Insurance hike of 56.6%!!!!!! with Zurich

nayorleck114

My wife got her renewal quote today from zurich. The insurance jumped from 318 to 498.25 euros! Yes 56.6%, I could not believe it, she has made no claims, and drives a small polo worth 10K and only around the town for Shopping and kids. What makes it worse is that I have a car worth twice hers and only paid 420 with Qdirect.

Anyway I went online to try and get a better quote and 2 other insurance companies gave the exact same quantity 498 euros, seems very fishy. Is there a cosy conspiracy to keep all premiums high? On RTE they said premiums were on average 20% higher, well they must have their facts wrong.

oldyouth

nayorleck114 wrote: »

My wife got her renewal quote today from zurich. The insurance jumped from 318 to 498.25 euros! Yes 56.6%, I could not believe it, she has made no claims, and drives a small polo worth 10K and only around the town for Shopping and kids. What makes it worse is that I have a car worth twice hers and only paid 420 with Qdirect.

Anyway I went online to try and get a better quote and 2 other insurance companies gave the exact same quantity 498 euros, seems very fishy. Is there a cosy conspiracy to keep all premiums high? On RTE they said premiums were on average 20% higher, well they must have their facts wrong.

It shouldn't have gone up that much without reason. Zurich's renewal notice usually gives a breakdown with basic, loadings, NCB etc so check that those are correct. Were there any alterations during the year such as additional drivers, change of car etc

nayorleck114

No, No changes at all, no claims, no contact with them until the renewal notice arrived.

Toots

I got mine from Zurich last week too, last year's premium was €323, this year's was €495. No claims or accidents or anything like that to make it jump. When I rang them to query it, they just said prices were going up across the board this year. When I enquired could they improve on the price at all, I got a flat out 'no', first time it's ever happened when I've phoned about a renewal quote.

I shopped around and the cheapest I got was through the AA, with RSA and it's €423 for the year. I got a quote off Glennon for €395, but the cover wasn't as comprehensive as what I had, whereas the AA/RSA one was better cover than what I'd had before so I went with it.

From chatting to friends/family etc about car insurance prices, they all seem to be saying the same thing, prices have definitely gone up by more than 20%.

OP, I've found sometimes if you ring the brokers/companies instead of using the online service, the quotes can come out cheaper, despite many offering a discount for buying online.

100gSoma

My car insurance jumped from 869euro to 1300euro approx 50% for NO REASON.
I was quite annoyed as you can imagine. I rang the Insurer to find out why. They said "It's just the market" etc etc. I thought 50% of a jump was not justifiable. I rang the Irish Insurance Federation and gave them all the details. 2 weeks later the problem was resolved and I paid the same premium as last year.

gpjordanf1

it's not just the market, sadly to say, you see alot of wealthy people lost alot of money over the last couple of years, including shareholders in insurance companies who invested in the stock market. Now it's our duty to reimburse these wealthy people as they cannot lose their status in hard times. We have to pay for these mistakes. Exactly the same with the banks. And guess what we as a people will bend over and take it as usual, grumble a little bit and just forget it.

mandz

Same story here!! My insurance was 485 last year with them incl. NCP but it jumped to over 600 this year. When I phoned to query why it had gone up despite the fact I hadn't claimed for anything all the guy could tell me was that I had signed up for an introductory offer which I know I hadn't. I shopped around and the best quote I got was with 123.ie and I would recommend you try them, my friend also switched from Allianz to them as her insurance went up over 40%.

flatpack

mine last year was 430 TP only, this year it came 633, got from nononsence 314 same tp only, may be ring around to get better price.

leeroybrown

It's pretty simple. Most insurance companies have increased their premiums across the board because of the amount of money they lost in the markets. They also appear to have re-calculated their risk groups extensively so an insurer who once offered you great value (you were a low risk) is now offering you a poor quote (you're now a high risk). The majority of people I know have been given an increased renewal quote. Shop around as there will probably be another insurer out there who's willing to give you a good quote.

Anyone who isn't getting at least four or five quotes every time they have to renew is asking to be ripped off.

Keith186

nayorleck114 wrote: »

My wife got her renewal quote today from zurich. The insurance jumped from 318 to 498.25 euros! Yes 56.6%, I could not believe it, she has made no claims, and drives a small polo worth 10K and only around the town for Shopping and kids. What makes it worse is that I have a car worth twice hers and only paid 420 with Qdirect.

Anyway I went online to try and get a better quote and 2 other insurance companies gave the exact same quantity 498 euros, seems very fishy. Is there a cosy conspiracy to keep all premiums high? On RTE they said premiums were on average 20% higher, well they must have their facts wrong.

Maybe €495 might be the new minimum premium or something, they usually have a bottom line and anything below this gets jumped up to the new minimum whether it's 20% or 60%.

I was reading in the Indo or Times a while back that there's generally a lot more claims in a recession as now people are claiming for small things they wouldn't have bothered claiming before, it's a well known trend and that's why the prices are going up also, as well as other reason given above that they lost/made less money in investments so will be looking for a better result on underwriting margins.

BobbyD10

Would agree with what Keith said.

My insurance is with Quinn, was €320 last year and that has remained unchanged(third party).

However, decided to fully comp, and is € 415.

Alun

My policy with RSA from the AA went up from €358 to €447 as well this year. Rang around but couldn't get anything better. Seems to be increases all round with all the companies.

patbrady877

Were or are any of ye insured through 123.ie? Zurich were the underwriters for 123 (nearly all 123 business was placed through Zurich). What that means is:

Lets save Zurichs average premium was 500, the broker would go to the insurer and buy a bulk of cover, the broker would get a discount (as you do) from the above average figure to lets say an average premium of 350, and 123 then sell it on to you - hence the cheap premium

From what I can gather, 123 no longer use Zurich and now use Travelers Insurance. Zurich are your 'holding insurer' so they are entitled to issue you with renewal terms, which come with higher premiums.

Have many switched to Travelers?