My experience getting a quote

galvo_clare

Hi

Just for information and in case it might help someone.

I used the AA last year as a broker, mainly for their offer for members of driving other cars with full comprehensive cover. I ended up with an Aviva policy.
Quotes are for myself and my wife, both late 40s, full, clean licences.
Car is kept on driveway in Clare. It's a 2008 BMW 520d M Sport.

This year, my renewal quote came in at €786 from the AA. I approached a local broker, who reckoned that they wouldn't be able to beat Aviva's price.
I went online and priced up a few policies. Curiously, going onto the AA site as a new customer I was able to bring the quote down to €716.
Best price was from Aviva at €539, including full NCD protection.

I had a bit of difficulty getting the AA on the phone today but this afternoon got a call back from a supervisor.
She initially came back with a revised figure of €680. It seems that currently I'm on partial NCD protection but we've that changed now.
She pointed out some differences between the AA policy and Aviva's standard policy, including a lower excess, legal cover, greater contents cover etc but there was still over €100 between us.
She put me on hold for a minute and 'found' some extra discounts to bring the figure down to €565 which I accepted.

Given the scare stories going around, I'm reasonably happy. The first quote I got for this car came to just over €400 but I've never been able to beat that. It's still not a bad result.

H3llR4iser

How old are you and how many years NCB do you have, if I may? I ran quotes for my 159 1.9 JTS - they all came in the 1100-1500 Euro range; I am 36 and have an EU license since 18 years, but I tried many scenarios; Having an Irish license would change very little (some would drop to 950-1000). No conviction, no penalty points. Having full NCB (5 years instead of 4) would similarly only drop the price slightly.

A BMW 520D is way, way, way more common in Ireland than an Alfa 159 and, statistically, way more likely to be involved in an accident; All the rest in terms of performance, power and whatnot being similar, I can't see why there should be any difference in premium prices.

galvo_clare

H3llR4iser wrote: »

How old are you and how many years NCB do you have, if I may? I ran quotes for my 159 1.9 JTS - they all came in the 1100-1500 Euro range; I am 36 and have an EU license since 18 years, but I tried many scenarios; Having an Irish license would change very little (some would drop to 950-1000). No conviction, no penalty points. Having full NCB (5 years instead of 4) would similarly only drop the price slightly.

A BMW 520D is way, way, way more common in Ireland than an Alfa 159 and, statistically, way more likely to be involved in an accident; All the rest in terms of performance, power and whatnot being similar, I can't see why there should be any difference in premium prices.

I'm just turned 48 and have had a full licence since 1989. No penalty points since around 2009 and my last claim was in 1997.

The fact that a 520 is far more common on the roads has no bearing on things. Certainly, there are more of them around, so more will crash when compared to the number of 159s that will crash but that means nothing.

The value of the car seems to have no great bearing either. I swapped from an 02 Audi A4 1.9 TDi to a 2006 BMW 520d SE in 2006 and my premium went down despite the newer car being three to four times more valuable.
I tried getting a broker to explain that one to me but she failed.

I would have thought that the BMW, being RWD, would constitute more of a risk. Parts prices for the Alfa would probably be the same or maybe a wee bit more expensive.

I loved my 156 back in the day but I never went for the 159. Love to see them on the road though.

cplwhisper

Sorry to check but when you say EU licence do you mean non-IE/Uk. Any other continental licences can generate loadings as high as 45% more the Irish/UK

H3llR4iser

cplwhisper wrote: »

Sorry to check but when you say EU licence do you mean non-IE/Uk. Any other continental licences can generate loadings as high as 45% more the Irish/UK

Italian, as a matter of fact. I know about the stupid loads, and it's completely illogical - and I would probably bet illegal, if some form of authority could be bothered taking a look. Pointed the fact out to the Ombudsman years ago, and obviously nothing happened; As a matter of fact, now the "financial Ombudsman" looks over this stuff and the complaint process is more complex - first, you need to submit a complaint to the service provider; In case of insurance companies, we know how complaints are dealt with - "it is how we say, you don't understand, and we can't disclose your own data to you".

You don't get overcharged by Insurance in Italy if you have an Irish license, there's a reason why there's an unified document. Not all companies Irish insurance branches overcharge EU citizens, mind you - up until now I always managed to find those who would give me the same price as an Irish license.

Some go as far as charging EU license holders what they do with an Irish Learner driver.

mansoff

Mid 30's BMW 2006 Full clean drivers licence 8 years no claims bonus and my insurance went up drastically this year, with the same car through the same broker. I live in a good area in the city.


In 2015 I paid €555 and this year I had to pay €750. They originally quoted me €880. I rang several other brokers and got some ridiculous quotes and all were higher than 40% so thanks for your advice but I tried to shop around but to no avail. I even said I would go 3rd party but was told that makes no difference so I ended up fully comp.

Hopefully it won't go up again when I renew in 6 months.