Insurance - Are they for real?

Doctor J

I'd love to know if they just throw darts at a load of numbers on a wall when it comes to giving insurance quotes.

I used Britton Insurance's website and it gave me five quotes, one of which was AXA @ €940. I phoned AXA up and got a quote directly from them... €1040... same policy, same car, same everything. How the hell can AXA justify this? How is it more expensive to get insurance directly from the insurer themselves?

Rip Off Ireland is alive and well.

Gmodified

Don't be pedantic, People pay far more then 1040 for the insurance and this is rip off. To make things worst your broker actually makes money on your policy which means that premium is actually lower then 940yoyos.

It's the same principle when you buy some products which are cheaper when buying from distributors then from actual manufacturer.


Big deal.

Doctor J

I don't think I'm being pedantic. I've shopped around. I was also quoted €2090 from AXA through insure.ie for the same policy - Eagle Star wanted over €3k.

A little transparency in how insurers arrive at these figures might help us all.

Gmodified

A little transparency in how insurers arrive at these figures might help us all.

You are not expecting statement from Insurance federation? Do you?

Yes, dear citizens we have made up the premiums and rip off everybody we could.


My brother just got a quote a on the 49cc bike which came to 4000yoyos. The same insurance in London is 248 Euro.

We may have high number of deaths on the road and it's true that motorbikers are more likely to be seriously injured.
but nothing will justify 4000 Euro. Did anybody even looked at number of bikes in UK.

Anyway, back to broker. Do you think that broker will be able to exist on the market if Insurance company will offer better deal?

mike65

Not sure what the problem is...who ever is cheapest in whatever circumstances should be the insurer you choose!

Mike.

Victor

Originally posted by Doctor J
I used Britton Insurance's website and it gave me five quotes, one of which was AXA @ €940. I phoned AXA up and got a quote directly from them... €1040... same policy, same car, same everything. How the hell can AXA justify this? How is it more expensive to get insurance directly from the insurer themselves?

Firstly, websites are cheaper than phone calls to people (less overhead). Secondly, if brokers are to make money they have to get a discount off the insurers full rate. Some brokers are willing to sacrifice some of that discount to make more sales - just liek any salesman.

ando

Originally posted by Doctor J
AXA @ €940. I phoned AXA up and got a quote directly from them... €1040... same policy, same car, same everything. How the hell can AXA justify this?

I did an online quote for my policy with AXA... gave me a quote of €1950. Today I rang up and got a quote of €2600 from the exact same details

red_ice

try 3500 euro third party with 3 years no claim insurance on for size.

Then moan about insurance.

Capt'n Midnight

Oh yeah, I was expecting my insurance to drop,
because the insurance companies claim premiums have dropped 20% due to penalty points
because I now have an extra years no claims bonus
because the increase in premiums for sept 11 should have been sorted by now (reminder here and in the UK we never had insurance for terrorism so should not have had to pay extra for it)
because the broker said they would try to get a special because of a mess up with issuing a cert

in a word - NO.

Doctor J

Originally posted by red_ice
try 3500 euro third party with 3 years no claim insurance on for size.

Then moan about insurance.

I'm not moaning about the price, what I'm questioning is how the same insurer can give 3 different quotes for the same details on the same day.

Quatre Mains

- prices will always vary. As with buying anything else, it can be cheaper or dearer from one place to the next. Unfortunately,
this will continue until more competition is introduced into the market.
The only thing we can do is shop around every year, something a lot of people don't do. If you are drving the same car as the previous year, you should generally expect a reduction on your premium, especially if you have an extra years no claims. Make sure when renewing to specify that you want to reduce the insured value of the car. If its gets burnt out they only give you the 'book' value anyway so don't get caught out.
One or two places should be called, don;t just use the net. I got a quote for 1080 from one place, then rang Premier Direct. They quoted me 1095 or something, and then asked me what the best proce I got was. I told them and they said they'd knock 50 snots off it, so ended up with 1030.
- to reinforce your earlier points, the 1030 was w/Hibernian, who my old broker was quoting me 1179 for(same price as last year despite moving to the country, extra no claims and the car being a year older :mad: )

Finally, at the risk of preaching to the converted, if you're buying a new car talk to your insurance company and ask the difference between 2 or 3 cars you are looking at, you could save a rake of cash by avoiding a loaded car.

Cheers
Neil

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Doctor J
I'm not moaning about the price, what I'm questioning is how the same insurer can give 3 different quotes for the same details on the same day.

Have you got the quotation number for each of those? Or even have them in writing. You must be able to show them to someone and get a reponse from them. Fact is its a lottery. We're being screwed. Get on to your politicans about it.

Gmodified

Have you got the quotation number for each of those? Or even have them in writing. You must be able to show them to someone and get a response from them. Fact is its a lottery. We're being screwed. Get on to your politicans about it.

I can't see a problem here.

Like Mike 65 said :
who ever is cheapest in whatever circumstances should be the insurer you choose

I think Ricardo is missing the point too. If you don't want to go through the broker but AXA quote is higher. You can simply ask them to adjust to the broker. They are not obliged to do it but may just happen

Like with any product . Thinking that going to the source will make things dramatically cheaper is foolish. Brokers do get special deals and entire package is different accordingly to amount of business conducted with the insurer. hence price may wary.
This is a fact

Is this very hard to understand?

Are we for real here?

RicardoSmith

You expect differencies but the not as much as you are seeing here. If they offered something different like free AA membership, then fair enough. But for there to be a couple of hundred euro in the difference thats just not right. Not for the same product. In fact I've found some brokers cheaper than going to the source company which is odd.

BTW try Stuarts Brokers in Blackrock. I've had good quotes from them. Don't have anumber handy sorry.

MojoMaker

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
In fact I've found some brokers cheaper than going to the source company which is odd.

Brokers are almost always cheaper than going direct to the insurer because they get volume and recognisance discounts from the insurance companies.

Gmodified

In fact I've found some brokers cheaper than going to the source company which is odd

and what seems to be a problem again?

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by Gmodified
and what seems to be a problem again?

Its important to ask and know why things are the price they are and not just to accept what you're told like a lemming. If your attitude is just pick the cheapest one, then you are forgetting this a forum for "discussing" stuff. Its not ask a question, get an answer, close thread kinda deal. Maybe thats not what you meant though.

Gmodified

initial question:
How the hell can AXA justify this? How is it more expensive to get insurance directly from the insurer themselves?

answer which was nicely summarized by MojoMaker

Brokers are almost always cheaper than going direct to the insurer because they get volume and recognisance discounts from the insurance companies

There is no other answer to this and if you are actually asking why all the premiums are high anyway, then this is totally another matter