Renewal Fee

Good news! My car insurance, which is this week due for renewal, was forty pounds cheaper than the year before. Perhaps this is one of the many benefits of being middle-aged; even insurance companies realise that you are so boring and disinclined to impress people, that your risk of crashing is diminished. I was gladly about to auto-renew when I looked at the breakdown of the premium. I had incurred a fifteen pound ‘renewal fee’. That is fair enough, isn't it? It is only right and proper that if you want to stay with the same company, the extra admin this incurs should be covered. Said no-one at all, ever.

I went onto the online chat and enquired what it was. I pointed out that it is surely cheaper to renew than process the details of a new customer. The explanation was duly received: a new background check had to be made, and this costs the insurer money. I didn’t bother to make this point, but presumably a whole array of additional costs might be added onto the premium. The electricity used to run their computers, for example. Or how about the cost of cleaning the windows of the office in which the staff work- perhaps that should be added onto my bill, too? Sure enough, in recognition that the fee was nonsensical, it was quickly dropped when I suggested I would move my custom elsewhere. The idea that I should pay extra for the sheer pleasure of handing over more money to an insurer is ludicrous.

I wonder how members of other faiths and religions feel when they are constantly asked to renew and top-up. Muslims believe their Allah is merciful, yet they must seek to impress him with their good deeds. Jehovah’s Witnesses talk about the offer of salvation, but they must keep knocking on doors or posting letters to ensure they get at least a chance of living on the new earth. Only the Christian gospel says Jesus Christ paid sin’s penalty in full. There is nothing to add, contribute, renew, subsidise or round-up. On His merits, and His alone, are we saved. We simply believe and trust in His finished and completed atoning work.

Not the labours of my hands
can fulfill thy law's demands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay