Insure yourself, it's later than you think

By Paul Flower on Mar 26, 09 09:12 AM

Insurance: the very word is indicative of just how dull the subject is. Insurance companies don't make it any better by making the worst TV ads possible. If they're not denigrating the status of one of my rock idols (whilst neglecting to add that they don't insure musicians) then they're bleating on about how much cheaper they are than all the rest.

It's this point which doesn't really stack up. They can't all be cheaper than each other and quoting random sums of money that they could save you (without indicating all the possible clauses you have to satisfy in order to save) is merely irritating - if not actually infuriating when you come to challenge them.

I had to renew my car insurance last wk, an annual obligatory chore which sees me routinely trying some screenscrapers and phoning a few other companies who promise more than they can deliver. Of course it'd be easiest just to accept the renewal notices that your existing insurer sends through, unfortunately they're never the cheapest option.

This point alone really winds me up. I had always learned, and believe, that to keep a customer is cheaper and more effective than having to acquire a new one. Insurance companies clearly don't follow this strategy; indeed most of them offer specific deals that are only open to new clients - what better way to annoy your existing customers?!

Then you get down to the claims themselves. I can be specific and tell you that Tesco wanted ÃÂ£288 from me to renew, they were the cheapest offer I could find in March 08 but not anymore. I eventually went with esure (despite the very annoying Michael Winner ads) for ÃÂ£233. In a recession or any other time, ÃÂ£55 or 19% is a significant difference I think.

There were other companies like Direct Line whose ads claim that they don't use comparison websites so that they don't have to pay commissions and can pass the savings onto us. Nice claim but, even given my lack of claims in the last ten years (ha, ha), they were slightly cheaper than Tesco but more expensive than esure.

Similarly Swinton boldly promised that they'd give me 12 months for the price of ten. Given that ten months costs over ÃÂ£300 with them it was an offer I was happy to decline. Adding Direct Line, Swinton & Tesco to the quotes I got via moneysupermarket I had a total of 75 different prices ranging from ÃÂ£233 to ÃÂ£475 (Zenith, in case you were wondering - made me check whether it ran in alpha order).

There were a couple of others that were even more laughable - Service Underwriting at ÃÂ£1064 and Quinn Direct at ÃÂ£1219 - I suspect that these must be rogue results, or that they fit your car with armour plating and jet engines if it gets damaged whilst insured by them.

I don't know enough about insurance to debate why the price of the same service can fluctuate so wildly, but it doesn't really give me much faith in financial organisations and even less in their advertising claims. What I really need is insurance against my rising insurance costs - or perhaps I can insure myself against having to listen to more of their b.s., I'm already inured against it.

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