A guide to motor insurance & FAQ's

Having seen my mates over the last few years put up with the insurance nightmare of being a male in their early 20s I was wondering what it'll be like for me next year at 26 with no driving experience. Would I be able to get a reasonable quote for something "high-powered" (I know, I know!) along the lines of a 3 series?

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Having seen my mates over the last few years put up with the insurance nightmare of being a male in their early 20s I was wondering what it'll be like for me next year at 26 with no driving experience. Would I be able to get a reasonable quote for something "high-powered" (I know, I know!) along the lines of a 3 series?

Well I started driving around this time last year. At 24, my insurance worked out at 1,309 for a 1.4 Focus (2000), but I swapped over to a 1.8 Rav4 (2004) three months into my policy.

Price jumped up a bit so my overall cost was 1,609 (but I don't know if it would cost me more if I had owned the Rav from day one, or if 1609 only covers 9 months of the rav.

HiGlo

Hi there,
not sure if this is the best place to post this, or where...?!
Anyway, I had a single car incident last week. It was pretty minor although the front tyres on my car are completely fooked and apparently the clutch box too. Anyway, in speaking with my insurance company it came up about my NCT and it expired during the year... This is a hiccup as they are saying they can't confirm the claim until their assessor looks at the car and deems it roadworthy or not. On top of this I got 2 penalty points a couple of months ago but never thought to report it to my insurance co. I thought I just do that at time of renewal. Somebody I spoke to today said, no I should have declared it immediately....
Given that there is no other car/company for my insurance to claim from, I'm wondering what are the chances of the insurance company doing their best not to pay out??? Does anyone have any experience with this? This is my first time to make any kind of claim on any insurance.... (I really screwed myself over on this one though!!! :rolleyes: )

I'm so stressed over this but trying not to think about it too much!!


Oh and, my colleague told me today that her brother is a mechanic and his friend owns a body shop. Would it be worth me sending them out to have a look at my car?? Or is there little can be done if insurance deem it unroadworthy (which they shouldn't as it's an 07 Focus in good knick with 2 brand new front tyres!)

Esel

MugMugs wrote: »

There's certain Defenders considered Agri.

PTO only? [PTO = Power Take-Off]

And probably not insured if carrying a load of passengers home from a nightclub as opposed to home from the farm.....

Afaik, the only real use for the PTO Land Rover scenario is for an under-17 driver who is not going to take the piss - and who can guarantee that?

Liam McPoyle

rushvalley wrote: »

can any vehicle be insured under farm insurance or does it have to be a jeep/van ?

Farm insurance is a separate thing from ANY class of motor insurance.

Some insurers like FBD have special rates for jeeps that are used strictly for farming purposes but aside from that all motorised vehicles - cars, tractors, quads etc will need their own policies.

oldyouth

Coleman Slawski wrote: »

Farm insurance is a separate thing from ANY class of motor insurance.

Some insurers like FBD have special rates for jeeps that are used strictly for farming purposes but aside from that all motorised vehicles - cars, tractors, quads etc will need their own policies.

Not true, Aviva and Zurich have specific sections within their Farm Combined policies for tractors, quad, loaders etc and the rates are different to the stand alone policies for the same vehicles

Liam McPoyle

What I ment was that vehicles have to have policies themselves as in having a farm insurance policy doesn't automatically grant cover on particular vehicles.

sebastianlieken

I has question.

If I were to leave Northern Ireland and return to the Republic with 1 year and 8 months NCB, would a prospective insurer only recognise that I have 1 years NCB, or will they account for 1 year and 8 months?

It would be a shame to lose 8 months worth!

Liam McPoyle

Insurance has to be for a full 12 months for it to count towards a bonus. Some companies many make exceptions if you had say over 11 months but with only 8, not a hope afraid.

marcus2000

sebastianlieken wrote: »

?

It would be a shame to lose 8 months worth!

They will just go with whatever is your NCB cert that your insurer will issue, when you cancel. It will just be one years claim free, in this instance.

sebastianlieken

Coleman Slawski wrote: »

Insurance has to be for a full 12 months for it to count towards a bonus. Some companies many make exceptions if you had say over 11 months but with only 8, not a hope afraid.

marcus2000 wrote: »

They will just go with whatever is your NCB cert that your insurer will issue, when you cancel. It will just be one years claim free, in this instance.

ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

SureYWouldntYa

Probably been said before but insurance as a provisional driver is ridiculous

Last year, i got insured on the parents car, a 1.9 05 Octavia, for €120 a month, or €1300 for the year. Used it to learn to drive during the summer and was fine, was only insured for 3 months. Hadn't all the lessons done in time, and since i moved away for college and that was priority i never went near the test.

A cousin decided to upgrade, so i bought her 1.4 01 Golf for €700. I thought since i got that price on a much bigger car, by becoming a named driver on the parents policy on this car it would be a similar or even lower price. Quotes ranged from 2500-5000. They said the age of the car affected the quotes. This being a car that never had a problem with NCT or in general. Just can't fathom the ridiculous prices. How is anyone supposed to start off ? Will i need to have a full license and be 25 before it's near affordable.

polo644

Hi , I was in an accident in Oct last year, its all a bit messy but ultimately I went through a stop sign and another driver went into the side of me, low speed impact but his car was written off. No-one was injured and the other driver commented a couple of times " sure no-one was hurt and we can both walk away".
MY wifes insurance was up in Nov and we were changing insurance companies so I contacted mine to see how claim was going and they told me all was settled just waiting on receipts for damage to mine, broker accepted this but told me not to drive wifes car till paperwork came through. I rang on numerous occasions and last week I was told I would be getting the letter in a week or so.
Then Yesterday I got a letter from solicitor for other driver stating he is now putting in an injury claim against me and asking me to send them a letter claiming liability for the accident !
Help !

MugMugs

polo644 wrote: »

asking me to send them a letter claiming liability for the accident !
Help !

Forward it to your Insurance company straight away and let them deal with this.

Don't correspond with the other persons Solicitor.

peteb2

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

Probably been said before but insurance as a provisional driver is ridiculous

Last year, i got insured on the parents car, a 1.9 05 Octavia, for €120 a month, or €1300 for the year. Used it to learn to drive during the summer and was fine, was only insured for 3 months. Hadn't all the lessons done in time, and since i moved away for college and that was priority i never went near the test.

A cousin decided to upgrade, so i bought her 1.4 01 Golf for €700. I thought since i got that price on a much bigger car, by becoming a named driver on the parents policy on this car it would be a similar or even lower price. Quotes ranged from 2500-5000. They said the age of the car affected the quotes. This being a car that never had a problem with NCT or in general. Just can't fathom the ridiculous prices. How is anyone supposed to start off ? Will i need to have a full license and be 25 before it's near affordable.

Why would you have thought that? You were a named driver (i.e. not the main driver) on a vehicle that probably had a full no claims bonus on it. The price for being a named driver is absolutely no benchmark for your own policy.

polo644

MugMugs wrote: »

Forward it to your Insurance company straight away and let them deal with this.

Don't correspond with the other persons Solicitor.

Did that, was thinking as much. Thanks.
Should I look for a solicitor or do you think will it be down to my insurance to represent me ?

RainyDay

polo644 wrote: »

Did that, was thinking as much. Thanks.
Should I look for a solicitor or do you think will it be down to my insurance to represent me ?

Your insurance company won't represent you. They represent themselves. They bear the risk for any payout, so they will manage the claim to their own best interests.

I'm not sure what a solicitor could do for you, as you don't really have any financial interest in the claim.

MugMugs

polo644 wrote: »

Did that, was thinking as much. Thanks.
Should I look for a solicitor or do you think will it be down to my insurance to represent me ?

All litigation will be in your name. They'll instruct a Solicitor to act on your behalf in court should it go that far.

Basically, it's their problem and they'll look after it. All you really need to do at this stage is send any correspondence you recieve regarding the matter to them.

It annoys me that Solicitors (knowing too well that there's an Insurance company involved) write to third parties and request admissions of liability. But that's a discussion for another day.

Long and the short of it anyway is that if this claim had closed it's now reopened and there's a good chance that you're going to be tied to your current insurer until it has been settled.

Insurance companies don't like taking on new customers who have open claims elsewhere.

You may find an insurer willing to quote you based on the reserve held on your claim.

psicic

So, not sure if anyone can give me a steer. I'll be getting advice on the legally bits in the next week or so, (though if anyone's been through something similar, I'd be glad to hear what happened) it's the insurancey bits I'm wondering about.

In October 2012 a drunk/very giddy/idiotic Scottish lad jumped accross in front of my car. I hit his ankle and he fell.

Guards attended scene, he went off to hospital. I didn't report it to my insurance since he admitted liability at scene, the Gardaí were there and when I called to my police station an hour or so later, everything seemed in order and okay. (One of the Gardaí at the scene had even said "Ah, I'll doubt you'll ever hear any more about it.")

Now I get a letter from Scottish solicitors claiming I failed to drive with reasonable care. 21 days to forward to my insurers.

I was driving my Dad's car at the time. I was a named driver on his policy. I had my own separate policy with driving other cars on it. Is there a default on which insurer I should send it to? Is it my Da's NCB that would be affected, or mine.... or both?

(On the legal side - why I say I'll get advice in the next week or so is that I'll probably take it to a solicitor to get advice rather than send it straight to my insurance. The solicitors involved are a giant set of ambulance chasers from Scotland, and I know exactly what they're doing... my insurer will likely just settle immediately. I went to the Guards to check they had the report.... and low and behold, every detail was messed up on the system. According to them they didn't attend the scene, I was the one who reported the accident at a police station I've never even been to and so on... I've no doubt a solicitor will tell me there's nothing we can do, but I'm hoping there may be some technicality.)

peteb2

psicic wrote: »

So, not sure if anyone can give me a steer. I'll be getting advice on the legally bits in the next week or so, (though if anyone's been through something similar, I'd be glad to hear what happened) it's the insurancey bits I'm wondering about.

In October 2012 a drunk/very giddy/idiotic Scottish lad jumped accross in front of my car. I hit his ankle and he fell.

Guards attended scene, he went off to hospital. I didn't report it to my insurance since he admitted liability at scene, the Gardaí were there and when I called to my police station an hour or so later, everything seemed in order and okay. (One of the Gardaí at the scene had even said "Ah, I'll doubt you'll ever hear any more about it.")

Now I get a letter from Scottish solicitors claiming I failed to drive with reasonable care. 21 days to forward to my insurers.

I was driving my Dad's car at the time. I was a named driver on his policy. I had my own separate policy with driving other cars on it. Is there a default on which insurer I should send it to? Is it my Da's NCB that would be affected, or mine.... or both?

(On the legal side - why I say I'll get advice in the next week or so is that I'll probably take it to a solicitor to get advice rather than send it straight to my insurance. The solicitors involved are a giant set of ambulance chasers from Scotland, and I know exactly what they're doing... my insurer will likely just settle immediately. I went to the Guards to check they had the report.... and low and behold, every detail was messed up on the system. According to them they didn't attend the scene, I was the one who reported the accident at a police station I've never even been to and so on... I've no doubt a solicitor will tell me there's nothing we can do, but I'm hoping there may be some technicality.)

First off the claim is under your policy. Your doc extension takes care of that.

Secondly you are getting way ahead of yourself thinking the insurance company will just settle. You have some serious late notification issue to deal with. You ate obliged to report every incident and that would have been a biggy! With the time passed you have prejudiced their position!

Thirdly in light of the above - do not go ahead and engage a solicitor and not inform your insurers! If you had any chance of them dealing with in after point 2 you will blow it with this!

And finally if they do agree to handle it for you, be prepared for them to look to recoup the outlay from you. They tend to be obliged to deal with third party claim regardless of latness but may decide they aren't covering.

RainyDay

peteb2 wrote: »

First off the claim is under your policy. Your doc extension takes care of that.

I heard of cases years back where insurers agreed to share liability in cases where there was coverage under two policies (named driver AND driving other cars). Has this practice stopped?

oldyouth

RainyDay wrote: »

I heard of cases years back where insurers agreed to share liability in cases where there was coverage under two policies (named driver AND driving other cars). Has this practice stopped?

Some policies have wordings in them which state that if you also have cover under another policy, then that other policy must look after the claim.

If BOTH policies covering the incident have that wording, then they usually share the claim

Mighty_Mouse

From your opinion I believe class 1b suits my usage best.is there generally an increase in price for some element of commercial usage.would I be best served asking for normal domestic usage cover.

I have 4years named driver experience but now intend to go it alone for first time.any tips?

scamalert

Need advise,Basically over year and half ago got insured as a named driver with liberty on a third party insurance,month later had a crash where i ended up on opposite lane of road thus getting hit by incoming car.Since road conditions weren't best and it was icy patch that i spun out on. this cost me whole car as it was damaged beyond repair,the car that hit me was basically written off on the spot.

The person that hit me was an old lady probably 70-80s she had initial shock of the accident but recovered,we spoke on the spot and she was asking how i was feeling afterwards etc,still i got an ambulance and she agreed to go to hospital,and was released same day.

gardai arrived inspected the scene and i was told i will be called in for statement.There was no contact from them since that day,went to station couple times and got told if needed ill be called in,that was over year ago.
anyway matters moved on and in couple days the woman got fully paid for her car,few days into the week got informed by insurance that she made a claim for injuries on top :cool: .
since then i had to downgrade car from 2l to 1.3 and wasn't driving for couple months,also accident resulted in my family member losing 3 years ncb,leaving them with 2y.I myself had 1year ncb prior which was already 2 years in at the time and 6 years as named driver.

Fast forward when renewal came in it was almost quadrupole in price almost 3k for 1.3l 12y old car to insure it for a year.Of course got angry and called in to cancel insurance.weeks later tried to get quote for family member from Liberty again the one that i was named driver and got told that they don't deal with people that had an accident in last two years.

To make matters worse claim haven't moved anywhere in over a year,now
im faced with two troubles no company will take me or my family member since the claim remains open,and although i was the one to have an accident insurance ties both drivers to have a claim on their names
Afterwards spoke with insurance company lawyer who handles the claim and got told that claims can remain open for years,and that i cant do nothing with obtaining insurance nor person ,who was main driver on insurance,since then i got only letter for the amount set aside for the claim,but that is no use since numbers are quite high,family member wouldn't be able to get decent quote as they would still be tied to the claim which remain open.

Now sorry for the long story,but is there any options that person who held policy could obtain insurance,i accepted that it was my fault of loosing control of the vehicle,but find it numbing that person who owned the policy has to suffer because of this as well.

oldyouth

When a person puts a named driver on their policy, they put their insurance record on the line at the same time. The policyholder has little option but to stay with their current insurer while a large claim is open and accept their premium. That insurer, however, does not have to accept you as a named driver.

It sounds from your description that you used a family member to front an insurance policy on your behalf and it has now turned sour. Sorry, but that is how it appears

scamalert

honestly that was the case,as i couldn't afford insurance otherwise.Anyway ty for the response.

RainyDay

scamalert wrote: »

honestly that was the case,as i couldn't afford insurance otherwise.Anyway ty for the response.

That's called "insurance fraud".

scamalert

When there's one car and two people sharing it call whatever you like it.

RainyDay

scamalert wrote: »

When there's one car and two people sharing it call whatever you like it.

The insurance proposal forms asks you 'who is the main driver of the car?'.

If you lie, that's insurance fraud.

murfilein

ok, i'm panicking a little bit

i live in an apartment complex with underground parking. there are a lot of stone pillars and you have maneuver through them. today i wasnt paying enough attention and i scratched the back fender, back bumper and the back door on the left side of my car. its not THAT bad, but its really freaking me out. its definitely scratched down to the metal.
its a used car and i own it only for a month, but it was in an absolutely OK condition until today.

so i have a comprehensive insurance with axa. is there anything i can claim?
i know i should talk to them directly, but i dont want them to know until i know whats possible and what not... i'll have it repaired myself if i cant claim anything anyway.