Bennets told me they can’t renew my insurance from Norwich Union and can’t quote me at all because I’m a journalist. I feel discriminated against. I’ll have to look elsewhere – I’m disgusted at the situation, said Mrs. Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.
I wouldn’t be peeved off…Bennetts are naff! Glad I never stayed with them after my first year.
Another sad tale from the ‘Street of Shame’.By Lunchtime O’ Booze ;)
We’re doctoring compromising photos and talking to `close friends of the insurer’ as we speak. Oranges, poppers, nylons, the works. Struggling to get the word Scorcher in at the moment, but give us time, we’ll crack it.
Glad to see you guys haven’t lost your touch. Now about that cottaging incident I was involved in. . . ;)
Try Bikesure, which is Adrian Flux Insurance Services. If they cover me, they should do you. They also happen to do a good price.
Ah, you say, but are they any good in the event of a prang? I’ve no idea and hope never to find out! But their breakdown service is excellent.
PM me if you have any questions.
Hey, face the facts - journalists are bad risks for insurance and they are priced accordingly.
Insurers are allowed to discriminate between people if there is sufficient statistical evidence to back it up. In the case of journalists, people working in TV, entertainers, racing drivers, etc; there is plenty of evidence.
Just about all insurance companies will treat you this way. You may get lucky and find one that doesn’t.
Just to give you a warm feeling, insurance companies don’t discriminate against all groups of driver that are a worse/better risk than average. For example, the statistics vary between colour of car (red worst, black next with white, beige and brown best) and between ethnic groups, but you don’t see these used in practice.
And Sheila’s Wheels discriminates against blokes - by law they have to insure both sexes, but price blokes so high it isn’t worth any bloke trying there…
Ian
ps I’m in one of the safest professions so don’t get loaded, so don’t expect sympathy.
Congratulations on the new career change Alistair. I hope your new life as a librarian will still allow you to write the occasional piece.
As a journalist myself, I struggle to see how we’re a high insurance risk.
I go to work, sit behind a desk and write all day, then go home again. If I interview someone, it’s via email, on the phone, they come to me or I use public transport to go to them.
I, like every other journalist I’ve ever worked with - and that’s literally hundreds - don’t chase ambulances, I don’t doorstep D-list celebs, and I certainly don’t cut up cars in Parisian tunnels.
It just seems weird, is all. Who are all these journalists who are pranging their vehicles and putting our premiums up?
Right or wrong, you may be getting loaded for your reputation for getting loaded.
In the old Fleet Street days it was pretty difficult to find a sober journalist on the nationals who was fit to drive after closing time. (If any of you lot are old enough to remember “closing time”.)
Anyway, quite right to load you lot. Stops them loading me.
That was long ago, in a galaxy far, far away. And, tragically, I am old enough (just) to have been there.
Our abstemious life today owes everything to the end of unlimited ‘exes’ and the huge increase in productivity (ha!) brought about by the internet and journalists who never leave the office.
Insurers used to ask me if I intended taking public figures for a spin in my car or bike. How did they imagine my life?
“Right, there’s a lock-in at the Bell & Crown and we’ve got five minutes to get there, I’m not that pissed, so I’ll drive. Everyone pile-in … NOT YOU Prime Minister.”
My premiums have been falling for some years, but I suspect that has more to do with being female and forty-something than my occupation.
And boys, don’t imagine you’re missing anything with Sheila’s Wheels. They’re as crap as anyone else - as we discovered when someone ran into our parked car.
Hi thanks for that, I ended up going with some outfit called Corinthian (an HSBC unit) via Honda insurance. Wasn’t too bad compared with others. Isn’t Corinthian the child’s name in two pints of lager and a packet of crisps?
Corinth was an ancient Greek city state which has lent it’s name to the ‘Corinthian Ideal’ which celebrates amateurism in sport. Hopefully this doesn’t mean that they are just a bunch of amateurs. :DA Corinthian lid yesterday:
