Question about going from learner permit to full licence - effect on insurance?

Shox2711

Hi,
I am currently a learner driver with an insurance policy that costs me 2700 euro per year.
As it stands, I have paid them approximately 1225 euro. (785 deposit + 2 direct debit payments of 221 euro)
I have booked my test for my full license for August. I checked their online quotes and once I get the license, the policy should be around 1200 euro.
By the time I do the test, I will have paid around 1630 euro to my policy. This is 430 more than my new quote.
I contacted my insurance company about the refund however the agent couldn't confirm how much of a refund I will get back.
Would I be correct to assume I should get 430 euro back? And also not have to pay them any more money for the year? Or am I missing something?

monkeyslayer

You're working on the assumption that there is logic applied by the insurance companies in Ireland... Unfortunately, there is not. It really depends on who you are insured with and what their terms are. Effectively what you would be doing is leaving your policy and signing a new one. For an example I had a policy which was 2500, all paid up front when I was a learner, five months later I passed my test and got 160 back. The cancellation terms in my contract meant it was virtually pointless and worthless after 3 or 4 months. I couldv left and got another policy elsewhere for 1000 but I'd have still lost out. They know this, it's probably the reason why I got insurance for less than 3k.

Shox2711

monkeyslayer wrote: »

You're working on the assumption that there is logic applied by the insurance companies in Ireland... Unfortunately, there is not. It really depends on who you are insured with and what their terms are. Effectively what you would be doing is leaving your policy and signing a new one. For an example I had a policy which was 2500, all paid up front when I was a learner, five months later I passed my test and got 160 back. The cancellation terms in my contract meant it was virtually pointless and worthless after 3 or 4 months. I couldv left and got another policy elsewhere for 1000 but I'd have still lost out. They know this, it's probably the reason why I got insurance for less than 3k.

lol very good point. Although the customer support adviser told me that it's an amendment to my policy rather than a new one. I think it's fair to assume that if I've given them 1600 at the point of getting my full, they probably wont charge me more given that the quote is 1200.

Thanks for the info!

E30i

You seem to be assuming that you should get the price for a full licence from the start date of your current policy, this will not happen, until you pass your test you are a higher risk every day you are insured and you wouldn't be entitled to any refund for insurance period since you took out the policy until the date you get your full licence.

Best you can achieve is a pro rata reduction from the date you get your full licence to the end of the policy, being based on a formula including the difference between what a full licence holder would pay relative to a learner.


Money you have paid YTD is to pay for your insurance to this point.

Best of luck with your test.

iguana

If you pass in August you will still have been a learner driver for the preceding months so the amount you paid up until then will be what you owed. You should however get a lower price for the rest of your policy. The only way you'd get a refund is if you had paid the whole year up front. Then you would likely get a refund to account for the months after you had passed. In your case, if you pass and have 3 months left on your policy, you will then owe them €300 for the remainder of the year (ie - a quarter of €1200) instead of €675. So you will have to pay €375 less than you will if you pass but you certainly won't have be fully paid up or entitled to money back.

(Note: It would be €300 for the rest of the year if the €1200 is also based on an instalment plan. It's that the upfront fee, the instalment would be higher.)

When I was looking for quotes (still don't have a full licence) and playing around I sometimes got higher quotes for a full licence (or changing the length of full licence from 0 to 1 years) with all other details the same.