A guide to motor insurance & FAQ's

pudzey101

Hey guys who is currently the cheapest / most competitive insurance company ?

oldyouth

stoneill wrote: »

Royal Sun Alliance are competitive - would you insure with them?

In a heartbeat.

I don't mean to be personal but you don't seem to know much about business in general and insurance in particular

absolutegroove

I have been out of the country three years (living in Middle East) and have moved back to Ireland and looking around for car insurance.

I did have car insurance in the Middle East but it's not recognised here.


I've been given a quote of €1900.00 :eek:


I'm 37, male, no claims against me, no penalty points, full UK licence (6 years).

Main reason the insurance companies has said it's so expensive is because of the non-continuation of my no-claims bonus (I did have five years no-claims in Ireland before I left for the Middle East) and that I am not named on any of my families car insurance policies.


Anyone got any ideas?

marcus2000

absolutegroove wrote: »

Main reason the insurance companies has said it's so expensive is because of the non-continuation of my no-claims bonus (I did have five years no-claims in Ireland before I left for the Middle East) and that I am not named on any of my families car insurance policies.


Anyone got any ideas?

You probably fall into the remit of XS Direct, where policyholders aren't rated on their NCB - but it comes with it's own risks where you have to share the cost of any claims with a starting excess of 3k.

MugMugs

absolutegroove wrote: »

I have been out of the country three years (living in Middle East) and have moved back to Ireland and looking around for car insurance.

I did have car insurance in the Middle East but it's not recognised here.


I've been given a quote of €1900.00 :eek:


I'm 37, male, no claims against me, no penalty points, full UK licence (6 years).

Main reason the insurance companies has said it's so expensive is because of the non-continuation of my no-claims bonus (I did have five years no-claims in Ireland before I left for the Middle East) and that I am not named on any of my families car insurance policies.


Anyone got any ideas?

Employ a good broker or a few of them and explain your situation.

They have more access to the Underwriter than you do by going to an Insurer directly and may be able to wiggle this all down a little bit for you.

bazz26

pudzey101 wrote: »

Hey guys who is currently the cheapest / most competitive insurance company ?

There is no cheapest/most competitive insurance company for everyone. It depends too much on the individual and their circumstances. One insurance company could be cheap for me but could very expensive for you. There is no shortcut when it comes to shopping around for insurance, you will need to contact all of them for their best price and play them off each other.

stoneill

oldyouth wrote: »

In a heartbeat.

I don't mean to be personal but you don't seem to know much about business in general and insurance in particular

I know enough to see when dodgy dealings and underhand actions are taking place.
But lets get back to the point - transparency (or lack of) of where your premium goes. Most people here are happy to shell out on what they see as a good deal, Irish people are conditioned to pay higher prices for everything without question, and insurance companies are happy to provide us with the service we deserve.

oldyouth

stoneill wrote: »

But lets get back to the point - transparency (or lack of) of where your premium goes..

Insurance companies release annual accounts that disclose their income, claims, wages, light, heat, profit etc. I don't see where you are going with this conspiracy theory.

Are you suggesting that there should be a cap on the profit an insurer makes or that you would be happy to pay an additional premium during the year if the insurer makes a loss????

JJJJNR

ok so had a serious accident yesterday, no other cars involved, just came off the road which was wet it was 6am. looks like my car is bit worst for wear but is driving, its all frontal cosmetic damage and nothing to the chassis or engine, major issue is the price to repair, which is a scary 2.5k for parts only.. ehich could be a bit much for ins co, ive yet to hear from them its 123.ie. i'd like to repair it and chalk it down to exp.. my first accident in 15 yr driving. I just dont want to be f***ed over. had bonus protection. fully comp ins.

MugMugs

Who got the quote? Yourself or 123?

JJJJNR

I got the quote, 123 haven't came back with anything yet.

MugMugs

Bad form.

Presuming that you don't have the cash to lamp out on repairs it's generally a case of he who shouts the loudest gets heard.

If it was me and if i needed my motor go get about with no alternatives available, I'd be quite literally stalking the claims handler in RSA until my claim gathered some traction. Failing that, I'd start sending in the written complaints.

JJJJNR

Ok have been thinking about this, I can afford the repairs myself, but not sure I want to be forking out much money on a high mileage car w/175k, the repair work is largly bolt on, no work on sus or engine, everything ok.

my next big expense was going to be the clutch, and a few other bits needed doing also, which I had money put away for.

I am fully comp and have 123.ie's bonus protection, so I think I can't move ins co's if I want to, at the moment I'm only paying 380 or something. Someone mentioned I should just take the write off amount and get a new car because I'm going to be screwed no matter what I do and at least if im in a newer car that does not need much work done I'm better off.

So if I decided to take a write off amount, I could possibly throw the couple of quid in I had put away and be in a nice position for a bargain hunt.

so confused but does this sound like the logical thing to do, everyone I talk to is split on this.

peteb2

Whats the market value of your car? Yes you will be stuck with 123 even with the protected bonus. Already you were looking at a 12% increase with RSA and now they just shored up a €100m accounts whole you are probably looking a bigger rate increase regardless of your no claims status.

jiltloop

My insurance is up for renewal, I'm currently with 123.ie and my last policy cost 520.00 fully comp for the year, they have emailed me with a renewal price of over 880.00!! I understand they have increased their prices but surely this is a massive increase considering nothing has changed except I have a longer no claims bonus! It's an increase of almost 60%

Has anyone had a similar experience?

magic123

jiltloop wrote: »

My insurance is up for renewal, I'm currently with 123.ie and my last policy cost 520.00 fully comp for the year, they have emailed me with a renewal price of over 880.00!! I understand they have increased their prices but surely this is a massive increase considering nothing has changed except I have a longer no claims bonus! It's an increase of almost 60%

Has anyone had a similar experience?

mine last year was fully comp 500 .this year got renewal for only 1250 .so moved to aig ,paying 400

wayniebum

Hi should i mention to the insurance company about a claim on a different policy?

MugMugs

wayniebum wrote: »

Hi should i mention to the insurance company about a claim on a different policy?

Was the claim against / relevant to you and is the other policy yours?

If so, yes.

absolutegroove

Shiny Christmas Mugs wrote: »

Employ a good broker or a few of them and explain your situation.

They have more access to the Underwriter than you do by going to an Insurer directly and may be able to wiggle this all down a little bit for you.

Thanks for the advice.

Got car insurance down from €1900.00 to €850.00 (fully comp, breakdown, home start etc and full windscreen cover included)

Lawnmo

Hey. Should claiming for a spare wheel stolen from your van affect your no claims bonus? Im with FBD.

Cheers

oldyouth

Lawnmo wrote: »

Hey. Should claiming for a spare wheel stolen from your van affect your no claims bonus? Im with FBD.

Cheers

Unless you have Bonus Protection, it probably will. It is likely to be under your claims excess too

Cleveland Hot Pocket

oldyouth wrote: »

Unless you have Bonus Protection, it probably will. It is likely to be under your claims excess too

Exactly, wouldn't be claiming for it if it were me tbh

Lawnmo

ugh........Cheers folks. Thought it would. Someone said anything stolen worth under a few hundred quid wouldn't count. Gutted

Liam McPoyle

Lawnmo, FBD do not apply any excess for third party, fire or theft claims.

Fire or theft claims also have no effect on your NCB so you should be covered provided the general terms and conditions were adhered to - the van was locked etc.

Lawnmo

Cheers Coleman. I'll bear that in mind for the future. Ended up going out and picking a wheel up today. Traded an oul roof rack that was lying around for it. Cheers again

elleelle19

Got my renewal from 123.ie and it has increased by 42% from last year. quickly checked a couple of sites, chill etc and got higher quote than last year too. What is going on? :eek:

Liam McPoyle

RSA Ireland, who 123 are owned by, had to get an injection of €100,000,000 a couple of weeks ago due to financial irregularities in their claims reserves.

123's business model of high volume, low margin is finally catching up with them.

They have taken on a huge amount of business over the last number of years in order to get market share. Taking on that amount of business means you will have to pay out alot of claims.

When they are taking in lower premiums per policy than the average company, but paying out the same level of compensation per claim as the average company, eventually it catches up.

Instead of consolidating their position and getting their rates right for the good, existing business, they were greedy and were offering fully comp for something ridiculous like €220 if the criteria were met.

Also, this time of year rates traditionally tend to harden anyway which is why you are getting higher prices with other providers.

Finally, the risk equalisation ruling (women cant get cheaper insurance based solely on gender) has been in effect since 01/01/2013.

Liam McPoyle

Just on 123.ie

I see today that one of the top bananas resigned due to the problems in the Irish wing of RSA, their share price dropped a whopping 16% and a further £130,000,000 sterling has been injected into it.

123 customers should prepare for whopper increases when they get their renewal notices.

As someone that has come up against 123 when quoting customers countless times, and has tried to explain to the public just why they were so cheap, I can't help but snigger at the current revelations.

oldyouth

One less competitive insurer is not good news for the consumer, though I agree RSA brought it on themselves

Liam McPoyle

Under pricing as they were helps nobody in the long run tbh.