Can a person get car insurance from Europe Union?

combs

Has anyone investigated getting (cheaper) car insurance from another EU member state for the purposes of driving in Ireland?

MrPudding

There are a number of issues. The company needs to be paying into a fund here in Ireland. I got some quotes from French companies who were happy to cover my French GF and myself to drive in Ireland (we told them we were resident here), I would seem though that this would be illegal.

MrP

is_that_so

Not yet. Some legislation being prepared by McCreevy in Europe. Mostly financial mortgages etc., but I believe that it will come as part of that at some stage.

combs

I see. So it's not perfectly legal then, is what I'm hearing. Well this EU is proving to be fantastic for competition, isn't it?

Merrion

You can get fleet and commercial vehicle insurance from out of state, but not yet personal vehicle insurance. This is being worked on but it will be a number of years down the line I fear.

is_that_so

combs wrote:

I see. So it's not perfectly legal then, is what I'm hearing. Well this EU is proving to be fantastic for competition, isn't it?

Not that it's not legal, just damn difficult to do from what I hear. And yes all this competition lark takes time, notoriously slow. But they eventually get going - Sky and British football deal, M$ abuse to mention a few.

Victor

Just remember that it's largely the same insurance companies in those other markets.

whoami1

Mods, I realise this is an old thread, but seeing as it specifically mentions legislation being "a number of years down the line", does anyone know if anything happened on this matter?

(I doubt it...)

pedroeibar1

It can be done but I cannot anticipate any desire from a foreign insurer to compete for a chunk of the Irish motor market. Read on if you want reasons.....

Almost all the insurers operating in Ireland are either directly or indirectly owned by foreign entities (FBD is a notable exception.) AXA France or Allianz Germany or RSA UK will never compete for business with AXA Ireland or Allianz Ireland or RSA Ireland. If you want to see who is operating here all entities (insurers and brokers) licensed to transact business in the Republic of Ireland are listed on the Central Bank of Ireland website.

Under EU Law, any EU authorized insurer may, under the ‘Freedom to Provide Services’ Directive’ transact business in another member State provided it is registered with the regulatory authority in that state. Once registration is done there are two ways of operating, either as an insurance company or as a registered branch of an insurer. Many foreign insurers have registered a branch here - that is the easiest way, their solvency also is supervised in their HQ country. Some are writing business only to provide global/transnational policies for their multinational clients. Others (e.g. Chubb, Chartis, Aviva, etc) are open for Irish business.

In 2012 Irish Motor business underwritten by entities with their HQ in another EU Member State amounted to about €250 million in premium income. On this they made an underwriting loss of about €100 million. 2013 probably will be worse, given what is alleged to have been going on in RSA Ireland with alleged underprovisioning, etc.

Peterdalkey

Can they provide an Irish law compliant windscreen disc?

pedroeibar1

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Can they provide an Irish law compliant windscreen disc?

Yes. If they are transacting business in Ireland they must be registered with the CBI and obey the terms & conditions of the Irish market – including levies and discs.

There are nine ‘Undertakings with their Head Offices in other E.U. Member States’ – I’ve mentioned Chubb, Chartis, Aviva, the others are ACE; Ecclesiastical (+/- closed); Highway; QBE IL; RSAI (Irish Branch +/- closed); and Travellers. Zurich has both a branch operation and a standalone insurance company here, both of which write motor business.

Some brokers have an underwriting agency with insurers for special schemes - these can be good value at times, but need to be watched every renewal because they usually attract a riskier driver, claims go up, premium follows, better drivers leave (cheaper elsewhere) so there is an upward spiral.

Motor insurance in the Irish market is a dog, do not expect much competition from abroad, most motor insurers here are licking their wounds having withstood ill-conceived predatory pricing by some who wanted to grow their market share and cross-sell more profitable lines.