Money Guide Ireland

A recent comparison of car insurance prices in Ireland was published by the Financial Regulator in May 2010. It showed once again that the price of car insurance premiums can differ by large amounts – as much as €2200.

The biggest difference in price between the cheapest insurance and the most expensive was in the case of a  19-year-old female student . She was given quotes for comprehensive car cover for a 2003 Opel Corsa.
The lowest price was from  Aviva - at  €928 . The most expensive quote was from FBD at  €3,161  – a difference of €2,233 or 340%  more.
(The excess payable with Aviva was  €600 , compared to €350 for FBD.
The Aviva quote was also subject to the driver passing a free Aviva driving assessment.

Overall – the comparison survey obtained just 16 quotes from 9 different insurance companies. Quinn Insurance provided the cheapest quotes in 31% of the sample . Aviva was the cheapest for 25% of the quotes  and FBD and RSA for 12.5%

FBD Insurance was the most expensive insurer in 75% of the quotes – they may say they are ” No Nonsense” – but this survey shows that some consumers would need to have more sense if they went with FBD .
Chartis (fomerly AIG) was the most expensive in the other 25% of the quotes.

Ref – http://www.itsyourmoney.ie/motorinsurancecomparison

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 latest price comparison on home insurance by the financial regulator was carried out in December 2009. Their survey of house insurance quotes was  fairly limited and does not include online brokers . Only nine quotes were sought on four different properties.  Even so – it still highlights that you can cut insurance costs by shopping around.

In one example – there was a difference in price of almost €300 a year . This was on  a  3 bedroom semi-detached house in  Dublin 5. with a rebuilding cost of  €234,000 and  contents  worth €46,800 . The highest quote for buildings and contents cover was from Axa at €693 a year. The lowest quote was for €398 at Lloyds via getcover.com. This is a difference of  almost 100% – and the excess was €75 less with the lower priced quote.

Comparing quotes for contents only insurance  showed up a massive difference of 380% between the highest and lowest price. The lowest price for insuring contents worth €32000 was just €75 from FBD Insurance (200 excess) . The highest quote was from Zurich at €286 (250 excess)

Insurance quotes for buildings insurance on a farmhouse worth 210,000 ranged from €288 to €453 – a difference of  €165. In this case the lowest price was from Quinn Direct and the highest from Royal Sun Alliance.

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