Insurance companies are coming in for a lot of bad press at the moment. This is mainly due to the crafty way they sold stock exchange investments disguised as savings and life insurance schemes to an unsuspecting public.

But when your own industry ombudsman – the person insurers themselves pay to deal with complaints – uses a newspaper to tell the public that insurance companies are not to be trusted, well, that is twisting the knife.
Sidelines must declare an interest here, being the embarrassed owner of three savings schemes which are actually investment policies. The current projected payout is equal to the premium payments.
But, frankly, that is Sidelines own fault for not reading the small print and falling for the glowing forecasts of huge returns.
What is not quite so easy to forgive is a letter from its car insurer – a policy taken out via the motorists’ friend ANWB.
Thanks to an unfortunate spate of being driven into by drivers without proper insurance or people who did a bunk after scraping paintwork, Sidelines has made rather too many claims for the insurance company’s liking.
The letter warns that if this continues, Sidelines will find itself without any car insurance. Perhaps the ombudsman might like to comment?