A guide to motor insurance & FAQ's

candle_wax

Hi everyone - have a quick renewal question I'm hoping you can help me with. I've used Chill for the past few years and generally been happy with them. Got renewal in post - they're recommending same insurer as I currently have (Axa), but comprehensive premium has gone up from ~€680 for past year to €1,050. But when I go to the Axa website and enter my details, I get a comprehensive premium of ~€750 for the same info (myself + 3 named drivers). I'm just curious: is there any reason that lower premium wouldn't be valid? Or why would there be such a gap between the two Axa prices? (I'm away so haven't got to look at the Chill quote in full, just got the price, so there could be minor differences, in excess, etc, but I don't think they'd justify that difference. Both comprehensive, + 3 named drivers, No claims of 6 years). Just would like to be aware of any obvious pitfalls/problems before I call them next week!

Also, I'm considering a new car over the coming months. I remember needing to modify my Chill policy in the past and they charged €50 admin fee (for adding new driver). If you deal with insurers directly do they charge fees for amending policy mid year? I don't remember it when I changed cars a few years back and was with Liberty.

Thanks!

cplwhisper

Axa broker have 50% ncb scale and Axa direct have 75% scale so ...

2000 gross less 50% = 1000 premium
2000 gross less 75% = 500 premium

Thus 500 saving !!!

Be sure the questions you answered at correct and are the same answers that Axa Broker were given.
I see daily customers coming in to swap and when quote is reviewed then we realise - new quote data says kids live away from home, they have advance driving courses done and sometimes the kids have their own cars... Those factors generate rate discounts but when asked the parents answer differently.

Be sure the data matches, if in doubt call to an Axa branch and the staff can review the Internet quote with you. There's 40+ Axa branches so u must be near 1 at least

Enjoy

Auburn_

Great Post. I have a few queries about my recent car insurance.

My car was vandalised last Sept and it was an economical right off. May I stress here that this claim was due to no fault of my own. It was vandalism of a random passer by on the road that my car was parked and set the back rear light unit of my car on fire.

I had fully comp with no past claims on my insurance (full Irish licence for 10yr plus) and had step back protection. I was insured by AIG through Chill Insurance. My car was insured for €3000 and I claimed and got the €3000 to go towards getting another car.

This year when I went to get insurance on my car it increase from €480 to €1200. The reason given was that I had a claim on my car last year.

And my no claims bonus went from 5yr to 3yr NCB even though I had step back protection. The reason for that was because AIG could no get their €3000 from the unknown third party and so now I am penalised!

I felt like I was being taken for a ride here!!!

I went around to other insurance companies but they wouldn't even consider insuring me when I mentioned that I had a claim last year!

I have 5 days left of my 14day cooling off period to change my insurance. What leg do I have to stand on to A) get my insurance reduced or get my full no claims bonus back?

Thanks for you help in advance.

Liam McPoyle

Auburn_ wrote: »

Great Post. I have a few queries about my recent car insurance.

My car was vandalised last Sept and it was an economical right off. May I stress here that this claim was due to no fault of my own. It was vandalism of a random passer by on the road that my car was parked and set the back rear light unit of my car on fire.

I had fully comp with no past claims on my insurance (full Irish licence for 10yr plus) and had step back protection. I was insured by AIG through Chill Insurance. My car was insured for €3000 and I claimed and got the €3000 to go towards getting another car.

This year when I went to get insurance on my car it increase from €480 to €1200. The reason given was that I had a claim on my car last year.

And my no claims bonus went from 5yr to 3yr NCB even though I had step back protection. The reason for that was because AIG could no get their €3000 from the unknown third party and so now I am penalised!

I felt like I was being taken for a ride here!!!

I went around to other insurance companies but they wouldn't even consider insuring me when I mentioned that I had a claim last year!

I have 5 days left of my 14day cooling off period to change my insurance. What leg do I have to stand on to A) get my insurance reduced or get my full no claims bonus back?

Thanks for you help in advance.

What did you think step back protection ment?

Some insurers treat malicious damage claims the same as accidental damage or third party claims, ie they impact your bonus if you don't have full NCB protection. Some insurers treat malicious damage the same as fire and theft claims, ie as non fault and it doesn't effect your bonus. My own personal opinion is that penalising people for non fault claims, no matter what they are, is grossly unfair but that's a story for another day.

Are you saying that not a single other company would quote you because you had a €3000 claims last year because I find that very hard to believe.

Had you any other claims in the last 5 years?

candle_wax

cplwhisper wrote: »

Axa broker have 50% ncb scale and Axa direct have 75% scale so ...

2000 gross less 50% = 1000 premium
2000 gross less 75% = 500 premium

Thus 500 saving !!!

Be sure the questions you answered at correct and are the same answers that Axa Broker were given.
I see daily customers coming in to swap and when quote is reviewed then we realise - new quote data says kids live away from home, they have advance driving courses done and sometimes the kids have their own cars... Those factors generate rate discounts but when asked the parents answer differently.

Be sure the data matches, if in doubt call to an Axa branch and the staff can review the Internet quote with you. There's 40+ Axa branches so u must be near 1 at least

Enjoy

Ah great, thanks! Will call them next week

Auburn_

Saul T Nutzz wrote: »

What did you think step back protection ment?

Some insurers treat malicious damage claims the same as accidental damage or third party claims, ie they impact your bonus if you don't have full NCB protection. Some insurers treat malicious damage the same as fire and theft claims, ie as non fault and it doesn't effect your bonus. My own personal opinion is that penalising people for non fault claims, no matter what they are, is grossly unfair but that's a story for another day.

Are you saying that not a single other company would quote you because you had a €3000 claims last year because I find that very hard to believe.

Had you any other claims in the last 5 years?

No other claims in the last 5years.
I had full step back protection for my NCB.

Liam McPoyle

Auburn_ wrote: »

No other claims in the last 5years.
I had full step back protection for my NCB.

Full step back is contradictory.

Full NCB protection means you can make one fault claim in a particular period of time that will not effect your bonus at all.

Step back means that if you make a fault claim then you will lose part of the bonus, ie it will be stepped back.

Sounds like you were stepped back by two years which is common.

I'd suggest ringing them an querying it with them.

As I said in my last posts, a lot of insurers will not regard malicious damage as a fault claim.

Its possible that the bonus was reduced in error.

Other than that there isn't much you can do I'm afraid.

Auburn_

Saul T Nutzz wrote: »

Full step back is contradictory.

Full NCB protection means you can make one fault claim in a particular period of time that will not effect your bonus at all.

Step back means that if you make a fault claim then you will lose part of the bonus, ie it will be stepped back.

Sounds like you were stepped back by two years which is common.

I'd suggest ringing them an querying it with them.

As I said in my last posts, a lot of insurers will not regard malicious damage as a fault claim.

Its possible that the bonus was reduced in error.

Other than that there isn't much you can do I'm afraid.

Thanks Saul T Nutzz
They mentioned because AIG didn't get their €3,000 back off of a third party I was penalised by them taking the 2 years off of me! So if someone drove into me and they got their €3,000 off of them I would have been much better off!!

It could have been in the finest of fine print in my insurance contract but I hope you are right and that it was a mistake. I'll ring them again and make sure there wasn't an error.

I really appreciate all the help here and I'll let you know what comes of my phone call back to them. ðŸ‘

Liam McPoyle

Auburn_ wrote: »

Thanks Saul T Nutzz
They mentioned because AIG didn't get their €3,000 back off of a third party I was penalised by them taking the 2 years off of me! So if someone drove into me and they got their €3,000 off of them I would have been much better off!!

It could have been in the finest of fine print in my insurance contract but I hope you are right and that it was a mistake. I'll ring them again and make sure there wasn't an error.

I really appreciate all the help here and I'll let you know what comes of my phone call back to them. ðŸ‘

No problem.

Its very very harsh for them to penalise you for it and I'm struggling to figure out their logic.

Like if someone burned you car out deliberately, that's a malicious damage claim. Its also a fire claim but the fire was started maliciously so logic would dictate that it would impact a persons bonus if they had step back bonus protection. However the general rule of thumb is that fire or theft claims don't effect the bonus.

Do you mind me asking what kind of malicious damage it was?

I'm guessing if the vehicle was a total write off as a result of it there must have been a corrosive substance involved.

Liam McPoyle

Just re-read your first post, it was malicious damage as a result of a deliberate fire. Pretty disgusting carry on from AIG.

Jason 5pu45

Hi
My car suffered an attempted burglary during the week.
Door locks were broken and car was scratched.
I got an estimate of 1600e for repair from insurers recommended garage.
I can get it done privately with a mate for about 400e.
insurance company has said that as it is a theft issue it will not affect my no claims policy in any way.
furthermore they say that my premium will not be affected by making this claim.
I'm a bit cynical about this-so has anyone been in a similar situation??
Do I proceed with claim or would I be better paying out of my own pocket??

Thanks

Liam McPoyle

Jason 5pu45 wrote: »

Hi
My car suffered an attempted burglary during the week.
Door locks were broken and car was scratched.
I got an estimate of 1600e for repair from insurers recommended garage.
I can get it done privately with a mate for about 400e.
insurance company has said that as it is a theft issue it will not affect my no claims policy in any way.
furthermore they say that my premium will not be affected by making this claim.
I'm a bit cynical about this-so has anyone been in a similar situation??
Do I proceed with claim or would I be better paying out of my own pocket??

Thanks

Most insurers do not penalise policy holders for non fault claims ie theft or attempted theft.

If they are happy to pay €1600 to get the repairs done then imo you would be foolish to pay for it yourself.

This is after all why you pay insurance.

Special Circumstances

AIG are one of the insurers that WILL NOT give quotes if

You (and any other driver of the car you wish to insure) Have been involved in any accident or claim, regardless of blame, in the past 5 years.

They are not the only insurer at this.

So technically you may not be loaded for it.... because some of them won't quote you AT ALL.

_Tombstone_

It's got to the stage where unless you drive something snazzy, one should just look for third party insurance.

Special Circumstances

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

It's got to the stage where unless you drive something snazzy, one should just look for third party insurance.

Some will charge you more for that. I saw 1400 for comp, 1600 tpft. .... 2200 for tp only. Gas Craic altogether.

Jason 5pu45

Thanks for all the help, I have spoken with an assessor who now assesses injury claims but was in the motor business until recently.
He had some very helpful and worrying information.
He advised me not to go through insurance as any premium increase they put on me they could put down to market fluctuation.
Either way they would have me by the ball's, one thing he said for sure is that they were not going to lose out.

He went on to tell me that these companies actually want you to claim and I must be honest when I rang to cancel my claim with my insurer, they
tried to talk me out it.

This is all a part of their plan, they need a certain amount of claims to justify the premium increases.
This guy reckons car insurance will be the next Irish Water if you know what I mean.He got out of it because he sees a lot more hikes on the way -this is just the beginning.

Sue Pa Key Pa

Jason 5pu45 wrote: »

He went on to tell me that these companies actually want you to claim and I must be honest when I rang to cancel my claim with my insurer, they
tried to talk me out it.

This is all a part of their plan, they need a certain amount of claims to justify the premium increases.

I've seen some shlte on this topic on Boards but this takes the biscuit. A good claims handler has told you he will process your claim without your premium being affected and you think it is a big conspiracy theory. And your insurer is using you for their evil devices by agreeing to pay you for an incident covered by your policy??

Jason 5pu45

Sue Pa Key Pa wrote: »

I've seen some shlte on this topic on Boards but this takes the biscuit. A good claims handler has told you he will process your claim without your premium being affected and you think it is a big conspiracy theory. And your insurer is using you for their evil devices by agreeing to pay you for an incident covered by your policy??

Sorry I don't remember you giving any advice when I put my query on line on Saturday.Your entitled to your opinion.The information I got was given to me by a person who worked in the Motor Insurance industry for years.This I know to be a fact as I used to get Insurance with the company he assessed for.

He has no interest in this either way, it was just his advice.
going by your name I'd say you're either a girl in which case car insurance shouldn't really be topic of interest as you get very affordable insurance those of us with a penis can only dream of, or your very confused about your sexuality

Sue Pa Key Pa

Jason 5pu45 wrote: »

Sorry I don't remember you giving any advice when I put my query on line on Saturday.Your entitled to your opinion.The information I got was given to me by a person who worked in the Motor Insurance industry for years.This I know to be a fact as I used to get Insurance with the company he assessed for.

He has no interest in this either way, it was just his advice.
going by your name I'd say you're either a girl in which case car insurance shouldn't really be topic of interest as you get very affordable insurance those of us with a penis can only dream of, or your very confused about your sexuality

Well, that escalated quickly

Jason 5pu45

Sue Pa Key Pa wrote: »

Well, that escalated quickly

My apologies It wasn't meant to be sexuality in there it was meant to be sex - bloody pred
Anyhow I asked them to put in writing that my premium wouldn't be affected and they wouldn't or couldn't.
ps I didn't come on here seeking a row just opinions on what to do.
good luck to you

Sue Pa Key Pa

Jason 5pu45 wrote: »

My apologies It wasn't meant to be sexuality in there it was meant to be sex - bloody pred
Anyhow I asked them to put in writing that my premium wouldn't be affected and they wouldn't or couldn't.
ps I didn't come on here seeking a row just opinions on what to do.
good luck to you

No, I think you said exactly what you meant. As for blaming predictive text for changing "confused about your sex" to "confused about your sexuality", yeah you read much better now

Jason 5pu45

Sue Pa Key Pa wrote: »

No, I think you said exactly what you meant. As for blaming predictive text for changing "confused about your sex" to "confused about your sexuality", yeah you read much better now

I think you thought I said exactly what I meant but there's every possibility that what I said wasn't meant but just it just suits you think that way

Special Circumstances

When an insurer says "no non standard audio equipment" do they mean nothing beyond factory options? Or do they just mean a kinda vague "nothing outlandish"? And why couldn't they say that if so? Would I be allowed fit an mp3 capable head unit, but only if I disabled the factory fit subwoofer, quid pro quo Clarice?


When an insurer says "No VTEC", do they mean all VTEC? Like a 1.8 SOHC VTEC old man spec Accord? Is there a reason they have picked out this particular flavour of variable valve technology and specifically prohibited it in the terms conditions and assumptions that you must confirm you have read and understood?

Or do they mean something completely different to the actual meaning of the words they have chosen to use on the website?

Staph

Jason 5pu45 wrote: »

Sorry I don't remember you giving any advice when I put my query on line on Saturday.Your entitled to your opinion.The information I got was given to me by a person who worked in the Motor Insurance industry for years.This I know to be a fact as I used to get Insurance with the company he assessed for.

He has no interest in this either way, it was just his advice.
going by your name I'd say you're either a girl in which case car insurance shouldn't really be topic of interest as you get very affordable insurance those of us with a penis can only dream of, or your very confused about your sexuality

The rates for men and women are the same, as they cannot discriminate due to gender. But don't let that get in the way of having a dig at women. :rolleyes:

Save

Jason 5pu45

Staph wrote: »

The rates for men and women are the same, as they cannot discriminate due to gender. But don't let that get in the way of having a dig at women. :rolleyes:

Save

So its 4women.ie would quote the same for men??

Liam McPoyle

Jason 5pu45 wrote: »

So its 4women.ie would quote the same for men??

Yep, risk equalisation came in a few years ago on an EU directive meaning that gender can no longer be used as a rating factor as in insurers cannot charge a man more simply because he is a man.

Jason 5pu45

Saul T Nutzz wrote: »

Yep, risk equalisation came in a few years ago on an EU directive meaning that gender can no longer be used as a rating factor as in insurers cannot charge a man more simply because he is a man.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/motorinsurance/11521781/Men-are-still-charged-more-than-women-for-car-insurance-despite-EU-rule-change.html

Special Circumstances

Jason 5pu45 wrote: »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/motorinsurance/11521781/Men-are-still-charged-more-than-women-for-car-insurance-despite-EU-rule-change.html

Explains some astronomical quotes I got when I picked what I thought was a nice safe career by well educated risk averse people - electronic engineer LOADS a quote with Liberty like you wouldn't believe. I'm assuming it's pretty much a sausage fest.

Jason 5pu45

Saul T Nutzz wrote: »

Yep, risk equalisation came in a few years ago on an EU directive meaning that gender can no longer be used as a rating factor as in insurers cannot charge a man more simply because he is a man.

My partner can get her insurance 200e cheaper despite the fact that I am driving 5 years longer

Special Circumstances

In my desperation to avoid spam and annoying phone calls when searching for quotes, I lob any oul rubbish into the "non loading" fields.

In this modern gender fluid, risk equalised age it seems odd to reject a quote for "Miss Axa Meebollix, Male". Your sex must match your chosen pronoun anyway. Can't remember which insurer that was, I don't make a habit of pretending to be a laaady on the internet.