I always used to enjoy the advert for one of the car insurance companies which proudly proclaimed. 'We Arnott Insured!'. I always thought that being insured by a company with a catchy title was the only way you could legally be covered and yet tell the truth when making that statement.
BUT
Of course I was obviously a very mistaken person as I the insurance renewal for my car proved only too well. In fact it proves a number of things, the most important of which is be wise, ceck your renewal and see if you can beat it elsewhere for:
a. Price,
b. Excess (of the voluntary and compulsory kinds), and
c. Continuation (i.e. where you decide that you won't continue with the insurance provider but they take the money anyway!).
Regarding a. I received a quote for my renewal. It was in excess of £400, which I have to say was rather high. Even when we took into account the number of people using ambulance-chasing, 'no win - no fee' legal eagles and those people shop slam their brakes on so they can have a claim with value-added whiplash, both of which are (or so I'm told) pushing premiums higher and higher.
So I started to look around and found that I could get insurance for about half of the renewal from my previous (seven years with them) company. 'Aha', they cried, 'What about the extras you get for free with us?'
I was brought up short with this as I hadn't considered the 'hidden benefits'. So I started looking at them.
The first areas under consideration was the excesses. These are the bit you pay should you have an accident. My new (cheaper) insurance only gave me an excess of £150. So what of my renewal with the old firm? The combined excess was £550! (£300 'Compulsory excess' and another £250 'voluntary excess' (don't ever remember volunteering, especially for that!!!).
What this amounts is that I'm being asked to pay over £400 for a piece of paper that says 'I am insured' with the reality that I am not unless the costs are in excess of £550! I thought the idea of insurance was that I pay and so do they if I'm unfortunate enough to have a shunt down to my error! Obviously I was wrong, I'm just paying for a piece of paper to meet the legal requirements and not the moral cover from an insurer.
So, I was still looking when I received my new Insurance certificate, as having not contacted them within the week before the old policy expired the insurers had assumed I'd just want to carry on with them!!!
I was amazed when having informed my (now previous) insurer's (very nice, but rather naive)call centre person that I didn't want to use them for my renewal I was told that I could have an additional discount approaching £100 if I stayed with them. I asked whether this would change the excess to £150 (as per new insurance) and was told that it would still be £550.
'So, would you like to renew now we're cheaper?' I was asked! I explained that they were still almost another £100 dearer and that their excess was £400 more (and I didn't mention the fact that the windscreen cover was £75 more as well) and was told, 'But we've dropped the price so there's no reason to change!'
The whole world has gone blinking bonkers!
Make sure you check your insurance when it's due for renewal - a quick shop around saved me over £200 and cut my excess by £400 and I'm willing to bet I'm not an isolated example.
Caveat Emptor people.
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