Send everything by e-mail. They can't deny, then, that they've received it, plus you have a copy of everything that's been sent.

I'm with the NFU Mutual. When you have an accident you phone them and you are directed to an accident repair firm who do the job and lend you a car.

There were no forms to fill in with "the dog ran in front of the car" type rubbish. They just get on with the job.

If there are any problems you ring and speak to someone in Britain whose first language is English.

Exactly the same with Aviva.

When dad bent the Micra on a Wednesday morning I rang Aviva on Thursday and they asked a few simple questions and then arranged for a local authorised repair company to collect the car the following morning before 10.00 am. Although he had a garanteed courtesy car he decided not to bother, at 85 he did not want to start driving a different car.

Collection driver rang me at 8.00 and and was at dads by 8.30. Took photo's of damage and noted other minor chips etc that were nothing to do with it. Repair company rang me Moday to say damage was just over £1000 (on a car worth about £3500 on a forcourt) and work had been authorised. They rang again Wednesday to say car should be ready Friday but that unfortunately did not quite happen since they did not get it valetted in time. Car delivered back Monday, they just took the excess from his card.

Nobody wants to bend their car with the stress it can create but both Aviva and the repair company made it as stress free as possible.

NFU may be very good; my only exoerience of them was a through the roof insurance quote for a very ordinary standard mainstream car. Like £800 v £254 from Aviva

That sounds as if they didn't want you!

Last year I paid the NFU Mutual £909 for fully comp and business use for a BMW 520, VW Golf 1.9 and a Land Rover Defender.

I too got a huge price (fully comp/protected NCD with standard business use) quoted for my Mazda3 1.6 a few years ago (£650 for NFU as opposed to most others between £275 - £400), which was especially high considering I do only about 5-10k miles a year (depending upon whether I work in London or more locally [travelling by car locally]), am in a low risk area/career and have had 14 years accident free! They might be good at customer service, but given how often I would claim, I can't justify such an annual outlay.

Maybe I should buy a Landy or live on a farm to get a discount!

Like to report how pleased i have been with a repair carried out by my insurers More than following a side swipe on the door of my van.

Van was collected on time and a replacement provided by Enterprise who were brilliant in providing a lift to their local depot.

Repairs carried out really well and the van delivered bck to me by transporter to coincide with the return of the hire van.

Really impressed no excess to pay and £1 deposit for van returned to my card.