I was just checking car insurance quotes and I was amazed to find that, for the very same car (a cheap, smallish Fiat which sits in a very low insurance group), if I declare its value to be less than £500 the premium will actually rise!

And quite significantly, too – if I declare its value to be around the £700 mark they’ll quote me a premium of £480 (fully comprehensive), but if I lower that figure the premium will rise at least £300!

Seriously, why? I mean, if I wreck the car and they have to pay me back its declared value, they’d have to pay me less… makes no sense!