Cheery's path to fulfilment - finishing the DIY, looking after myself, appreciating the garden 🌻

Cheery_Daff

Right, waiting for another call back from the Octopods, so in the meantime I'm cracking on with car insurance quotes, and because it's not my favourite job in the world, I'm going to take advantage of the forum, and bring you all along with me, because I can't see the bored looks on your faces, and because you can just scroll on past if it's too dull  


Ooh, scrap that, heat pump man rang back. Looks like our pipework is big enough (well, bigger than a AAA battery anyway ), we have an EPC, and it's within the realms of possibility. Going to have another chat with Mr C tonight and see about booking a survey - they charge £200 but he assures me it's refundable whether they decide we're not suitable or we decide not to go ahead, and if we do go ahead it'll be taken off the cost. Looks like we could have a survey in the next week or two, and then it's a 2-3 month wait for installation here (although if the boiler does break in the meantime they'd bump us up the list rather than have us buy an emergency gas boiler in the meantime ). 

I checked there wouldn't ever be a situation where they did it and THEN applied for the grant, which we then didn't get, leaving us liable for an extra £7500, but apparently they don't install without the grants. 

Anyway, not sure how much help that was other than identifying that we don't have 8mm pipework But at least it's got the ball rolling with finding out more. Clearly they're on a sales mission - he's ringing again tomorrow I don't see any harm in gathering info at this point though...

Right, back to the car insurance!

Cheery_Daff

So, for reference, last year's multi-car policy for both cars was £825. I've still not had a renewal notice yet, which seems a bit remiss, as it's now less than a month til it's due. 

First quotes, from Compare+ (the MSE tool)
Big car = £264 (annoyingly, the cheapest last week was £238 - so much for the 26 day thing!)
Little car = £249
TOTAL = £513

= £312 saving over last year 

Let's see if we can make any advances on that with the comparison sites... 

Cheery_Daff

Compare the Market
Big car = £254
Little car = £218
TOTAL = £472

= £353 saving over last year

However, the second cheapest policy is with the same company (the pink people, SW) as the cheapest for the big car, so I'll check if they'll do them as a multi car with a discount (current amount for both separately is £486, so that extra £14 might be worth it to have them both with the same people anyway. 

Just checked and yes, they do a multi-car discount of 15%, although that doesn't include extras (eg legal cover). Let's say £35, which still brings them as a multi-car discount cheaper than the two separate Compare the Market ones. 

Compare the Market have cinema tickets (which we probably wouldn't use), restaurant discounts which we wouldn't use - and 25% off drinks (and pastries) at N3ro, which we would definitely use (and which, unfortunately, would add up to a sizeable amount...). They also have £25 through TCB. I could do the first policy through TCB for cashback, to CtM for their 25% off coffee, then do the second directly through SW for the 15% off the second policy...

Right, off to check the final comparison site, then that might be my lot - this is sounding like a decent deal already.  

KajiKita

Admiring your diligent persistence 😊

KK

themadvix

Agreed, you're doing well Cheery!

beanielou

You are on fire. 

Cheery_Daff

Right, Confused.com is being ditched - I completed the details, because I said I owned another car it asked me for details of that too and said it could quote for that. It's clearly only quoting for one car, but I can't work out which one without deleting one of them from the original set of details. Also the cheapest quote is £292 so I'm not even going to bother trying to work it out. 

(I did remember that of course we don't have the same amount of NCD on both cars - must amend when I do the final quotes)

Cheery_Daff

Ok, here's a development - renewal documents have now turned up, and renewal price is £585.67! So £240 cheaper than last year anyway - reflecting what you said @EssexHebridean about costs reducing in general. Still not as cheap as the new quotes though.

Right, I'm going to buy, spent long enough staring at this and getting distracted  

Grumpelstiltskin

Cheery   Channel 5 7pm tonight Heat Pumps are they really worth it.

Cheery_Daff

Sheila's Wheels have blotted their copy book. Went through TCB and signed up with them, and then they added an additional cost to protect the NCD, taking cost to £293. Fine, bought that. 

Then went to buy the second policy - but it looks like because the first policy is only BOUGHT but not STARTED, they won't give me a discount And you don't get a discount if you buy over the phone. And anyway, because you have to go direct (Rather than through a comparison site) for the multicar discount, the cost is more expensive anyway (they want £327 for the little car, making the whole lot more expensive than the renewal quote!)

God, this is why I flipping hate car insurance renewal time  

So what happens now? Do I 

(a) cancel the policy I've just bought for the big car and try elsewhere for a multicar policy?
(b) give in, leave that one where it is, and take out an individual policy for the second car?

Grr. Right this second I'm tempted to go with the bloody renewal quote again!