When does a 15% discount actually mean an 85% increase.

These days quite often, but in this case when you are dealing with an insurance company. The following is the wording of an email I received from Top Dog travel insurance, and yes Top Dog you are about to be named and shamed. “Renew your annual travel insurance with 15% discount”. I think I could be forgiven for thinking I was going to get a 15% discount on the previous year’s premium but I should have known better. When I clicked “renew” I found that the premium was nearly twice as much as the previous year; they had almost doubled it and then taken off the 15%. So it was back to the comparison sites as usual, as an old hand at this I always keep handy the information they are likely to need so this process is quite quick. Twenty minutes later I had a new policy with another company for less than I paid the previous year. This happens nearly every time any insurance policy comes up for renewal. I always think it would be nice to find out how they would justify what is in effect a scam but usually the only point of contact is a call centre and I NEVER waste my valuable time with one of those. However, on this occasion there was an email address so I asked them why they were so underhand in the way they do business. They rang me, as they do when they want something from you, if you want something from them forget it. What followed was the usual bollox.

“this is not the same policy as the one you originally had from the comparison sites”,

“but I was quite happy with that policy”,

“this one has features the original doesn’t have”,

“OK what are they”,

“bla bla bla”

“doesn’t sound much different to me”

“you can do xxx which you can’t do on the other policy, this policy is not offered on the comparison sites”

“but I didn’t ask for that and I don’t need it, why should I pay a lot more for something I don’t need?”

And so it went on, I wasn’t prepared to let it go, until eventually:

“Please hold the line while I speak to my manager?”

“OK”

Slight pause.

“We are able to offer you the same policy as the one you had last year for the same price.”

I told them they were too late and I now had a policy with another company and that they would never have my business again. No doubt I will have to go through the same process again in 12 months time but that’s life. The only time I have ever been happy with the renewal terms and cost has been on two motor policies with Liverpool Victoria, so credit where it is due.

Another practice all companies use to wrong foot you is automatic renewal on direct debit, and I know people who will not pay anything by direct debit. Probably a good idea unless you are prepared to keep a very close eye on your finances.

“We have set up your direct debit to automatically renew for your convenience and so you won’t lose your cover.”

A double whammy here; we will save you the effort, there are always lots of people prepared to do things for you, it always costs; and they massage your paranoia that your own inertia will lead to loss of cover. OK it is more convenient but it also means that they will automatically bump up the premium on renewal. Check all your policies you can usually just untick the automatic renewal box on the company’s website. They actually have to inform you before they take the money, even with automatic renewal, but it can easily get lost in all the noise that arrives by email and they don’t give you much time. If you try to phone them you will find it even more difficult to get through to them than usual, a good ploy is to call the sales line, usually answered at once and ask them to cancel for you or transfer you. You can always cancel direct debits on your current account, with a DD on a credit card it is much more difficult and I would recommend that you never set up a DD on a credit card. If you do and you have problems as a last resort you can call the credit card company and say you have lost your card. They will cancel it and issue a new one with a different number so all the DD’s on original will be null and void.

When any insurance is coming up for renewal take a couple of minutes to compare the meercats. I guarantee it will save you money, and if you keep a list of all your details for all policies it will not take much of your valuable time. You can go even further as companies have to pay the comparison sites to be in the list and some of them don’t list in the comparison sites. Organizations such as The Consumers Association and Martin Lewis’s web site are a good starting point but this will take more time and you can save a lot just with the comparison sites.

The way the system works is that insurance companies offer very competitive terms for new business and subsidize it by overcharging loyal customers, so let the inert subsidize you. I once had three policies coming up for renewal in the same week, 2 cars and a household contents and buildings policy. For the sake of twenty minutes per policy I saved nearly £1000, an hourly rate that is almost as much as a City wanker or Bayne Rooney earns. LOYALTY IS NOT REWARDED it is just an opportunity for them to take the piss. I read about a case where a frail old lady was being charged over £900 for building and contents policy because she trusted the insurers to give the best deal to a loyal customer. When her family found out they got the same cover for £160; I would hazard a guess that the poor old bugger was getting close to death and the family were starting to get into inheritance mode, pity they couldn’t have taken an interest several years earlier. I have done some research into this myself and on one occasion I had a car policy that originally cost about £220 the renewal quoted was nearly £500 so I went on a comparison site and put in the details and up came the same company offering exactly the same policy for £190. It would have been interesting to hear an explanation for that but as I said I NEVER do call centres, so I just went in as a new customer.

It is a great pity that you can no longer rely on any organization to be ethical but you can spin this to your advantage, with a little effort you can save a lot of money and let those who are too idle to make that effort subsidise you.

While I am on the subject you can usually get at least ten per cent off the price of just about anything just by asking for a discount at the point of sale. The same applies to subscriptions for magazines etc. Always leave it to last minute before renewing, again don’t just sign the direct debit. Better still allow it to lapse often they will come back and may offer you a discount to renew. Don’t assume that the price quoted for anything is set in tablets of stone this includes contracts for services such as broadband mobile phones etc. I know someone who was paying Sky around £120 a month for TV and broadband; he decided he was going to kick them into touch but when he rang them they tried to persuade him to stay and gave him exactly the same deal as he had before for £60 a month. You would probably not be able negotiate a reduction when you take out a service, but they usually have special offers for new customers. Many years ago friend of my mother was paying a high rate of interest on her mortgage; I advised her to shop around but she did not want the hassle of re-mortgaging. So I said find the cheapest deal and ring your existing company and tell them you are going to re-mortgage unless they can match it. Guess what, they did and she saved over a thousand pounds a year, for one phone call, the miserable bugger didn’t even buy me a bottle of wine but at least I deprived “the man” of several grand.

OK that’s all for insurance companies, more ways of saving money will follow as promised. I apologize if I have been preaching to the converted but it never ceases to amaze me how many people are not aware of all this. I also apologize for this being a bit dry but there is really no way that a post about insurance companies could be otherwise. I promise the next one will be more entertaining. Please use comments to share your experiences good or bad. All that money is better in our pockets.

 

 

 

 

 

Hippie Caught in Time Warp with Famous Actor.

A few weeks ago I promised my Facebook friends another dope anecdote; I have just been editing my book and came across this. It is not the one I was thinking of, I have quite a few dope anecdotes, but here goes. It happened when I was living in London in the seventies, I lived in a communal house in Lonsdale Square, Islington and the area was just starting to get popular. The process of “gentrification” was happening in all the Georgian squares but there were still quite a few houses that had so far escaped the process. Quite nice to think that I once lived in a house that would now set you back about three million quid; but back in in 1976 our landlord sold the house, minus the basement, for thirty-five grand! However, just off nearby Upper Street was a gloomy alleyway called Camden Passage which didn’t look like it had changed much since Victorian times. At one end there was the Camden Head pub which was very trendy and one of my watering holes. On the other side of the passage from the pub was Don Partridges’ wine and stew shop; Don was a one-man band, a busker, who had a couple of novelty hit records in the late sixties. The wine and stew shop was quite good, it was actually a restaurant but the only food they served was Irish stew, very cheap and as they had no alcohol license you took your own wine for which they charged practically nothing for corkage. It was a good venue for after the pub and the man himself would don his kit from time to time and walk around the room playing his songs. Anyhow to get back to Camden Passage a bit further along there was an Italian restaurant again very cheap and cheerful. It was owned by a big fat Italian mama who would pinch your cheeks, say “you are so thin” and gave you an extra lamb chop. There were also a few old-fashioned type of shops, hardware, haberdashery, etcetera and down at heel antiques shops. The only up market premises on the passage was Robert Carrier’s restaurant. Robert Carrier was one of the first “celebrity chefs” and he lived nearby in one of the Georgian squares not the same one I lived in. Anyway one winter evening I was walking along the passage; it was dark and foggy and the street lights were few and far between, not actually gas lights but looking pretty much like Victorian London as depicted in the old films. I hadn’t been in The Camden Head, I hadn’t been in Don Partridges, I had been round at a friends’ place smoking some very good dope, and I was well and truly stoned. For those who say “skunk” is much stronger than the dope we smoked in those days I say they have obviously never had “primo afghan” hash, which is what I had been smoking that night. So I am walking along and enjoying the atmosphere and feeling like I was in a time warp when suddenly there was a burst of light, the door of Robert Carrier’s restaurant flew open and standing there is Vincent Price wearing a black cloak. Suddenly I am in a Hammer horror film and standing there trying to make sense of it all. Vincent Price sees a very stoned hippie staring at him and says “good evening” in that silky voice of his, wrapped the cloak around him, Dracula style, and strode off down the passage to get his taxi. It’s a funny old world.

Anatomy of a Claim

Sometimes we pay for goods or services that fail to meet our expectations and we feel that the company or person should make amends. This happened to us recently on a holiday, booked with Thomson Holidays, we had paid extra for a service that we felt was not up to scratch. It was only a few hundred pounds all the other aspects of the holiday were fine and I am only posting this because there are many who would not bother to claim, thinking it would be hassle and time consuming. For my part I don’t like to see anyone getting away with supplying shoddy goods or services so, in case you don’t know already, I will show you just how easy it is to claim. The first step is taken while you are still on holiday, you may need to show that you have given those involved a chance to put things right. We complained to the hotel/apartments reception about the service. Nothing changed so we informed the hotel reception and the holiday rep that we were no longer going to use the service and would be making a claim for compensation when we returned home. On our return I wrote a brief letter outlining the details of the complaint and the amount of compensation we were claiming; this was sent by email and surface mail. You need to show that you mean business but without being pompous or using pseudo-legalise language that will make you sound like a prat. However, it is a good idea to put WITHOUT PREJUDICE at the top of all correspondence, it makes it sound like you know what you are doing and means that you cannot be held to whatever you put in the letter, for instance you may want to increase the amount you are claiming. Never, ever phone them, when you finally get through the menu and spend 20 minutes listening to canned music you will speak to someone whose first language is not English and they will give you the run around. Put everything in writing and when they phone you, which they will, ask them to put any offers in writing also, email is fine just so long as you have a record, don’t delete it! In our case they made an offer but it was not enough. As they were members of ABTA the next step was to involve them. There is a very simple form you can fill in inline, you already have the claim details in Word to copy and paste. They contact their member to see if they will improve their offer, in this case they wouldn’t. You then have a choice to go to independent arbitration via ABTA or use the Small Claims Procedure in The County Court. I have been involved in this several times both as claimant and defendant, it is not as daunting as it sounds. My gut reaction was to go with the Courts so I can’t say what the outcome would have been via the arbitration route. However, the Court fees are much less than the fee for arbitration and again I think it shows that you mean business and are not intimidated by the prospect of going to Court. It is unlikely that it will actually go to Court but if does you can also claim further costs such as travel loss of earnings. Again there is simple form to fill in initially, the Court will inform the defendant and they have about 28 days to file a defense. It is not unknown for them to ignore this or to file a defense and then not turn up for the hearing, in which case it would automatically be found in your favour. They don’t want hassle any more than you do and nine times out of ten, so long as you are not taking the piss with your claim, they will offer to settle out of court. That is what happened in this case and we ended up with three times what they had offered in the first place. The cheque arrived today folks! It has actually taken me longer to write this post than it did to make the claim, so you are very privileged.       

Nature, red in tooth and claw.

I was enjoying a well-earned cup of tea on my lounger on the top lawn when I heard a funny noise; a fairly large bird of prey, a hawk or a falcon, flew over and was circling above. Then Carol got up to bring in the washing and let out a loud scream, “get rid of it”, she said. It being a rabbit minus it’s head and front legs and the noise was it clanging on the washing carousel and thudding to the ground.  I thought it might be of use to some other animal or the bird might come back for it so I moved it out of the way, otherwise I would have had to bring the washing in myself. Sometime later, indoors, I looked out of the window and there was a magpie making a meal of the rabbit, one of the neighbourhood cats was skulking the magpie and the original owner was circling overhead. I don’t know who ended up with it but I suspect the cat, consoling himself for not getting the magpie.