Insurance Renewal Stupidity

On phoning up to cancel my renewal following my earlier victory of getting my monthly payments of £60 down to £27 - the person I spoke to wanted to ask why I was cancelling.  "I don't like the colour of your logo" - is what i felt like answering, why do you think i don't want to renew? Its obvious its going to be due to cost, what other reason could it be for?

She was adamant that she could match the cheaper price I'd got - until that is i mentioned it was £27, and that i'd saved £369 a year by not renewing with them.  She knew full well she couldn't match that and cancelled by renewal.  However... she obviously did want to get my renewal cheaper than the price first quote - so why don't they quote the cheaper price at renewal then? Surely that is the time when someone will think "screw this, i can get it cheaper elsewhere!" rather than phoning them up to ask if they would like to make it cheaper!?  Its crazy sand they are ultimately just costing themselves customers.

Do yourself a favour, switch insurance companies at the time of renewal - you could save yourself a lorry load of cash.  Well, maybe a small lorry, but a lorry load none the less! 

If you have no idea what im banging on about. look at my earlier post.  http://drivingroadrage.blogspot.com/

Car Insurance doesn't need to be expensive!

My Car insurance renewal cane through this last week, and its gone up from £50 to £60 a month! Now, i know what you are thinking.  It serves me right for doing handbrake turns past police cars!  But.. surprisingly i have a clean license, with 8 years + NCB.  So why has it gone up so much!?

A quick investigate later, and I've managed to get it down from £60 per month to £27 a month.  That's a saving of £396!! 

The worrying thing is a lot of people don't bother switching insurance companies, thinking its too much hassle and they wont save much anyway.  Think again!!

I used quidco to make the above saving, and so i will actually get another £25 in cash-back on top of the above saving.  Take a look : http://www.quidco.com/user/1108075/   Its free to sign up, and you can definitely make savings, as shown above!

PS.  Hand brake turns past police cars are not recommended, unless you are certain they are asleep!

Caravans - nothing more than a bomb makers dream

As Bank Holiday nears in the UK all the people who have purchased a shed on wheels, because "they like that sort of thing" will be getting excited, blowing up their tyres, blowing up their imaginary wife, and checking their nuts are tight.

This then seems to be the thing to do if you have the sense of humour of a squashed fly and have nothing better to do that travel to the next county, blocking up the roads for all the normal people, and sitting in a field reading Caravan Weekly.

I really do not see the point of this. Caravans cannot be cheap, and what actually do you get out of it? Yes its a lot cheaper than going somewhere half interesting but there's a high risk of keeling over in a field by yourself from boredom.

TopGear tried out a Caravan holiday a few years ago and all that happened was they got lost, had a crash in a petrol station, and blew up the caravan because of a chip pan fire.  the woman who was a keen caravanner on site could only suggest they "fill up the loo" when asked what they were meant to do on a caravan site!

Caravans are no use, unless you are going to pack it with dynamite and light the fuse!

Driving me MAD!!

I think i must be some kind of bad driver magnet recently. I've had a visit from the shocking driver leader during the night who has implanted a small device in my brain to signal all of his members to my vicinity when i am on the road!  Seriously!!

Again yesterday on leaving work - a car pulled out on me and then proceeded to drive at a speed a millipede with 99 legs broken, could manage. This was on the straight before the S bend i mentioned in my previous post.  I saw a gap and went for the the overtake, otherwise i wold have actually been there until my 80th birthday!  It was a completely safe overtake, but the driver decided he'd take exception to it and started flashing their lights.  To be honest I'm surprised they knew where the button was to turn on their lights, they certainly didn't know where the "GO" pedal is!

TopGear Filming on YouTube

In the last (not as in the last of all time obviously!) series of TopGear - Clarkson, May and Hammond tried to see if there was an alternative to the trains that we see today on our railways. 

Clarkson made a sports train out of a Jaguar XJ and a trailer, with a spoiler of course.  Hammond and May went the more sensible route with an Audi and some caravans. 

The usual calamities happened, with the caravans catching fire, and then being run over by a passing train.  It was a fantastic episode and full of all the things that people (most people anyway) love about TopGear.

Some filming has appeared on YouTube of this, taken by someone who was on a railways bridge watching.  The camera appears to have been held by someone who has the inability to use their hand, and has a severe case of caffeine shakes - but nonetheless, its great to see.  Check it out below