Is there any such thing as a price on loyalty anymore?

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

Understanding the ingredients that go into a quote for car insurance would probably be beyond even those bright lads doing Honours Maths, so mere mortals shouldn’t even bother their heads trying to get to grips with it.

Suffice to say, it would appear to be a random set of numbers chosen for the craic, with only one proviso – they must be significantly higher than last year.

Never mind that you haven’t had as much as a slow puncture let alone a crash, that you’ve survived the penalty points lottery and that you observe the speed limits like Pope observes abstinence during Lent.

They used to say that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes – to that you can now add a rise in car insurance, based on little more logic than the fact that they can.

The car insurance was due to be renewed recently and the quote duly arrived in the post.

As someone who has fortunately never had a serious accident or a court conviction – and who has opted to pay for minor tips from his own resources rather than affect the no claims bonus – you’d have thought that at least a quote in the same ball park as last year would be on the cards.

And, of course, you’d be very wrong.

Apparently, the uninsured drivers who wantonly wreak havoc are to blame for the ever-rising cost of insurance – which sort of sounds like a fig leaf of convenience to allow the insurers to jack up the costs faster than Ferrari’s Grand Prix team could jack up a car for a tyre change.

Thus, next year’s quote was almost €300 dearer than last year’s – and there was nothing the lady on the phone could do about it.

I’d actually been with this insurance company for around 30 years – minus a one-year break when they tried this ruse on me before – but that counted for nothing, and nor did the threat to take my business elsewhere once again.

So I set about finding a different insurer, one of those companies who loves new customers and probably disregards old ones just as coldly as my old company.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.