Car Insurance Renewal Ripoff

intersky69

My wife has just got her car insurance renewal from 123.ie and it's Euro 120 dearer than last year. Nothing has changed, just the car is a year older and therefore worth less, and she now has an extra year no claims bonus (she has the "full" no claims anyway). I've heard talk of Setanta insurance going bust resulting in premiums going up, but 120 for every driver in the country ? Are these other insurance companies just jumping on the bandwagon and hiking up their premiums to increase profits, or are they genuinely losing money year after year. If it's the latter, I wonder whey there are still so many of them in the Irish market ?

debabyjesus

Im paying €1000 extra on two policy's so you're doing ok i guess.

ScouseMouse

90 million liability to be made up by Irish drivers due to Setanta going bang. Add to that the new rules where insurers need extra cash put away for emergencies as per new rules, add to that the under-pricing that was going on for the last few years that has now stopped.

I think you should renew quick. If your wife has a renewal already, it may not have the premium increase due to Setanta.

And get used to it, there is more to come.

Nody

intersky69 wrote: »

My wife has just got her car insurance renewal from 123.ie and it's Euro 120 dearer than last year. Nothing has changed, just the car is a year older and therefore worth less, and she now has an extra year no claims bonus (she has the "full" no claims anyway). I've heard talk of Setanta insurance going bust resulting in premiums going up, but 120 for every driver in the country ? Are these other insurance companies just jumping on the bandwagon and hiking up their premiums to increase profits, or are they genuinely losing money year after year. If it's the latter, I wonder whey there are still so many of them in the Irish market ?

Done to death; the latest numbers as reported to the central bank shows them losing money in the millions and the prices will continue to go up to reach a normal price point (the last five years were insurance sold at a loss to take shares).

BuffyBot

Only 120EUR?

Sounds like she lucked out compared to some.

tom_k

My renewal came in at €100 more than last year, I was horrified and started to shop around, the cheapest quote I got for an equivalent product was €55 more than my renewal quote so looks like I'll be sticking with my current insurer.

The current situation with Setanta coupled with the other woes in the motor insurance sector suggests to me that however bad we think it is at the moment it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Liam McPoyle

intersky69 wrote: »

My wife has just got her car insurance renewal from 123.ie and it's Euro 120 dearer than last year. Nothing has changed, just the car is a year older and therefore worth less, and she now has an extra year no claims bonus (she has the "full" no claims anyway). I've heard talk of Setanta insurance going bust resulting in premiums going up, but 120 for every driver in the country ? Are these other insurance companies just jumping on the bandwagon and hiking up their premiums to increase profits, or are they genuinely losing money year after year. If it's the latter, I wonder whey there are still so many of them in the Irish market ?

You havnt said what the increase is based on ie last years premium.

If the €120 increase is based on a premium of €500 + then its a steep increase, if its based on a premium of €350 or less then its probably about right based on market averages.

biko

Everyone's renewals are higher.
Jump ship and go with another company.

JumpShivers

My boyfriend has been with Axa since he started driving in 2009, he has full NCB and 2 penalty points.

Last year he paid 650 with Axa for everything full comp except NCB protection. This year they wanted €752. €100 more!!
He shopped around and got €545 for the same thing with Liberty plus NCB protection. A saving of €207.

It pays to shop around. Insurers must be taking it for granted that people will be buying and renewing without questioning.

My boyfriend is 24 btw, driving a 1.4 Litre Peugeot 207 manual diesel HDI.

NIMAN

Insurance last year €383, renewal in today €555.

Shocking. Needless to say I start ringing around tomorrow.

CreepingDeath

intersky69 wrote: »

My wife has just got her car insurance renewal from 123.ie and it's Euro 120 dearer than last year.

Try getting the exact same quote from 123.ie online.
They tried upping my insurance about the same.

I got a new quote from them online, cheaper than the renewal quote despite being the exact same details.
I paid that, and e-mailed 123 to transfer over the no claims bonus docs from one policy to the other.

I've done that 2 years in a row now.

FYI: Just because a car depreciates, doesn't mean the insurance goes down... in fact there's an argument it's less safe compared with
newer cars which tend to have better safety features, better brakes etc.

biko

List of various insurers here
Bunch of quotes here

ironclaw

JumpShivers wrote: »

Last year he paid 650 with Axa for everything full comp except NCB protection. This year they wanted €752. €100 more!!
He shopped around and got €545 for the same thing with Liberty plus NCB protection. A saving of €207.

Liberty offer some of the lower levels of protection and high excesses. Its cheap for a reason, they don't just have a magical receipe. All insurers are bound by the same rules so they save by reducing coverage. You cannot compare insurance on price alone and if you do, its false economy. When I was shopping around, FBD was higher (Say ~€120+) than Liberty but if I have an accident, the €100 'saving' is quickly negated by their clauses.

I'd rather put €100 into my insurance and save it somewhere else. €120 extra is 32 cents per day over the course of the year. A 1c increase in petrol prices costs you more in a single fill.