I've been a longstanding and loyal Direct Line customer for many years with two cars currently insured with them. As my children became of age, they were added to one car or another as named drivers, without incident. I have an excellent claims history and would of thought I was the model customer. My 20-year-old son was a named driver on my wife's car, a MINI One, but when he went to university in September I took him off the policy simply because he wouldn't have access to the vehicle during term time and why pay the exorbitant cost of same?

My wife has owned the vehicle from new and its been insured with Direct Line from the start. In full knowledge of the obligation to declare all to the insurance company, I disclosed that the vehicle had a factory fitted spoiler that sits on the top of the tailgate. Its purely cosmetic and not remotely performance enhancing. Last Christmas, my son came home and I rang Direct Line to add him temporarily back onto the policy. Direct Line said because the vehicle had been 'modified', they were unwilling to insure any person under the age of 25 of such a vehicle. I protested that the vehicle hadn't been modified. It had been like that from the day it was built. It cost less than a hundred quid and was purely aesthetic. I reminded them also that they had been happy to insure him for the last three years without incident.

Direct Line wouldn't budge, despite my attempts to speak to a supervisor or anyone who could explain their logic. The fact I had been a longstanding customer counted for absolutely nothing. Is this another example of insurance companies having it all their own way and exploiting the requirement of policyholders to declare anything and everything? I think Direct Line is out of order. What do you think?