Insurers MUST tell us why premiums are rocketing by so much

THOUGH new rules introduced by the City regulator were meant to result in fairer insurance premiums for loyal customers, evidence that they are working is thin on the ground.

Indeed, all the information I have gathered suggests otherwise. For many home and motor insurance policyholders, renewal premiums are shooting through the proverbial roof – and the only way to escape them is to shop around.

As I have reported in both Wealth & Personal Finance and Money Mail, it is the elderly in particular who are being hit by insurers at renewal with inflation-busting increases of 30 per cent or more.

In nearly all cases, the higher renewal premium is demanded despite the customer having made no claims.

Seldom a day goes by without a reader contacting me aghast at the enormity of their renewal premium – more Everest than Snowdon-like. Among the most shocking renewals

SOMETIMES, I don’t practise what I preach. Mea culpa. My latest financial transgression happened when I recently went to withdraw cash from an ATM near where I work in London.

Normally vigilant – checking the ATM for hidden cameras and ensuring no one was standing right behind me – I stupidly took a phone call midtransaction.

The result was that the £50 I requested was nowhere to be seen when I went to take it. I panicked, thinking someone had whipped it away while I was gas bagging on the phone.

After a few frantic phone calls to my bank, it soon became obvious what had happened. I had taken too long to grab my cash, so the machine sucked the notes back into its vaults.

A couple of days ago, I received a note from my bank saying the money had been credited back to my account.

Note to self: don’t take phone calls from Mother when using an ATM.