Kitchen Garden Forum

My car insurance is due soon, so did a search about re-newing it and found a cheaper quote, then my OH rang them, they said I had to pay an extra £15 a year because my daughter is under 16 and is a "distraction", as they say!
If anything daughter is a real help, winding down her window to clear condensation, so I can see out.

Why do after all these years of driving do I now have to pay extra for taking my daughter to school, I never done before...
(She is 85 days off being 16, (so she keeps reminding me!) but they wouldn't budge) hence why I went else were...

Sorry rant over

unbeleivable!!!! Some companies just think up anythink to try and get more money out of you.

Dear Donedigging, phone the company up and tell them you think it's very unfair, as your daughter won't be driving all of the time, and just listen to the golden silence on the other end of the phone.

Not a lot of help to your predicament i know, but these cheap quotes have a lot of hidden extras or escape routes.

I usually trawl round the brokers that masquerade as price comparison sites (legislation needed!) then try and sort out the silly quotes, most take no account of the variables I have set, then go to a few companies direct and finally ring my existing company and usually get a deal to stick with them.

I go through the comparison sites and then go back to my original supplier and see what deal they will give me if I threaten to leave. Sometimes they drop their price enough to beat other quotes. If they don't I order my new insurance via the provider, not the comparison sites. Saved £30 on car insurance and got a £40 voucher as well by going with a new provider and saved £20 on home insurance by getting current provider to give me a discount to stay.

Don't get me started on bloody car insurance companies............I can feel my blood pressure going up now

I am with a very well known insurance company (only until I re-new though) and they have been about as much use as a condom in a convent. Someone went into the back of me, a clear fraud case and they didn't do Jack to investigate. I am fully comp and expected them to do what they had to do. I was looking after mum at the time after her cancer surgery so didn't keep on at them as I had more important matters going on.

It was about to go to court and got a call from the solicitor. They hadn't done any work at all..............nothing.......zilch.........bugger all. I had to settle because it was too late to get another solicitor on the job plus the insurance hadn't done anything. Because they had "witnesses" (it was the Invisable Man and family) I didn't have a leg to stand on.

The result.........my no claims bonus down from 75% to 35%.

Makes me so mad...............insurance comapnies are nothing but a load of thieves. At least a normal thieve is honest about their criminality. Unlike insurance companies and banks

Ok, ranting over.........i'm off to get a blood pressure pill

My House & contents came up for renewal, £243.00. went on line to the same company, £92.50. Phoned them, was told oh that's only for new customers but that they would put me through to another department, new quote £145.00, mentioned that if I went on line I could get it for £92.50. Ah that's for new customers only. No problem I said I would let the insurance run out by one day and then renew, some seconds of silence, then OK we will renew at £92.50. Welcome to cuckoo land, or MUGS wanted.

My house and contents policy is with the same company I have used for the last thirty years. We were flooded in 2004 (Sunday evening), Monday phoned the company, Tuesday the skip and the men arrived to remove the damaged carpets and furniture. Heaters and fans installed to dry out, when dried out, the assessor came and valued the damage. We were treated very well, we were told to get the things replaced and when I queried the excess they said they would stop it out of the payment. Not like an acquaintance who had to pay the excess before anything was done (the company that recently changed it's name).

My OH has had his van insured with the same company that we insure both cars. We've never made a claim in 33 years. This year they've announced they won't renew his van policy because they've 'realised' he's self employed and they don't insure people who are self employed. The delightful person on the 'phone said it was lucky he hadn't made a claim because the insurance has been invalid all along.

The irony is they are prepared to insure his car and to have him as a named driver on mine. Apparently that's different!

Hi Tigger,
My father insured his business premises from 1922 to 1939 and in all that time he paid a fairly hefty "War Damages Policy." In 1939 the insurance company wrote it out of the policy when war was inevitable. The only litigation that man had during his long life was to sue Sun insurance for all his contribution money's back and he won in the High Court which opened the floodgate for everybody else to claim for their contributions back.
After that I regret I have never, nor would I ever, trust an insurance company.
JB.
PS. I insure everything with the NFU a Mutual Company. I have my Private Pension with them and they have, to my knowledge always been very straight with me.

Photo taken from the arid plains of Wales.

oldherbaceous wrote:Photo taken from the arid plains of Wales.

I have it on good authority that The word "meerkat" is Dutch for "lake cat" . So I suppose round here they would be Cathod y llynnoedd

Good Evening OH and Alan,

I'm sure Chantal will enjoy that picture
( they are quite cute!)

alan refail wrote:

oldherbaceous wrote:Photo taken from the arid plains of Wales.

I have it on good authority that The word "meerkat" is Dutch for "lake cat" . So I suppose round here they would be Cathod y llynnoedd

Babelfish and other free web translation services insist that "meer kat" is "more cat".

The Afrikaans to English translator I found agrees with Babelfish, so whoever thought up the name must have needed glasses, as since when were cats cooperative sociable animals.