Premiums in the car insurance market are calming down. The rampant premium inflation – sometimes Latin American – is over. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The figures from the inspectors give a good picture. Average premiums fall sharply (15 percent, according to Pearson Ham), fall slightly (1.1 percent, Consumer Intelligence) or rise modestly (4 percent, Go Compare).
To put these figures into context, Consumer Intelligence says that average premiums for listed cars have increased by 117 percent – or more than doubled – since October 2013, when the company first started collecting data.
However, averages don’t tell the whole story, as reader Tony Anderson points out.
He contacted me after receiving his renewal notice from the AA – a provider he has been with since December 2021 when he purchased a brand new Volkswagen ID3 electric car.
For Tony, there was no 15 percent decline, 1.1 percent price decline or 4 percent increase. The AA wanted him to pay £1,079 to renew – 43 per cent more than last year and three times the £309 he paid three years ago.
Driven to distraction: Average car premiums have risen 117 percent since October 2013 – more than doubling
Understandably, Tony, a retired forklift company executive, is not very happy.
“I’ve had a driving license since I was 17,” says the 83-year-old from Crowthorne in Berkshire.
‘I haven’t made a claim for at least 25 years and I have no penalty points. The only thing that has changed is that I am a year older.’
Like any savvy consumer, Tony started looking for alternative cover – and found a policy with Ageas costing just over £600.
He says: ‘I now have almost identical cover to last year, but 44 per cent cheaper than the price AA wanted me to renew. It’s also 20 percent lower than the price I renewed this time last year.”
Not one to be disrespected, Tony will also refuse to renew his breakdown cover next year, ending a 40-year relationship with the AA. “You’d think loyalty would count for something,” he says, “but it doesn’t. AA thought I would pay whatever it asked. Well, I called it a bluff.’
Anyone who just received a renewal notice from their insurer demanding a double-digit price increase should do what Tony did and shop around.
Please also send me a message with a copy of your renewal notice to: jeff.prestridge@mailonsunday.co.uk.
Don’t let lethargy hijack your fund
As the name implies, investment trusts are designed to generate returns for investors.
They are listed and easy to buy and sell, with investors – whether institutional or private – becoming shareholders. While not all of them are winners, they can deliver super returns in the long term, consisting of a mix of regular income and share price gains. I’m a fan.
Their corporate structure means that investors can attend annual general meetings (I’ve been to a few in my time) and ask questions of the board and managers (I’ve asked a few). They also get voting rights. All very democratic.
But like all publicly traded companies, investment trusts can attract the attention of predators, especially if their stock prices are cheap. And boy, many mutual funds are as cheap as chips, with stock prices at a deep discount to the value of their underlying assets.
The biggest predator in town is the American fund manager Saba Capital, led by financier Boaz Weinstein. It has built up stakes in seven trusts in the hope of eventually acquiring them: Baillie Gifford funds Edinburgh Worldwide, Keystone Positive Change and US Growth; Janus Henderson relies on European smaller companies and opportunities; CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income; and Herald.
Early next year, shareholders of each of these trusts will be asked to vote for the appointment of Saba-supporting directors to the board. If voted on, these new entrants will then insist that Saba take over the existing investment contract before attempting to merge the seven trusts. Other trusts – it has disclosing interests in 24 – could also be targeted.
The threshold for Saba is low. All it takes to make changes is a simple majority of voting shareholders in individual trusts to say yes to the new directors.
Since Saba depends on the lethargy of private investors to get its way, the message to shareholders is loud and clear. Use it (your voice) or lose it (the trust that you are actually quite happy with, despite what Saba says).
The train unions have kept us from going anywhere
Based on my experience, the chances of every train you need to catch in the coming days being on time – or even running – are just as likely as the government meeting its annual target of 600,000 heat pump installations by 2028. Almost zero.
Two weeks ago I gave up trying to get home from London Paddington because most GWR employees seemed to be refusing to work – perhaps preferring instead to show off the generous backdated pay handed to them by the government .
Off the rails: Unable to get home from Paddington in London, Jeff cycled to a busy Waterloo above
Instead I hopped on my bike to Waterloo, where I caught an SWR train that stopped at every station imaginable between London and my home town of Wokingham. I was stewing like one of my late mother’s hot pots.
Last weekend was no different, with huge gaps in services running from Reading to Paddington. When a train finally arrived, most people couldn’t get on. Those who did felt like human sardines.
The sad fact is that our railways are not fit for purpose, either in private or public hands.
They are a disgrace, run by the unions for the good of their members. A travesty.
The time may be ripe for Starmer’s tampering
The victimization of the elderly has become the hallmark of this government. First, winter fuel payments were cruelly abolished for more than 10 million pensioners.
Then this month, a blow was dealt to 3.6 million women now in their mid-60s and early 70s by refusing to pay compensation because they were not given enough time to prepare for a sharp increase in their state pension age.
The government’s decision is wrong on two levels. Firstly, it goes against a recommendation this year from the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Healthcare Ombudsman.
As the Department for Work and Pensions concluded it was guilty of ‘mismanagement’ by failing to effectively communicate the change in state pension age, it recommended that affected women receive a maximum of £2,950.
What is the point of the Ombudsman if the government can violate its independent decisions?
Secondly, it makes hypocrites of all those Labor Ministers who in the opposition supported ‘Waspi’ (women against inequality in state pensions) to the utmost, to now give them the proverbial two fingers.
There is a rebellion in the air and the Waspi compensation will probably be voted on in the House of Commons in the new year. Although the government will win, the reaction from Labor MPs will be stronger than the one over winter fuel.
With the economy under siege from corporate tax increases, the government is reeling more than my late mother’s jelly.
Happy New Year, readers. A new Prime Minister this time next year? Don’t rule it out.
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