I've just been helping my son insure a newish car. I've always used a company that has a tie-up with my union, but his union hasn't any such arrangement, so I decided to see what an online comparison site came up with.

And I was completely astonished by the range of offers. Based on exactly the same information about the car and the driver involved they stretched from under £600 (from a well established company) all the way up to a staggering £3331. And not just one freak result, a whole batch of firms asking that kind of money.

I felt that the name of the comparison site - confused.com - was more than justified. And from now on if a price for anything seems startlingly high I won't go assuming that's the way it is.

But are there really people who pay that kind of money?