I come from a very large family, and with 4 brothers and a sister, it was virtually impossible for the whole family to go anywhere together, we just couldn't find a car that was big enough. One day, my Dad had the bright idea of buying a van and converting it with seats, a bit like a mini bus but cheaper, is how he tried to sell the idea to my long suffering mother. She finally agreed, as long as it had windows in. Although a van is a commercial vehicle, we had the idea of trying to get some non commercial van insurance, hoping that it would be cheaper,seeing as we would really be using it as a big car, and it was less likely to be damaged than if it were full of building materials and driven on and off muddy building sites surrounded by wheelbarrows and cement mixers. In general, we thought that was a great idea, and set about finding companies that could give us a quote.

'Oh yes, we can give youa quote for non commercial van insurance' said the clerk at the first place we tried, 'in fact, we kind of specialise in non commercial van insurance'. I got the idea that she would specialise in anything we wanted just to get a bit of business. She wanted to know the year, make and model of the van, and even the licence plate number. Unfortunately we had to confess that we hadn't evengot a van yet, and would get back to her with the information as soon as we had bought one.

It took a while to find a van which suitedbothmy fathers pocket and my mothers fussy ideas. She certainly wasn't going to be driven around in anything tatty, no matter what he said. Eventually asuitable vehicle was found, and Dad and my older brothers set about it on the drive with great gusto, ripping out the bulkhead and fitting seats, cutting holes for windows, polishing out the rusty bits, they even fitted a lovely bit of carpet in the back which was an offcutMum had noticed at the carpet store on the industrial estate close to where she worked. We took the details of the van to the insurance company, and asked for a quote for non commercial van insurance, which we promptly accepted. Within a few days everything was ready, and we had a lovely family day out at the beach. It was great to be all together.