Insurance surprise

😁 she uses buses and trains it doesn't bother her.
At those prices I'm thinking it's an added qualification that a future employer would look for as well as giving her independence.

I've had an insurance surprise today.

Remember I drove to Montenegro last year? And my insurance with Admiral didn't cover that country, according to its policy booklet, so I purchased insurance locally? No? Well that's what happened.

When I got home after that trip I sucked my teeth and looked for other companies who did cover the country, in case I wished to return. I found several. Which made me wonder "why not Admiral?". So I looked into it and found that Montenegro had indeed been added, under an EU Directive which still applies in the UK, to something called the "Free Circulation" area. Which, I surmised, surely meant that UK insurance companies now covered vehicles when travelling there.

So, thinking about maybe going again this summer, I looked at my new policy booklet, since I renewed my cover with Admiral this March. Damn. Still doesn't list Montenegro under countries covered. So, deciding they were wrong, I called them. Obviously the call agent just parroted the policy booklet and told me it's not covered. Unsatisfied with this, I wrote an email to their customer services, cc the UK Motor Insurers' Bureau and the Admiral CEO. They again replied with a "no". I returned, insisting they referred the matter to their underwriters, and sent them links to the specific Directive, as published by the EU, and indeed a "magazine" page on their own website, with a "Guide to Driving Abroad", which stated "All UK insurers cover the following countries: " xxx, xxx, Montenegro, xxx etc.".

To my enormous surprise, one day later, their underwriters replied to me that I was indeed correct, and that there is an error in their policy booklet, and it will be updated accordingly.

I are chuff. Pays to be persistent sometimes.

Just got mine from the same insurer. It’s about third more than I paid last time, £1,275 for the three cars, against £922 before.

The Aygo is barely changed, presumably benefiting from Boy1’s year of experience, but for the two main cars and their solid-citizen middle-aged drivers, £583 has become £935.

I’d heard that parts shortages and labour rates were having an effect. Wasn’t expecting this much though!

Could be. But a phone call got me a reduction I was (reasonably) happy with, so I went for that. The main cars are still £400ish each, though. Lucky (in so many ways) that I don't live in Reading.

Absolute arse-clownery today from my naval themed insurers. Remember my Leaf accident in December? Remember it took 3 months before they could fix it? Well, now some new tomfoolery. I paid my excess to the bodyshop, as instructed, when I collected the car. Then I opened a case under my legal protection to reclaim the excess (using the wing of their group of companies called 'Naval Themed insurers Law Department'), also as instructed. I submitted the receipt and other paperwork requested, sat back and waited. Time passed, I chased them up. Oh they said, sorry, we haven't submitted to the other party's insurer's yet as it takes time to process, it's going across in 4 days, then they have 21 days to respond. So I said, OK, thanks, deep sigh. Now we come to yesterday, and it crosses my mind I haven't heard anything. So I message them through my account on their online portal for an update. An answer comes back today telling me that my insurers (same company, remember?) have told them there was no excess to pay on the repair, so please could I submit an invoice from the bodyshop. I don't have an invoice, just a credit card receipt and a Guarantee of works. So I've submitted the Guarantee, which names the claim number and vehicle reg, so hopefully this will be sufficient.

I expect someone has paid the whole invoice to the bodyshop, rather than the reduced amount to allow for the excess. So I wonder how this will go now. I just want the blasted money back.

Also, it seems that this alleged Law service are under instructions to say nothing to the customer until such time as they pipe up and ask.

Idiots. I are not happy. Any further pissing about and I'll be writing to the Ombudsman.

I find most companies are unhelpful these days unless you're throwing money at them.

I'm currently looking to drop to a lower fibre bandwidth we never touch the limits of gigabit we have, I want to drop to the 400mbit offering which will be enough for us all. Logged on to the dashboard, nothing. Messaged the company, no response. You can guarantee if I was going the other way I'd get a response.

I need to speak to them too. I seem to be paying them £98 a month without TV.
Fallen into the trap of not checking it for too long.