Exchanging another EU licence to Irish licence

pras1729

Hi,

I have just been looking around for quotes from insurance companies. I have a full licence from another EU country (Belgium) for a few years. I noticed from the quotes that the premium on my Belgian licence is around 200 Euro more than an Irish one held for the same time (probably because it's from a right hand traffic country?). I could exchange it for an Irish one, but I was just wondering what would be the starting date on the new Irish licence? Would I just lose those years from my Belgian licence and just end up with an Irish licence that starts from today? In that case, it would be a tricky comparison between the premium for a new Irish licence versus a Belgian licence with some years on it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Supergurrier

/Generic boards unhelpful reply

/Smartarse comment

*Warms up multiquote function and prepares wikipedia links to made up statistics*

*Runs away*

biko

It seems to be a company policy thing.
Some companies will charge extra whereas other won't. For instance 123.ie seems charge a lot more from previous threads.
I suggest you try Aviva and their Ignition course.
Also use brokers and compare sites.

H3llR4iser

Unfortunately, there's nothing to do about it - unless you exchange your license.

Back in October I checked almost all of the companies, and they all had some surcharge for the "non-Irish license" thing (applies to UK licenses as well, nothing do to with left/right hand drive).

In the end I went with AA, which still applied the increase but at a reasonable 90 odd euro.

bmstuff

Even if you had a brand new Irish license there is little chance it is going to be cheaper.
The license origin is not so much the issue, it is the lack of driving history in Ireland that is the issue.
If you had insurance certificates from the last few years in Ireland you would be ok. But sometimes they still charge extra for some reason. Even with equivalent age and non claim bonus...

CiniO

pras1729 wrote: »

Hi,

I have just been looking around for quotes from insurance companies. I have a full licence from another EU country (Belgium) for a few years. I noticed from the quotes that the premium on my Belgian licence is around 200 Euro more than an Irish one held for the same time (probably because it's from a right hand traffic country?). I could exchange it for an Irish one, but I was just wondering what would be the starting date on the new Irish licence? Would I just lose those years from my Belgian licence and just end up with an Irish licence that starts from today? In that case, it would be a tricky comparison between the premium for a new Irish licence versus a Belgian licence with some years on it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Don't worry. Date of obtaining your category (I assume will be copied from your Belgium licence.
So if you passed your test f.e. in 1995, that's what date going to be on your Irish licence. You won't be considered novice driver.

Many Irish insurers charge more on foreign licences as they dont have access to penalty points on them.

CiniO

bmstuff wrote: »

Even if you had a brand new Irish license there is little chance it is going to be cheaper.
The license origin is not so much the issue, it is the lack of driving history in Ireland that is the issue.
If you had insurance certificates from the last few years in Ireland you would be ok. But sometimes they still charge extra for some reason. Even with equivalent age and non claim bonus...

OP should be able to use his NCB certificates from Belgium without any problems.

bmstuff

CiniO wrote: »

Don't worry. Date of obtaining your category (I assume will be copied from your Belgium licence.
So if you passed your test f.e. in 1995, that's what date going to be on your Irish licence. You won't be considered novice driver.

Many Irish insurers charge more on foreign licences as they dont have access to penalty points on them.

You are mistaken, date of licence issued is not proof of driving. You could have passed your licence 30 years ago, have no previous insurance document, non claim bonus etc, you would be considered a novice driver. Foreigner or not. An Irish individual with an irish licence with no driving history will bre considered a novice too even if he passed his licence 30 years ago. Non claim bonus from belgium will bear little impact here too. Insurances will still consider you a novice driver in Ireland in most cases.

CiniO

bmstuff wrote: »

You are mistaken, date of licence issued is not proof of driving.

It's not proof of driving.
But that's not what OP asked for.
He asked if once he swaps his Beligian licence for Irish licence, will his licence still show the original "aquiring licence" date.
Answer is - yes - it will.

How insurers treat it is other thing, but from my experience, unlike to what you are saying, time of holding the licence (time since passed driving test) plays a good bit of role of insurance premium.

You could have passed your licence 30 years ago, have no previous insurance document, non claim bonus etc, you would be considered a novice driver.

Leaving the term "novice driver", your insurance is going to be significently cheaper if you have licence for 30 years, comparing to having licence for 3 months. Even if in both cases you have no previous insurance record.

Non claim bonus from belgium will bear little impact here too. Insurances will still consider you a novice driver in Ireland in most cases.

Why would they?
If OP has a confirmation of 5 years driving without any claims in Belgium, he most like should be able to find insurer here in Ireland that will accept it and treat him the same as someone with 5 years NCB earned in Ireland.

Don't mislead OP for no reason.