Good points you made there, they did cross my mind and are debatable to an extent. Firstly, my personal view is that fast cars are not necessarily a larger risk than slower cars for many reasons, mainly it depends on the driver. Theft cover is something that will throw the idea out of sync straight away so basic thrid party cover is the best place to start. Do we not already pay for other persons mistakes within our insurance costs? Egg insurance recently told me that my insurance cost is based on how many people they insure in my town and how many claims those people have made. Nothing to do with my personal record, just a localised group risk assesment. If I have an accident which is my fault then I end up paying larger premiums to cover the cost of the repairs anyway over time. One way or another I really do think an insurance assosiation would work Chris

Absolutely! Usually a few trolls invade an idea like this but none to be seen so far Which insurance company are you with if you dont mind saying? Chris

You hit the nail on the head there with the cucumber sandwich They are just snobs ! Once I recall going into the branch to speak to the personal banker. No queuing is necessary which is nice and they made international T/T transactions easy which I did lots of. An old couple around 70 years old wished to see the personal banker too, they were quite walthy looking with polo neck jumpers, golf trousers etc, looked like people from a Saga advert claiming their free carriage clock. I was asked to move aside for a moment and have a coffee while the PB dealt with the old wealthy looking couple !! Now here is the strange thing, I was not poor at this time and had quite a considerable amount of money in the account following an inheritance. The issue seemed to be class which was represented in my case by the fact I was attending to the needs of a 3 year old toddler on my own i.e. single dad. Such a shame because I really did like banking there.

The issue of cars on finance being property of the finance companies seems to be a grey area of the law in itself. Money owed to a car finance company is a civil matter and as far as I am aware the company has no right to take the car from a registered keeper without their consent or a court order. Its just another example of finacial institutions making the rules as they go along in the UK. If a person sells a car which is on finance they are arrested for fraud (obtaining by deception). But selling a car on or swapping it when on finance does not suggest a fraud has occured. In this thread case the car belongs to the registered keeper (period). There is talk of finance companies having 'Liens' on vehicles but that again is civil. The only solution in this case is to challenge the bank that clawed back the money. What right did they have to do that and based on what facts?

Hey all! Car insurance costs is ruining my life. The maths simply does not add up when looking at the cost of insurance against the cost of repair, replacement , injury etc. There are apaprently 30 million cars on the road in the UK. Lets say for arguments sake that the average car insurance cost is £500 (£200 - £2000). 30,000,000 x 500 = ......... £15,000,000,000 wtf ! Does this country really pay 15 billion to cover its prangs, thefts and other liabilities in the motor game? Personally I pay £1200 for an old juicy and slow Freelander but my senses suggest all car insurance should be a set amount for everyone around the £250 figure. It should be like a pension pot that everyone pays in to at the same rate regardless of age, sex, convictions etc. The concept of car insurance and enforcement seems odd from the start. The law makes a large effort to make sure everyone is insured when driving but does not check to see if the insurance is valid i.e. a drunk driver can get insurance and not tell the insurance company of his conviction. In the event of an accident that insurance is invalid so the victim of an accident involving the drunk do not get paid out. In short, the police are making sure we have paid our tax, not caring if the policy is valid or not. And that is just for starters ! Lately it seems that a car is insured, not the person that is driving it ?? Is there another way? Could people here group together to create an insurance syndicate that satisfies the legal requirements for insurance in the UK? Chris

Why buy a car for £15k from a person with no address then re-sell the car 2 weeks later? I think you ar not telling us all of the story

This morning I recieved the dreaded letter saying co-op are giving me 30 days notice of accoutn closure due to being overdrawn a few times in the past couple of months. It seems a bit harsh considering I paid their charges for being overdrawn without quibble. As previously mentioned by other users, I fell victim to the online banking delay for debit card payments to show, something that barclays seem to have an issue with too. The bizarre thing is that after reading the letter I decided to attempt a few debit card payments past my limit. My account was showing a few hundred quid in credit but I know that was taken up by card payments made yesterday, it is showing delayed as usual. But wait! My debit card payments are now being declined! Before the notice I was able to buy things based on the online banking balance, but not now it seems? So Co-op do not have a problem declining debit payments if funds are not in the kitty regardless of what the online banking says. So why allow that to happen previously then close the account down? My guess is they are snobs and only want big money customers so allow this to happen for an excuse to kick the peasants out. Or probably not, who knows. Time to start trading gold and silver I reckons! Chris

so there is nothing to gripe about then. You get refund from HMRC etc and I do not get charged anything at all when importing non commercial packages. Everyones happy

yeah but in a so called 'free trade environment' have you ever tried doing that?

another example of how stupid the import tax system is for consumers. It just doesn't work unless you are VAT registered and equipped - as required by legislation btw

I have refused to send them all the ID they required and instead requested that they delete any data regarding myself pending confirmation of my identity for securoty purposes. No reply as of yet. Strangely, this morning I awoke to an email from paypal requesting that I complete security steps to confirm my identity as I had been randomly selected for a security screening. Coincidence? Chris

ok I have recently made a request to Experian for my statutory report. They replied to me requesting that I send them loads of sensitive documentation such as: > *A photocopy of either your passport, birth certificate or full driving licence > > *Two original documents dated within the last three months connecting you to your current address such as a bank statement, credit card statement, council tax bill or utility bill. Is this a joke? They already confirm the home address by sending a security code to that address which allows access to the data, so what is the problem. It would be nice if they would confirm they have any data on file relating to my request prior to requesting all those documents. Otherwise they are just using this as an excuse to reap more data! Chris

You copied that from HMRC website, it is not written law. Duties are to be paid, that is true. But you seem to not notice the wording in that paste where it does not identify what you pay VAT on and what you pay duty on seperately. Hence you are not very clever and deserve to pay most of your hard earned money to those that are more inteligent. I think they call that natural selection? Chris

that is great detective work but you missed the part in the VAT act that states 'a person is liable to pay VAT if they are VAT registered'. There is nothing cryptic in that quote, it means a person is liable to pay only if they are VAT registered. If you wish to put a number plate on your bike and pay road tax then go for it lol Dont forget, I got a refund. You did not. Case closed! Chris

I thought this was a consumer help forum? Is it now run by the tax man? Chris