I was quite disturbed this morning when I wondered whether certain Insurance Companies are [problem]ming the public via computer systems which ask you to pay more money than you should be. I am a landlord and insured my first house in early July via Bedford Insurance and a company 'e-unlimited'. I paid £315.13 for the whole year. I was told that when occupied this would fall to £178.13. Due to extensive renovation, a tenant walked into my house on Wednesday ie. exactly 5 months from the date of insurance cover. I contacted 'Bedford Insurance' and after having done some basic sums beforehand was surprised to discover that the money due back to me was less than I expected. I spoke to two insurance brokers who immediately got defensive when I questioned this figure stating they were simply doing what the computer had told them. Given there was a discrepancy of £7.28 in my favour, I asked whether I could speak to a manager. Credit to the manager, he did phone me back this morning, much to my surprise, and he bothered to go through the sums in detail with me. He suggested that insurance quotes go up and down and therefore wondered whether the £178.13 quoted to me in early July was now higher. On checking, and much to his embarrassment, it was a little lower! He agreed with my sums and then, almost flippantly, said he would offer an additional £10 on to the quote the computer gave me the previous day. This leads to a disturbing question: How many people are paying more than they should be because the computer has got the sums wrong? Or more conspiratorially, are some companies purposefully manipulating the computer system to achieve financial figures very much more in their favour?