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 double at €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.