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.

Aviva offer car insurance and health insurance in Ireland as well as house insurance.

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.

When comparing car insurance quotes make sure the following things are the same in each policy:

Is the car insurance comprehensive, third party fire and theft,or third-party only?
What is the total policy excess in the event of claims?
Is there an the excess for windscreen claims?
Does the insurance policy cover all the drivers you asked for?
Does the insurance cover include legal expenses and breakdown?
Does the insurance policy include a courtesy car – is there a limit on the size of this car?
How many windscreen claims can you make before it affects your no claims bonus?
Is the no claims bonus protected?

Insurance Brokers have to make a living – but here are a few tips on how to avoid being charged too much for your car insurance by a broker.

If a broker asks What have you budgeted? – they are really asking “What can we get away with charging you? Don’t give a figure. If they ask “What other quotes have you had? – If you respond 400 and their best price is 350, they’ll offer you insurance for 385, just beating your other quote. So the best advice is dont answer these questions.

Paying in monthly instalments
If you pay in monthly instalments, instead of up front in one go, you are sometimes charged interest or an admin fee, perhaps around 20%. The broker will keep a hefty slice of this. It’s far cheaper if you pay for your cover in one go or even using a credit card.

Incompetence
Sadly, some insurance consultants are not good at the job.
The problem is that its a job that requires meticulousness, or
they may pass insufficient details to the insurer. That information could have made your premium cheaper or, worse, the lack of it might make you officially uninsured!
Sadly, its the customer who has the duty of disclosure, so make
sure you tell the broker everything that you think an insurer
might possibly want to know, and get them to write it on their
quote and proposal forms, so there is written evidence.
Information that is relevant to some insurers includes whether
youre a homeowner (which can decrease your premium) or whether
youve had a non-motoring criminal conviction (which can increase
your premium, but at least youll be properly insured).

Loyalty doesnt pay
When it comes to renewal, if the premium charged by the insurer has gone down (usually because the cost of insuring that person, or people in general, has dropped that year), some brokers might write to the customer saying ‘Good news! The premium has
remained the same’, and theyll keep the difference themselves.
The more dastardly ones will even increase the premium.
Brokers can be a useful tool, particularly if your circumstances are complicated, but you can avoid all this hassle and cut out the middleman by comparing online.

In Ireland the major providers of car breakdown cover are the AA .
With the AA – the person is covered – not the vehicle – so even if you are a passenger in another car that breaks down – the AA will come out.
The basic cover from AA is 149 Euro. This covers a roadside fix or recovery to nearest approved garage. If you want cover for breakdowns at your home add another 42 Euro. The AA Rescue Plus cover is another 62 on top of the basic – for this you get things like recovery to anywhere in Ireland OR overnight accommodation OR a replacement car.
See Full Details Here

Hibernian quotes are based on the age and make of car and your location. For a 2002 Opel in Roscommon the cost would be 118.83 Euro for basic and 166.36 for extras like Homestart, recovery to destination or anywhere in Ireland.

Many comprehensive insurance policies  include breakdown cover – so check that before you join any breakdoen service. Be aware that the majority of insurance policy breakdown will be the “basic” type – ie. recovery to nearest garage only.