Money Guide Ireland

As always – “shop around ” is the best advice when buying or renewing car insurance. You could save hundreds of euros by going with one insurance company instead of another. In one example in a recent price comparison on Irish car insurance by the Financial Regulator – one car insurance quote was almost  3 times more expensive than the cheapest quote for the same client.

In the October 2009  survey – quotes were obtained for car insurance for a female 22 year old student  with 2 penalty points , 4 years full license and 2 years no claims bonus. She was driving a 2002 Nissan Almera . The quote also included a named driver – her 22 year old male partner with a provisional licence.
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The financial ombudsman in the UK has published some detailed figures about complaints made against financial institutions – and the outcome of those complaints. For the first time they have also published the names of the institutions involved – something the Irish Financial Ombudsman does not yet do .

Here are some figures from the UK on 2008/2009 complaints made about some UK companies with Irish connections or operating in Ireland . These figures may be of interest in the absence of similar figures from our financial ombudsman. Tesco and Northern Rock didn’t come out too well while Halifax Insurance had the least complaints upheld. (NB: These figures are nothing to do with their Irish operations – just the UK based ones)

Tesco Personal Finance 267 new cases   78% upheld
Northern Rock 593 new cases  78% upheld
Ulster Bank 67 new cases   76% upheld
Bank of Ireland 336 new cases  62% upheld
AIB Group UK 90 new cases  51% upheld
Quinn Insurance 67 new cases   45% upheld
Royal & Sun Alliance 372 new cases  36% upheld
Allianz Insurance 200 new cases   34% upheld
Halifax Insurance Ireland 74 new cases   27% upheld

There were a totalof 789877 initial enquiries made to the  UK  ombudsman which led to 127471 full blown cases.
The Irish Financial ombudsman had  3876 complaints in the first 6 months of 2009 – which equates to  7752 a  year.
This is about 6 % of the UK ombudsman complaints figure – which is broadly in line with the population differences between the UK and Ireland.

The good old Financial Regulator has done another comparison of home insurances premiums in Ireland for August 2008.
As usual – several types of properties and personal circumstances are used to obtain quotes from both brokers and insurance companies direct.
Quinn Direct does best overall in the survey this time – they have the cheapest quote in six out of the nine examples. One of the survey examples – the Quinn Direct home insurance policy was €164 euro a year cheaper than the highest quote from Hibernian. This was for a 5 bedroom bungalow in Tullow, Co. Carlow with ae rebuilding cost of €275,000 and contents worth €110,000.
Allianz came out cheapest in one example – and Zurich had the lowest quote on another . The ninth example was for contents only on a rented apartment – and Quinn Direct gave no quote. The lowest price for contents insurance was from Royal and Sun Alliance through a broker – which at 91 euro was more than 3 times cheaper than AIG Direct.

Tesco were not included in the survey – only 8 insurance providers were involved in the comparison by the Irish Financial Regulator.

Be aware that some insurance companies may not have the same excess on their policies. The excess is the amount you have to pay on any claim. The norm is 125 euro – but some companies have a higher excess such as 500 euro. The policy may be cheaper but you would lose any savings if you had to make a claim.
Also – be aware that sometimes lower prices will be given to new customers. If your home insurance is up for renewal – it pays to check if you can get it cheaper elsewhere. As this survey shows – you could save as much as €164 euro for an hours effort.

Lowest Prices for Home Insurance in Ireland – April 2008

See our most recent house insurance price comparison here

In March 2008 the  Financial Regulator did a comparison survey of Home Insurance . Only the following insurance companies were involved in the survey.

Royal & Sun Alliance ,Quinn Direct ,Eagle Star , Hibernian , Allianz , FBD and AXA

The survey involved comaping quotes for contents and /or buildings insurance for different types of properties in various parts of the country for people of different profiles.
The survey was carried out on a farly small sample – so the results can only be used as a guide. You need to obtain quotes for yourself to ensure you get the best deal.

No single insurer was the cheapest in every case – but Royal and Sun Alliance came out best overall in the survey – coming out the cheapest in half of the samples. The average quote from RSA was 267.5 Euro – compared to the highest average of 353.13 Euro from AXA Insurance.
In one quote for a Guesthouse – there was a difference of 365 euro a year between the best price from Royal Sun Alliance (415) and the worst (Hibernian at 781).
In another example the price from Allianz was almost double that from RSA ( 158 compared to 301). This was for insuring a re-furbished 2 bedroom detached cottage in County Monaghan. The rebuilding cost was €120,000 and the contents were worth €55,000.
The biggest percentage difference was for contents insurance for a 2 bed apartment in Beaumont, Dublin 9. The contents are worth €20,000. Royal Sun Alliance quoted €69 while AXA quoted 153. This is a 55% saving - which could be a lot to a poor student.

Each time the Regulator does a survey on home insurance – they seem to use different profiles and properties. So each time the results are different. This may be intentional – so as to avoid appearing to favour one insurer over another?
In previous surveys Quinn and FBD have done well – but the personal profiles used were not the same .

Summary of results: (using average quote over the 8 samples)
Best : Royal and Sun Alliance
2nd Quinn Direct
3rd Eagle Star
4th Hibernian (did not quote on of the 1 sample)
5th Allianz
6th FBD
7th AXA