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

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”.

Aviva Insurance – were formerly Known as Hibernian Aviva and before that they were just Hibernian Insurance.

Aviva is part of Aviva Group Ireland plc which is Ireland’s largest consolidated insurance company.
The recent sponsorhip of the Aviva Stadium (Landsdowne Road) is helping to promote the Aviva brand.

Aviva is a leading global company with operations in 27 countries, serving over 50 million customers and employing over 55,000 people. Aviva has a 300-year heritage, including Norwich Union in the UK and 100 years in Ireland with Aviva Group Ireland plc. Aviva’s main business operations are in the UK, Europe, Asia Pacific and North America.

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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Tesco no longer offer car insurance in Ireland through Hibernian Aviva. In February 2010 – Tesco stopped working with Hibernian Aviva and have now started offering car insurance in conjunction with RSA (Royal Sun Alliance).  Tesco car insurance customers who get renewal notices from Tesco in the next few months will be getting them from RSA instead of Hibernian Aviva.
If you want to stay with Hibernian Aviva – you may well find that they will give you a cheaper quote.  If you buy online from Aviva - you get a 10% discount.

Hibernian Aviva will have to treat old Tesco insurance policy holders as new customers – because they were just the underwriters for the car insurance policy. Also – be aware that if you have made a claim in the past 3 years – Hibernian Aviva will not give you a car insurance quote.

Once  children hit 17 – many  of them are keen to learn how to drive – but the high price of insurance for learner drivers can be a problem. Once they have their provisional licence – you can add them as a named driver on your own insurance policy. Adding a learner driver to your policy will increase the premiums by quite a lot -  around €800 a year in some cases .

We did a small online price comparison to see where we could find the cheapest car insurance for a 19 year old learner driver as a named driver on his mother’s policy. The quotes were obtained on February 20th and 21st 2010.

Car insurance quotes were requested for a 45 year old female with a full clean licence driving a 2004 Fiat Panda 1.2l  in the Galway area.
Her son was added as a named driver – he is 19 , a student with a provisional licence that he has held for a year. These are the online insurance quotes we obtained for comprehensive insurance with breakdown cover included. (Cheapest price first)

Aviva €1210.48 -  with a €600 excess
123.ie €1221.41   with €500 excess and windscreen cover
Quinn €1284.54   300 excess  incl breakdown
Chill.ie €1412      with a €250 excess and windscreen cover
Quoteme.ie €1624.20
Insure.ie €1612.23 -   €600 excess amd breakdown NOT incl
AA €1855.39  windscreen ncb protection (No  breakdown cover)
FBD  – no quote could be provided online

Surprisingly – Aviva  – (formerly known as Hibernian) came out with the lowest price – some €645 cheaper than the highest price in the small survey. The next cheapest was from 123.ie  – which  did include windscreen cover and a lower excess.


One extra financial advantage we discovered with Aviva insurance for provisional licence holders – is that they offer 6 months FREE accompanied learner driver insurance if you buy 10 driving lessons from them.
The cost of insurance cover with Aviva for the mother alone was €323.61 – so the 6 months free cover for the provisional licence holder is worth €443.43 in this example.  The Aviva driving school say lessons cost from €42 an hour – so basically the lessons end up costing you nothing.