Pay as You Go Mobile broadband is very popular amongst  students, tenants and people who  can’t or don’t want to sign up to a 12 month bill pay contract.
It can also be useful if you have broadband at home – but also want internet access when you are on the move too.

Pre Pay Mobile Broadband Prices Compared

There are several  pre-pay  mobile broadband packages on the Irish market – with options to pay for as little as one day’s access or as much as 30 days.
The data allowances  can be fairly low – so we have worked out the mobile broadband deal with lowest price per Gb

Three do a pay as you go deal costing €35 for 30 days broadband with a data limit of  20Gb.  This works out at €1.75 per Gb. Visit 3 Here

This 20GB allowance from Three is the highest of all the prepay mobile broadband providers -  the largest allowance from the other providers is 7.5GB

The next lowest price per Gb is from Meteor and eMobile -  they both charge €19.99 for 30 days access and a 7.5Gb allowance. That works out at €2.67 per Gb.

If you are not too worried about data limits or allowances – and you just want to be able to get  access to the internet every day for small things like email and browsing – then the cost per day is probably the thing to compare.

The lowest cost per day for prepay mobile internet is €0.50 – again from Three.  This is their 30 days internet  for €15 with a 1gb allowance.
(1gb is about equivalent to 1000 emails or 10 hours constant web surfing )

Most of the other suppliers charge €20  or €19.99  for 30 days access – which works out at €0.67 per day. The best of these is Meteor and eMobile – with their 7.5Gb allowance.

Vodafone and O2 have a lower 5Gb data allowance.  See all O2 options here
See Vodafone options here

Modem Prices - All the providers charge for the mobile broadband modems (dongles) – with similar prices  – basic models start at  between €19 and €39 . Faster modems will cost a bit more.

Pricing checked November  2011

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

Sometimes you might get cheaper quotes from a broker such as AA Ireland

Over the long term – property prices have usually risen in the past  and may well do so in the future. In the current declining property market would you be worse off or better off renting a house rather than buying?

Here are some figures for buying versus renting based on different scenarios over a 5 year period. The interest rates quoted are based on fixed  rate mortgages and savings  available in January 2011.

Ownership Costs
On a house priced  at €230,000 – the cost of purchase would include extras – Stamp Duty of €2300 , Legal and other fees of €2500.
With a 25% deposit of  €57500 that would leave a  mortgage loan of  €172500.
This mortgage would mean monthly repayments of  €958.81 on a 5  year fixed rate mortgage at 4.5% over 25 years . Total payments over 5 years of  €57528.
Of these mortgage repayments – €36583 would be interest and €20945 would be paid off the capital. This would leave an outstanding loan of  €151555 after 5 years

We have assumed annual costs for maintenance and repairs and building insurance for the owner  of 1% or €11500 over 5 years.

Total cost of ownership over 5 Years = €131328

Cost of Renting
Rental charges on the same property based on a 5% gross return would be €950 a month 0r €57000 over 5 years.
You would still have your €57500 deposit – which at 3.6% a year on deposit would earn €10791 interest over 5 years.

Net cost of renting over 5 years = €57000 – €10971 = €46209

Scenario 1 – House prices remain the same over 5 years:
Tthe Equity in the house would be €78445 (The difference between the value (€230,00) and the outstanding mortgage (€151555).
If we  deduct this  from the cost of ownership – that leaves the net cost of ownership as  €52833.

In this scenario the cost of renting is lower than the cost of buying by €6674

Scenario 2 – House Prices Fall by 10% over the 5 years
The value of the house would be €207,000 after 5 years and the outstanding mortgage  would be €151555  – leaving  equity of €55445. The net cost of ownership in this case works out at   €75883 over the 5 years .
If we also assume a drop in rent of 2% a year – bringing the total rent over 5 years to €54720 – after taking into account the interest on the savings – this  ends up working out at €31954 cheaper when renting compared to buying.

Scenario 3 -  House Price rises by 10% over 5 years
The house would be worth €253000 after 5 years . The equity would now be €101455 meaning a net cost of ownership of €29883.
Assuming rent rises in line with property prices – the total rent over 5 years would be €52980.  Deducting the interest made from the  €57500 deposit left in savings – we arrive at a net cost of rental of  €48489
In this scenario – renting would leave the tenant worse off by €18605 after 5 years.

Of course – even higher price increases will make buying even better  – but hopefully it has been a useful exercise in showing that sometimes renting a property can work out better than buying .
This comparison could  of course be affected by things like mortgage relief , rent supplement and other things that we have not considered. Please feel free to comment .

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.

The National Consumer Agency carries out two price comparison surveys in Ireland every year – which are fairly detailed but are probably out of date as soon as they are done. The most recent NCA Grocery price comparison was carried out in July 2010 – we had a look at some of the results……….

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The Irish Financial Regulator has placed Quinn Insurance  into provisional administration and is expected to push for this  administration to become indefinite at a hearing on 12 April.

The Regulator has been concerned about the  Quinn Group since December 2009  when Quinn Insurance said the group was seeking a waiver from commitments to pay back certain debts by the end of last year. Sean Quinn was a major shareholder in Anglo Irish Bank – which is now in the hands of the state and making massive losses.

Quinn Insurance is Ireland’s second biggest insurer -   Quinn Insurance has around 23 per cent of the health insurance market in Ireland – they took over BUPA’s Irish operation  when BUPA pulled out.
Although the regulator has said that Quinn-Healthcare  customers do not need to do anything -  many of them will be looking into switching insurers to avoid any possible problems.
There are only 2 alternatives to Quinn for health insurance in Ireland – AVIVA and VHI.
You can transfer from one health insurer to another at any time – you do not have to wait for a renewal noice . If you switch from Quinn to another health insurance company you  are entitled to a full refund for any period of insurance that you have not used.  Here is a letter you can use to inform Quinn Insurance that you wish to cancel your Policy. It makes sense to take out any new policy before you cancel your old one – it is better to have a couple of days overlap than a few days with no cover at all.

Aviva have a promotional rewards package on offer for anyone who switches to them before April 15th 2010. This promotion was announced befor the problems with Quinn. You can get vouchers for things such as free cinema tickets, a free round of golf, free beauty treatment and lots more.

When you switch health insurance provider – if the new policy offers the same benefits (or a lower level) you will not have to serve any extra waiting period before claiming.
If your new policy has higher benefits the new company can insist on a waiting period before you are eligible for these extra benefits.

We did a quick price comparison of some similar health insurance packages for a family of 2 adults, 2 children & 1 student.

Quinn Insurance Essential   – cost €1620
Aviva Level 1 Hospital  €1685
VHI Plan A  – cost  €1789.05

There are minor differences in all the health insurance packages – so exact comparisons are not easy. Excess payments are one of the big differences – this is the amount you have to pay towards any claim in a year. In the 3 examples above – the lowest excess was from Aviva at €250 per family. With Quinn – the excess was  €470 and with VHI it was €250 per person (a possible €1250 in the example family) . Higher excess levels will  mean you are less likely to reach the threshold where cover kicks in on the smaller items like Physio or GP visits.
In the above comparison – ony Aviva would cover the full cost of a private room in a public hospital. Quinn would want €55 per night from you and VHI would not cover the full cost either.

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.

There are three main  health insurance providers in Ireland – VHI , Quinn Direct and  Aviva. The health insurance market in Ireland is estimated to be worth over €1 billion in premiums each year.

The Health Insurance Authority has set  up a price comparison site for Private Health Insurance in Ireland.

An initial search on the  HIA comparison site -  shows up no less than 182 different health insurance price plans available in Ireland – ranging from the cheapest at €144 per adult per year to the most expensive at €2640 per adult per year. The amount of different plans and variations in levels of cover provided is mind boggling – it must be easy for people to get confused by all the options available.
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