Customers the only casualties in great insurance rip-off

But given that I’ve been with the same insurance company, through its various guises, for over 25 years – and, touching wood, without a single claim over that quarter of a century – I didn’t give the whole thing too much thought.

They value customers, these people, because that’s their advertising pitch – and who could be more valued that a driver who has been throwing money at them for 25 years without ever having to ask for a red cent back?

So imagine my surprise when my quote shot up by more than €250 on the previous year to almost €850.

Had I inadvertently caused a mass pile during the last twelve months, or driven through the front of someone’s house? Had I reported my car stolen during my sleep?

Just for pure pig iron I logged on to the websites of one or two other companies who are touting for business – and they were ready to welcome me with open arms for almost half the price of my long-time insurer.

The first company I looked up quoted me €433 for the exact same policy as my current insurance company, and the second did even better at €375 for what was admittedly a slightly less comprehensive service.

So I rang my long-standing insurers to find out what I’d done so wrong as to warrant what amounted to a ‘Dear John’ letter – as in, we no longer want your business.

“Oh that’s just an initial quote,” said the pleasant lady on the phone – a person to whom I bear no ill-will because she didn’t come up with the nonsensical quote in the first place.

And she told me one or two things that were on my policy – one of them costing me €110 because they had thrown it in for free last year, despite the fact that, quite honestly, I didn’t know what it was and never asked for it in the first place.

So that brought it down to €750, which was still way more than double a quote I’d received from a company that had never heard of me ten minutes earlier.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.