It seem a lot of 'sharp practice' is cboyahooreeping into motor insurance to keep the price advertised low.

My recent experience is as follows

My last years insurance was in the region of £300 from Saga[first year] The renewal came in at £420

So the search began

The best price on line appeared to be Prudential at £308

We will have some of that.

When the docs arrived the start date was 12 days out from the old Saga expiry date So I would have an uninsured period- I queried it and they agreed to match up the in and out day - for £10

They then asked for proof of No Claim. SAGA provided the info giving 6years - their max

Thats no good said Pru -so I gave them permission to speak tp SAGA

The Pru give 9 years No claim - but they wanted £35 to do it.

Still well under the Saga renewal - but what a performance

The irony is that I have not had any sort of claim in more than 20 years of over 50 years of driving

After my most recent accident,I was contacted by my insurer asking why I hadn't notified them of my previous claim.I insisted I had and was told that they'd check the recorded conversation.I haven't heard from them in 3 weeks so hopefully they found it & clearly heard me declare the previous accident.

This latest crash was my 9th & final crash as I'm sick of being used as a crash test dummy by other motorists so am not returning to the roads(none of these crashes have been me at fault,7 were blind idiots running into the back of me & the last 2 were someone pulling out of/turning into a junction directly in my path)Besides,my yearly premium was fully comp £220 two years ago & TPFT was £1500 last october so I refuse to continue paying through the nose to drive a car under 800 miles per year(I only used the car occasionally for shopping trips as fuel was too expensive for longer trips)

I have many times read through the policy from beginning to end,as several years ago I asked specifically for business cover,was quoted an unusually high premium so presumed this was because I was covered for business usage,but when subsequently stopped by a police officer whilst doing deliveries & informed that I had no business cover,taken to court & given 6 points I started reading the policy from end to end,though understanding all the legal gibberish as to what I am/am not covered for is getting increasingly difficult.