driving license age for insurance purposes

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Yes you are. It asks what type of license you currently hold which is Irish. You have had your Irish license for 2 years.

You could always ring them and ask them if having had the Euro license makes a difference but I doubt it would.

Nonsense.

He held his licence for 16 years, and that's the right answer.

And if they ask him what type of licence does he hold at the moment, the answer is: full licence.

By your way of thinking, someone who passed a driving test in Ireland in 1999 and got a licence then valid for 10 years (up to 2009) and who renewed this licence is 2009, should answer that he holds his licence for 3 years, as this would be the time he hold his currect document.

What they are asking, is not the length of time you had a document, but length of time you were licenced to drive.

A full Irish license and a European license are 2 different "documents". On insurance company's online quote system, there's a few different options: full Irish, provisional Irish, full UK, full EU (other than Ireland/UK).

These refer to the type of license the OP CURRENTLY holds which is why I advised him to ring them and tell them about the fact that he had his EU license before that. Since he exchanged his EU licence for an Irish one 2 years ago, that would mean he no longer holds his EU licence and since you can only select one option on websites, he has to select 2 years for his Irish license.

On the other hand, date when EU licence was exchanged for Irish licence is not noted anywhere on the document. So what in case someone just don't remember when he changed his licence for Irish one?

rocky wrote: »

just checked my license and indeed it says 'issued on' 2010, and under category B 'from 1996'...

CiniO, that was my thinking as well but thought I'd verify...

I passed my driving test in 1999 in Poland and had Polish licence until 2008.
Then I exchanged it for Irish licence 2008.
But I changed my document several times since, and now on my document it says that I have B category from 1999, and current licence was issued in 2012.
I do remember that I changed my Polish for Irish in 2008, but it's not stated in any document which I posses, so obviously I could have no clue when I changed it.

Marlow wrote: »

I haven't seen an irish license, but when the irish licenses are exchanged for the same type of credit card size license than everywhere else in Europe, the license will read on the back, when you aquired your license for each individual category.

This is the case already with Irish licenes. They show when you acquired right for each category, no matter in which EU country it was.

Our man in Havana wrote: »

My BG licence just has the category issue date which was the date I exchanged my Irish licence. There is no mention of me having it before that date.

IMHO that means that Bulgarian licence office didn't do a proper job.

djimi wrote: »

The correct answer to the question is obviously 16 years, but in the case of the OP where there is any doubt whatsoever the only solution is to ring the insurer and explain it to them over the phone. Doesnt matter what you think the situation should be, if you do it online and they take issue with the answer you give then there could be potential problems if you need to claim. The only way to ensure that you have answered everything to their satisfaction is to call and speak to someone.

On a somewhat related note, I would always recommend calling the insurer regardless. I dont think Ive ever gotten a quote from any company that hasnt been bettered by them when I spoke to them over the phone. You cannot haggle with a website...

The problem with ringing insurance company is that their call centres all full of completely uncompetent employees, which tent to give you random answers.
After all you have no proof what they answered to you as this was just a phone call. They do record those phone calls, but they don't allow you to record them. If you record a phone call without informing them that call is recorded, you can't use it as any proof, as you obtained it illegally. If you tell them you are recording, they will refuse to talk to you.
So generally speaking ringing them to get answer in any important matter is nonsense.
Emailing is way better way of finding out the real answer, as at least you have written proof.

It was in multiple occassions when I rang insurance company to ask question and got answer: YES. Then I rang them again in 5 minutes, talked to other person and got answer NO to the same question. That's how useless they are. And it wasn't just one insruance company but few different ones.

djimi wrote: »

At least the call is recorded from their end, which can be referred to in future if needed (it cant just conveniently go missing or whatever).

I'm sure it can conveniently go missing.
All insurers give you warning beforehand that "calls might be recoreded for verification and training purposes"...
"might be recorded" doesn't mean they definitely are, so in any problematic case, any insurer can say they didn't acutally record this particular call.

Also if you are talking to someone then get them to send you written confirmation (email or letter) of your request and their response. If they refuse to do so then move onto the next company.

That's some idea, but I'm affraid a list of insurers would be exhausted before you find the proper one which will do it for you.

Its obviously not ideal and open to abuse, but the reality is that if you stick something into a website based on what you assume to be the case then you are definately leaving yourself open to trouble down the way. At least if you did everything over the phone by talking to the insurer in person then they have a recording of all events, and you will hopefully get written confirmation of what they have said to you.

If you get written confirmation - they yes - it's grand.
But otherwise calling them is just wasting few quid on phone calls.

PS - I'd never even though to say that I had my licence from exchange date, instead of date I passed the test. This just wouldn't ever come to my mind until i saw this thread.

Del2005 wrote: »

They record all calls and you can request all data they have on you, including phone calls, under data protection laws. If they don't have the recording then it's their fault not yours.

Who says they record all their calls?
Are they required to do that? I doubt it...

CiniO wrote: »

Who says they record all their calls?
Are they required to do that? I doubt it...

Certain sectors (financial being one of them) are obliged to record all calls and keep them for a number of years. Im not 100% about insurance but I have a feeling that they fall into this bracket also.

Most big companies do record calls anyway and will be prepared to use the recording. Ive had to request a call recording from UPC in the past which backed up by story that they made a huge mistake on my bill, so they are not always going to just look to cover their ass.

rocky wrote: »

Whenever I talked to insurance companies, their blurb says "we may record this call for training purposes"

Yes. But I can see a big difference between "we may" and fact if they are obliged to record it and keep those recording for some reasonable time and make it available to customer when neccesery.