Financial & Travel Musings

Car insurance is something of a peculiar product. It’s something that we are legally required to buy and many people if they were given the choice probably wouldn’t bother to buy it at all.

However, we’ve just had a guest who really did need it and the money that he’ll get back from the insurance company will be pretty substantial.

What happened is that his car caught fire as he was driving along the motorway in France yesterday afternoon. That’s not really something that you expect to happen, is it? Anyway, the towing would have been several hundred euro, the transport to his hotel over EUR 100, the hotel another EUR 80 or so and it looks like the repairs will cost well over EUR 1000. Oh, and then there’s the not so insignificant matter that he’ll probably end up having to fly home and then back to collect the car as this is a holiday week and so it probably won’t be repaired for at least another week.

So you can get your money’s worth sometimes!

One thing to watch when you’re buying your car insurance online is that there are a lot of optional extras that can be included in your policy. Obviously most of the time you’ll not need them but if you hit a situation like that above then they are very, very handy to have. For instance, because this is the peak holiday season, he’d have had quite a lot of difficulty to get booked into a hotel himself but it was his insurance company who organised that for him

Popularity: 32% [?]

It seems like the number of diet pills is growing almost as fast as the number of possible ways that they might work.

On the whole they do what they say but there are some non-specific ones around like Leptovox which seem to be more like a variant on a diet supplement but with more advertising behind it than you’d typically get for something like a vitamin. Diet supplements per se are no bad thing really as many people these days tend to miss out on key components of a normal diet due to the fast paced lifestyle that a lot of people lead these days.

However, I’d not want to be paying some of the prices that are sometimes asked for what are fairly simple diet supplements.

Popularity: 22% [?]

As Wendy will tell you, I’m a luggage buying addict and can’t pass the window of a shop selling it without looking inside.

Well, not so much a buying addict, more a luggage browsing addict as I’m always looking for the “perfect” case. I do travel reasonably often so it makes some sense to look around for good cases and, of course, the differing regulations on airlines means that it’s handy to have a selection.

But what’s “perfect”? Well, carry-on is the way to go these days as the weight limits have largely gone and it avoids both the queues at baggage collection and the often exorbitant checked baggage charges you find these days. Handy too is a bag that fits into another one I find as I quite frequently end up bringing more back than I take away. Finally, there’s juniors 1 & 2 who like to have their own case.

Oh, and let’s not forget that with the high weight limits on hand luggage these days it’s a pain to carry the cases so wheeled is the way to go to.

Funnily enough the best case that I’ve found to date is by far the cheapest: all of EUR 3.50 for a case that is right up to the size limits for flights, light and no junk inside to fill up the space before you start. I wish I’d bought a couple more of them whist the offer was still on!

Popularity: 30% [?]