Dear Columbus Direct

Thank you for sending me a kind email to say that you will automatically renew our annual travel insurance policy. Apparently, I need do absolutely nothing; I can sit back, relax and plan my next trip overseas and you will simply take the money from my account.

Well, that all sounds absolutely perfect. And you almost had me there. The only reason I wondered whether or not to take you up on the generous offer is because there's a (tiny) bit of a time difference between the new policy starting and when we next go on holiday - only a week, but still, why pay for a week's worth of insurance that you don't need? And so I thought I'd call up and cancel the insurance and then re-buy it when we need it.

But just before I called up to cancel it, because truth be told I am actually rather lazy and really ummed and ahhed over whether it was worth the call or whether to just let the new policy follow straight on from the old one, I had a little look on your website to see how much a new policy would cost, just to compare it to the price you were quoting me for a renewal.

Yes, that's right, the price you were quoting little old me, a loyal customer who has been using your travel insurance services for at least ten years and has only ever made one claim (and that was for DC when he got a bit of an infection in a rather sensitive area [say no more, spare his blushes] while we were in New York in 2009.)

The 'let's be lazy and let dear old Columbus do all the hard work' renewal price: £128.99.

The 'let's not be lazy, let's cancel the policy [5 minute phone call] and buy a new one [another 5 minutes on the internet]' price: £64.19.

Yes, that's right. The lazy approach would have cost me more than TWICE the '10 minutes extra work' price. That's what being a loyal customer gets you!

So, let that be a lesson to us all - don't let those 'kind and helpful' insurance companies save you a few minutes work, because it could be turn out to be very expensive!