During a recent visit to Belgium, I hired a car for a day and managed to put a small dent in the rear door. As the damage excess was £1200 I had to pay the cost of £420. I had insured the excess with a separate company, Allianz, and submitted a claim for the £420.

However, this took nearly a month because it took that long to get a damage repair voucher/invoice from the car company. The day I submitted the claim for the excess to Allianz, the car company e-mailed to say that, in view of the time it had taken to provide me with the details, they were returning the £420 as a good-will gesture.

The company, worth a mention, was Europcar. I immediately informed Allianz that I would not be proceeding with the claim but would continuing with the claim anyway have been illegal as I had paid the premium?