Why is my car insurance so expensive?

winston82

Ive been insured now for 2 years fully comp. I'm 26, male, full Irish licence for 4 months, no penalty points, 2 years no claims. My last insurance was 1100e. I drive a Fiat Punto 1.2 w/ 70,000km. Cars is worth about 1500e roughly.

I shop around this month for a new quote and the best i can get is 850e with the same insurer. I tried most other insurance companies and the best they give me is 960e.

Is this about right? I ask this because it's the first time i'm being insured since i got my full licence and i guess i expected it to be a tad lower:rolleyes:

Any opinions welcome...

(if it's the wrong forum, feel free to move)

um7y1h83ge06nx

That's expensive.

When I passed my test in 2006, I was 23 driving a 1999 1.4 Almera with about 137k miles on the clock, car worth about €1500 or so at the time. Had Third-Party, fire and theft.

That also include NCB protection.

My insurance drops from €1800 to €700 on renewal. Insurance premiums have risen though.

faceman

My understanding with a recession is that insurance claims increase as people become tighter with their cash. In the good times, people are less likely to claim if they can afford to pay for damage themselves. Thus the increase in claims impacts renewal quotes.

johndaman66

winston82 wrote: »

Ive been insured now for 2 years fully comp. I'm 26, male, full Irish licence for 4 months, no penalty points, 2 years no claims. My last insurance was 1100e. I drive a Fiat Punto 1.2 w/ 70,000km. Cars is worth about 1500e roughly.

If I were you I'd be inclined to go for TPF&T cover perhaps. I know when I started driving 7 years ago it would have being a grand extra to go for fully comprehensive cover. Granted the carvan was worth circa 5,000, but even for a cheaper vehicle it would have being a lot extra to go fully comprehensive. Now a girl was telling me a while back that even though her insurance was pretty high it only cost her about 30 euro extra to go fully comprehensive on a car worth the most of 5,000. Point is that there is no consistency between the insurance companies and even up to a third of your premium could be for the comprehensive cover element (based on the way they calculate (rob you) your premium). Also check and in particular if you really want comprehensive cover that they have wrote down the value of your car since the inception on your insurance....I know Quinn Direct didn't with mine. With the value of your car being so low (and not to knock it) I'd be inclined to go TPF&T and take my chances and be careful as possible on the road. Then again as I say fully comprehensive cover may only be a few quid extra so check everything out.

Last renewal time I got covered through a broker who in turn were a bit cheaper than chill.ie, who in turn again were a good bit cheaper than Quinn Direct (who put my insurance renewal premium up even though there were no claims or change in particulars?????). May be well worth picking up the phone and ringing as many as possible. Tell them your best quote and see if they can beat it. You might be pleasantly surprised.

JustAddWater

Hey,

I'm 26 driving with 1 year NCB and have my full licence since october. I got my insurance with 25plus.ie and my insurance NOW is only €650 and is uo for renewal on my birthday in aug. It'll probably be much lower when the quote comes any time soon

Seriously, when I see threads like this I have to reccomend www.25plus.ie

I am in no way connected to them other than the fact I am a VERY happy customer. I got a great deal and their packages include breakdown assistance, windscreen cover and a courtesy car and they only offer fully comp. I can't say what they're like paying out because i've never claimed but in regards everything else they have been fantastic to me over the past year. My 1st quote with quinn was €2k, then after 1 year it dropped t €1500. I got 25plus to give it to me for €750, then they took another €100 off after I passed my test!

Get a quote at the very least! Hopefully you'll get a good deal!

winston82 wrote: »

Ive been insured now for 2 years fully comp. I'm 26, male, full Irish licence for 4 months, no penalty points, 2 years no claims. My last insurance was 1100e. I drive a Fiat Punto 1.2 w/ 70,000km. Cars is worth about 1500e roughly.

I shop around this month for a new quote and the best i can get is 850e with the same insurer. I tried most other insurance companies and the best they give me is 960e.

Is this about right? I ask this because it's the first time i'm being insured since i got my full licence and i guess i expected it to be a tad lower:rolleyes:

Any opinions welcome...

(if it's the wrong forum, feel free to move)

johndaman66

JustAddWater wrote: »

Seriously, when I see threads like this I have to reccomend www.25plus.ie

I just tried for a hypothetical quote there on 25plus.ie and it was working out at over 200 euro more than I paid with my broker last time round (which was 350 euro). Granted it was for comprehensive cover (versus TPF&T with current insurer) but it would appear to me that 25plus.ie do not give you the option of TPF&T or lesser cover. And as for the values of your car the minimum they have in is 10,000 euro or less? Ok, this may suit some people who have a car valued at 10,000 euro or more who want to go comprehensive cover, and rightly so but it would not be the best option for people like me or the OP whose car is worth a nominal amount by comparison. It really depends on your circumstances. When people talk about car insurance I despise statements like x company are the best for you because they quoted me x. That doesn't mean x company are the best option for me as my circumstances are much different to yours.

The above statement is no reflection on you Justaddwater. You didn't say they would be the best, you just recommended them which is fair enough. What I do like about them too is that they allow you put in your years claims free as a named driver for your previous experience and give you credit for it, even though you are now driving under your own name. Not many of the others will actually take it into account if you are driving under your own name for a year or more

Toots

Moved to Motors.

sogood

faceman wrote: »

My understanding with a recession is that insurance claims increase as people become tighter with their cash. In the good times, people are less likely to claim if they can afford to pay for damage themselves. Thus the increase in claims impacts renewal quotes.

Aaaaarrrghhhh!!! This is just one of the "one size fits all" attitude by insurance companies that ticks me off. As mentioned recently in another thread covering male/female insurance costs and differences, any piece of statistical gobbledegook that an insurance company can dream up to justify increased premiums will be applied on a "cross the board" basis. I dont care if we are in a recession or a boom, I personally havent made any claims one way or another, so I feel hard done by being expected to pay for those who have!
Rant over.

modm3

I'd have thought the one and only reason for premiums to go up, is that the insurance companies have taking a pounding in the stock markets with their investments - our premiums. The only way to claw it back in a market of small growth and uncertainty is to jack up the premiums - recession statistic bull crap aside !

If your premium goes up on renewel - fight tooth and nail, you'll get it back down, the amount of people who don't do this and pay up without quibble is far in the majority.

mikemac

When an insurance company has the premium money and they have their reserve fund, they have to invest the money.

More then likely most companies lost huge sums, probably millions in the last 18 months as equity and fund prices collapsed.

Upping your premium is one way to fix this.

Spipov

annoying insurance companies really.

28 years, 2 years ncb, with tesco hibernian for 2 years,

last year i paid 1200 for a 1.6 e36 bmw fully comp,

this year my renewal quote is 1128.

very annoying indeed, needless to say im going to shop around elsewhere.

also, they refuse to insure me on anything above 1.6L. so long hibernian!

cyclopath2001

sogood wrote: »

I personally havent made any claims one way or another, so I feel hard done by being expected to pay for those who have!Rant over.

That's the essence of insurance. The risk is shared.

One way to rebalance the charges towards higher risk customers would be an electronic monitoring system that assesses your driving habits and sets the cost by mileage and other factors. This would avoid age/gender profiling and would be more accurate.

Elessar

Consider yourself lucky.

23 male, 3 years no claims, full licence for 2 years driving a 01 BMW 320ci. My current policy is €1380 with all benefits. The cheapest similar policy I can find now? €2000.

F*ck insurance companies.

vengeance52

Did you try all the brokers? Insure.ie etc Also try Britton Insurance.

Yes all insurance has gone up this year, its a pain. Make sure when your renewing your insurance, to lower the value of your car, has it wont be the same as when you initially took out insurance.

Elessar

Where would I look for actual brokers? The quote of 2k I got was from bestquote.ie

vengeance52

try http://www.goldenpages.ie/search/car_insurance_brokers.html

vibe666

when i came to ireland my g/f and i got an old fiesta (about 1500 quids worth) and it was cheaper for her as a 6 months learner to be the main driver and me just named driver than it was for me me to be the main policy holder having held a full licence for 10 years with no points. must be cos i'm not irish.

may not be entirely relevent, but it might make you feel a little better.

now into our 5th year of insurance and our insurance actually went up slightly this year cos of the recession even with all our no claims.