GoCompareAConfusedMeerkat.com - a bargaining tool

Have you ever visited GoCompareAConfusedMeerkat.com? No. Well you should, next time your house or car insurance, mobile phone contract or home fuel contract comes up for renewal.

I have always been a loyal person, particularly where companies are concerned.

After all, if my dad and his father before him were perfectly happy with the cost of, and service from, Old Farts Insurance Company (We Saw You Coming) Ltd, then it’s probably good enough for me. But this is wrong. Oh so wrong, on so many different levels.

For you may stay loyal to them but these multi-billion pound businesses have loyalty to just two things – their executive pay and their shareholder dividends.

Sure, they’ll tempt you in with an amazing offer if you are a new customer. But once they’ve snared you, the costs go up by whatever they feel they can get away with the following year.

SWMBO’s car insurance came up for renewal recently and the premium increase seemed very high considering we had another year of no claims behind us, I now do old man driving and neither of us get out THAT much.

Thanks, Terry of Penang, for sending the photo.

So I went onto GoCompareAConfusedMeerkat.com and was offered 51 quotes cheaper than the existing insurer. Around 10 were 30 to 40% less expensive. For the same cover.

I rang our existing company (you should always do that) and said I wanted to speak to the cancellation department. Fifteen minutes later the renewal premium had been reduced by some £60.

I then told them I wouldn’t be renewing. Why, I was asked, as they had just cut the premium. Because, I said, you took liberties with an existing customer and didn’t offer that rate initially.

So, check the comparison websites (but don’t necessarily go with the cheapest quote); bear in mind that many of the brands quoting are actually owned by the same company (e.g. Admiral, Elephant and Sheila’s Wheels) and always speak with your existing company.

What did I do in the end? I signed up with an insurer that doesn’t use comparison websites. Cheaper than the original renewal quote, more (slightly) than the mid-range prices on the websites but with a company recommended for their service.

Back of the net.

Finally, I wish to thank my reader for helping top up our pension pot. Since I signed up for Google AdSense earlier this year (you may have spotted the ads on this blog) I have earned £1.50. Can't get at it yet as you have to have £10 so come on - pull your finger out.

I start on the road to fulfilling my Olympic dream

By Jove, I think I have found an Olympic event I could be good at.

Obviously you are thinking trampoline or three-metre diving but no – it has to be the Keirin.

It was last night’s exciting final race that sparked my interest. Did you see it?

Two false starts and then a perfect race. Exhilarating stuff. Full of tension and drama.

Yep, that’s the one for me. In fact, I have already started searching for a moped on Ebay and then my Derny driving ambitions can be fulfilled.

Watch out, Tokyo. I’m on my way.

Incidently, have you noticed that since we decided to leave the European Union, we have become very good at nearly all the Olympic sports? Just asking.

When your normal routine is disrupted

G’day, my reader. It’s been a while. My missives have been sadly (?) lacking for almost a month now and it is all down to one thing – or rather, one person. SWMBO.

Now don’t get me wrong – it’s lovely to have her around all the time. But that doesn’t half cramp one’s style. Or, more to the point, one’s routine.

It was oh so simple in the old days i.e. before SWMBO finished school four weeks ago.

After mumbling a sleepy goodbye as bright and breezy Mrs A went off to face her class, I was always faced with a difficult choice. Turn over and have another 40 winks or get up and welcome in the new day with a quick round of Tiger Woods Golf on the iPad (other tablets are available).

Decisions, decisions.

That particular avenue of pleasure has now been closed.

I now have to get up when I awake and pretend to be bright and breezy BEFORE the two ‘ines (nicotine and caffeine) have kicked in.

My routine has been upset to such an extent that I even forgot to make my Silverline call a couple of weeks ago.

Fortunately my Silverline friend, a lovely (well, she is over the phone) elderly woman from Kent, understood.

I can report that normal Silverline service resumed last week. But I think, secretly, she was pleased I hadn’t interrupted her for once while she was watching Judge Rinder on the TV.