Insurance: Countryside/Dublin

layke

Maybe some one here in the know can help me out.

Back when I was 17 and fishing for my first quote on a car I was told by insurance companies that my premium would be higher due to the fact that i'm a Dublin resident. The reasoning is because back then, the majority of accidents happened in Dublin. However today when you turn on the radio, I keep hearing about some tragic death that took place down the country on some back arse road. Even today 3 people died (I think 2 were motor related).

My question is, seeing as the majority of accidents are happening in the country now shouldn't premiums drop in dublin (or just be raised to being more expensive in the country)?

5500

I'd been thinking the same myself but there's a heap more factors including when calculating a quote one of which being car theft which is probably 100 times more common in Dublin than the sticks.

Stark

Various factors are at play:

Average age of Dubliners vs rural folk: There tends to be higher payouts for young people due to loss of potential earnings, people with young families to support etc.
Number of minor accidents: Dublin is quite congested, so the number of low-speed non fatal collisions tends to be much higher.
Litigation country: People are far more likely to claim off each other for minor bumps and scrapes.
Crime.

JohnnySideburns

I would say from working in insurance that what determines the rates for different districts is not the few large accidents but the many small accidents. Large accidents (eg deaths and people paralysed) for each district are usually capped with the remainder being spread out over all districts. The logic behind it is that large accidents may not usually happen in sequence. eg instead of Laois having one large accident per year for three years, it may be large accident free for 3 years and then all of a sudden have 3 large accidents occurring in a short space of time. This would cause a shock to Laois insurance premiums which consumers would not be willing to tolerate. This is avoided through capping and spreading.

I hope this helps. This is only my interpretation. If anyone else in motor insurance wishes to disagree with me, feel free.

bazz26

layke wrote:

Maybe some one here in the know can help me out.

Back when I was 17 and fishing for my first quote on a car I was told by insurance companies that my premium would be higher due to the fact that i'm a Dublin resident. The reasoning is because back then, the majority of accidents happened in Dublin. However today when you turn on the radio, I keep hearing about some tragic death that took place down the country on some back arse road. Even today 3 people died (I think 2 were motor related).

My question is, seeing as the majority of accidents are happening in the country now shouldn't premiums drop in dublin (or just be raised to being more expensive in the country)?

Having an accident is only one risk factor insurance companies take into account. Other risk factors calculated include thieft, vandalism, etc. Urban areas will always be considered higher risk areas for these type of factors when risk assesments are taken into account for insurance. There is more chance of your car being stolen or vandalised in a build up urban area than in the middle of the country.

Big Nelly

FBD dont give 2 hoots if it is in Dublin or Country. Found this out when buying new car last year, old policy was at Cavan address, asked would price rise if changed to new address and they said no it was the same, they had got rid of that rule

Stark

I don't think Quinn Direct differentiate either. Or it might be a quirk of the online system. I tried typing in my Cork address then changing addresses on the last page to see what the updated quote was. The quote remained the same. I'm not sure if it was a website bug or not.

Jip

Quinn definately do, most of the midland countys give me a higher premium on their website (only about €50/€60) than a Dublin address.

kikel

Hibernian don't seem to care either. Lately changed my address from Laois to Dublin. Didn't affect my premium at all. This was much to the supprice of the girl that worked for hibernian.

Anan1

layke wrote:

However today when you turn on the radio, I keep hearing about some tragic death that took place down the country on some back arse road. Even today 3 people died (I think 2 were motor related).

My question is, seeing as the majority of accidents are happening in the country now shouldn't premiums drop in dublin (or just be raised to being more expensive in the country)?

With the greatest of respect, I don't think that anyone can deduce nationwide accident patterns from a few reports on the radio.;)

Kersh

So if theft is one of their 'markup' excuses, surely a Dublin car garaged and safe should command a lower premium, but does it??

Stark

When I was getting an online quote for Britton insurance, one of the questions they asked me was where would the car be kept. On the street, in a driveway, in a garage/secured car park etc.

Darando

remember the auntie getting a quote for her new address - going from Blanch to Meath. It changed a good bit (upwards). Was told that Meath had a higher risk (not sure if they mean overall/accident/theft/ etc....).

was about 3/4 years ago although times have changed a little in the insurance game for the better for consumer. Prices are a little lower than before.

KELTICKNIGHTT

citys are always consider high risk
lots of other things comes into the rates
more likely to accident in dublin and likes than on a rural road

heggie

JohnnySideburns wrote:

I would say from working in insurance that what determines the rates for different districts is not the few large accidents but the many small accidents. Large accidents (eg deaths and people paralysed) for each district are usually capped with the remainder being spread out over all districts. The logic behind it is that large accidents may not usually happen in sequence. eg instead of Laois having one large accident per year for three years, it may be large accident free for 3 years and then all of a sudden have 3 large accidents occurring in a short space of time. This would cause a shock to Laois insurance premiums which consumers would not be willing to tolerate. This is avoided through capping and spreading.

I hope this helps. This is only my interpretation. If anyone else in motor insurance wishes to disagree with me, feel free.

Im not in motor insurance, but would have to disagree. Wouldnt it be the case that women have higher premiums than men if this was true?

natnif

kikel wrote:

Hibernian don't seem to care either. Lately changed my address from Laois to Dublin. Didn't affect my premium at all. This was much to the supprice of the girl that worked for hibernian.

I used to work for them and they do care about location...their doesn't to be much sense to how they work it out though...well I could never figure it out anyway!!!
for example, roscommon was 1 of the most expensive counties for home insurance and was fairly high for car insurance as well. the county doesn't have a particularly high crime or arson rate as far as I know, but cork was cheaper!!!

It also depends how far into your policy you make the change. say if you only have 2 months left to renewal and there is a 10% increase on a €500 policy thats €50 difference a year. for the 2 months thats going to equal under €10, they won't bother collecting that, it's not worth there while, but they will up the renewal.
If you are over 6 months into your policy and are making any changes to a policy I would always reccomend getting a "new" quote, just to see what the yearly difference is, cause the difference to renewal doesn't always give a true reflection of what it will cost you!

JohnnySideburns

heggie wrote:

Im not in motor insurance, but would have to disagree. Wouldnt it be the case that women have higher premiums than men if this was true?

Not if large claims by males were capped and spread over all males or a group of males. eg if a 19 year old male has a large claim it could be spread over all 18 to 22 year old males. (As I said before, this is only my interpretation.)

positron

kikel wrote:

Hibernian don't seem to care either. Lately changed my address from Laois to Dublin. Didn't affect my premium at all. This was much to the supprice of the girl that worked for hibernian.

Changed address from Dublin (Blackrock) to Louth (Droghed) and Hibernian charged me about 15% more!! I am taking my insurance to FBD, about 40% cheaper compared to Hibernian!

Bogger77

One reason for area's such as Meath, Louth, Carlow, Kildare, Wicklow having increased premimums compared to Dublin, is the amount of commuters, who travell long distances, and deal with Dublin traffic. It's assumed that living in these areas you'll be commuting to Dublin.

Darando

Regarding the whole issue of "where the car is kept" i.e garage/ driveway/ public road. Always wondered how much of a difference it makes on quote (some places dont even ask- FBD defo didnt ask on the phone).

Reason for asking is family has 3 cars and 2 fit in the driveway (1 on the road). Nothing really stopping me saying all kept on driveway and not on public road. If anything happened on the road are they really going to say "you said it was kept on driveway" we are not coughing up!!!when if i was staying in mates house etc then they would-

I ahve a feeling it doesnt really make any difference - just another nice statistic for them to use against lowering prices.

natnif

I think it used to matter..doesn't really any more.I def remember being asked questions like that a lot more 6 or 7 years ago.same as an alarm now makes very little difference to the policy

positron

Bogger77 wrote:

One reason for area's such as Meath, Louth, Carlow, Kildare, Wicklow having increased premimums compared to Dublin, is the amount of commuters, who travell long distances, and deal with Dublin traffic. It's assumed that living in these areas you'll be commuting to Dublin.

In that case they are ignoring those who commute by train. When I used to live Dublin, I drove to work - approx 200 kms per week, but now I am doing next to nothing 2 kms per week may be - train station is only minutes away, and I walk!

Bogger77

positron wrote:

In that case they are ignoring those who commute by train. When I used to live Dublin, I drove to work - approx 200 kms per week, but now I am doing next to nothing 2 kms per week may be - train station is only minutes away, and I walk!

what happens when you miss the train? You'll hop into the car and head for Dub.
I spent a lovely 9 months commuting by train to Dublin, had at least several times a month I'd miss the train and end up drving.

Our man in Havana

For some strange reason, its way cheaper to insure a car in Waterford city than the arsehole of Laois. Surely there is more crime/traffic in a city than in the sticks. Well I have not noticed a crimewave lately.