand. Business should be aware that they would potentially have to trade in different brand names in other countries if the chosen name were not available in some of the desired countries.

It is impossible for businesses with a brand to protect to ignore the CTM: it has been described as being “central to virtually every European branding decision for virtually every type of business from virtually every country in the world”

One point though to beware of with CTM applications is that if grounds for refusal exist in just one of the 27 Member States the application as a whole may fail. On the other hand, if no substantial objections are raised, the trademark proceeds to registration. Depending on the Registry’s workloads, a CTM will be registered about 5 months after the filing date.

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Source by Paul William Smith

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If you are involved in any way with the Insurance Industry then over the last few years you would have heard an incredible amount regarding a company called Gable Insurance and they have had a profound impact on both the way that Insurance is written now and also the amount of knowledge that the client themselves have of their Insurance policies.

A few years ago the Insurance markets especially within both the Leisure and Construction Industries were flooded by Gable Insurance writing policies that were both way below the market norm on premium but also written on unrated paper with them being unrated in the United Kingdom and instead having their business being run from Lichtenstein. This did not seem to faze most clients who were more than happy with the monetary saving on their policies that they did not question the paper on which it was being written.

Flash forward to October 2016 and Gable Insurance has officially entered into Administration meaning that every broker that placed business through Gable Insurance now has a very big problem on their hands in that they have clients that are currently insured via a financially unstable company and that in the event of any claims they are not assured to be paid out meaning that although the client has saved on their premium they may end up having to pay themselves in the event of any claims being made against them leaving the, more out of pocket than they would have been if their insurance had been on rated and secure paper.

At first this was not something that had a time limit on but it was recently announced back in November that all policies that were with Gable Insurance would expire on the 16th December 2016 and all cover would cease at midnight on this day meaning that all policies would need to be replaced by this date and with another Insurer. This has left Insurance Brokers around the country scrambling to find rated Insurers that can cover the trades that Gable Insurance were covering and without a huge increase in the premium, although due to the fact that the main reason Gable Insurance were so bad for the Industry was that they were writing business at a premium that should never have been done so clients are going to have to understand that the premium that they will pay will increase as the financial security on the insurance policy increases.

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Source by Nathan De Bond

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The United Kingdom (UK) is comprised of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It is important not only to be aware of these geographical distinctions but also the strong sense of identity and nationalism felt by the populations of these four countries.

The terms ‘English’ and ‘British’ are not interchangeable. ‘British’ denotes someone who is from England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. ‘English’ refers to people from England. People from Scotland are referred to as ‘Scots’. People from England are not likely to take offence at being called “English”, whereas a Welsh, Scots, or Northern Irish person will.

Cultural Diversity

Formerly a very homogenous society, since World War II, Britain has become increasingly diverse as it has accommodated large immigrant populations. The mixture of ethnic groups and cultures make it difficult to define British as looking or acting in one particular manner. People may sound British and retain the cultural heritage of their forefathers while others may become more British than someone who can trace his/her lineage to the 5th century. The fact that the nation’s favourite dish is now a curry sums up the cultural mish-mash that is modern day Britain.

Doing business in the UK

The British are rather formal. Many from the older generation still prefer to work with people and companies they know or who are known to their associates. Younger businesspeople do not need long-standing personal relationships before they do business with people and do not require an intermediary to make business introductions. Nonetheless, networking and relationship building are often key to long-term business success.

Rank is respected and businesspeople prefer to deal with people at their level. If at all possible, include an elder statesman on your team as he/she will present the aura of authority that is necessary to good business relationships in many companies.

British communication styles

The British have an interesting mix of communication styles encompassing both understatement and direct communication. Many older businesspeople or those from the ‘upper class’ rely heavily upon formal use of established protocol. Most British are masters of understatement and do not use effusive language. If anything, they have a marked tendency to qualify their statements with such as ‘perhaps’ or ‘it could be’. When communicating with people they see as equal to themselves in rank or class, the British are direct, but modest. If communicating with someone they know well, their style may be more informal, although they will still be reserved.

Business meetings

Punctuality is a very British trait. It is especially important in business situations. In most cases, the people you are meeting will be on time. Always call if you will be even 5 minutes later than agreed. If you are kept waiting a few minutes, do not make an issue of it.

How meetings are conducted is often determined by the composition of people attending. If everyone is at the same level, there is generally a free flow of ideas and opinions. If there is a senior ranking person in the room, that person will do most of the speaking. In general, meetings will be rather formal and always have a clearly defined purpose, which may include an agenda. There will be a brief amount of small talk before getting down to the business at hand. If you make a presentation, avoid making exaggerated claims. Make certain your presentation and any materials provided appear professional and well thought out. Be prepared to back up your claims with facts and figures. The British rely on facts, rather than emotions, to make decisions. Maintain eye contact and a few feet of personal space. After a meeting, send a letter summarising what was decided and the next steps to be taken.

Basic Etiquette Tips:

Business Dress

* Business attire is conservative.

* Men should wear a dark coloured, conservative business suit.

* Women should wear either a business suit or a conservative dress.

Greetings

* Shake hands with everyone at a meeting upon arrival.

* Maintain eye contact during the greeting.

Titles

* Only medical doctors and the clergy use their professional or academic titles in business.

* Most people use the courtesy titles or Mr, Mrs or Miss and their surname. (Mr and Mrs are words in the United Kingdom and do not require a period after them as they are not abbreviations.)

* If someone has been knighted, they are called ‘Sir’ followed by their first and surnames or ‘Sir’ followed simply by their first name.

* Wait until invited before moving to a first-name basis. People under the age of 35 may make this move more rapidly than older British.

Business Cards

* Business cards are exchanged at the initial introduction without formal ritual.

* The business card may be put away with only a cursory glance.

Business Gifts

* Business gift giving is not part of the business culture.

* If you choose to give a gift, make certain it is small and tasteful.

* Good gifts include desk accessories, a paperweight with your company logo, or a book about your home country.

* Inviting someone out for a meal can be viewed as a gift.

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Source by Neil Payne

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Breaking 1996 down into the biggest news, sports and entertainment events; here’s what happened…

Two tragedies hit the hearts of Britons in 1996, the nation’s sympathies going out to the people of Dunblane and Manchester. In Dunblane, a crazed gunman went on a shooting spree in at a local infant school, killing an entire class and their teacher. Later in the year, as a direct response to those ill-fated events, the Government announced that it would be outlawing almost all handguns in the UK.

In Manchester, a huge bomb devastated its busy central shopping area just as it was filling up with eager Saturday shoppers. Police managed to start an evacuation before it blew up but scores of people were still killed or injured in the blast. Such was the damage caused, that the episode led to a total regeneration of Manchester city centre.

Also hitting the news in ’96 was the introduction of the first genetically modified (or GM) food to go on sale in British supermarkets. Modified tomato puree was the cause of all the fuss with some critics dubbing it a “Frankenstein food”.

The world of sport was dominated by England’s hosting of the European football championships (Euro ’96). The England v Scotland group stage match drew much attention with Gazza’s wonder goal eventually stealing the win for the home team. Cheered on by home support, the ‘Three Lions’ made it all the way to the semi-finals, the nation going football crazy as it looked as if England were really going to win a major tournament for the first time since ’66, then, as really should have been expected, they lost on penalties to Germany.

Entertainment wise, carrot topped Chris Evans re-invented the chat show format with his hit show ‘TFI Friday’.Presenting celebrity gossip, the hippest bands and lad friendly guests, this unscripted, chaotic program briefly made Evans the most sought after man on TV. Over on the BBC, a group of thirty-something lawyers were gaining huge ratings; ‘This Life’ being a bit like the American ‘Friends’ but with much more ‘bad’ behaviour and saucy goings on.

The big screen was blessed with one of the jewels of the British film-making crown, ‘Trainspotting’. Despite featuring heroin, needles, vomit and disgusting toilet bowls, this was the coolest thing of the year and took Ewan McGregor from nowhere to ‘Star Wars’. The more family friendly film of 1996 was ‘Toy Story’; it being the first feature length movie ever to be animated entirely by computer. The results were quite stunning and people flocked to see ‘Woody’ (a pull-string cowboy) and ‘Buzz Lightyear’ (a high-tech space ranger) battle it out to become little Andy’s favourite toy.

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Source by Mark Thomas Walters

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UK internet users fear cyber crime more than traditional crimes such as car theft, mugging or burglary according to a new report. But as Internet activity, including online shopping and banking, continue to grow we explore ways of reducing the risk of cyber crime and look at providers of alternative methods of remaining active online.

The volume of internet users engaging in online retail and banking are increasing rapidly year on year. With the UK internet retail market set to command a cumulative turnover of an estimated £2 billion for 2006, the web represents the fastest growing medium for retailers in the UK. But as with any marketplace the criminal mind realises an opportunity when they see it and fear over online crime is of growing concern for people in the UK.

A new report from Get Safe Online (GSOL) suggests that more people in the UK fear Internet crime than traditional crimes such as burglary or muggings. Indeed, some 21% of the of the survey group highlighted internet crime as the highest area of risk – compared with 16% and 11% for burglary and mugging respectively. The 21% of those who fear internet crime most represents an increase from last year where the same question garnered a 17% response.

GSOL, as with other agencies involved in this area, state that awareness and preparation on the part of the internet user population are the most effective guard against the apparent risks of cyber crime. Even so, 50% of the people polled stated evident gaps in their knowledge about online safety, whist some 76% felt that it is the responsibility of government and big business to guard users and customers from the risks of online crime. Whilst it is clear that online retail businesses and bans are concerned with customer safety and are investing large capital to address the issue, it is important to be aware and take precautions against online crime.

Shopping online is rapidly becoming the norm. But internet search statistics show a wide variation in online retail user profiles. As the revenues from online retail show, many people are prepared to conduct credit and debit card transaction online, but a significant proportion of the population use the internet to compare products and prices, choosing to make purchases offline instead. Other business models, such as Loot use a classified style model allowing buyers and sellers of goods to connect online, but meeting in person to conclude any sale therefore eliminating the prospect of online crime, whilst capitalising on the benefits of the internet for locating and comparing products and services.

It is unlikely that the findings of the GSOL report will halt the seemingly rampant march of the online retail sector, but it does highlight the issue of internet crime and the reservations of a large proportion of the online community in the UK to contribute to such growth. Businesses who engage in an online business model are taking progressive steps to curtail the issue, but as long as there is money to be made, criminals will continue to exploit loopholes. It pays the individual user to take precautions and be aware of what to look for to minimise any risk, and for those who choose to abstain from online purchases, there are business out there who allow you to circumvent the risk altogether.

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Source by Andrew Regan

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The introduction of Google Street View to help you get a glimpse of the airport car park and its surroundings before you buy is a new idea which will surely only serve to help clients when booking.

As with most people the option to view something before you spend your hard earned money on it is quite important. Many people will find this useful as it sometimes adds that bit of extra assurance to the client knowing that they have seen where the parking compound is. Actually getting to view the car park entrance online is a big help but you can also navigate around the general area to see what the location is like, after all you’ll be leaving your precious car for a week or two so it would be nice to know exactly where it is going to be whilst you’re on holiday.

You can use this functionality at 24 of the UK major airports including Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton and Stansted in the London area to East Midlands, Birmingham and Cardiff to Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle in the north of England right up to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Prestwick and Aberdeen in Scotland.

In this sense Google’s Street Viewer really does help you to park your car at UK airports because you are taken to the car park before you buy. Google’s innovative technology helps in a very big way to affording the client the very best choice for them by offering one more point to consider, this can only be a good thing when you think in the height of summer you could pay more than £100 for parking at certain airports.

Also imagine this, you’ve set off to the airport and you’re nearing the car park, then you notice a landmark or road for example which you’ve previously seen on the “Street View” tab on the website, that there is another plus point to having Google’s street view when purchasing a parking place at a UK airport.

How to Use This Option.

When viewing “Street View” there are two windows displayed, the one on the left is the view of the parking compound and the one on the right is a map of the streets in the local vicinity with a movable icon to dynamically change the view in the left window. This allows you to move about the area easily, you can also simply drag the image on the left to change direction and location, Google also has useful arrows and zoom in functions to help you navigate.

Limitations.

Currently not all car parks are covered by Google this is either because Google has not mapped a particular street yet or more often because the car park is not situated near a public street. For example most of the car parking compounds which are classed as ON airport are not covered by Street View because they are located in the actual airport compound and obviously Google cannot map these areas.

Viewing Airport Hotels.

This travel extras website have also added the same functionality to its airport hotels section. Same applies as for car parking, you can get a quick glimpse of the hotel exterior and its general location. Again because a lot of hotels are situated away from roads it’s not always possible to get a Street View but by using the navigational tools you can look around the general area and more often than not you’ll find the hotel.

This tool for airport hotels is especially useful because the location of the hotel is very important to some people, after all it is where you are going to sleep for the night.

All in all Google Street View will be a helpful asset to you when choosing airport car parking or airport hotels, it might just be that extra bit of information which makes your mind up for you.

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Source by Chris Fryer