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According to a recent survey by online home insurance provider swiftcover.com, Britain is gluing and screwing its broken household items together more than ever.
Brits have spent £700m replacing broken domestic items in past 12 months and around 15 percent have attempted to repair them.
Despite this huge sum being spent replacing household items, 1.2 million British households (three million people) are eating and drinking using plastic cups and plates, presumably because of difficult economic circumstances.
James Barclay, home insurance expert at swiftcover.com, commented “Although millions continue to replace broken items around the house, many are making do, repairing damaged items or in extreme situations, using plastic plates and cups. There’s clearly a growing acceptance that money is tight so getting the glue out or making do, is now most definitely back.”
The survey also revealed brits have been particularly careless in the kitchen. 65% of domestic items broken are broken in the kitchen, with 2/3 thirds of people recently breaking a cup and over 50% breaking plates, bowls or other kinds of crockery.
November 11th, 2011
On Wednesday 12th of October; shoppers at Westfield had the chance to ride in the fast lane thanks to swiftcover.com.
In partnership with Screach, Swiftcover created the UK’s first live interactive gaming screen out of a 72 sheet billboard in the Westfield shopping centre. Shoppers used their smartphones as video game controllers, and along with up to ten members of the public, they were able to play controlling a motion controlled car on the screen.
‘The 60 second challenge’ driving game was the biggest London has ever seen, and all participants had the opportunity to win prizes and gifts all day.
Amanda Edwards, senior marketing manager at swiftcover.com, said: “It’s a very exciting project for us as we’re always striving to do something slightly different to the norm, and this certainly fits the bill. We’ve been active in digital outdoor for some time but it’s the first time we’ve introduced gaming interactivity to our marketing activity. Being able to connect the game with people’s Facebook pages gives it a personal touch so they’ll be able to share their driving successes with their friends and family.”
On the day, shoppers downloaded Screach to their Smartphone and entered a unique code which was displayed on the screen. After that they were battling it out with fellow shoppers to have their name up in lights.
October 13th, 2011
As of the 31st August Swiftcover goes mobile and it is now possible to get a car insurance quote on your mobile through the Swiftcover mobile app.
The key feature of this app is that there is no need to download it to your device. If you log onto swiftcover.com it will redirect you to a mobile site which has been optimised for some of the leading devices including iphone, black berry and android.
This comes on the back of more than 50,000 visitors to swiftcover.com accessing it via mobile every month.
The website now adapts to a specific mobiles specifications and screen display, which means a much smoother and satisfying user experience as well as no need to scroll left and right to view the site properly as you would on a standard desktop site.
Customers will be able to both get a quote as well as buy insurance through the mobile site on meaning saving time and hopefully money when renewal time comes around.
September 13th, 2011
According to recent research by swiftcover.com; over five years Britain has resigned £500 million pounds worth of electrical gadgets to the bin.
Overall since 2006, the British public have spent £1.5 billion pounds on over 300 million gadgets. This works out to an average of six per person, demonstrating the explosion in mobile and handheld technology over the last decade.
With devices being continually upgraded in increasingly short periods; the rate at which phones, mp3 players, televisions and other gadgets get disregarded has dramatically increased. 35 per cent of all gadgets bought in the past five years are no longer being used by the original owner.
The final resting place for 60 percent of gadgets is completely unknown but figures suggest they don’t all end up in the bottom of drawers or in shoeboxes under the bed. 19 percent of brits say they recycle their gadgets while 21 percent say they give their gadgets to friends and family.
There is also a noticeably different approach to unwanted gadgets between men and women. 40 percent of woman hand down or recycle their gadgets while 31 percent of men preferred to sell or discard their gadgets.
All this points to gadgets becoming entrenched in day to day life, but they are increasingly expensive.
Worryingly 29 percent of people who have bought a gadget in the last five years assume their gadgets are covered by contents insurance; which can be the case but not always. This leaves gadget enthusiasts exposed to huge financial costs should they lose or damage their gadgets.
August 5th, 2011
It’s two weeks to go until the Isle of Wight festival starts, and if you want to go it’s not too late to get some tickets…
swiftcover.com are giving away two pairs of weekend camping tickets for this years fantastic festival! There will be a great line up of bands including Kaiser Chiefs, The Courteeners, Foo Fighters and Kasabian to name just a few.
It looks set to be the one of the best Isle of Wight festivals ever. To enter the free prize draw, visit facebook.com/roadology and you simply have to upload a photo of the craziest item you would like to take with you. It’s open to everyone so tell your friends about it too. Good luck!
May 27th, 2011
Up to one million Brits are planning to go abroad this year to enjoy their pre wedding festivities. But the foreign office has issued a warning advising travellers against celebrating too excessively, as this can clash with local customs and could cause trouble.
According to the Daily Mail, Foreign Office spokesman Phil Lord said:
Stag and hen dos are all about having a great time but the celebrations can come to an abrupt end if things go wrong. Cultural differences mean some people will take offence to risqué fancy dress costumes and rowdy behavior. So, to avoid a hostile reception from the locals or even spending the weekend in jail, make sure you research your destination and know your limits.
swiftcover.com has also advised travelers to ensure they have adequate travel insurance cover in place before setting off on a trip abroad.
May 13th, 2011
Alan Partridge’s car of choice, the Lexus IS, is the most frequently-vandalised car in Britain, according to the swiftcover.com Vehicle Vandalism Index (VV Index).
The VV index found that the majority of vandalised cars are prestige cars. Here is the list of the top ten targeted cars:
1. Lexus IS
2. BMW Z4
3. Mini One
4. Mercedes CLK
5. Audi TT
6. Mazda MX-5
7. BMW X5
8. Skoda Octavia
9. BMW 525
10. BMW 530
Robin Reames, claims director at swiftcover.com, said:
Our analysis shows that luxury cars are more likely to be targeted by vandals however it’s interesting to see the Mini ONE in the top three. The majority of vehicles in the top ten are what we call ‘executive cars’, likely to be driven by high earners who see their car as a status symbol, with just one 4×4 making up the top ten.
Here are a few tips to help protect your car from vandals:
Park your car in a garage (if you have one)
Install security motion lights or cameras
Use a car cover
Get a car alarm system
And always remember to lock your car doors (its easy to forget)
May 11th, 2011
swiftcover.com has launched a new quarterly index which rates the nation’s feelings about different aspects of life.
The index found that the top concern which has driven people to be unhappy is the rising petrol prices. On the other hand, family life was the area which brought people the most happiness.
The top five areas of unhappiness were:
1. Petrol prices - 61%
2. Government’s actions - 58%
3. Local council’s actions - 44%
4. Financial pressure’s - 42%
5. Crime levels - 38%
The top five areas of happiness were:
1. Family Life - 62%
2. Relationship - 58%
3. Social Life - 41%
4. Savings - 26%
5. Income - 26%
The index also found that the average person in Briton only gets 2.5 hours of ‘me time’ each day. With this free time almost half of Brits look to get out and about to see interesting sites across Britain. Swiftcover have done their bit to help everyone enjoy their road trips, by launching their Roadology Facebook page. Roadology enables users to plot journeys and discover interesting places to visit along the way.
May 5th, 2011
swiftcover.com has teamed up with absolute radio to bring you this fantastic competition. And it’s easy to enter. All you have to do is complete the Best of 2010 music quiz by clicking here and you could stand the chance to win. The prizes which are up for grabs include an Apple iPad, two iPod Nanos and two iPod shuffles. So if you are a music lover why not enter and see how much you can remember from the past year.
Visit swiftcover.com’s Facebook page to keep up to date with the latest competitions.
December 13th, 2010
A woman in Kent called 999 when she went outside and noticed her snowman had been stolen.
The BBC reported that Police said she thought it demanded their involvement because she had used pound coins for the eyes and teaspoons for the arms.
Elsewhere in Nottingham police have been snowballed with 999 calls from people who’ve had snowballs thrown at them. A spokesman for the force said that around 120 calls had been received since the snowfall on Tuesday.
In Kent, Police have received more than 8,000 general and 999 calls within 48 hours, double the number it normally receives.
December 3rd, 2010
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