Insurance! I wonder if it is the same in other countries.
If I swindled or attempted to swindle someone out of a significant amount of money - say £73 for example then I would expect to get my comeuppance in a court of law. After all The Holy Bible tells us not to steal. It is one of the ten commandments.
Three weeks ago I received my motor insurance renewal pack from a leading insurer. Nothing has changed since last year and Clint has not been involved in any accidents or scrapes. All is the same.
Last year my premium was £341.60 but this year they were going to charge me £358.40. I phoned them and after fifteen minutes waiting in a phone queue I finally got through to a young fellow called Rob. He asked me why I was phoning and I told him that I was not happy about the increased premium.
There was no argument or any further pushing from me. After two or three minutes Rob returned to the phone and said he could give me a significant discount on the quoted price. In fact he could bring the premium down to £285,60. A saving of £73 on the original quote! Nothing would be changed. The cover would be exactly the same.
I suspect that many people who receive receive renewal notices from their insurers simply pay up without question, not realising that they are the unwitting victims of daylight robbery. Insurers clearly do not care a fig about loyalty. If they can rip you off they will.
Does this ring a bell with other bloggers or blog visitors in other places?
It happened nearly three years ago now and it a testament to serendipity.
I shared it with a loved one recently, to illustrate how things will often change for the better when you least expect life will......
Like I said it is true.
It was my first visit to my divorce lawyer.
I had to borrow a car from Jason The Affable Despot to go.
The solicitor’s office was located in St Asaph, right next door to the cathedral, and like today, it was a sunny day.
I remember little else about the interview apart from the kindness of my solicitor and the projected estimated bill of “ several thousand pounds”
I left the office numb and silently panicked
I hadn’t got a bean to my name..
How could I fight any divorce with no car, no money and no job
I sat in the cathedral for the longest of times.
Long enough for one of the ladies that ran a small coffee stall in the corner of the naive to quietly wander over to rest a serviette on the chair next to me.
Eventually, with bleary eyes I got up and drove home
Mary was racing around the cottage when I walked in. She had a chewed envelope in her mouth. Her and William had attacked the post again, in transference to pulling off the postman’s fingers.
Flat and upset I opened the letter which was covered in bites and terrier saliva
It was from a Solicitor’s office I had instructed months before to look into any PPI claims (personal Protection insurance) I had with banks and credit cards I had in the 1990s
I had long forgotten about it .
Apparently, it said , I had a claim! ........in fact, the woman on the phone said when I hurriedly rang her , I had several claims that were successful and after 30 % fees and VAT and others costs I was in line to receive over eleven thousand pounds !
Eleven thousand Pounds ........in fact the final sum was greater than that!
I told the clerk that I could kiss her .....she laughed good humouredly
That serendipitous windfall saved me . It paid for Bluebell and paid off my credit cards and overdraft and vets bills and it allowed me to put some away for the solicitor , deadening the fear and the worry of officialdom at its worst.
