Motor Insurance (again)
Once again the crusty subject of insuring one’s car rears it’s ugly head. I cancelled the insurance on the Merc and with 7 days free insurance from BMW I started the process of finding the best, cheapest, quote. Usual suspects of Compare the Markets, GoCompare and others were queried and the cheapest was Autonet.com (No, me neither). They came in at £222 and a few pennies. 
Right ho, we’ll have that, and I clicked through to their site only to be met with a message that the site was down and could I please ring a 0844 number. Okey dokey, I rang the number…..
The young man at the other end confirmed that the site was down, that they had received my application and there were one or two questions before we went ahead. He then proceeded to ask every question again with a few more besides which was OK but very tedious. However we got bogged down on the question of the date that I passed my test, the exact date mind, not how many years ago. I said that it was in 1972 but beyond that I couldn’t say, he said not good enough, an exact date please! I suggested September 9th, why not? Seems a very nice date to me. He suggested that I call the DVLA and then get back to him. I said that they were unlikely to a) answer the phone within a week, and b) they were unlikely to have that information. Not good enough he said, an exact date please; we settled on the 9th. I asked that if I had an accident, and they subsequently found out that the date was in fact the 8th, for example, would my insurance be invalid? Yes, he said.
One of the questions not on the web form was whether I did any voluntary work. Yes, I work at Henshaw’s School for the Blind, one day a week, unpaid. Ah ha! the insurance went up by £50. Whoa! I said, that’s a trifle unfair, but he was adamant, the price went up. 
Right, I exclaimed, I resign, I shall cease working as a volunteer, it’s not as if I’ll miss the income! You can’t do that he said, yes I can, I shall resign immediately and confirm it in writing to you. He went off the talk to his line manager and returned to say that that would be fine, the rate would go back to what it was, but if I had an accident whilst in the vicinity of the place of volunteering the insurance would be void.
What a load of Bollox, I went and got AXA insurance instead for a similar price.