FinancialBliss: My mortgage free journey…

financialbliss

I’ve been working on the car insurance since yesterday evening, on and off as time permits.

Using the various screen scrapers as described in MSE, the clear winner by far has been Esure. There’s been other false positives due to the comparison site passing on the lesser break horse power of the two variants there are – 112 instead of 136 BHP, thus resulting in a lower price.

Anyway, via screen scrapers the best esure quote I can get is 255.71. Having logged into quidco earlier to get 45.00 cash back via esure for car insurance, I note it says I must track from a full quote to purchase via quidco to be eligible to cash back, not just retrieve a saved quote.

Starting again via quidco link putting the exact same details in gives a quote of 294.50. Presuming the 45.00 cash back tracks, that’s still going to be 249.50 – a considerable saving over renewal quote of 357.22.

However, I was hoping for 255.45 – 45.00 ie, 210.71

I’m wondering if esure is loading their price via the quidco referral, as they're then going to give 45.00 cash back?

Anyone else had any experiences such as this and / or can offer any advice?

Car insurance not due until 30th May, so I may look at this again once the kids are down this evening.

Thanks,
FB.

gallygirl

FB I don't think I've had this with Esure, but have certainly found it to be the case with others. Car & travel insurance especially, also hotel accommodation.

Worth persevering though

financialbliss

Esure again. Having just had two separate quotes opened and comparing them with a fine tooth comb, I failed to spot any major differences between them

One didn't have a contact number and the occupation for mrs bliss was unknown. Correcting this still results in comparison site entry as 255.45 and direct quote via quidco link as 294.50.

However, I've just had a browse around their site and spotted:

"New policyholders are entitled to a discount off the normal premium when they buy online. This discount cannot be used in conjunction with any other discounts."

So, I'm now guessing that the 255.45 quote includes this new policy holder discount (39.05), while the quidco generated quote of 294.50 doesn't as it's eligible for the quidco discount.

Still, 294.50 - 45.00 (quidco discount) gives 249.50, which is a slightly better price.

Going to check a few other quotes from the price comparison sites directly as I've still got a good while before I need to make a decision.

Oh - finally, read some small price from current insurer and if they fail to collect the payment, I could be liable for an admin charge, so I'll definitely be cancelling as it looks as though I can beat them.

FB.

LouiseJ

Just be careful FB when using quidco....its not a guaranteed payout and may take some time. I would be tempted to take the straightforward discount of £39.05 to be certain.

Still a substantial saving either way, well done!

I am renewing my breakdown cover and have managed to save £45.38 by removing my European cover and switching to another company. No cash back though.

Kaz2904

We paid 60% of our incoming to debt repayment when we started the MFI3 challenge.
As time's gone on wages have increased and so have outgoings so we haven't upped our overpayment. We now stand at 53.2%. Any other left over money goes to fixing the house up or repaying what we've borrowed from savings.

financialbliss

Car insurance update. This is ongoing. Noticed that the quote from Esure doesn’t specifically mention commuting to / from work. I hardly ever take the car to work (I’ve a bus pass), but just as a precaution, I’ve fired off an e-mail to them to make sure I’m covered. Will probably run with this quote should I get a yes answer. LouiseJ - noted your comment on quidco vs direct purchase. Also pondering over this - good point as there's only a few pounds in it.

Shares. Bradford and Bingley paid out a dividend recently. We’ve opted into the share re-investment scheme. Instead of getting 2 lots of cash at 39.31, we got two lots of 22 shares. Total holding of BB shares now 568.

They’re not performing spectacularly well at the mo. – credit crunch, mortgage liquidity ‘n’ all. My theory is that we hold on to these until we’re off the fixed mortgage rate, March 2011 onwards, after which they should have recovered from 1.77 or whatever they closed at today, at which point we cash them in and throw at the mortgage.

Spending on #1. We’re planning on re-decorating #1’s bedroom soon. We’re planing on going for a Roary the racing car look. Well, he’s only 4! Already purchased a Roary quilt and curtains, plus we’ve got a wall clock which is a tyre. However this evening we’ve pushed the boat out a bit and purchased a Nascar border. This has black and white squares across the length and two chequered flags within a circle at regular intervals.

Oh, and we purchased it from the USA via ebay.com. Total cost was 50-odd dollars or 26.68 once converted to pounds. This is 3 x 15 feet rolls plus postage back to the UK. Room is just that little bit too big to get away with 2 borders! However, I think this is a reasonable cost as borders are around 7.50 or so here in the UK. Scoured the UK without finding anything suitable!

Hoping to ship #1 out for a sleep over for 2 nights so that we can strip, decorate and re-instate furniture as a surprise, once they arrive!

FB.

Little_Mama

Sounds great, I'm sure he'll love it.

ppolly

Slightly off topic, but just wanted to say take your own food to Chester Zoo - the food isn't that great there, and rather expensive. Its an enormous zoo though, and a great day out. ( we are members and live very near by). We have dumped most of our savings into overpaying our mortgage and have found that it enables Mr Polly to work and for me to stay home (in very modest comfort earning little bits of money) and look after LO 'till she goes to nursery. We can borrow it back if we need. We are not planning to pay off any more just yet, as we are expecting to have to relocate sometime this year. Good luck with your plans

financialbliss

Esure again. I keep mentioning them - looks like I'm about to become insured with them for the first time - their car quote does include commuting to / from work despite not actually mentioning this - had an e-mail from them this morning to confirm.

Will probably now start policy first with Esure and then request existing policy to lapse. Hopefully can find time to do that this evening.

Hi ppolly :hello:

We quite often make up our own lunches as #1 has a peanut allergy, but that's worth knowing. Many thanks for that tip!

FB.

cazmanian_minx

Just read your diary from start to finish - very inspiring, thank you :T:T

We've just got buildings insurance through eSure, they came in nearly £150 cheaper than anyone else :eek:

Caz