Bling features 3 options, mainly:

• Brand-new: As the name suggests, your phone will be replaced with a brand-new phone following theft, loss, accidental damage or water damage. If possible, it’ll be repaired following accidental damage or water damage.
• Like-new: Your phone will be repaired or replaced following theft, loss, accidental damage or water damage with a similar make and model or a similar, refurbished phone. You also get a 12-month warranty. King Price says this option is on average 20 – 30% cheaper than insuring for a brand new replacement.
• Screen-fix: This option covers the cost of repairing cracks to your phone’s screen due to accidental damage, or replacing the screen where necessary.

It doesn’t end there, seeking to help drive uptake, the company has launched a ‘blingsiders’ programme, which allows people to earn a referral fee for referring friends and family who’re interested in bling cover. How cool is that?

Van Vuuren says that becoming a blingsider is an ideal way for students to supplement their allowances or bursaries, and it’s also a small way that the insurer is furthering its #MakingADifference goals by helping to create employment in SA.

Who am I kidding? The reality is that running your own business is no walk in the park. There are no perks when you are your own boss, time management hardly seems to coexist, meeting deadlines is always such a feat, client meetings are a drag and leaving the comfort of your (home) office seems like a daunting task.  

Then comes the odd business insurance, which always can be a fickle thing. You need it, obviously, but its always a pain when you see that bill come up and you haven’t needed your insurance in what feels like forever. And while insurance itself may be widely perceived as a sleepy backwater when it comes to innovation and ease of use and understanding, one company is setting out to change how we look at insurance, however, in a more affordable way by offering a vast range of cover types.  

Take King Price, which is focusing on disrupting traditions insurance models for holistic 360-degrees positions by giving people, and their businesses (of all sizes) covers that they actually need. From fire, buildings combined, office contents, business interruptions, accounts receivable, money, glass, fidelity, goods in transit, business all risk, public and employer’s liability, state benefits and group pa, motor electric equipment, motor traders internal, motor traders external to machinery breakdown, King Price has it all covered.

Photo by: Cheap Full Coverage Auto Insurance / CC BY

And while traditional insurance options don’t have options for the growing on-demand business and with many people not understanding their risk nor lack of protection until its too late, King Price provides the complete package which allows business owners to subscribe to the business insurance they need.

Whether the policy offerings from King Price – which we expect to impact the industry on a number of different fronts – end up bolstering the industry or undermining it depends on whether we seize the opportunity to reinvent how insurers covers our businesses.

Technicalities aside, I genuinely find joy during this time of the year. For I get to do my favourite things; Play around with new tech and shop around for my latest gadget. I have my eyes set on the Samsung S7 Edge, thank you for asking. But its not always a walk in the park deciding on that perfect device. There are a number of things that you need to consider before you even think about which phone you want to purchase.

For starters, if you currently have a smartphone or a cellphone, chances are you’re already in an agreement or contract with a particular network. Breaking that agreement can be costly — those early termination fees are designed to keep you there, not let you easily switch networks. Plus, if your network’s service works for you, there’s little incentive for you to switch to a different provider unless you can get comparable service while saving money.

You also might be part of a family plan, or maybe your employer has an agreement with a specific network to offer employees discounts on their wireless service (always worth asking!). These situations make it a little more difficult to jump from network to network every time you get a new device.

But maybe you’re due for an upgrade and your contract has lapsed, or maybe you’re so fed up you’ll do whatever it takes to switch. Either way, you’ve got a lot of decisions to make. If all else fails, its always good to explore avenues where one can save an extra buck – or two.

For starters, If you have access to public transportation, you can save quite a bit of money on gas, parking, and maintenance over time if you make use of it. If the thought of having an awkward warm feeling between you and the stranger next to you in the Gautrain is terrifying and you absolutely love the freedom of your own ride, King Price’s decreasing insurance premiums are a good place to start. Because premium’s decrease every month, you’d be able to save enough from your car insurance for a new device annually.

You might also want to dig through your closets or garage and look for items you no longer use that may have value, then sell them on an online listing service. Also, look at the services you pay for each month and determine if the money you’re spending is truly worth it. If not, just drop the service and look for other options that can accomplish the same thing for less.

Trying a few of these strategies could lead to huge savings down the road. Meanwhile, trying all of them could literally transform your financial future – one decreasing premium at a time.