Interesting letter on Insurance...

Sleipnir

from todays Indo. Can anyone think of reasons as to why this would be unworkable?


Sir - With all the discussions and arguments about motor insurance and the now obvious fact that the Irish motorist has been totally ripped off for years, I have a suggestion to resolve the problem for good.

As the insurance companies have abused the privilege of selling what is a mandatory requirement under law, the Government, instead of making more useless promises, should issue a standard driving cover policy. We have to have motor tax, a television licence, a driving licence and a dog licence, all issued by the Government at a predetermined price.

Why, therefore, can we not have a basic driving policy to cover the legal requirement? The policy premium could be fixed to the cubic capacity of the vehicle, similar to the motor tax regime. Even better, the policy could be aligned to motor tax renewal, thus reducing the amount of uninsured drivers and making it easier to police. This would of course carry a preset premium.

As regards fire and theft and comprehensive cover, these extras could be purchased at your insurance company counter where you would be an unfettered customer. You could choose to buy any package you require and could afford, with no obligation. This would create more competition between the insurance companies in the provision of proper and affordable insurance cover.

What about claims against the driving cover policy by other parties? The Government could deal with these claims in the normal way. It would, however, have a scale of percentage premium increases on your fixed figure. For instance, on a year's cover, if you had one claim against you there would be a 10pc increase and for two claims a 20pc increase and so on. At least you would know exactly where you stood if you had an accident. This should not affect your private extras policy with your own insurance company.

John2002

Interesting thoughts. I wonder has it been done elsewhere?

padraigmyers

I haven't been myself but talking to a few Australian guys I know this is sort of how it works in Australia. When you get your licence you automotically get 3rd party insurance built-in. Thats why all 18-19 year olds are driving V8's etc. It would be a much better system then the spiarling feeding frenzy that the insurance companies are involved in, but then again can you see it really happening here?

ToxicPaddy

Sounds like a very reasonable plan to me and something that would be easy enough to enforce im sure.

Its blatently obvious that there is some sort of collusion going on between insurance companies in Ireland for year, how else can they explain their spiralling profits and rising costs with no apparent reason for it all..

Time and time again when they have been put on the spot light they their excuses are becoming more and more dramatic and less and less believeable..

A few months ago i caught the end of a Prime time programme when there was a representitive from the Insurance Federation of Ireland and a representitive from one of the major insurance companies on it, as well as a repesentitive from some government regulator, like i said i only caught the end of it..

But for every question this regulator asked them they tried to dodge it and by the end of the programme both the a representitive from the Insurance Federation of Ireland and the representitive from one of the major insurance companies were very red faced and were argueing amoungst themselves and the regulator was sitting there with a smug grin on her face..

So the basic jist of it was, they didnt have the answers everyone is looking for and they are trying to screw us over while constantly lieing about costs and overheads and such crap..

mike65

Its so obvious it will never happen here after all why tweak the noses of vested interests when you can simply commission
"waste paper bin" reports....There is no reason in the world why such a third part scheme cant be insituted just as there is no
reason road tax could 'nt be levied on fuel costs, pay as you go
style (with a rebate for commercial users) but will anyone make it happen?

Mike.

ToxicPaddy

That probably very true..

But someone has to try something..

When businesses are closing because they cant afford insurance costs, I think even politicans realise that if they dont do something soon, then they will be pissing off the people who put them where they are now and Ireland is a small country with a limited number of registered voters, a lot of whom are self employed and/or car ownerswho are suffereing due to these hikes..

There are very few people in Ireland who are not directly affected by spiralling insurance costs..

Think those in Leinster house are finally beginning to realise this.. and Bertie and his boys are quickly falling out of favour with the voting public..

dahamsta

I can't see Fianna Fáil implementing this, too cosy with big business. Or Fine Gael for that matter.

adam

mike65

Originally posted by ToxicPaddy


When businesses are closing because they cant afford insurance costs, I think even politicans realise that if they dont do something soon....

Thats what we need - a Fianna Fail owned business that goes bust due to insurance costs....

Mike.

LFCFan

the majority of the voting public are morons (ie. the ones that voted FF in this term). They voted these gougers back in again even though it was plainly obvious they were out of their depth. In 4 years when they are up for office again, people will be withdrawing their SSIA money and will be loving it and more than likely these bunch of cowboys will get in again against more lies of what they are going to do. It's hard to believe that Bertie is still the leader of a party that doesn't know it's arse from it's elbow. Saying all that, do you really think that Bertie or any of his muppets would be interested in doing something for the good of the people like yer man here has suggested in the Indo? I don't think so somehow. That would be the right thing to do.

Victor

But this would excessively burden reasonable drivers with the risks of bad drivers. And rather than put it with the tax, put it with the petrol - little risk of avoiding it then.

Stephen

Eh Victor, petrol is used in more than just cars. For instance:

Chainsaws, lawn mowers, generators etc

Why should users of those machines have to pay to subsidise insurance costs?

ando

I would like this scheme to happen although it won't. Currently I'm getting penalized because I'm young. Driven just over 50k miles, no incidents but I'm still paying over 4600euro for 3rd party, all because I'm young.

I'd like for everyone to start off with the same premium, and only get penalized if you actually do something wrong...

Seth Brundle

The insurance industry is a cartel operating in an environment where there is absolutely no transparency.
However, as no other companies want to set up here, we have no choice but to take it. The government cannot (AFAIK) offer insurance as it would infringe on competition policies nor can it afford it.
With regard to Victors idea of putting it with petrol - I is possible that the Govt will eventually scrap Motor tax and replace it with higher petrol prices - they could eventually reap more money.
The government are not particularly interested in this problem. A couple of feeble attempts via "waste paper bin" reports does not count for much. Like in many other areas they want to appear as if they are doing but not to actually do! If they were serious from the start then there would be some kind of freeze on policies nor would we ba paying a 2% levy on policies which goes straight into McCreevey's Gambling pot

ToxicPaddy

There are other companies that want to set up here, but why rock the boat, they just buy into the insurance companies that are here already..

and reap the rewards...:rolleyes: