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As well as Vauxhall’s new Astra Convertible 1.8, which is priced at £17,495, there is the new Peugeot 206 Coupe Cabriolet, which retails for £15,995.”If you are thinking of buying a cabriolet, get a quote for it and compare one with another,” adds Mr Crawford.The insurer Peoples Choice also argues that insuring a cabriolet need not cost you a fortune. “A cabriolet is the ultimate in a summer car and can be more expensive to insure because of the higher risk of damage and the security aspect of having a soft roof. But it’s not as expensive as people believe,” says Philip da Silva, managing director of the insurer.According to Peoples Choice, getting insurance cover for a cabriolet need not end up being prohibitively expensive. The average price paid by a customer to insure a cabriolet is £500 per year ­ £77.38 a year more than the average cost of a policy for a non-convertible.In some cases, however, the extra premium can work out to be far less: a 25-year-old male solicitor, for instance, driving a convertible version of the Mercedes CLK Kompressor Sport 2.31, would pay an extra £2.50 a year..

With cases of skin cancer increasing at a worrying rate, statistics show that one in three of us will have some form of cancer diagnosed at some stage in our lives. A choice of critical illness policies
Male, aged 28, non-smoker, buying £75,000 of cover over 20 yearsCompany Premium per month Permanent £12.05 Swiss Life £12.74 Scottish Equitable £12.98 Standard Life £14.23 Scottish Provident £14.82 Female, aged 28, non-smoker, buying £75,000 of cover over 20 yearsCompany Premium per month Legal & General £14.73 Scottish Equitable £14.78 Standard Life £15.26 Permanent £15.35 Scottish Provident £15.63 Source: LifeSearch Quick and easy online searches for all yourinsurance needs With cases of skin cancer increasing at a worrying rate, statistics show that one in three of us will have some form of cancer diagnosed at some stage in our lives.While many people beat cancer, an illness as serious as this inevitably has a significant impact. Yet only 11 per cent of the working population have critical illness cover, which is designed specifically to help in such circumstances. Nevertheless, this type of insurance is becoming increasingly important: a survey from specialist re-insurer GE Frankona Re has shown that the number of critical illness claims rose by 23 per cent last year.Life assurance is regarded as a necessity once you have a mortgage or dependants, but it pays out only on the death of the person insured. What if you can’t work because of illness? Medical advances mean people are far more likely to survive illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and strokes now than 20 years ago.

But you may find you have to give up work temporarily or that it might not be possible to resume your previous job once you’ve recovered. Consequently, experts argue that critical illness cover should be seen as a necessity rather than an option.”Unlike life assurance, critical illness cover pays out not if you die but if you contract an illness,” says Tom Baigrie, managing director of insurance broker LifeSearch. “There is also a far higher incidence of claims [with critical illness cover] because we are all living longer.”If you have been diagnosed as suffering from a critical illness, the cover will pay out a tax-free lump sum. In this way, you will have money to cover the mortgage, should you have to stop working.