Car insurance price hike

multiscan wrote: »

just got car insurance renewal from FBD and not sure how they can justify massive premium hike :

going from 465 to nearly 1000 yoyos in one year . no claims on the policy with full no claim.

I gave them call and they came down to 870 which is still massive bump in premium

its not price hike ......its extortion.

What are u driving? Mines a 1.2 fiesta and went up 60 quid this year with FBD. I wanted to complain but compared to alot of posters on Boards I think I got away lightly!

These threads seem to appear weekly here these days and the answer is the same, just shop around, give no loyalty to insurance companies as they very rarely give it back.

They issue these ridiculous renewal figures for a few reasons including:
1. Adding it on to take some off if the customer rings them.
2. Hope that people are lazy and will not shop around for a better price.
3. A combination of the above.

Mines gone up a tenner a year for last three years, and it would be higher except I chose to drop the driving other cars option to save €40/50 last year. I never used it anyway but it was handy to have in case I needed it.

This years renewal came in last week and its €495.

While you're renewing you should remember to ask them if they cover engine damage from shonky fuel!
Very few of them did as far as I know.

fryup wrote: »

well is there any point in haggling then?

Yes, there's always leeway. I once called a branch of one of the insurance companies, the lady said that the quote she was giving me was the absolute rock bottom quote, no possibility of a penny less. So I said I'd call her back in 10 minutes which I did but the call got rerouted to a different branch and I tried it on with the new lady, she dropped the price from the previous quote by €40.

fryup wrote: »

i could make one up

That's exactly what you need to do. And stay on the line, silence is golden and sends them a signal that you're close to doing a deal so often you get put on hold and the agent's supervisor authorises a lower quote. Or they put you on hold and hum a tune for 15 seconds so you can't accuse them of lying (that the quote was the absolute best they could do) so they just pretend that their supervisor authorised a lower quote, same as happens when buying a car and the sales guy disappears for 5 minutes so you think he's arguing with the bean counters upstairs for a better price for you.

There was article in the paper last week about this and it was claimed that an average of €50 is added onto all policies this year to compensate for the amount of fraudulent claims insurance companies are having to pay out on. The average claim for whiplash injuries, which are impossible to disprove...is €18k!

There are two distinct groups in Irish society making multiple claims on a weekly basis, the insurance companies have them flagged but it is near impossible to prove fraud in many of them.

An example of one last week in my home town is a family of 6 Roma were approaching a t-junction governed by yellow box and were hit lightly from behind, no noticeable damage to either car however 4 (yes fcuking FOUR) ambulances had to be dispatched from letterkenny hospital to take the 6 injured occupants to the hospital and two of them had filed injury claims within two days, the other 4 presumably were waiting a day it two so as not to arouse suspicion. And the damned thing about it is the insurance company will more than likely pay out handsomely!