A crashing bore

As the snow finally starts to clear from the higher level villages and roads, and the freezing-cold rain combines with the thawing ice to produce a mushy slush, clearly designed for either a slush-puppy manufacturer's mushy dream or an A & E consultant's nightmare, we learn car insurance claims are 60% higher than usual over the past three weeks.

It's news like that which really warms the rather chilly ice-cockles of the heart. And we know that car insurance companies  - accompanied by all the other branches of the industry - are continuing their merry jape of goalpost moving, just when we think we've got it covered. 

The latest jolly spiffing wheeze that they've introduced is to change the comprehensive policy into a...well, not quite so comprehensive policy. And this might be more than a little worrying for you.  Yes, you...

For years, a comprehensive car policy had a number of 'standard' bits, one extremely useful aspect being that a comprehensive policy always covered you - third party only - to drive someone else's car. It's been a feature of these polices since before they invented horses, so folk who routinely get a comprehensive policy have always been able to move someone's car legally - say, a friend or relative's, if they needed a hand.  But last summer, they started changing that.  Your new policy may well not cover you for driving anyone else's car.

Good companies (yes, there are a couple) make a point of bringing this to your attention very clearly, but not-so-good ones (there's a lot of them) aren't mentioning it very prominently so that - if you've renewed your policy in the last six months you may well not be covered.

This is part of a continuing trend to bring their costs down and heap more and more liability onto the already overburdened shoulders of the policyholder.  But there's a more annoying fact: why call the policy 'comprehensive' when it's now anything but? Time the insurance companies started taking notice of their own blurbs, we think.