"I have been a home insurance customer of Saga for some years. I have never made a claim, and I have paid my premiums, including interest, by direct debit.

Recently, I decided to take advantage of a special offer by another company and cancelled my policy with Saga.

The cancellation charge was a whopping £35. No reward for loyal customers then.

My new insurers were astounded; they said this was the highest cancellation charge they had come across.

My new premium is half what I'd paid with Saga, with twice the cover. There are no cancellation charges and no interest on direct debit payments, making it quite possible to dip in and out of this competitive market without worry.

Since then, I notice that Saga is also making introductory offers to new customers. I guess the moral of the story is to keep comparing insurers, and to switch every year in order to take advantage of the best offers.

Moving on to travel insurance: in recent months I applied for annual multitrip insurance, and obtained a number of quotes. In each case, I mentioned that I’d had an operation four months previously. It was a major operation, but a one-off, and not related to any chronic condition. I was fully recovered, and signed off from the hospital.

I explained that I was a healthy 62 year old, whose only problem was mild hypertension, controlled by medication. Come next year, I won't even need to mention the operation. Out of all the quotes I received, guess which company was the only one who completely refused to give me a quotation at all?

No prizes for guessing that it was Saga, champion of the over 50s! Therefore I cannot actually make any comment on the value of their travel product.

On this basis, my advice would be ‘Don't bother with Saga. You will be wasting your time.’