The good old Financial Regulator has done another comparison of home insurances premiums in Ireland for August 2008.
As usual – several types of properties and personal circumstances are used to obtain quotes from both brokers and insurance companies direct.
Quinn Direct does best overall in the survey this time – they have the cheapest quote in six out of the nine examples. One of the survey examples – the Quinn Direct home insurance policy was €164 euro a year cheaper than the highest quote from Hibernian. This was for a 5 bedroom bungalow in Tullow, Co. Carlow with ae rebuilding cost of €275,000 and contents worth €110,000.
Allianz came out cheapest in one example – and Zurich had the lowest quote on another . The ninth example was for contents only on a rented apartment – and Quinn Direct gave no quote. The lowest price for contents insurance was from Royal and Sun Alliance through a broker – which at 91 euro was more than 3 times cheaper than AIG Direct.
Tesco were not included in the survey – only 8 insurance providers were involved in the comparison by the Irish Financial Regulator.
Be aware that some insurance companies may not have the same excess on their policies. The excess is the amount you have to pay on any claim. The norm is 125 euro – but some companies have a higher excess such as 500 euro. The policy may be cheaper but you would lose any savings if you had to make a claim.
Also – be aware that sometimes lower prices will be given to new customers. If your home insurance is up for renewal – it pays to check if you can get it cheaper elsewhere. As this survey shows – you could save as much as €164 euro for an hours effort.