Last night I spoke at a Womens Institute meeting and it was very jolly as always.

My talks vary, always about women and motoring of course, but this one was to include tips and anecdotes which I am not short of, gleaned from FOXY Lady Drivers Club.

This being a recession and assuming that most WI members are fairly foxy ladies (meaning shrewd, canny and astute) I was surprised at the reaction to my advice that they used a search comparison website for the lowest car insurance premium out there.

Precising my interpretation of their ‘stuff and nonsense’ feedback I was told in no uncertain terms that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys and that was where all this shopping around was taking them.

The majority said they wanted personal service, an office to visit, not online and the reassurance that they would be looked after at claims time. Even if it cost them a tad more.

NFU are brilliant (but don’t cover O70s one told me??), SAGA is all Commercial Union now, apparently and Castle Cover weren’t interested (more than one said this) are the comments that stick with me from my busy night.

RAC  did well (my point is always that cars that breakdown at home are not covered by most of the basic policies) and the AA had its fans too. Neither will be the cheapest options out there but their brands were a source of reassurance I was told.

Now perhaps members of the WI aren’t as online as they might be and perhaps they can afford to pay a bit over the odds but I was encouraged to hear that they recognised that this ever downhill spiral of car insurance premiums is in nobody’s best interest other than perhaps the search comparison websites as they line their pockets with what would otherwise be broker commissions paying for them to provide the sort of personal service we are being encouraged to go without in future.

You can trust WI members to tell it as it is and to identify the sort of female friendly service they would prefer!