RACHEL RICKARD STRAUS: Premiums go down as well as up

When reader Jean, a retired teacher from London, opened her latest letter about her home insurance renewal, she was so elated she did a little dance.

The letter said: Last year your cover cost £303.25. This year your price is £145.89.

Jean had expected an increase in her premiums. After all, they’ve gone up every year since she can remember. So she was shocked—and thrilled—when this year’s bid came in for less than half the cost.

Her lower premium seems particularly fortunate considering what so many other readers are experiencing.

Jeff Prestridge, editor of Group Wealth and Personal Finance, has been researching the latest wave of premium increases through these pages and Money Mail. Dozens of readers have signed up to share their experiences.

As Jeff discovered, while not everyone is dealing with rising premiums, many of you have seen price increases of 30 percent or more. A home coverage customer told Jeff that he was quoted 76 percent more than last year, even though he hadn’t made any changes or claims.

The increases are a kick in the teeth for loyal insurance customers, many of whom will struggle to afford them when budgets are already stretched.

Jean was curious as to why her premium had dropped and was tempted to ask her insurer. But she was afraid they’d turn around and say, yeah, you’re right, that drop is a bit much, now that you mention it – and immediately change their mind. So she contacted me for an answer instead.

I asked her if there had been any changes since last year that could explain the reduction. “I just celebrated my 80th birthday,” she said. “But that can’t be the reason, can it?”

I’ve asked price comparison website MoneySupermarket to crunch the numbers, and I think Jean is onto something.

Home insurance for under 80s averaged £157 last month, but the over 80s got just £131.

People aged 35 to 44 received the highest quotes at an average of £177 – more than a third over the age of 80.

MoneySupermarket confirmed that customers often see a drop in their home insurance bills when they turn 80. It explained that premiums are calculated based on how risky an insurer thinks you are, and that older customers are less likely to make claims – and claim for less if they do.

I told Jean, who is tickled by this logic. She laughs, “Maybe they imagine that because I’m retired I sit at home all day and it’s so unlikely that there’s going to be a break-in or I’ll be gone if a pipe bursts or something. Nothing could be further from the truth.’

That’s because Jean likes to be on the road and travels as much as possible. “If only my travel insurance fell as much as my home insurance,” she says. “That’s where I could save the most.”

I think this is a good example of why you should never take an insurance walk lying down. With premiums rising on average, it can be tempting to assume that an increase in your out-of-pocket bills is inevitable.

But there are some people who enjoy significant falls. If you’re not one of them, shop around and ask your insurer for a better deal.

Paying for parking is becoming increasingly difficult

Paying for parking used to be easy. Put coins in the machine, press the green button, wait for the ticket to be printed.

But increasingly there is no possibility to pay in cash, and sometimes not with a credit or debit card. Instead, you need to download an app, go to a website, or call an automated number.

While in Exeter recently, I saw a woman almost in tears trying to pay for parking. She told me she wanted to visit the cathedral but had been trying to make payment on her smartphone for 20 minutes and was about to give up.

As Toby Walne reveals, fraudsters are now taking advantage of these new hoops we have to jump through to pay for parking by putting QR codes on parking meters that link to bogus websites.

Fraudsters thrive where people are forced to use new technology they are not comfortable with. We have to be careful when scanning QR codes on parking meters. But it would also help – for convenience and safety – if motorists could also park with cash or with a debit card.