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Are insurance companies completely taking the piss now?

2456

Comments

  • #32
    EIRE forever
    Site Banned Posts: 95 ✭✭EIRE forever


    the14thwarrior wrote: »
    i had to leave my car in for repair, and the mechanic had a car to lend me. i called the insurance company to change the insurance for a day ( i needed to get home, drive to a furnural and to work next mornining). they charged me 30.00 euro to change it for 24 hours.

    I'm sure if you had an open policy with been able to drive other cars once its not in your name then you wouldn't of haven to pay anything


  • #33
    Special Circumstances
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,540 ✭✭✭Special Circumstances


    Head on over to the insurance sub forum in motoring to talk to real life insurance employees.

    Don't expect any real answers* but if you have a humiliation kink then knock yourself out... it's pretty much wall to wall "you dirty scummy scammer you deserve to have your wallet emptied you worthless pos. Beg me to insure you, you worm".


    *but sure there's no harm in asking is there?


  • #34
    Widdershins
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,633 ✭✭✭✭Widdershins


    Special Circumstances wrote: »
    Head on over to the insurance sub forum in motoring to talk to real life insurance employees.

    Don't expect any real answers* but if you have a humiliation kink then knock yourself out... it's pretty much wall to wall "you dirty scummy scammer you deserve to have your wallet emptied you worthless pos. Beg me to insure you, you worm".


    *but sure there's no harm in asking is there?

    See you there! woohoo


  • #35
    Ulysses Gaze
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,570 ✭✭✭Ulysses Gaze


    Special Circumstances wrote: »
    Head on over to the insurance sub forum in motoring to talk to real life insurance employees.

    Don't expect any real answers* but if you have a humiliation kink then knock yourself out... it's pretty much wall to wall "you dirty scummy scammer you deserve to have your wallet emptied you worthless pos. Beg me to insure you, you worm".


    *but sure there's no harm in asking is there?

    Judging from your comments, that sounds about as enticing a suggestion as getting an enema.


  • #36
    Special Circumstances
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,540 ✭✭✭Special Circumstances


    Ulysses Gaze wrote: »
    Judging from your comments, that sounds about as enticing a suggestion as getting an enema.

    That's only an option on fully comp policies with full bonus protection.


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  • #37
    Dr Crayfish
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,960 ✭✭✭Dr Crayfish


    Do most of us (city dwellers anyway) really need cars or are they a convenience or things of leisure? I've managed my whole life without owning one and cycle to work every day. Unless you need one 100% I would try to avoid ownership. Constant hole in your pocket. I can borrow my parents one at weekends etc when I need it though, somehow my insurance is only €50 a year when I'm put on their insurance. Otherwise I don't think I could ever face handing all that money over to insurance companies.
    Are the judges and claim culture in this county to blame though for the massive payouts these companies have to cover?


  • #38
    Samuel T. Cogley
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,679 ✭✭✭✭Samuel T. Cogley


    Dr Crayfish wrote: »
    Do most of us (city dwellers anyway) really need cars or are they a convenience or things of leisure? I've managed my whole life without owning one and cycle to work every year. I can borrow my parents one at weekends etc when I need it though, somehow my insurance is only €50 a year when I'm put on their insurance. Otherwise I don't think I could ever face handing all that money over to insurance companies.
    Are the judges and claim culture in this county to blame though for the massive payouts these companies have to cover?

    As above, by the admission of the insurance companies themselves, €50 of it.


  • #39
    Dude89
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 84 ✭✭Dude89


    I was charged 150 Euro to downgrade from 1.2 Clio to a 1.0 litre mirca and the insurance woman's said " there seems to be a lot of people switching to nissan mircas at the minute hence the charge " absolute scumbags


  • #40
    bear1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,971 ✭✭✭✭bear1


    I once had a volvo s40 diesel.. 01.
    Paid I think 600e one year fully comp which I paid ASAP.
    The following year it went up to 1200e
    Rang them up asking wtf and I **** you not but the woman said it was a high powered car hence the increase.
    It had 115 bhp.
    Until the government get off their holes and actually force insurance companies to explain why they are no longer insuring cars over 15 years old and to show how the fook they calculate premiums then we are all going to get fleeced on a yearly basis.
    Bad enough motor tax being extortionate.


  • #41
    Special Circumstances
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,540 ✭✭✭Special Circumstances


    bear1 wrote: »
    I once had a volvo s40 diesel.. 01.
    Paid I think 600e one year fully comp which I paid ASAP.
    The following year it went up to 1200e
    Rang them up asking wtf and I **** you not but the woman said it was a high powered car hence the increase.
    It had 115 bhp.
    Until the government get off their holes and actually force insurance companies to explain why they are no longer insuring cars over 15 years old and to show how the fook they calculate premiums then we are all going to get fleeced on a yearly basis.
    Bad enough motor tax being extortionate.

    If you go to the insurance subforum they will tell you that the Irish companies use the same risk rating bands (1-50) as the UK with a teeny tiny amount of exceptions. Such well known high performance chav chariots as the volvo s40 diesel and the Citroën c5 diesel are included in these few exceptions it seems. Somewhere around average, or below average on the UK scale.


    They have bulletproof stats to prove these assertions.


    No, nobody is allowed to see them.


    Cough up the moolah you worms.


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  • #42
    donegaLroad
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,379 ✭✭✭donegaLroad


    Between health insurance and car insurance, the insurance companies have sucked up any spare cash left in the economy.


  • #43
    suicide_circus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,801 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    Basically the insurance companies need to keep enough money in the bank to cover the worst case scenario in claims for all their policy holders. Whiplash injuries can be awarded anything from 12k to 77k and this vast disparity and uncertainty of awards means insurers have to maintain an unnaturally large pot of money. Add in an all pervading culture in Ireland in which everyone rips everyone else off in almost every walk of life and you've got expensive insurance.


  • #44
    Special Circumstances
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,540 ✭✭✭Special Circumstances


    suicide_circus wrote: »
    Basically the insurance companies need to keep enough money in the bank to cover the worst case scenario in claims for all their policy holders. Whiplash injuries can be awarded anything from 12k to 77k and this vast disparity and uncertainty of awards means insurers have to maintain an unnaturally large pot of money. Add in an all pervading culture in Ireland in which everyone rips everyone else off in almost every walk of life and you've got expensive insurance.

    And that has increased at least 100% in the last five years?

    123.ie blame such statistically significant events as carjackings being on the rise.
    https://www.123.ie/blog/reasons-for-car-insurance-premium-increase
    But somehow neglect to mention the increased reserves companies are required to have now to curb cowboyism.
    And that the dart throwing monkey in their investment department has been p1ssing their money away since 2008. Bad monkey.


    Strange that they would forget to mention these things isn't it. It's almost as if they want to blame the public for their completely incompetent financial management.

    Pay up all you scamming slimey scummy average motorists.

    How long before somebody comes along and makes a meaningless apples with kumquats comparison to the compensation received in a different country with a functioning health system...3...2...1...

    Or my favourite- all whiplash is fake. It's just not conceivable that a neck suporting a skull evolved for brain size rather than robustness of the neck could become a liability when subject to a sudden unexpected jolt. You could sprain a wrist or an ankle doing the most innocuous of things. You could put your back out tying a shoe lace. Whiplash is fake as fvck though.
    An inverted heavy pendulum is obviously the ideal design to cope with car crashes and couldn't possibly be damaged under the laws of physics which govern this universe.

    Pay up worms. Shame on you people who claim for damages. Shame. Shame. Shame.


  • #45
    suicide_circus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,801 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    ^^^^ can't both be true?

    Insurance companies are bloodsucking bastards who use any excuse to jack up the premiums. But also the environment in which they do business in unpredictable and they have very strong regulations imposed on the amount of cash they need to sit on as well as paying for Setanta and uninsured drivers. Meanwhile a lot of Irish people see being in a fender bender as equivalent to getting 5 numbers on the lottery and there are literally gangs of people committing systematic insurance fraud.


  • #46
    Special Circumstances
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,540 ✭✭✭Special Circumstances


    suicide_circus wrote: »
    ^^^^ can't both be true?

    Insurance companies are bloodsucking bastards who use any excuse to jack up the premiums. But also the environment in which they do business in unpredictable and they have very strong regulations imposed on the amount of cash they need to sit on as well as paying for Setanta and uninsured drivers. Meanwhile a lot of Irish people see being in a fender bender as equivalent to getting 5 numbers on the lottery and there are literally gangs of people committing systematic insurance fraud.

    Apart from the omission of the massive investment profits disappearing and needing replacement you're not doing too bad there.

    It's the disingenuous that gets me going. And the frankly illogical bs they spew to support things without offering any transparency.

    If an insurer said to you "look you're a learner in your 30s. We are going to have to load you as if you were a liar trying to hide a driving ban or other conviction. We honestly haven't a b@lls who we're insuring and we don't care because we can keep loading decent people and they have to buy our product"... you'd feel a little hard done by wouldn't you?


    If an insurer said to you look, you were the completely innocent parked stationary victim of a banned driver who ran into you. We can't insure you, or anyone that was in the car with you, as a driver for at least 5 years ... you be both confused and angry surely?

    Where are the stats on the 10plus year old cars?

    The whiplash claims don't add up at all BTW. Well... maybe they do but only in the secret figures that we can't see. The official figures from the PIAB don't match up at all though.


  • #47
    Parchment
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,203 ✭✭✭Parchment


    I am terrified to renew my insurance in April. An older woman i work with got her renewal quote yesterday, she went from 400e to 750e - never a claim and drives a small 3 year old car.


  • #48
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,266 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Dr Crayfish wrote: »
    Do most of us (city dwellers anyway) really need cars or are they a convenience or things of leisure? I've managed my whole life without owning one and cycle to work every day. Unless you need one 100% I would try to avoid ownership. Constant hole in your pocket. I can borrow my parents one at weekends etc when I need it though, somehow my insurance is only €50 a year when I'm put on their insurance. Otherwise I don't think I could ever face handing all that money over to insurance companies.
    Are the judges and claim culture in this county to blame though for the massive payouts these companies have to cover?

    If you're a city dweller, single or a couple with no kids, with access to decent public transport, well then yes fine.

    Beyond that, people are more or less forced to get one.


  • #49
    corner of hells
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,439 ✭✭✭corner of hells


    jacksie66 wrote: »
    So my own car decided to start dying on me last week. It's a 03 Opel Vectra GTS 1.8. I'm paying Allianz 1500 a year to drive the thing as I need a car for work. 29 and a full license since 2006 but there you go. Anyways I went to Cork yesterday to pick up a new car I bought. Tis a 03 Vectra GTS pretty much exactly the same as my old one. The only difference was the colour and the much lower milage. Same car, year, engine, everything. When I was there I rang the insurance company to change over the insurance, thinking because it's the exact same car it'd be a straight swap. But nooooo. I had to pay 90 euro because my old car was a GTS sport and my new one was a GTS Elegance. So I was charged more for different spec, even though both cars are identical. You'd say something if it had a higher bhp or something but the differences are only cosmetic. What is it with insurance companies in this country fleecing us?
    jacksie66 wrote: »
    So my own car decided to start dying on me last week. It's a 03 Opel Vectra GTS 1.8. I'm paying Allianz 1500 a year to drive the thing as I need a car for work. 29 and a full license since 2006 but there you go. Anyways I went to Cork yesterday to pick up a new car I bought. Tis a 03 Vectra GTS pretty much exactly the same as my old one. The only difference was the colour and the much lower milage. Same car, year, engine, everything. When I was there I rang the insurance company to change over the insurance, thinking because it's the exact same car it'd be a straight swap. But nooooo. I had to pay 90 euro because my old car was a GTS sport and my new one was a GTS Elegance. So I was charged more for different spec, even though both cars are identical. You'd say something if it had a higher bhp or something but the differences are only cosmetic. What is it with insurance companies in this country fleecing us?

    Sir , the answer to your problem last before you.
    Why not switch registration plates on the cars and spray paint the new car the colour of the old one.Obviously say nothing to the insurance company .

    Your welcome , you may back in my reflected glory.


  • #50
    VinLieger
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,610 ✭✭✭✭VinLieger


    Got a great quote with Allianz through AA for about 150 less than i was being quoted with everyone else


  • #51
    idnkph
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 674 ✭✭✭idnkph


    It's laughable the way the insurance companies put all the blame for the rising costs on insurance fraudsters.... they are right. The legal fees that are being charged are pure fraud by the legal sector but because the word legal is in front of fees this makes it OK to extort money from the said companies and just make the rest of us ejits pay for it.


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  • #52
    farmchoice
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,026 ✭✭✭farmchoice


    im in the business and i can assure you that the contention that insurance companies are money grabbing scumbags is generally speaking correct.

    not only that but they are duplicitous conniving liars and are run by a coterie of spivs and barrow boys.

    the present situation is a result of shocking mismanagement of all the companies over the last 7 years in particular. of course this wasn't down to stupidity it was down to individuals in the companies (middle and senior management) becoming personally wealthy on the back of insane underwriting practices.

    dont for one second be fooled into thinking the present increases are anything to do with claims or fraud, or lawyers or uninsured drivers, yes those things contribute to the price of insurance but they were always there they didn't start happening in the last 3 years.

    more then anything the companies want two things to happen so they can continue robbing the customers.

    1. limit the cost of personal injury claims, fair enough to a point but remember the person who suffers here is the person who gets crashed into, everyone likes to moan about the payouts when its someone else it happens to you. you might feel different when you are the victim.

    2. have the government create and maintain vast data bases of information on us that the insurance companies can use to target individuals with higher premiums and also use to get out of paying claims. a big brother state at their disposal to rob the citizens.


  • #53
    Special Circumstances
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,540 ✭✭✭Special Circumstances


    idnkph wrote: »
    It's laughable the way the insurance companies put all the blame for the rising costs on insurance fraudsters.... they are right. The legal fees that are being charged are pure fraud by the legal sector but because the word legal is in front of fees this makes it OK to extort money from the said companies and just make the rest of us ejits pay for it.

    PIAB cases can be completed without engaging a legal professional.
    PIAB awards do not include any compensation for legal fee. If you engage a legal professional it comes out of your own pocket.

    The claim that whiplash accounts for 80% of injuries, and the average cost is 15k would suggest that legal fees really aren't the cause here unless people are making very very very bad judgements, bordering on incompetence, when contesting the other 20% of claims.

    Now, the 80%, 15k assertion is either BS or it isn't. But we don't have the facts, we are not allowed to see anonymised facts to confirm or dismiss the assertions.


  • #54
    vicwatson
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,417 ✭✭✭✭vicwatson


    idnkph wrote: »
    It's laughable the way the insurance companies put all the blame for the rising costs on insurance fraudsters.... they are right. The legal fees that are being charged are pure fraud by the legal sector but because the word legal is in front of fees this makes it OK to extort money from the said companies and just make the rest of us ejits pay for it.

    What ya on about? Thought that's what PIAB was all about. Research it.


  • #55
    Widdershins
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,633 ✭✭✭✭Widdershins


    My boyfriend's renewal was 1250 or thereabouts this month. Last year it was about 700 euro, the previous year I think it was around 500 euro, and as he has a full no claims bonus the quotes were decreasing every year until last year. It was one of the nice things about his getting older :D:(

    I know my own quote was a good bit higher last year, again despite full no-claims discount, but I can't remember how much. I just scraped it together, but it's due again in May and I am having to think about getting a loan to pay it, for the first time ever.

    Either that, or pay by installments through the Credit Union (if they allow that).

    The whole thing is a bit depressing.

    My boyfriend was also insured by Setanta and lost out when they went bust.


  • #56
    Widdershins
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,633 ✭✭✭✭Widdershins


    whisky_galore wrote: »
    If you're a city dweller, single or a couple with no kids, with access to decent public transport, well then yes fine.

    Beyond that, people are more or less forced to get one.

    Exactly right!

    We have to drive to work. To the doctor, supermarket and anywhere else we need to go.


  • #57
    K.Flyer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,560 ✭✭✭K.Flyer


    Ferrari3600 wrote: »
    Shop around. Try Axa for starters. Anecdotally, they seem to be omparatively competitive compared to some of the other larger insurers.

    They quoted me twice the price of my best quote when I was renewing one of my policies last year. 1100 compared to 520. Laughed at them.


  • #58
    Wibbs
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,387 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    This 10 year old rule brought in also makes a farce of the NCT. Government passes car as roadworthy, insurance companies won't insure said car(or take you from behind dry with the increased premium).

    That insurance companies stats on cars are private when the need for insurance is a legal requirement is beyond farce at this stage.

    Many worry about Artificial Intelligence. I worry far more about Organic Idiocy.



  • #59
    Wibbs
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,387 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    K.Flyer wrote: »
    They quoted me twice the price of my best quote when I was renewing one of my policies last year. 1100 compared to 520. Laughed at them.
    With them it seems it really depends on the broker you go through. EG in my case one broker's best quote from AXA was a third more expensive than through another broker(and the first guy really wanted my business, but no joy). Some brokers specialise in certain areas and may have more of that area on the books to spread the risks, so get preferential quotes from the big boys because of that.

    Many worry about Artificial Intelligence. I worry far more about Organic Idiocy.



  • #60
    Dravokivich
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,424 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    Wibbs wrote: »
    This 10 year old rule brought in also makes a farce of the NCT. Government passes car as roadworthy, insurance companies won't insure said car(or take you from behind dry with the increased premium).

    That insurance companies stats on cars are private when the need for insurance is a legal requirement is beyond farce at this stage.

    The thing that gets me, is that they assume we can just get a new car. If we can't afford a new car, they'll price insurance in such a way so we can't save for a new car.


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  • #61
    Noddyholder
    Closed Accounts Posts: 696 ✭✭✭Noddyholder


    Lived abroad for a few years & when I came back I got a car & insurance. I have many years no claim bonus,& letter to prove it, also company here that was quoting me was the same company I had in Europe, nope, I had to start all over again as they said I was being assessed as a new driver here. ****ing ripoffs is not the word,

    When you do the above in reverse order, in which I have, everything is taken into consideration & I got a reasonable & fair quote, Its nothing but another over priced scam in which the Irish public are being taken for fools & government after governments are not interested.

    here is a link to the Ask me anything thread, in which a person tries to answer some question's, it did not work out well for them.

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057633673


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