Z haggles

So, today I'm hanging around waiting for the phone to ring. I had my car insurance renewal come through a few weeks ago. I can't remember if I mentioned it here, but it seemed a bit high. As you'll remember (though come to that, why should you?) I changed my car last autumn and bought an older, cheaper one, though it was much the same size. I was a bit hmm about being asked to pay over £400 for insurance on a 10-year-old car that is only worth £2,000 - though of course there's more to it than that, after all I may crash into something rather more valuable. Mind you, I never have. I've claimed on breakdown insurance, but never for an accident.

Anyway, I spent an extremely boring time looking through price comparisons and the lowest quote I came up with was just over £200. However, that had a big excess and finally the two best all-round offers were in the £260 mark, including NCB protection and all that sort of thing. I also looked at my own company, and got £360 offered there. So I rang and told them. After some discussion, it was suggested I start again, buying it online at £360. I told them again about the other company's cheaper price. "So, you're really wanting us to look at another £100 less?" he said. Well yes, that's about the sum of it.

So their customer retention department is going to phone back. I wonder what I'll be offered. In fact, I'll pay more than the lower price to stay with them, I know they're good and prompt if you have a claim and I've had good service in the past. But I don't think much of having to bargain, frankly. I would prefer to be offered their best price, as a customer of long standing, from the start. I'd been very satisfied with my premiums until I got a bigger car 4 years ago, when they took a sudden hike.

The Sage has also changed his car. He now has a small red van, rather like Postman Pat's although, unlike Al's, it isn't ex-Post Office. When I was looking for insurance for myself, I looked for him too. I found that insurance for a van is much higher than a comparable car. "Why do you want it?" I asked. "You don't need a van, you could just get another small car." After a while tacking around the subject, the reason became apparent. Our good friend Mike had bought it for his wife, as she takes the dogs around in it. He'd done a lot of work on it and then she hated it. So he wanted to get rid of it in a hurry, and the Sage took pity! I think that's sweet.