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

Young women drivers buying car insurance for the first time will get a worse deal from the end of 2012 year, following an EU  ruling.

The ruling, by the European court of justice, means insurers will no longer be able to use the  sex of the driver as a factor to determine whether someone represents a bigger risk in insurance terms.  The accident figures though – do seem to show that women are a lower risk.

Uk figures ahow that  a male driver under 21 is twice as likely to have an accident than a woman under 21.

But – as  a result of the ruling – Men  under the age of 25 are now likely to see premiums decrease by an average of 10%, and in some cases 25%.

Hopefully this will not result in more road deaths. (The Association of Police Officers in the UK in 2005 noted that the biggest killer of young women in Britain is their boyfriend’s and male friends’ driving.)

Car insurance premiums for women under the age of 25 are expected to rise by an average of 25% by the end of 2012, but by up to 60% for the youngest female drivers, which could translate into an extra £500-£1,000 a year for some.

The new rules may result in some  insurers  pulling out of the young driver market altogether, thereby reducing competition and pushing up prices further.

Women who already have a motor insurance policy may be able to escape premium hikes — because the new rules will not apply to insurance policies that are already in place

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.

The Irish  Financial Regulator has lifted part of its ban on Quinn Insurance selling new motor insurance cover in the UK. The original ban was put in place on March 30th when Quinn Insurance was taken into administration.

Quinn Direct will now be allowed to sell new insurance policies to provisional licence holders in Britain and Northern Ireland, the regulator announced.

The regulator said it had taken the decision after “careful consideration and analysis” of information provided by the administrators of Quinn Insurance Ltd as well as after consultation with the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Any driver in Ireland can be in with a chance of winning a brand new Opel Corsa worth €17,500 Euro – and a year’s free comprehensive car insurance.

LAST DAY TODAY – Offer ends 31st March 2010
No purchase required – entry is free. All you have to do is get a full quote for car insurance on or before 31st March from Aviva and you will be entered into the prize draw.

Once you enter the basic details for the quote and see the price options – select a price – you then press the Proceed button and then enter some contact details.
When you press “Review Your Policy” you will be entered into the draw . Click Below to get your Aviva quote now.

What are you waiting for? Get an Insurance Quote Now – you might even find that they are cheaper than your current insurer. You have nothing to lose and the possibility of winning a FREE CAR.

The Irish High Court has appointed two provisional administrators to Quinn Insurance after an application by the Irish Financial Regulator.

The appointments were made after the  High Court heard the regulator had “very serious” concerns about the company’s ability to meet its liabilities.

At the hearing  Mr Justice John Cooke said he was satisfied to appoint Paul McCann and Michael McAteer of Dublin accountancy firm Grant Thornton as joint provisional administrators to Quinn Insurance following an ex parte application, meaning that only the regulator was represented. Quinn Insurance operate as Quinn Direct and Quinn Healthcare. (They took over the BUPA operation in Ireland)

The news may prompt customers of Quinn Healthcare to switch to either VHI or Aviva.

Switching health insurance provider is free and can be done at any time without any extra waiting period – as long as you have no gap in cover or the gap is less than 13 weeks, and there is no upgrade of cover and you have served all your waiting period with your old insurer.

At the hearing it was heard that  in recent months the company had “significantly breached” its solvency ratios and that  the regulator was further concerned when it was discovered that subsidiaries of Quinn Insurance had made guarantees in relation to the group’s assets which reduced the amount of cover for policyholders’ liabilities at the company. It was also said that Quinn Insurance had gone from a position of having assets over liabilities of some €200 million to now having an excess of liabilities of more than €200 million, counsel said.

It appears that these guarantees had been in place since 2005 but were only coming to light now. A number of Quinn Insurance’s directors were not aware of the guarantees made by the subsidiaries, the court was told.

The provisional administrators will run the company as a going concern and conduct business with a view to putting it on a sound commercial footing.

Only the non-life parts of the Quinn Insurance, including the motor, home, intermediary and public liability insurance businesses, will now be run by the administrators.
Quinn Life  business is not affected by today’s court ruling.

The regulator said in a statement it had taken this action in the interest of the firm’s policyholders. “Irish policyholders of Quinn Insurance Limited can continue to renew policies, carry out new business and make claims in the normal way.“
“The appointment of joint provisional administrators will better protect policyholders. It will allow the firm to remain open for business, to continue to be run as a going concern under different management and to put the business on a sound commercial and financial footing.”

It’s understood the subsidiaries of Quinn Insurance gave guarantees to the value of €448 million in favour of bondholders of the Quinn Group who have provided large sums of money to the wider Quinn Group business. This in turn reduced the insurance company’s solvency cushion.

The matter only came to light when the issue was raised by a third party acting on behalf of a creditor of the group which was reviewing its exposure to the wider Quinn business. The company then notified the regulator of the matter last week.

The Quinn group  owes more than €2.5 billion to State-owned Anglo Irish Bank.

The regulator has also directed Quinn Insurance to cease taking on new business in the UK to prevent the company “suffering further financial losses from its currently unprofitable UK business”.