Insurance Companies Rip Off

Just had my home and contents renewal

Hi I know this is of the dog walking topic slightly well maybe not because if a household name home insurance company can do this to me then they are probably all tarred with the same brush.
 
Anyway a couple or three days ago my house and contents insurance renewal was popped in the letter box by our jovial  (not) postman (I wish I could of said the other morning as I was leaving for work but hay ho that's a long time ago when post came early and a moan for another day)
 
I looked at it and thought looks about write off the top of my head I'll check later and put it in the cupboard in my sort of pending pile, and with it being Christmas and all I forgot all about it.
 
Then when I went to feed the dogs the dog food had ran out and I had to nip to the shop so the little darlings didn't starve when I got to the till I didn't have enough cash so I gave the girl my Barclays debit card which was promptly declined.

No problem I said and offered another credit card which worked OK and I left the shop thinking I'll have to go on line and see what’s happening, then I realised the best thing was to try and use the card in a couple of other places.
 
First port of call was for a slow puncture that needed repairing so I went to my mates tyre garage and had it fixed, offered the said Barclays debit card and again it did not work.
 
However this time the girl on the till just swiped it and it worked great I thought and off I went then I had a nagging thought what if it's kaput and I can’t use it over Christmas and new year.
 
So my next stop was for diesel and the only pump free was a pay at the pump probably busy because of the holidays, the upshot being yes you guessed Barclay card didn't work again and I had to use a different card.
 
You will understand my feeling infuriated when upon ringing Barclays going through the actually very quick system (I was impressed) I was then told they had to cancel my existing Barclay card immediately and I would not receive my new Barclay card for at least four days.

With it being Christmas I thought you will excuse me not expecting it before new year, after the nice Barclays guy explained I could walk into a Barclays branch only 12 miles away and they would make me a new card on the spot I made the decision to keep my old card not let them cancel it as at the worst case I could use it in my local Barclays branch.
 
OK back to the dog insurance and home insurance rip off I started with, after all the carry on with my card I went home and logged on to my bank account which turned out great because I have saved just under two hundred pounds.
 
How you ask? Well upon scrolling through my online bank account I spotted by chance the monthly amount I had paid for my home insurance over the last year and it was a shock to realise that the insurance company had put up my cover by 30 percent yes that's what I said thirty percent in one year’s renewal.
 
I have read stories in the papers about this sort of thing but never really believed them now I was being confronted with irrefutable evidence they had always been telling the truth.
 
Naturally I rang said home insurance company and spoke to a very nice man, who being told of the increase didn't give me chance to explode with him he said give 2 minutes sir and I'll get your quote to as near to your old one as possible.
 
Sure enough he came back on the line a couple of minutes later and my increase was only pennies much less than a pound a month increase instead of 30%, I was gobsmacked and just said OK and put the phone down.
 
How in hell can these people keep getting away with this, how many times have I been done over like this, you may want to check all your renewals now this has shocked me that two hundred quid will buy and awful lot of dog food for my dog walkers and dog sitting duties.