Latest moan from you and me 2026

My car insurance is due, so I go to the comparison sites and get loads of quotes.
Now everyone tells you to not get pressurised into buying something on the spur of the moment, but all I get from these sharks is the price could change tomorrow.

How do these rip off merchants get away with it, my risk will be the same tomorrow or next week as it is today, unless of course my circumstances change.

So why can they quote different prices from day to day, biggest racket ever invented, insurance.

 

I gave up on Buildings insurance this year - never claimed but the premiums rose every year and the caveats increased. The last quote I received was accompanied by over 20 pages of script - this was supposedly to make things easier/clearer for their clients. Wind damage has to meet a certain wind speed which is verified by somewhere miles away from the property in question and cover for flooding was not available if there was any water source within 40 mts.
Maybe they should start calling it Assurance in that the supplier is assured of gaining money for nothing ?
Car insurance would seem to rise quite dramatically for any driver of 80 years or over. Not sure what the stats are for driving related accidents if age is taken into account ?

 

Here you go @Philippa

Reported road casualties in Great Britain: older driver factsheet, 2024 - GOV.UK

 

We were in London for the weekend a couple of weeks ago, and were in Covent Garden when one of the street performers was on. To be fair he was very good, but at the end of his performance he went into a full 'fleece the dumb tourist' patter. He was talking about passing the hat for donations and said that paper money was the norm these days, and that a fiver was considered to be low balling his performance. He finished by saying that if people only had cards that was fine too as he had a card reader machine!
We had been intending to put a couple of quid in, but left without doing so after that.

 

I kinda admire the initiative, @KT53. Young people today are frequently applying for several hundred jobs before they get one. There is often multiple interview stages (if they even get that far) over a number of weeks, lasting hrs in total, and having put all that effort in, many still get rejected and are no further forward. It is really tough out there. So, if you have a skill that is not likely to lead to employment, why not market it yourself? It's the gig economy but cutting out the middle layer.

 

@ViewAhead I don't admire anybody who is trying to rip people off, tourists or otherwise.

 

Is £5 a rip off? Price of a coffee in Covent Garden. And it was a suggestion, not a requirement. You were able to walk away without hindrance.

 

I contacted the GP's surgery this morning, via online form, to try and get an appointment. Bingo 1150 mobile goes: yes I can have an appointment this week and get time and day. I thought I might get a text confirming this do I heck as like. They can text me to get photos of the affected part of the body, but not to confirm the appointment.

 

To me it is ripping off tourists, many of whom will not be familiar with our currency. Those from the Far East are more likely to fall into the trap of not wanting to be seen to be insulting the guy.

 

Many years ago I was working for a week on a site in Bedford street, around that area, they sorted out a parking spot for me at the back of a church, apparently is was sorted out with the nasty little man who thought he could do as he liked because he was some kind of caretaker there.

They had already crossed his palm but the nasty little git came after me for more money, one of the reasons I just hate London, the people are just ......................with a few exceptions of course.

Tourists always get ripped off, its the way of the world, we have Leeds Castle just down the road and they sell tourists yearly tickets at stupid prices, knowing they will only visit once.

 

Maybe, @KT53! But a live "performance" experience is worth something. And if the skilled can't make a living out of it, that experience will die out and tourists will have less entertainment to keep them in the area, meaning coffee shops, etc, will have fewer customers, and so on. All the bits play their part.

 

Why do you think they called it Costa.