Discount – Steven UK

I was talking to someone today about saving money, and building a cash reserve. A cash reserve is what I call a slush fund, which is an old habit. Its a back up fund, which sits between contingency, and savings. I have day to day money, contingency for when potentially expected but unwelcome things go wrong, then slush fund, then savings and finally investments.

Growing Money

The slush fund is sort of a side step, in thats its not designated for disaster, its almost like free money which can be used when in a jam, or when I want something, any use I want.

In this particular conversation I was explaining my rather simplistic take on the Aggregation of Marginal Gains, this is the theory that if you improve / reduce / increase / save just 1% on everything you do, the sum total will end up being impressively large.

The first change I made on this journey was to pay my household bills and fuel on a cashback card, originally it was the Santander 123 Cashback Card, now I use an American Express Card which offfers a flat 1.5% (the new AmEx offers 1.25%). Looking at just my basic (off the top of my head) bills.

Quick Break Down

Nominet Bill – £80 per year
Council Tax – £15
Petrol – £30
Car Tax – £2
Car Insurance – £20
MOT + Basics – £1
Car Service – £3
Car Maintenance – £3
Water Bill – £7
Weekly Shopping £30
Meals / Nights Out / Etc £30

Already £200 for basically doing nothing I wasn’t already going to do. If you use Cashback Sites and Loyalty Schemes you can probably add another £50 on there, Shell Card, Sainsburys Card, Waitrose Card, Etc. Then there are shop based cards such as the Sainsburys Credit Card, Asda Credit Card and others. Someone (who works for one such company) told me about a trick where you close the card after 18 months, and reapply after 2 months so you get the new user deals and bonuses.

Amazon Crunch

Amazon is a big spending point for me, as a prime member, I make a point of choosing No Rush Delivery which gives me a £1 credit towards music and movies. I currently have about £40 of Credits which I use to buy any music or books I want to read. On top of this I use a cashback card for purchases which adds another £50-60 a year on to my total.

This spend covers new phones, bits and pieces for both personal and work, christmas and birthday presents, every day items, you name it I buy it from Amazon.

Looking at my credit card cash back totals for this year, and we’re 9-10 months in and I’m approx £430 up just on cards, if I account for cashback sites with car insurance, credit card applications, mobile phone contracts, broadband, gas and electric swaps, I must be at least £1,000 up in the slush fund.

Steve Morley

A Manchester Based Photographer and Website Developer with interests in Strongman, Fitness and Geekery.

www.steven.co.uk

Due to surgery and general life taking over, getting another car has been put on hold sadly, I’m still shopping but taking my time, if the right deal comes, I’m ready. However as I mentioned on my blog previously, I was added on to my mums insurance policy when I was learning to drive. I documented this process here for extra practice on the week or two before my test, but now her insurance is up for renewal, I said I’d find a deal. What I have found is nothing short of bizarro.

When my mother said she would add me after my car turned into a lemon, as a provisional driver it added around £40 to my mums insurance policy for 8-ish months of cover. When I passed my test I notified the insurance to reflect I had passed and it cost nothing extra for 7-ish months cover as a new driver. Seemed like a good deal from Aviva.

Aviva Renewal

Aviva have increased the policy renewal quote with me as a named driver by £120 over last years policy. This is technically in-line with the average reported 18% raise for this year. However unlike most insurance companies Aviva maintain their quotes for 60 days. I did quotes at various times on the run up to renewal, these are approx £80, £59, £30 cheaper. The price appears to slowly increase the closer you get to your renewal date, the quotes at 80 days are a good £170 cheaper than renewal, at circa-60 days around £100 cheaper, now with a few days all the quotes are significantly over the renewal quote which was generated at 28 days before renewal.

An interesting quirk is, in the 80 and 59 days quotes, it was cheaper for my mothers insurance if I was a named driver than if she was on the policy alone. This quirk was all but gone by 30 days before renewal and the complete opposite by 20 days before. The quote from 59 days before, with me added is approx £90 cheaper than her current renewal, and the quote is still valid.

Aviva Drive App

When I started to do lessons, I found out about the Aviva Drive App, its essentially blackbox / telematics via your mobile phone. I completed the first time as a learner driver and actually past the 200 mile marker on my driving test with a score of 9.6/10. My mum completed the 200 miles score and achieved 9.4/10, I also completed the 200 miles after I passed with a score of 9.3/10 which all 3 scores would offer a significant discount from Aviva, in this case its 28% for policies over £400.

Quirks of Insurance

There are now some strange quirks which have presented themselves while getting quotes off everyone. The most unusual is when it comes to Black Box insurance, which my mum shouldn’t be eligible for. Least most companies who offer box policies exclude her due to age and time driving. This is slowly changing and blackbox policies will be available for everyone.

I called Aviva about this and got them to add the scores to the database for the renewal. I had to email them the proof of the scores. This resulted in the premium dropping like a rock, but more on that later.

o2 Drive Insurance

o2 Drive Insurance Madness

This is a stand out example, as an o2 customer I thought I’d try o2 Drive Insurance given the Tesco Clubcard Insurance Discount is quite good and o2 says they offer excellent deals to o2 Customers, which does indeed offer her a black box policy so the discount should be outstanding.

The o2 Drive Black Box policy is almost a MASSIVE £500 more expensive than a standard policy, as you can see in the image to the right. I tweeted to o2 to point out their inflated pricing and the madness that their Black Box offering is of the top of my head about 40% more expensive than their standard policy.

Initially I was told different insurers offer different quotes, I queried if o2 Drive was a comparison service and not an actual provider, which I was told to contact Customer Service they are an insurer and both policies are with o2 Drive.

I’m always cautious when companies don’t want to discus things in public as it usually means the rug is about have something swept under it. As it happened their quotes both monthly and annually was no where near the other quotes I had received. I also have no interest in a blackbox policy, so I have not bothered to follow this up with o2. However one would hope they fix this anomaly.

Aviva It Is

Aviva’s taking the Aviva Drive App score into account reduced the cost of the insurance renewal quote so half of their 7 day before renewal quote an a full 28% less than their 28 days renewal quote (on the letter).

The final price is actually less than the insurance for my mother alone in back in 2010, so its well worth doing the Aviva Drive App. Asda could learn a thing or two about roll backs.