Who needs insurance???

I've been trying to organise car insurance in preparation for our Escape arriving. One of Stephen's (British) colleagues had said to try one particular company as they were one of the cheaper options. They have a web-site. Great, I thought, no long conversations trying to make Americans understand my accent. I can just nip onto their website, get a quote, job done....Oh, I would like to say it was that easy!!

My first problem. We don't have US drivers licenses yet. In fact we are some weeks away from getting them as it's more complicated and time consuming than was portrayed in Victoria Beckham's Coming to America show!!!.... apparently you have to send paperwork off to DMV Virginia's Head Office, they pre-approve you, then you go to the local DMV office and wait in line for several days at multiple counters to get your license!

I had already filled in several pages of questions by this point, so I wasn't going to be defeated! They have true on-line help! You can MSN messenger an agent and ask questions which is cool... I explained that we had just moved here, that we had held licenses in the UK for many years - would this do instead of having a US one. No (of course!). But Jim (the agent) suggested that I put in today's date where it said "Date License Gained". (It would allow me to get a quote, but I would need a license before they could actually insure me.) Hey, that worked! Lets move on...another few pages of questions and "Submit"...."The system cannot find your insurance rating at your current address". NOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo!!

My second problem. It asked for my previous address to see if the Insurance Rating could be found there, and, you guessed it! Their system doesn't recognise anywhere outside of the US! So far this had taken the best part of an hour, and the will to live was gone!

We have an option to use AIG, and I think we will! You have to pay a membership fee, but they will insure you on a UK license and take into account the fact that you have no-claims in another country. If you go to a regular insurer you would be assumed to be a new driver with zero hours behind the wheel, and the premiums would be correspondingly high! (I eventually managed to get a quote from other on-line source that didn't ask so many stupid questions!) I don't know how Stephen's colleague managed to get a reasonable quote out of them...unless he's paying over the odds and doesn't realise...or didn't want to pay the membership fee for AIG. Believe me, if it means less grey hair for me then it's worth every cent!!

Eve has introduced me to Facebook, which is what all the youngsters are using to keep in touch with one another these days. I have 4 friends now (please sign up, please!) and I think that between that, and this, that I'm not actually going to have time to go back to work!! I'm going to have to cut down my laptop hours before I develop a hump and RSI!!!