Ooh, my line of work.

Just so y'all know, motor insurance in the UK is unprofitable as an industry and has been for several years and at the rate it's going, probably will be for a while. Insurers pay more in claims than they take in, mostly due to (a) young idiots and (b) liability settlements getting larger and larger.

The reason companies sometimes quote silly premiums is they want to balance the policyholders by age, sex, claims history, etc. If you fall into a group they don't want to take on more exposure to, you get the silly numbers. It's not personal, even if it feels like it.

Not every company can tailor their policies to you. If you're a company director that pootles down to the shops once a week, sorry, but you're an unusual company director and some companies will charge you an unfair premium for it.

Third party only cover is, for some risk classes, as expensive or even more expensive than fire & theft and occasionally even comp, the reason being that the kind of person willing to risk only being partly covered is more likely to crash.

Best tip is to use the comparison sites, but then phone round a few companies - especially Direct Line - and tell them what quotes you've got. And don't lie. Insurers want to pay valid claims but there is so much fraud out there that they have to cover their backs aggressively.