A dilemma we have had off and on for the last few months is whether to keep hold of my car or sell it. Lucy is now on maternity leave (and possibly not going back) and we could probably get by with just one car, although it would make things inconvenient at times due to the hours I work. We debated it off and on for months, but eventually decided that we would keep it for another year. This meant reinsuring the thing …

The renewal quote from my current insurer was, as usual, way above last years premium, so I set about the usual task of getting quotes from confused.com. All fine, got a quote that was cheaper than last year so gave the current insurers a call to see if they could match it… however, the guy I spoke to obviously didn’t like his job much as he flat out refused to lower the original quote they sent me (despite it being over £100 more than my current premium and me having 1 more year of no claims!). He was obviously not that interested in doing his job, so I ended the call and tried again .. different person, same attitude! ..seems they didn’t want my business, so I advised them I wasn’t renewing the policy and that was that.

I then went through the arduous task of calling the company providing the cheapest quote on confused.com, this meant providing all of my details again (despite already filling them out on the website). 15 minutes later, policy agreed, bank details provided for payment, the guy on the other end goes ‘oh, do you have an imobiliser?’ … I don’t, and never said I did ..so said as much too him. He then advises me that he’ll have to transfer me to customer services as he can’t amend my policy once it’s saved. I query if the price of the policy will go up based on this, but he assures me it won’t.

Five minutes later I speak to a customer services girl and she advises my policy has now gone up by £20 as I don’t have an immobiliser. I tell her I never said I did have one and that I was only asked AFTER I took the policy out, so the rise in price was unfair. She basically tells me ‘tough’ …. so I ask to cancel the policy. I am then advised I have to pay a £30 cancellation fee! ..for a policy I have only taken out 5 minutes ago!… At this point, I go ballistic! (this happened on the same day as the Facebook saga a few posts below, so I wasn’t in a good mood anyway!).

Anyway – long story short, after being on hold for another 15 mins while she spoke to her manager, they agreed to give me the policy at the original price.

I hate renewing insurance …guarantees me one argument a year it seems!