HOUSEHOLD TIPS NOT FOUND IN WOMAN'S WEEKLY

[Tizer]

Our buildings and contents insurance is with Liverpool Victoria (LV): LINK I've found them to be transparent with lots of explanations on their web site. Next week I'll be renewing with them. The premium has gone up by a fair bit and I always look around to check if it seems fair. I used Go Compare and found all the better known companies were in a similar price bracket now or more expensive; there's always a few showing very low premiums but I avoid them. My LV quote for the coming year is about £140 for buildings plus contents for a 4-bed detached with a £250K rebuild cost, and no special contents items (we'd probably be described as `in poverty' compared with most folk with all their gadgets!).

[Marilyn]

I still don't get this "shopping around on your insurance" every year. I know I have mentioned this before, but there are discounts galore to being loyal long term. Shopping around for insurance is ( to me) a bit like Doctor Shopping to service your needs or changing Health Insurance to get benefits for an op that you know you need but they had no prior knowledge of. Insurance companies view your shopping/chopping/rechoosing as if you are going to sting them and move on. Sorry...I just don't get it.
Why would you put yourself through the excercise year after year just to save a few bucks?
And to have to compare one company's fine print against another on an annual basis when you were happy with the arrangement you had, again, is ridiculous.

[Tripps]

but there are discounts galore to being loyal long term.

That would be nice, but here it's quite the opposite. I've just renewed my house insurance. It went up from £129 to £221 - though there was an introductory bonus last year. I refuse to use price comparison websites - don't trust them. I phoned the company up and they almost automatically reduced it to £156. I could tell a similar tale for Broadband.

[Big Kev]

As Tripps says, there is no loyalty discount here in the UK. With regards to shopping around 'just to save a few bucks' I can think of better things to spend the 3 figure saving on

[Stanley]

I've always used Swinton in Burnley as my broker. Never any problem and the price is very stable..... But Like many of us, I have never claimed.

[Tizer]

I've just got out my insurance documents to renew the LV policy and realise now that I wrote an incorrect figure for the premium in my post above. I wrote it from memory thinking it was something like £114.98 but it's actually £141.28. But that doesn't change what I wrote about the comparisons - most of the other companies were similar or more expensive.

Maz, it must be very different in Australia. Here many of the big insurance companies will hike your premium up dramatically if they sense that you're not checking against what you can get elsewhere. I won't switch to save a couple of quid but it often saves us £50 or more and if we leave if for longer you save even more. My father in law was being charged way over a thousand pounds for an insurance policy because he'd let them bump it up every year. We got it more than halved for him by looking at a comparison site.

[Marilyn]

Fair enough. I shall try not to bite next time the topic comes up.

[Tizer]

We're all just filled with envy at you not having to keep checking and switching! But then Aussies would probably kick up more of a fuss if the companies tried the trick on them. Us Brits are masochists and like being victims.

[Stanley]

Swinton have switched me to other companies several times, they do an annual check for the cheapest reliable policy and I always accept their recommendation. Up to now it has worked......
Today's tip/observation.... one good rain shower isn't enough to put the drought right!

[plaques]

Car insurance is one of the worst for giving introductory offers then ramping the premium up for subsequent years. OK if you are in a position to keep leap frogging about but once you have reached an age related cutoff point these options are closed to you. You may be left in a position of having to stick with a doggy insurance because changing becomes impossible. I would recommend that when you reach your twilight years find a solid insurer and stick with them. It may be a little more expensive than the 'go compare' market but it gives you peace of mind for future years.

[Tizer]

Plaques, in that situation I'd recommend Stanley's route of going to a broker. They're better when you aren't after a bog standard policy. Another such situation is landlord's insurance - the broker's know which companies specialise in that. Stanley uses Swinton as the broker for his home insurance. Here in Somerset we have a local broker called Higos Insurance Services Ltd Higos They are easy to deal with over the phone and transparent with their charges.

[Stanley]

Either that or the nuclear alternative which I took.... Sell the bloody car and use what you save on shoe leather or taxis in an emergency! (Lifts from relatives and friends are dirt cheap!)
You wouldn't believe the freedom you get when you ditch the car....... (How many people know exactly what it is costing them purely in monetary terms, and then there is the aggro that goes with it.)

[Tizer]

Sorry but no, I don't believe `the freedom you get when you ditch the car'. The car gives me freedom to go where I like, when I like, for as long as I like.

[Tripps]

You wouldn't believe the freedom you get when you ditch the car....

I'm with Tizer here and 'in spades'. I'd say quite the total opposite , and there is almost no 'aggro' with a modern vehicle.

[Marilyn]

I can imagine a time when I would like to ditch the car.
Not yet though...both OK to drive and we now live 2 hours drive from our kids. Too far to walk to the supermarket. Too far to walk to the Doctor if really sick. ( mind you, we walk right past the surgery if we decide on a decent walk which is no problem at all just yet and about a 40 min walk each way...but it would take a taxi ride if we were ill )
Lots to be considered, in the future...

[Tripps]

And you can have a bit of innocent fun with the number plate.
At last my grandchildren think I'm 'cool'.

TR10PPS.jpg

[Tizer]

Nice one Tripps! And your surname was promoted by a bloke running around the World Cup football pitch too. Perhaps you should start a motor coach company called Coach Tripps.

There's a lady lives near us who is probably in her late 80s and can't walk far. She's bent over and uses two sticks. But she gets her little car out of the garage (a Nissan Micra or similar) and away she goes, off to dine out with her many friends and relatives, or to do some shopping and generally `get about'. She doesn't complain about the traffic and `other drivers' like I do, she knows how lucky she is to still be able to drive a car and she's making hay while the sun shines!

[Stanley]

Each to his/her taste.... I must be peculiar, I got plenty of aggro as a driver, always a bill to pay or a news item telling me of yet another price rise or new regulation. Mind you, I can get to all the places I need inside a five minute walk, that makes a big difference. Then of course there was the fact I couldn't afford it and had become frightened of traffic.....

[Tripps]

Mind you, I can get to all the places I need inside a five minute walk, that makes a big difference. Then of course there was the fact I couldn't afford it and had become frightened of traffic.....

First response:-

Exactly If I was in that situation - I might do the same.

However after a few moments further thought - no I wouldn't. I'm going for a 'life enhancing' experience on Saturday. It's about eighty miles away - the only way to go for me is to drive. I'll be driving.

[chinatyke]

Either that or the nuclear alternative which I took.... Sell the bloody car and use what you save on shoe leather or taxis in an emergency! (Lifts from relatives and friends are dirt cheap!)
You wouldn't believe the freedom you get when you ditch the car....... (How many people know exactly what it is costing them purely in monetary terms, and then there is the aggro that goes with it.)

I ditched cars when I came to live in China. I loved driving but don't miss car ownership. I knew what my car was costing me per mile thanks to my Windle & Bowker training, and the costs were higher than taking a taxi because of my habit of changing my car when I got bored. I'd be rich now if I'd cut back on the number of cars and wives I had.

[Stanley]

Today's tip is don't leave a pan on high heat and go to do something else unless you have an alarm set.......

[Marilyn]

China... Possibly you are "richer" because of the wives you have had. Maybe you know yourself better now.?
I always thank my husband's previous wife for making him more "user friendly". That may sound odd. ( but at least he is not a complete knuckle-dragging cave-man!)

[chinatyke]

You're right, Maz.

[Stanley]

Today's tip.... Maz is always right.....

[Wendyf]

I'll second that!