A guide to motor insurance & FAQ's

Allianz and Axa are pretty much consistent with their pricing. As pointed out above, 123 have massive disparity in their claims reserves so need to recoup that.

Try Chill. I got my oh's car insured with AIG through them for €340, that was for comp, full bonus cover, me as a named driver (I have a provisional) and full bonus protection. Car is a 1.6 Mini One so alot of insurers dont like them. Best alt I could get was FBD for €500. Her renewal with 123 was €606 and there was no budge in price with them.

As an aside, rates are hardening across the board. If we get as bad a winter as is promised Im expecting rates to increase further into early 2015 too.

Randy Anders wrote: »

Quick question that I didn't see covered in the FAQ

I've never had a policy under my own name but have been a named driver on a family members car for 6 years. When I'm filling out insurance quotes online, can I say I have a no claims discount? I assume I can't as it wasn't actually my policy?

And if not, having being insured as a named driver for 6 years, should I expect any reduction at all on my own policy?

Thanks

Dont fill it out online. All insurers will offer you whats known as an introductory no claims bonus equivalent to a full actual NCB. Alot of the websites do not have an option to fill in named driving experience, only NCB so if you fill in that you have a full NCB, thats technically untrue and can cause problems when sending back the paperwork.

Pick up the phone, you will also have more bargaining power over the phone too.

Setanta went bang.

Heavy property claims in the early part of this year due to the inclement weather.

RSA/123.ie misappropriated their claims reserves to the tune of €250 million.

There are much more cars on the road in the last 12 months, more cars = more losses = higher premiums to cover them.

General rate increases.

In January of 2013 the risk equalisation mandate came in. Basically an EU ruling that dictated that insurance companies can no longer offer discounts based on gender.

Traditionally females got cheaper insurers than males, even with the exact same risk criteria ie car, bonus, location etc.

Thats likely the main reason for the increase in 2013.

Most motor insurers in Ireland also offer commercial insurance eg for tradesmen, manufacturing and so forth.

The loss ratio for this class of business across all insurance companies is somewhere between 115% and 130%.

The loss ratio in laymans terms means how much underwriting profit an insurance company makes on every policy it sells. A loss ratio of less than 100% means there is a profit made, a loss ratio of more than 100% means there is a loss been made.

Basically based on the percentages above, for every €1 an insurance company takes in they are paying out between €1.15 and €1.30 on claims.

Zurich for example announced a couple of weeks ago that they have not made an underwriting profit in 7 years and thats symptomatic across the board.

All claims are paid out of a pool so money taken for motor or business insurance goes into the one pool. With the losses happening on the commercial business, it is necessary to increase rates across all classes of business to enable companies to have enough money to pay out any claims.

Setanta did not do the above which is why they went tits up.

So, between all the above, and taking into account the car has a greater value, thats why it has increased so much.

I will say however, based on the driver profile she should get it significantly cheaper than €800, it will just take some leg work.

Maynoothspur wrote: »

Hi hope some lone can help here.
I have my gf as named driver on my policy and vice versa, we both have cover to drive other cars included. She was involved in an accident in my car on Friday, can she use her own policy to sort out the claim rather than use mine and mess up my NCB?? Thanks in advance.

Nope, your car, your policy unfortunately.

Under the driving of other cars extension she could technically use her own insurance however driving other cars only offers third party only cover so damages to your motor wouldn't be covered.

Maynoothspur wrote: »

Ok so if she used her policy to repair the car she hit? I'm not too bothered about my car, more worried about my no claims. Thanks for the speedy reply btw.

If you arent too concerned about your own then she should be able to sort the third party repairs with her own policy.

You will still need to report it to your own insurance company, as will she.

Can anyone help me find a company to an insure an old van? Have picked up a 21 year old van but was stupid enough not to check insurance before hand. Thought a 20+ commercial vehicle would be ok as I insured a 20 year old Chevy truck back in 2004.

So far the van is too young for the classic insurers: AXA, First Ifeland, FBD and Carole Nash

Van is too old for insuremyvan, Aviva and a few others

Only quote I got was from Liberty and that was for three times the value of the van.

Any other options?