Crazy Insurance Quote?

Gav_b

Got a quote today from Quinn Direct of 618 Euro to be a named driver on the mothers car for 4 months.
The cars an 01 A3 1.6 petrol and I'm 26 years old on my second provisional.
Seems way too expensive, was wondering IS this the actual price of insurance nowadays?

sceptre

That sounds rather extortionate Gav. When I was about 26 (about two years ago) and on my first provisional I was added to my father's policy for a year. Car was only a 1.4 but cost was 100 for the year.

The price you've been quoted is about half of what I was quoted for my own policy for my own car when I was on my first provisional.

In other words, either insurance costs have risen to a seriously nutty level, even by our standards, in the last two years or you're getting ripped off totally. The other option is that they assume that you will be driving the car most of the time but they can't quote with that assumption. Even with a heavier load due to you're not having passed your test and being in a 1.6L car it seems rather excessive (to be polite about it)

edit: Hang on (just noticed). For 4 months? 618 euros? They're trying to be funny. You sure you ticked the "as named driver" box? Did the guy giving the quote to you have a big red nose and a clown costume? Nuts. I hope it's at least a comprehensive policy (which might at least part-explain the cost - provisional drivers are expensive on a comp policy for obvious reasons)

MojoMaker

So that's €1854 for a years insurance effectively (probably in reality would be less) - some folk here would love to be driving a nearly new A3 for that kind of money, comprehensive one would assume too. At 26 and without having passed a driving test it would seem to be fairly representative of the risk you pose (by Irish standards at least).

It's a big bad world out there (here).

Guy:Incognito

Originally posted by sceptre
I hope it's at least a comprehensive policy (which might at least part-explain the cost - provisional drivers are expensive on a comp policy for obvious reasons)

is it not irrelevant whether its a fully comp policy r not. AFAIK (feel free to correct mme) are named driver snot only covered 3rd party anyway?it its true that makes the crazy quote ever crazier. ive actually been surpised by quotes lately ( as surpriesed as u can b in this mad country) i got a quote of €2400 on a new megane sport saloon 1.6, which i didnt think was 2 bad for a 22yr old seeing as i was paying €2900 for a 1.2 clio

Seth Brundle

thay can charge it as most people are willing / forced to pay it!

shoegirl

Much of the huge premia in recent years are being fueled by the availability of credit and higher wages - basically once people pay these sort of usurious rates they will continue to sky rocket if the insurance companies believe they can extract this sort of money.

My advice is to save your cash and get the bus. Or at least wait until you have a full licence. I know you will probably argue at the need to practice but I passed my test the second time around after 8 hours of lessons having not driven for the previous 18 months at all. This will at least cut your risk as a provisional licence holder.

It will be interesting to see what effect the forthcoming ban on lone provisional drivers will have on insurance. The cost of insurance will probably soar as new provisional holders will not buy cars and insure and some existing provisional holders may sell their cars, leading to a collapse in the price of second hand cars.

seamus

Sounds about right. Afaik, the A3 is lumped in with the likes of the civic, into the performance/boy racer category, which increases loading. Coupled with a provisional licence, being under 30, and presumably living in Dublin, that sounds about normal.

Tis extortion. But somebody's making too much money from it to allow it to change.

Rodney Trotter

on my second provisional.

And 26 years old? You have got to be joking?

At 26 you should have a full licence for at least 6 years.

IMO this is a fair quote for what is a serious risk. As I said elsewhere, Provo drivers should not be allowed on our roads and it's good to see sombody doing something to prevent such drivers going on our road, even though, in this case, it's the Ins Co. and not the relevant authority.

rs

> At 26 you should have a full licence for at least 6 years.

I'm 26 and am on a provisio. Here's why.

a. lived in city center from age 20 - 25 and had no need for car (had motorbike, hense first provisional)

b. parents live in another country, so no way of becoming named driver easily, (required own car and insurance)

c. insured last feb on car, applied for test in mar, still waiting for test!

have 4 years driving in foreign country (age 16 - 20), on own insurance, full no claims.

> As I said elsewhere, Provo drivers should not be allowed on our roads and it's
> good to see sombody doing something to prevent such drivers going on our road, > even though, in this case, it's the Ins Co. and not the relevant authority.

The problem here is not provo drivers, it's bad drivers. I fully agree that bad drivers should not be allowed on our roads. Just because someone is made wait over 12 months for an f-ing driving test does not mean they are a bad driver.

Rodney Trotter

There's always some excuse. If I weas an Ins Co and saw a 26YO on a provo licence I'd say high-risk.


If provo drivers were banned from the roads you would see some action in getting our drivers educated, and educated properly, instead of the excuse that is the current setup.


Provo drivers in Ireland are a problem.

Bad drivers are a problem. It's all too often they are one and the same.

shoegirl

If you lived in the UK you could probably have taken a test 6 or 8 times in the length of time it takes to do it just once in Ireland - this makes it unreasonably difficult to sit and pass a test.

Secondly many provisional licence holders are awaiting tests - if offered an opportunity to sit the test in under 4 weeks about 50% of them could be full licence holders within 6 weeks. So many of these are being unfairly treated by an unreasonable system.

While some areas have waiting lists of over 50 weeks others less than half this - this gives drivers in these areas an unfair advantage. (I was lucky enough to get and pass a test in about 16 weeks - today thats a pipedream for many candidates). More discrimination.

Take this hypothesis - if all the provisional holders in Ireland were forced to do a test with no more than a 3 month waiting list, 50% of holders would have a licence in 3 months, another 25% in 6, 12.5% in 9 and within one year 6.25%. This would reduce the number of privisional holders by almost 94% (plus of course new provisional holders). So why doesn't this happen?

The answer is a) the high number of provisional holders ensures continuing business for testers
and b) it artifically inflates profit margins at insurance companies.

So I reckon this will never happen! Why? Because there are vested interests maintaining the problem who are profiting by the situation!

MojoMaker

94% - are you kidding? Sure 50% of them will fail the test at any given sitting because they're not particularly great drivers - despite what they think.

sceptre

Originally posted by Rodney Trotter
And 26 years old? You have got to be joking?

At 26 you should have a full licence for at least 6 years.

I'm 28 - I've had a full licence for just under two years and had a provisional for nine months in total before that.

Not everyone feels the need to jump into a car the day they reach 17 (especially if like me they had the copon to live 400 yards from where they worked to ease congestion for all humanity:D)

Keeping the "provisional drivers are the spawn of the devil" to the original thread where it was half-relevant might help some other threads to stay vaguely on topic.

Gav_b

Just on the A3 being considered a boy racers car, the mother has agreed to purchasing a new golf 1.4 now instead of waiting for the new 4 door A3 to come out in October. She claims that this might not make any difference to insurance costs as its the value of the car and not the engine size that is the major factor?

Reasons why I haven't passed my test, well theres a pretty good bus service to and from college where I live, which has suited me fine, I have never been too intrested in owning a car (ie. can't afford one!). Just want more to pass my test and having applied I need to get some serious practice in before the date, outside of just getting leasons each week.

seamus

Originally posted by Gav_b
Just on the A3 being considered a boy racers car, the mother has agreed to purchasing a new golf 1.4 now instead of waiting for the new 4 door A3 to come out in October. She claims that this might not make any difference to insurance costs as its the value of the car and not the engine size that is the major factor?

Only for fully comprehensive. For third party, fire & theft, the value of the car is largely irrelevant under €25k.
Afaik, you can only get TPF&T as a named driver, but I could be wrong.

Imposter

Originally posted by rs

have 4 years driving in foreign country (age 16 - 20), on own insurance, full no claims.

Can you not transfer your other licence?
I know you might have problems getting recognition for your 4 years of no claims elsewhere but your licence should be easily transferrable.

Fudger

Why for 4 months how much use would you get from the car if you mam needs it? It sounds strange but it would work out cheaper if you got 12 months and fight with them a bit, they will come down, its in their procedures don't ever accept the first quote they give you. It might not be much but they will knock some off. Especially if your mam has been with them for a long time.

As far as the whole provisional thing!!?? Understanding that people have got unique positions as to why they have no full licence ie: the governments fault for having such crappy waiting systems in place. I really don't agree with provisional drivers at all it isn't fair to the rest of us full licence holders. Take myself for example. I did get a provisional when I was 19 but didn't drive at all instead i sat on it for awhile when I was in college (no need for a car). Then in my final year of college I took the view to finishing college and getting my full drivers licence (to help with any jobs that it might give me an advantage) So i done it by the book and only used my provisional to get driving lessons with ISM, done my test and passed. This is when it goes nuts.

I finished college and got a job with which i needed a car for. So there I am 23 yrs old full licence holder (got it by doing it the way the government outline and say it should be done) I headed off to the insurance company and they give me hassle about why I had not being driving on the provisional. They quoted me €3500 and then after my "lack of provisional driving" bumped it to €4000. ( the car is a Seat Cordoba 1.4). I fought with them and kept it at €3500. Now the corner can be fought that my driving experience was very limited but you can also fight the corner that I passed a government test and that in the eyes of the Irish government and their set procedures and standards that I am a good enough driver and the fact that my job depends on me being mobile that I am not going to drive like and idiot or else I have to pay a higher premium or lose my job.

I paid €2900 this year so the drop wasn't very good at all but its going in the right direction. O yea thats Third Party Fire & Teft with Class 2 Business cover. They won't give me comprehensive till I'm 25 but that bulls*hite 30 is the new 25.

So basically it can be presumed obvious that because there are so many provisional drivers out there that the Insurance companys are not acknowledging the full drivers licence in any way and that the only difference is that one is green and one is pink. The government have made the rule changes to make it illegal to drive alone on a provisional but who is enforcing it the Gardai? Yea right! Its gotten so out of control with the provisional that the full is worth nothing but maybe €200 or so. They take the view that a government test is not worth a sh*te. Its not viewed as a higher standard of driving certificate.

Sorry I had to rant on about it. So either get the finger out and fight with the insurance company or get the bus. If more people would fight back it might make a difference but then again it might not.

If convicted drink drivers only get their licences suspended and not taken away completely well then you can see how hard this battle is going to be.

Rodney Trotter

To understand how seriously the authorities treat drunk driving (i.e. not at all), there is, on average, one drunk driver convicted, per pub, every 10 months.

rs

> Can you not transfer your other licence?
> I know you might have problems getting recognition for your 4 years of no claims > elsewhere but your licence should be easily transferrable

My license is for the wrong side of the road (Canada), so is not transferrable. I think all EU and most "left side" driving licenses are transferrable. US and Canadian licenses are not.

Makes sense really, so I can't complain about it.

Guy:Incognito

Originally posted by rs
> Can you not transfer your other licence?
> I know you might have problems getting recognition for your 4 years of no claims > elsewhere but your licence should be easily transferrable

My license is for the wrong side of the road (Canada), so is not transferrable. I think all EU and most "left side" driving licenses are transferrable. US and Canadian licenses are not.

Makes sense really, so I can't complain about it.

dont see how that makes sense, a left hand drive is a left hand drive, and tbh their driving standard is better than ours (ie thers more involved with getting a licence than driving round ffor a half hour, 1 off test.)

seamus

Originally posted by Stekelly
dont see how that makes sense, a left hand drive is a left hand drive, and tbh their driving standard is better than ours (ie thers more involved with getting a licence than driving round ffor a half hour, 1 off test.)

I don't think so. I'm not sure about the Canadian system, but the American system is a few pissy easy questions, and a few minutes driving around cones in a car park. Not a very good test of skills at all.