A debate about insurance

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

I will ask for my petrol to be tax free next time then. Thanks for the tip.

 

That's a good start. If, however, you really want to see some result, you need to invest time in campaigning for (or founding) a party that promises to scrap the fuel tax. No matter whether you think the level of taxation is appropriate or not, this is a public policy issue and nothing to do with competition (or lack thereof) in the private sector. Unlike the price of rice or that of H7 bulbs.

[gtd2000]

I will ask for my petrol to be tax free next time then. Thanks for the tip.

 

That's a good start. If, however, you really want to see some result, you need to invest time in campaigning for (or founding) a party that promises to scrap the fuel tax. No matter whether you think the level of taxation is appropriate or not, this is a public policy issue and nothing to do with competition (or lack thereof) in the private sector. Unlike the price of rice or that of H7 bulbs.

 

It always makes me laugh when you hear the Government bleating on about all the money the Oil Companies make blah blah blah...the Government makes even more than the Oil Companies based on the tax revenue for doing fuck all!

 

When I say fuck all - they are of course experts in burning through the tax revenue as quickly as possible.

 

I've had my eyes opened in recent weeks helping a friend out with her new home which is a "local authority" property. The condition that the house was received in beggars belief - this is after the council "experts" have inspected and ticked all the boxes that the home is ready to be moved into.

 

What that really means is that some arsehole has ticked a survey form and not actually checked the property.

 

Weeks of decorating and filling holes/cracks in shoddy plaster later - it was time to do some work on two cupboards - to say that the house was more of a renovation project would be accurate. At this point I said "this is fucking ridiculous - a council house is not supposed to be a fixer upper!". Got my friend to call the council and ask for some workmen to effect the necessary repairs. Weeks later, the guys (4 of them in their nice logo plastered individual SBHA vans) turn up at various times during the day. To say that you would get better workmanship and performance out of two untrained 14 years olds is actually being very fair!!!

 

The standard of workmanship is the tip of the iceberg with the clowns that run this country....

[The Moog]

I think that the way we have it is probably the best we are going to get with regards to insurance. It is is based on data collected on the type of driver and type of car etc.

 

Insurance for first time drivers is expensive for a reason, they are likely to crash more often than someone with even 2 years worth of experience. Obviously this is based on broad swipes of data.

 

I have 3 no fault claims (1 waiting to turn right and someone ploughed into the back of me, 1 in traffic bloke behind didnt think to stop as he was changing cd and 1 when my car was in works car park and someone reversed a minibus into it) which means some insurers wont touch me because I might be an unsafe driver!

[CIH]

10 years ago I paid £1k to insure a £400 1.3 MK2 Golf.

Last year I had my first fault claim and dread to think what my modified Silvia is going to cost. Given I had been paing £350 on a classic I hope(pray ?) for no more than a 3x increase.....

[Lacy]

Weeks later, the guys (4 of them in their nice logo plastered individual SBHA vans) turn up at various times during the day. To say that you would get better workmanship and performance out of two untrained 14 years olds is actually being very fair!!!

 

Reminds me of a friend of mine.....lived in a local authority house, they fitted a new toilet for him.....six months later they hadn't been round to flush it once.......

 

I'm replacing my bathroom at the moment.....doing it myself as I can't really afford to pay anyone else to do it......do you think there's any chance of tax payer funded workmen coming round to do it for me?

[Quintus]

So-called 'special offers' and 'discounts' are also somewhat baffling. The insurance on my Focus is up for renewal soon, so I've been looking around all the usual price comparison sites etc.

 

I tried an online quote with Co-operative insurance and they quoted £432, but as I've already got home contents cover with them I decided to phone and see if they could give me a bit of a discount (when I took out the contents policy earlier this year, they suggested that a discount would be possible if I already have one policy with them). Bizarrely the telephone quote was £441, which includes the discount!

 

Needless to say, I've gone elsewhere for car insurance this year.

[gtd2000]

I'm replacing my bathroom at the moment.....doing it myself as I can't really afford to pay anyone else to do it......do you think there's any chance of tax payer funded workmen coming round to do it for me?

 

You wouldn't want them honestly!

 

In the private world, I had a new house built the other year - the builder subcontracted the plumbing to a local firm who are "council approved"....

 

To say they fucked everything up and didn't get a single thing right first, second or third time in many cases is being reasonable.

 

You couldn't make it up as they say...if you are looking for a plumber in the Galashiels area, let me tell you who not to contact!

[Cavcraft]

I will ask for my petrol to be tax free next time then. Thanks for the tip.

 

That's a good start. If, however, you really want to see some result, you need to invest time in campaigning for (or founding) a party that promises to scrap the fuel tax. No matter whether you think the level of taxation is appropriate or not, this is a public policy issue and nothing to do with competition (or lack thereof) in the private sector. Unlike the price of rice or that of H7 bulbs.

 

It always makes me laugh when you hear the Government bleating on about all the money the Oil Companies make blah blah blah...the Government makes even more than the Oil Companies based on the tax revenue for doing fuck all!

 

When I say fuck all - they are of course experts in burning through the tax revenue as quickly as possible.

 

I've had my eyes opened in recent weeks helping a friend out with her new home which is a "local authority" property. The condition that the house was received in beggars belief - this is after the council "experts" have inspected and ticked all the boxes that the home is ready to be moved into.

 

What that really means is that some arsehole has ticked a survey form and not actually checked the property.

 

Weeks of decorating and filling holes/cracks in shoddy plaster later - it was time to do some work on two cupboards - to say that the house was more of a renovation project would be accurate. At this point I said "this is fucking ridiculous - a council house is not supposed to be a fixer upper!". Got my friend to call the council and ask for some workmen to effect the necessary repairs. Weeks later, the guys (4 of them in their nice logo plastered individual SBHA vans) turn up at various times during the day. To say that you would get better workmanship and performance out of two untrained 14 years olds is actually being very fair!!!

 

The standard of workmanship is the tip of the iceberg with the clowns that run this country....

 

'All of the above'.

 

When we had our kitchen done it was blatantly obvious the council used whoever was the cheapest and couldn't give a flying one about the quality. We ended up with less cupboards than we originally had and they 'couldn't spare any more' and it was 'against health and safety to put them in certain places.

Well, I say they said they couldn't spare any more but three days into it the foreman mysteriously found some more cabinets which we could have for £20 a throw and could be fitted anywhere we liked

 

Going back to your excellent point about oil companies, I've never really understood why protesters try and block refineries and rail against the companies involved.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

When we had our kitchen done it was blatantly obvious the council used whoever was the cheapest and couldn't give a flying one about the quality.

 

I think you're being highly optimistic here. It's not like the council had a lot of choice- they probably 'had to' use the one company which met the extraordinarily convoluted requirements that had been specified in the tendering process. The fact that 3 directors of said company are spouses/children of /best mates with senior employees of the council is completely coincidental.

 

Going back to your excellent point about oil companies, I've never really understood why protesters try and block refineries and rail against the companies involved.

 

I don't understand it, either, but I suspect that government influence over the media (primarily the BBC but also the rest of the industry- see NOTW scandal) has a lot to do with it.

[pompei]

My first job was in Local Authority housing. I went in hoping to change the world and left thoroughly disillusioned two years later for a change in career.

 

I've just read a letter in the local free rag from someone who is fighting the insurance company who won't stump up as she failed to notify them that she had been made redundant. Apparently any such "change of circumstances" warrrants the need for notification and, of course, bumping up the premium. It would never occur to me to check my policy and then notify them if this happened to me (as it did, twice in the last 4 years). So where is the extra risk? If you're out of work, chances are you'll be using your car less? Robbing shysters.

[Lacy]

When I had my Landrover stolen at the start of the year they started off by offering me 4k. I turned it down. They then told me they were voiding my policy and paying me nowt as I had failed to disclose a modification to the vehicle when taking out the policy. The modification was that 3 years prior to my buying it the previous owner had it rebuilt on a new chassis; standard in every respect except it was galvanised rather than painted steel. Every other aspect of the landy was boggo standard; no chequer plate, snorkels, lift kits, stickers, bull bars, spots, nothing......so I kicked up a stink, wrote a lengthy letter of complaint sufficiently full of expert opinion and they accepted they were wrong and offered me 6.5k........presumably some punters will just throw in the towel so it's in their interests to make life difficult for you. In these uncertain economic times they will try anything and everything to avoid a payout.

[gtd2000]

When I think back to my first days on the road on a motorcycle - I considered myself to be a good rider, we did do some pretty hairy things by default. At that time a motorcycle/scooter/moped was the only option from a cost point of view for most young lads - I couldn't afford to run a car at the time and neither could most of my peers.

 

Now some 25 years or so later, everbody expects to been running around in a nice cosy motor on credit terms at 17/18/19 years of age - being honest, this was really not an option for the majority of youngsters in the 1980's. it's true that running a two wheeler is not much fun during the winter in the UK but it does get you from A to B. Getting experience on two wheels may well make you a better car driver (if you survive) at the end of the day in my opinion, as you understand just how vulnerable you really are if things go wrong.

 

Going back to the "hairy things" aspect - it's probably quite right that insurance premiums are high for novice drivers/riders as I can certainly attest that I drove far more aggressively as a younger man than I do these days. Pretty much all of us rode motorcycles at full throttle at every opportunity and most of the lads with the MK1 and 2 Escorts etc were doing their best to keep up as well. It's quite amazing that the majority of us were not involved in serious accidents - of course we did all crash - each and every time due to stupidity in my case.

 

Numerous old friends are no longer here due to being killed in accidents - when you add them all up it's quite a significant number when I think about it!

 

Perhaps the insurance companies have got it right when it comes to younger drivers after all??

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Well, the latest debacle on my crunch.

 

The 3rd party agreed on £700 (I keep the car) 10 days ago. They sent out a cheque with the wrong name on it - well, my name misspelt so badly the bank wouldn't take it. Insignia at £130 a day, tick tock, tick tock.

 

Had the second cheque today........payable to the insurance assessor. Yes - they have written the name of the guy who came out and inspected my car on the cheque. So back it goes, and the Vaux for another 5-6 days and £700 quid odd. Assuming the 3rd cheque arrives with my name on it (and spelt correctly) by Friday, I will have had the Insignia for one month - plus the seven days hire youb get after the cheque is recieved. £4800 plus the £700 payout for my £600 banger.

 

 

 

You couldn't make this up. Someone needs to be fired for this.

 

 

Do the maths, and this Insignia will be paid for after 160 days hire.