Insurance - Fair Deals

I have always been a believer in insurance.  It's just in my nature.  It has also stuck in my memory indellibly from my law study days that contracts of insurance are contracts uberrimae fedei ie they are contracts of good faith.  Basically what that means to you and me is that we must declare anything and everything which may be relevant whether or not we have been specifically asked.  In particular if any of the insured circumstances change then the insurance company must be told.  For example how many people undervalue things or pretend that they are the principal driver of their child's car to keep premiums down?

It also means that the insurer should demonstrate good faith.  Many people will testify that they do not and try to wriggle out of any payment if they can find the most tenuous of reasons.  I have to say, however, that I have always been fortunate and scrupulous honesty has been met with fair and reasonable payouts. 

However a relatively new practice has reached an unacceptable peak: the year-end premium hike.  I quote from a friend's email today:

"My AA (not that AA) [the Automobile Association not Alcoholics Anonymous for the benefit of non-UK or NZ readers] renewal came in.  They want more money, but offered me 'extra' services (as I'm a valued customer), none of which I want.  They wanted £277 per annum.  I went on-line.   They are offering what I have for £144 per annum. 

The RAC are offering the same for £149 per annum. I phoned [the AA].    We can offer you a loyalty discount of 35%, she said.  No, cancel it, I said, and I'll renew it tomorrow on-line for £144.  OK, she said.  I didn't.  I went to the RAC.  That'll teach them.  Next year, when the RAC do the same, I'll cancel it and go with the AA as a new customer."

I pointed out I have my breakdown insurance with GEM Assist and pay less then either of the above charge for a service deemed by the magazine Auto Express to be superior.

A friend's daughter who worked in insurance advised that, to achieve the best rates, one should always cancel annual insurance and then take out new insurance even if it's with the same company.

This post is unlikely to change anything in the industry but it may help a few readers get a fairer deal.

I May Be Gone Some Time

Hopefully unlike Captain Oates* I shall be back.  In fact I have so many posts in draft and idea form that I may even occasionally post here in my absence in NewZealand.  I've said that before though and time never seems to be sufficient and they will , for the most part, still be there and just as relevant in six months time.

So for the next six months I shall be posting regularly on A Hebridean in New Zealand.  I hope that you will join me there.

*Captain Lawrence Edward Grace ("Titus") Oates (17 March 1880 – 16 March 1912) was an English Antarctic explorer, known for the manner of his death, when he walked from a tent into a blizzard, with the words "I am just going outside and may be some time." His death is seen as an act of self-sacrifice when, aware his ill health was compromising his three companions' chances of survival, he chose certain death.

Travelling Again

Tomorrow I shall be wending my way South again.  This time though I shall not be traveling via Los Angeles or Hong Kong but via Dubai and Australia.  I've been quite lucky given the chaos that transatlantic air travel is in as a result of Superstorm Sandy.  My loyalty to Air New Zealand has been interrupted by the fact that ANZ wanted almost twice as much as Emirates to get me from Scotland to New Zealand.  So tomorrow I shall fly to Glasgow

  

After a night spent with my friend Anna I shall set of for Napier on a different route to usual.

Hopefully I shall blog again before I leave.  If I don't then it will be Saturday before I arrive in Napier and have the opportunity to return to Blogland.

The Last Week

'Last' as in previous not as in this is, or that was, the last week (of our existence).  

Living my life as I do in two halves I have always found the last week or so of each life quite difficult.  It's not so much the packing because I usually only have a small amount of stuff to transport between my worlds.  I came back from NZ last time with a suitcase weighing 14k plus my 6k cabin bag. When I went to Italy this summer I had three cases (plus my laptop backpack etc) and all the other odds and ends.  There are so many other things to be taken care of from making sure the house, car and garden are set up for the winter and all the paperwork is done to saying goodbyes.

So the last week was sort of planned in my mind.  What I had not expected was last Monday and Tuesday being such wonderful days that I spent most of them in the garden doing, you guessed, gardening and outside house maintenance.   The rest of the week was a mixed bag though.

Upper Bayble across the valley from me - a valley filled with mist on a still and frosty morning

 and in a different light

From the kitchen window

No wind - that doesn't happen very often

Dew and spiders

The spider must have been dizzy when it had finished that untidy lot

The next day the weather started closing in

and the squalls came through running South down The Minch

and the snow showers came in squalls

followed by some sun

and then more squalls

and even more

Then the week ended.