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Top Tips

1. Think about your route especially if you’re on your own
2. Keep your bags where you can see them make sure your purse or wallet can’t be seen
3. Don’t carry large amounts of cash
4. Spread your valuables – keep your mobile phone separate from your wallet and your keys separate from your credit card
5. Cover up expensive jewellery
6. Carry your house keys with you, not in your bag
7. Have your house keys to hand so you can get in the door easily
8. Be discreet – talking on your mobile, having your I-pod visible or carrying a lap top with you all show thieves you have things worth taking
9. Be extra careful at tube, train and bus stations, at cash points  and in overcrowded areas
10. Mark your property – it puts thieves off and help protect it
11. Keep your credit/debit cards separated from cheque books
12. Don’t pass on pin numbers to anyone and don’t leave cards behind bars or counters – staff could copy the details
13. When entering pins cover the keypad with your free hand
14. If cards are stolen cancel your cards immediately

Identity theft is one of the UK’s fastest growing crimes – and has been rising steadily since the start of the century. ID thief’s access bank accounts, run up huge bills, launder money, carry out benefit fraud and take out fraudulent loans. Although still a relatively rare crime incidences of ID theft have increased 5 fold in the last 5 years and accounts for a criminal cash flow of over 10m every day. Many crimes are opportunistic preying on unattended handbags, carelessly discarded private documents and easy access to shared mailboxes.

Minimise the risk

• Consider using mail preference service to limit the amount of unwanted mail you receive
• Collect bank cards from local bank if you live somewhere where other people can access your mail
• Check statements as soon as they arrive. If any unfamiliar transactions are listed contact the company immediately.
• Don’t give personal or account details to anyone who contacts you unexpectedly. Ask for their phone number first and then check it’s genuine.
• Don’t record or store passwords or addresses in your purse or wallet or diary.
• Remember Banks will never ask you for your pin or a whole security number
• Never use banking passwords on other web site

Some 83% of the UK population has a garden and around £5 billion is spent every year on flowers, plants, gardening tools & equipment and other outdoor items.

Approximately 300,000 people visit A&E wards in the UK every year following an accident in their garden.

Garden crime is a growing problem with around 1 in 8 owners suffering theft from their gardens – a quarter of these thefts are from garden sheds.  Top of the list for theft are bicycles, followed by plants, lawnmowers, tools and garden furniture.

Most garden thefts are opportunistic, but burglars will target sheds and garages and everything from expensive potted plants to outdoor gas heaters and barbeques. And they don’t stop there – gnomes, gates, paving slabs, tiles, gloves and even fish from ponds are some of the more unusual items burgled. It’s easy to leave items out in the garden when it’s a natural extension of your home, but there are various measures you can take to make your garden more secure and less attractive to thieves:

• Ensure your back gate is properly secured and kept locked.
• Add trellis to fences to make them more difficult to climb.
• Make back boundaries more secure by introducing prickly hedges such as hawthorn.
• Don’t give thieves anywhere to hide at the front of your house. The police recommend hedges at the front of your house are a maximum height of 90cm.
• Lock up tools in a secure shed or garage.
• Use loose gravel on your paths – it’s noisy when walked on.
• Include your garage or shed on your house alarm.
• Install security lights for your garden.
• Secure ladders or large tools with chains to walls.
• Fit grilles to garage or shed windows and use blinds or curtains to hide.
• Fix hanging baskets out of reach or secure the rim to the bracket.
• Cement garden tubs in place or bolt them down through their drainage.
• Remove labels from valuable plants.
• Put your postcode on anything valuable – try an ultraviolet pen.
• Customise your tools with a dab of paint – it makes them harder to sell.

Check your insurance policy to ensure it covers possessions left outside the family home.

Gardens can be surprisingly dangerous. Some 300,000 people visit Accident & Emergency wards in the UK every year following an accident in their garden!

Top tips for making your garden a safer environment:

• Make sure your garden doesn’t have trip hazards such as uneven  surfaces or loose paving slabs and hosepipes left lying around.
• Don’t leave tools out. Keep them locked away from children. Do the same with chemicals such as weed-killers and insecticides – even those labeled ‘Organic’ or ‘Bio’ can be dangerous.
  
• If you’re using machinery, such as a strimmer or hedge trimmer, wear safety equipment – gloves, goggles, steel toe-capped boots – and tuck in any loose parts of your clothing.
• To help prevent electric shock when using garden machinery use a Residual Current Device – they cut out the flow of electricity if the cable is cut through. And don’t use electrical equipment in wet weather.
• Never leave your barbecue unattended. Always ensure the flames are fully extinguished before going to bed.
• Take the time to learn which plants in your garden are poisonous and keep children and pets away from them.

Need to do some gutter clearing or replacement or clear something off the roof of your garage or shed? If you’re using a ladder:

• Always ensure the ladder's feet are on solid, even ground – the feet should be rubber to prevent slipping.
• Always keep one hand firmly on the ladder when working.
• Don't overstretch yourself or work sideways – do it face on.
• Don’t leave tools on the platform at the top or prunings on the rungs.

Remember, if you’re unsure whether a job is safe you can always call in professionals.

And if you have a pond, be aware of how dangerous they can be for small children. Cover small ponds with wooden trellis or wire mesh and put a fence or grow plants around large ponds to stop children getting near the edge.

• Windscreens are the unsung heroes of your car providing 24 hr protection from the wind, rain and flying objects. More importantly they play a vital safety role should you be unfortunate enough to have an accident.
• They provide 60% of your protection from roof crash in the event of a rollover accident. It also offers crucial support to your passenger-side airbag during a front end collision.
• Windscreens are designed to stay fixed in place during a collision or rollover keeping you safely inside the car when you might otherwise be ejected onto the open road,
• Small chips can easily become large cracks in cold weather because of drastic differences in outdoor and indoor temperatures.   

1. Get your chips repaired – no matter how minor they seem. They can easily turn into a crack.
2. Always use an ice scraper and de-icer. Never use a credit card or fish slice or other random tool as they will scratch the glass.
3. Do not pour boiling water on the windscreen as the heat can cause a frozen windscreen to crack.
4. Do make sure your screen wash and antifreeze are topped up regularly.
5. Keep it clean. A dirty windscreen makes it harder to see where you’re going, blurs vision at night and contributes to dazzling when the sun is low.
6. Watch your wipers – worn or damaged wipers make it hard to see where you’re going and can damage your windscreen PLUS you can be fined up to £1,000 if they’re not working properly.
7. If you find a chip, simply cover it with sticky tape to protect from dirt and grime.  Then find a specialist and have it repaired with clear plastic resin that’s injected under the surface and buffed flat. This will leave the area fully sealed and save you from having to replace the whole windscreen.
8. If you have to have a replacement windscreen make sure your supplier does a factory recommended full cut out. This will make the whole unit as strong as it was the day it left the factory.
9. Make sure the supplier uses OEM glass – it’s the only glass that fully complies with all safety standards.
10. Make sure that you get a guarantee.

With Allianz Insurance Horizon Private Car

All repairs to windscreens are FREE of excess charges provided you use AUTOGLASS – our approved repairer.

All replacements of windscreens will incur an excess charge of £60 if it is replaced by AUTOGLASS.

Repairs and or replacement windscreens by any provider other than Autoglass will trigger an excess charge of £100.

So if you have a Horizon Private Car policy and you have a problem with your windscreen – make sure that you use Autoglass to avoid any unnecessary bills.