Just thought I'd recount another tale of why we see constantly rising general premiums. I had a small accident in a supermarket car park where I reversed at slow speed into a car which had stopped behind me. it was an Audi A3 and the rear passenger door was damaged.

I was wholly responsible, accepted blame and we both were able to drive away. Later, I received a letter from my insurer, stating the claim had been settled, so called to enquire how much and was told £3685! When I picked myself from the floor, I asked for an explanation and was told the largest cost was for 20 days car hire at £115 a day,

I questioned why and was told the car was taken in and that the repairer was then on Xmas holiday! As the A3 was road worthy I questioned why you would take in over the Xmas holiday and received a derisory response that they had no part in that decision and that since the claim had been settled there could be no further complaint.

Surely if the insurer doesn't challenge these clearly self serving decisions (only on the part of the hire company, the damaged party received no benefit), then we have no hope for a rational approach to insurance!