Insurance

Some mobile phone insurance companies are still unfairly rejecting claims, taking too long to process them or handling complaints poorly two years after being told to clean up their act, according to a new investigation by the financial regulator.

Car, home and travel insurers could soon be forced to spell out to customers how much they paid for cover last year in renewal letters sent when their policies are about to expire.

Over one million RBS and NatWest customers with its fee-charging Black and Platinum package accounts, which come with added insurance cover, will have to pay more per month from early next year .

More than 250,000 customers with Barclays fee-charging package accounts that come with insurance will see prices hiked by up to £138/year from today, unless they actively opt out.

Millions of households and motorists will see a steep rise in the cost of new insurance policies taken out or renewed from now on, after Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) was hiked from 6% to 9.5% at the start of the month.

Vulnerable people could be given help to better understand their insurance renewal notices, after plans for a new industry-wide code to "build trust" in the sector were unveiled today.

Car insurance prices are likely to increase by a mammoth 15% by the end of 2015, the AA has said today.

PPI mis-selling victims will be subject to a time-bar on claims – as we've been warning over the past few weeks – under plans revealed by the regulator this morning.

If you bank with Barclays and pay to get insurance 'extras' – for example via its Barclays Additions account – you should urgently check if you've activated these; otherwise you won't be covered if something goes wrong.