Moving to NI and insurance

deaglan169

Ive bought a house in NI and hope to be moving in the next 5/6 weeks, i have been looking up insurance costs and they quote very high for a full eu license, i will have held my license for 10 years this august and have 9 years NCB, the sites are quoting me approx £1800 for a 2003 audi a4 1.8t 163bhp valued at 2k, however if i change the license to full uk on sites it drops 1k off quote, i do plan to get a northern license however it seems like it will make no difference to my quote, if i put a quote through with full ni license held for less than a year with 9 years ncb it still quotes high like im a new driver, has anyone gone through this process before and faced similar issues?

bkehoe

Here in Scotland, a Full EU (Irish) driving licence makes no difference to my quote at my home anyway.
What did make the difference was the no claims bonus; very few insurers will recognise a NCB earned in a different country. Adrian Flux were one of the few who recognised my Irish No Claims and then after 1 year they provided me with a full UK one so I could shop around. Note that even though I had 7 years NCB when moving they would only recognise 5 initially. They were still twice as expensive as I should have had to pay but were half the price of other insurers who didn't recognise it at all.
In terms of shopping around, Aviva have aways consistently beaten quotes on online comparison sites for me anyway (they don't participate on the comparison sites), and offer a very good international add-on which extends fully comprehensive coverage EU wide for just an extra 20 or 30 quid for the year so they'd be worth a try too.

Sheldons Brain

The likes of Allianz or Liberty that operate cross border should be able to give you full credit for any NCB, or a broker should be able to sort you.

td2008

Clements were the cheapest for me on my irish licence and an m3 - about 1k sterling. Its more to do with not being in the UK for long i think. After about 6 months i switched to direct line for about 500 pound. Still on the irish licence.

deaglan169

thanks for replies i think its as td2008 states not being in uk long enough, aviva is coming in at 1836 but im going to ring them and explain situation as ill be taking out house insurance etc with them and hoping for a good deal, ill try the other cross border insurers and see how i far out, does importing the car make much odds?

td2008

deaglan169 wrote: »

thanks for replies i think its as td2008 states not being in uk long enough, aviva is coming in at 1836 but im going to ring them and explain situation as ill be taking out house insurance etc with them and hoping for a good deal, ill try the other cross border insurers and see how i far out, does importing the car make much odds?

Yeah some places won't cover you on the irish reg or chassis number. Once you switch over you'll have a few more options. Could have worse quotes

deaglan169

td2008 wrote: »

Yeah some places won't cover you on the irish reg or chassis number. Once you switch over you'll have a few more options. Could have worse quotes

now thats a quote:D, ill be putting car onto ni plates so will be insuring on northern reg etc, i have noticed on sites it asks is car an import i think this loads the quotation too

DubDani

Check www.axani.co.uk. They are actually part of the Irish AXA group, and overall very competitive. I am sure they will be very accommodating to an Irish car.

DubDani

BTW... if you change your licence from IRL to NI there will actually be a remark on the licence that you exchanged it, from which country, and the Start Date of the different Categories is actually the Date of the Irish Licence Issue, and not the Date of the NI Licence Issue.

Just as a FYI (checked on my exchanged NI licence)