Quinn Direct Insurance & Dodgy Quote

godtabh

My car insurance is up for renweal and like always I was checking out a few places for qutoes etc.

My current cover is with Quinn Direct but handt recieved a renewal letter so I checked out the website to see how much it might cost. Lets call this Quote A.

The renewal came yesterday. Lets call this Quote B.

The difference in price was over €250. Quote A was a less the Quote B.

Is this the norm? I rang up today and asked what the story was and they said they would go with the cheaper quote.

Same thing happened last year!

Just letting people know.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

fairly standard dodgy practice.

although kudos to Quinn for going with the lower price.

on a side note: from experience with the motor insurance industry, i can say with a near certainty that motor insurers are always willing to negotiate for a lower price if they are presented with a cheaper offer you got elsewhere

on a further side note: has anyone else noticed how they leave it so close to the renewal time before sending out the renewal quote, in order to prevent you switching insurers?

Quinn seem to be the best of a bad lot. They get a bit of stick for poor customer service, but when you only usually have to contact customer service once a year it is their cheap prices that take precedence imo.

Kimbot

Well I rang Quinn about my quote this year, they wanted 2200 (3pf&t) for a 23YO with a provo and 2 year NCB as a renewal on a 1.4 Corolla!!
I got a quote of 1500 fully comp of Allianz and quinn said they would never try match another policy!!

parsi

Roundtower2 wrote:

on a further side note: has anyone else noticed how they leave it so close to the renewal time before sending out the renewal quote, in order to prevent you switching insurers?

You have to receive your renewal notice 15 days before end of insurance and it comes with your no-claims cert so tbh this gives plenty of time unlike in the old days when you had to chase your cert. I'm always on holidays at renewal time so I regularly get everything sorted even earlier - companies send on the stuff no problem but if you're doing it through a broker group scheme it can be awkward getting the paperwork when you want it.

Hibernian and Axa are very handy (and for the past few years one of them has been the lowest) in that they have local offices where you cant get the paperwork printed off immediately.

jockster

Quinn direct quoted me the ludicrous cost of 5000 (IRP) TPFT when I was younger although I must say fair play to them as nobody else would insure me due to my age. My insurance in Scotland before moving here was £1200 per year fully comp on a car with a much bigger engine and worth 4 times more. To this day I have never met anyone else who was paying as much as I was back then.

Luckilly I was based on the road quite a bit in my job and my company paid for the insurance...

rondjon

Roundtower2 wrote:

Quinn seem to be the best of a bad lot. They get a bit of stick for poor customer service, but when you only usually have to contact customer service once a year it is their cheap prices that take precedence imo.

Unless, as in my experience, you have a claim against your policy. Then they're an absolute nightmare to deal with.

galah

Hibernian did that to me last year (cheaper new quote than renewal price)- and after I complained, they told me I would have to cancel the current policy (that is, not renew it), but take out a NEW policy with them, and then I would be able to get the cheaper price (which meant I had to resubmit all my documentation - which is a bit of a pain, since I had a no claims bonus from my previous insurance in Germany, would have taken ages to get the documents again - and the best part: Hibernian ALREADY have those documents...) I didn't do it then, cause it was too much hassle...

I just checked Hibernian again - and the quote (again) is 100 euros cheaper than my current insurance with them - I think this year I'll have to force them to give me the cheaper price or change insurer...any hints on how to force them to be reasonable?

whizzbang

Here's what I do

Wait for renewal, take off all the extra gunk they stick on it, ring them up and tell them Quinn direct offered the same for 30% less. Sweet talk them into giving you a 25% discount.

Repeat

J

Saruman

Its always hit and miss.. when i got my first car in 98 i rang quinn first and was told £6000!!! Axa which is their sister company is it not? They said £2500 so i of course went with them.
Every year almost i change insurer as it usually get a better deal.. When i switched from axa to Hibernian, hibernian were €600 cheaper. The next year Axa were €300 cheaper and then more recently Quinn were a few hundred cheaper. I just went with quinn and when Axa called me to remind me my policy was overdue i told them Quinn gave me a quote of €600 or so... and they wanted about a grand!!! He did a check and decided he could offer me €900??? Eh what part of Quinn offered me €650 did he not understand? Did he actually expect me to pay more???

Anyway moral is.. ALWAYS check around... and always get a quote from them for new policy too. i have never found it cheaper that way myself.. renewal has always been cheaper but its worth checking.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Saruman wrote:

Its always hit and miss.. when i got my first car in 98 i rang quinn first and was told £6000!!! Axa which is their sister company is it not? They said £2500 so i of course went with them.

Quinn Direct is 100% owned by Sean Quinn AFAIK. Not connected to AXA.

godtabh

Just another update. I paid for my cheaper insurance yesterday with a c/c only to find out when I get home Quinn sent me a letter offering me even cheaper insurance.

Took my half an hour to explain to the lady from Quinn the story and then another half hour to honor the cheap insurance. ****ing joke but they were the cheapest I could get

bmaxi

There is no logic to this insurance business. Mine came up for renewal recently so I shopped around, the cheapest quote I got was from One Direct which was €50 less than the next cheapest (Hibernian) and also offered full comprehensive as opposed to Hibernian's T.P.F & theft. So naturally I go with One Direct, pay the premium, the policy arrives and who is the Underwriter? Hibernian! I'm sure it will make sense to someone.

godtabh

bmaxi wrote:

There is no logic to this insurance business. Mine came up for renewal recently so I shopped around, the cheapest quote I got was from One Direct which was €50 less than the next cheapest (Hibernian) and also offered full comprehensive as opposed to Hibernian's T.P.F & theft. So naturally I go with One Direct, pay the premium, the policy arrives and who is the Underwriter? Hibernian! I'm sure it will make sense to someone.

How does that work? Are Quinn just a very large scale broker?

ArphaRima

I went mental a while back at quinn.
By misspelling my name and saying I lived next door, the online booking system offered me a quote 500 euro cheaper than my renewal. It took one hour of arguing in their head office with gradually increasing managerial ranks to get my quote.

zAbbo

Roundtower2 wrote:

fairly standard dodgy practice.

It's not actually, as they are giving a greater discount for the new quote. The quote you got was a new business quote versus a renewal quote.

Insurance companies give a greater discount for new business.

galah

just an update: shopped around, got Hibernian to drop their price by 40 Euro, the got a quote for even less by another company (told them that I'd switch if they stay below the price quoted by Hibernian).

Paying 300 Euros/year now ;-) Happy days!