Honesty is not the best policy!

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They say that you learn from experience, and also that experience is what you get right after you need it. Today I learnt that I should just keep my mouth shut instead of trying to be helpful. I have scrapped my car (it had developed problems that would cost about ten times the value of the car to fix!) and we are trying out life as a one-car family. My car insurance was due for renewal later this month, so when the letter came saying it would be automatically renewed I called to decline it. It all went smoothly and the call was just ending when, in an effort to be helpful, I thought I would explain to the nice man on the phone that I didn’t want to renew the insurance not because I was displeased with their service, but because I no longer had the car. Immediately he told me that that changed everything and I now had to pay a £28 cancellation fee! I was outraged! He calmly explained that this was all in the policy – well yes the cancellation fee is in the document but I didn’t intend to cancel it, just let it lapse. But he went on to explain, very nicely, that since I no longer had the car the policy needed to be cancelled. I didn’t have to pay but that if I didn’t I would receive a letter in due course with an increased fee and the threat of debt collectors!! Well I am an idiot. If I had kept my mouth shut that would have been the end of the matter and I would have been £28 better off All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2024.