A recent comparison of car insurance premiums in Ireland was published by the Financial Regulator in November 2011.
Many people are renewing car insurance in January – so we thought it would be a good time to analyze the results.

The comparison showed once again that the price of car insurance premiums can differ by large amounts and households can save significant amounts by shopping around.
If you get a renewal notice – don’t just accept it – get a few more quotes.

In the survey – the high cost of insurance for learner drivers was highlighted – with prices as high as €2550 a year for a provisional licence holder.
Some insurers didn’t even quote for learners.

Getting young drivers named on a parents policy can reduce costs a bit – but they can still be pretty expensive (€1490 a year for a father and his 20 year old son )

The biggest price difference in the comparison survey was for a 20 year old student driving a 2003 Seat Ibiza  who had  recently obtained a  full licence.
The lowest quote for fully comprehensive insurance in this case was for €1250 from AXA. The most expensive quote was €2424 from RSA – a difference of  €1174 a year (almost double).

Overall – the comparison survey obtained 28 quotes each from 8  insurance companies.  They covered both comprehensive and third party insurance for males and females.
Axa Insurance and RSA came out best – both had  the lowest price in 8  of  the 28 scenarios .
Quinn was next best – with the lowest quote in 7 cases.
Aviva had the lowest price in 5 cases and FBD for just 1 (same price as AXA )
Zurich, Allianz and Chartis Direct didn’t provide the cheapest quote for any of the scenarios in the survey.

Chartis Direct performed the worst in the comparison – they provided the most expensive quotes in 10 cases  and refused to quote on 16 cases!
Zurich  insurance also did badly with the highest price in 8 cases.

The survey only used direct insurers. You may well get even cheaper prices from online Brokers such as AA Insurance - they will get quotes from several insurance providers.

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

How much does it cost to get car insurance in Ireland  for a provisional licence holder ?

A recent survey of  eight insurance providers found that quotes for learner drivers ranged from €1076 to  €2550 a year.

Several insurance companies wouldn’t even provide a quote for a 20 year old student driving  a 2003 Seat Ibiza with a  provisional licence and no previous driving experience.
Allianz, Chartis Direct , RSA (through 123.ie) and Zurich would not provide cover.

For a male – the lowest quote for fully comprehensive cover was €1888 from AXA – this included a €600 excess. The highest fully comp quote came from FBD at €2550 with a €350 excess.

Female provisional licence holders were quoted lower prices for insurance in all cases  – with the lowest quote for comprehensive insurance coming in at €1233 from AXA. This is €655 cheaper than the quote for a male in exactly the same car and with the same circumstances.
In one case – the quote for a female was  €1083 cheaper than that for a male . Quinn insurance quoted €2384 for a male and   €1301 for a female.

Quotes for Third Party, Fire and Theft  (TPFT) are normally cheaper because this does not cover any damage caused to your car in an accident that is your fault.
The difference in price between fully comprehensive and TPFT for a 20 yr old provisional licence holder was around €300 euro – but strangely with Aviva it was cheaper to get fully comp instead of Third Party insurance. (€96 less a year).

The survey was carried out  in November 2011 by the fiancial regulator and covered the following insurance providers (not brokers)

Allianz , Aviva , AXA , ChartisDirect , FBD , Quinn Direct , RSA Insurance, Zurich

The latest price comparison on house insurance in Ireland by the financial regulator was carried out in February 2011  . The survey of house insurance quotes did not include brokers.

The Regulator requested  quotes from 9 insurance companies on 8 different  properties.  As usual the survey  shows that you can save substantial amounts on  insurance costs by shopping around.

In one example – there was difference in price of almost 100%  between the highest and lowest quote  . The  4 bedroom semi-detached house in Westport, Co. Mayo.  with a rebuilding cost of  €160,000 and  contents worth €80,000..
The lowest  quote for house insurance (buildings and contents) was from  Allianz at €370 a year. The most expensive  quote was for €730 at Chartis Direct . (Almost double the price !)

The same Westport house without a smoke alarm or burglar alarm resulted in insurance quotes ranging from €883 to €452.  The Allianz price increased from €370 to €452 – an increase of €82 a year.

Insurance quotes on a 4-bedroom detached house in Co. Kilkenny with a  rebuilding cost of €210,000 and the contents  worth €70,000.  -  ranged from €276 at Aviva to  €695 at Chartis .

Out of the 8 insurance quotes  Getcover were cheapest for 3 of them,  Allianz and Aviva were cheapest for for 2 of them and  Quinn direct was the cheapest in just one

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 of Irish car insurance by the Financial Regulator – one car insurance quote was almost  double the cheapest quote for the same client.

In the October 2010 survey -  different quotes were obtained for car insurance for 34-year-old driver of a 2005 VW Golf,  recently unemployed, previously  worked as a medical sales rep for 6 years and their  motor insurance on a company car was covered by employer.

Eight insurance companies provided quotes for a male and female driver for both comprehensive and Third Party Fire and Theft.
Out of 32 quotes -  the lowest  quotes in each category were all from Axa Insurance .
The lowest comprehensive quote was from Axa – for a female at €383  a year. In comparison – the highest price for female fully comp insurance was from Quinn – at €663 – a difference of €280 a year.
For a male – with comprehensive insurance cover – Axa quoted €433 while Quinn wanted €833 – almost doubleat €400 more . The nearest price to the Axa quote was from RSA at €570 – still a difference of €137

Other comprehensive quotes  from FBD : €687  -  from Allianz :  €574 and  €705 from Zurich.
The lowest Quotes for Third Party Fire and Theft were from Axa too – at  €332 male and €331 female.  Quinn wanted €663 for the male – almost double again!

Comparing comprehensive car insurance quotes for a 61 year old male retiree from Portarlington, Co. Laois. driving a 2005 Opel Vectra -  the lowest premium found was €524 from Axa Insurance again  . Next best was from  RSA at at €586  with the most expensive quote being from Chartis  at €856. Again – a considerable saving  of €332 between the cheapest and the most expensive quotes.

All figures quoted are from a Financial Regulator Survey in Oct 2010.

AXA are one of the top three insurance groups in the world. Axa is also  the fifteenth largest stock exchange quoted company in terms of revenues.
With an  “AA stable” financial rating and a HQ  in Paris, Axa employ 175,000 staff all around the world and offer financial protection to more than 67 million people.

Axa Ireland is one of Irelands largest and oldest Insurance Companies  – they  offer  motor insurance, home insurance and business insurance.

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