Refused Insurance

jank

Is it legal to refuse to insure a particular car because of its make and engine size?

Rang quinn direct about getting a quote and they refused because my 1.8 MR2 is a hi spec machine "my arse!"

Anyway is this legal?

Owen

They're insuring both you, and the car. So you need to give us your details, and the cars details for us to form an objective opinion. But yes, it's up to a company to decide if you're a safe insurable risk, otherwise we'd have 17 year olds wanting insurance on Daddy's 612 Scaglietti.

Mitch Connor

If you are already insured with them on another car, and you bought the MR2, they HAVE to provide you with a quote.

daedalus2097

Yeah, I got refused insurance on the GTI until I turned 25... They'll have various rules in place for the top power/performance you can insure based on your age/licence type/claims... Might be worth looking around a few other insurers, but chances are they'll all do something similar.

jank

OK im 26, 5 years no claim and going on 7 years as a full license holder.

Was surprised when they said they couldnt help me out,

rebel.ranter

Hi, as far as I know an insurance company can refuse you a quote, I know it used to be the case that you had to get 3 letters of refusal & then you could returen to one of the companies with refusal letters in hand & then one of the companies woudl be obliged to quote you.
Mind you the quote could be prohibitive.

OKenora

Don't confuse "refusal of insurance" and "refusal to quote". You are asked as part of your Insurance forms have you ever been refused insurance and the answer for most people is "NO".

"Refusal to quote" is saying we will insure you if the circumstances were different, i.e. you were older, had a smaller car, hadn't got 3 points etc etc.

"Refused insurance" is when the company says there is no way on earth that they would insure someone as bad a risk as you e.g because your eyesight has got so bad even with corrective lenses that you are a danger driving.

BACK ON TOPIC: I Find Quinn very optimistic and restrictive about what they call performance, they have refused to quote me on 4 of our 5 cars for various reasons. The simple answer, give the business to someone else. All our cars are now insured for reasonable amounts.

I am 42 with 1 years bonus and a licence a long time. No accidents or convictions or points in the last 15 years let alone 5. Reason for low bonus was no personal car for a while, company car.

jank

Fair enough, but the reason they gave me was that it was a high performance car of 140BHP!

daedalus2097

jank wrote:

OK im 26, 5 years no claim and going on 7 years as a full license holder.

Was surprised when they said they couldnt help me out,

Hmmm... Pretty surprising alright, but I think you're up against their 30-year-old barrier. I insured my GTI when I turned 25 but couldn't get quoted on a VR6 or the newer GTIs, which all ran about 30% more powerful, as I was under 30. Seeing as I wasn't really buying any of them I didn't ask any other insurers for quotes though...

Edit: 140BHP! That is strange then... You didn't have it valued at some silly amount, or it's not left hand drive or anything like that?

NiSmO

This post has been deleted.

jank

Edit: 140BHP! That is strange then... You didn't have it valued at some silly amount, or it's not left hand drive or anything like that?

Bog standard MR2!

No wonder this country is so non car friendly

Eoin

Tauren wrote:

If you are already insured with them on another car, and you bought the MR2, they HAVE to provide you with a quote.

I have a group scheme through work, but they're very conservative about what cars they'll insure. I asked for a quote for a 330d (it's just a saloon!), but was told while they would cover me until the end of the current policy, they wouldn't renew it after that.

Jumpy

I have an FTO and it was a fight to get insured. Contact FBD to see if they will.

Mitch Connor

eoin_s wrote:

I have a group scheme through work, but they're very conservative about what cars they'll insure. I asked for a quote for a 330d (it's just a saloon!), but was told while they would cover me until the end of the current policy, they wouldn't renew it after that.

I have a group scheme thing in work too, when it came to renewal time (i am with quinn) i contacted benchmark to see what they'd offer - €400 MORE then my original premium was, so i stayed with quinn for €1000 less then my preium for the first year.

richie_rvf

I have just renewed the insurance on my car, I decided to shop around this time, what a PITA!!

90% wouldn't quote for my car for the same reason.

I tried a few online and one of the questions was "is the car a high performance vehicle?" I clicked the 'help' link beside the question and they actually said that if the car can go from 0-60 in under 10 seconds then it is a high performance car :eek:

So - I stuck with my broker :rolleyes:

Richie.

Eoin

richie_rvf wrote:

I have just renewed the insurance on my car, I decided to shop around this time, what a PITA!!

90% wouldn't quote for my car for the same reason.

You'd think you're driving some 5 litre 400BHP monster of a car or something, the way they carry on, isn't that right Richie!

OKenora

if the car can go from 0-60 in under 10 seconds then it is a high performance car

ROFL........thats really stretching it for a performance car, most modern family cars get close to that or exceed it

Examples of performance cars...

Ford KA
Ford Galaxy 2.0 TDCi 7 seater
Vauxhall Corsa 1.7 CDTi
Volkswagen Lupo 1.4
Fiat Punto 1.4 16v
Fiat Panda 1.4 16v


And with the aerodynamics of a house brick but the practicality of a shed, you can now have the new Vauxhall performance car....

Vauxhall Zafira MPV 1.9 CDTi

With such a selection of sexy performance cars, who needs that GTi badge

Down the pub with m8's "You know my MPV is rated as a performance car, just like a ferarri, porsche, alfa or any other real performance car.....". Not quite the right effect though.....

sonners

I'm a 23 yr old female driving a 225bhp TT, my insurance is up shortly so I've been ringing around. QuinnDirect wont quote anybody under 30 on anything over 110bhp, absolutely ridiculous I know!

Hibernian, AIB and Tesco all quoted me with Hibernian being the best, maybe give some of these a call. Any of the rest I rang gave me the usual 'your under 25 and its a high-performance vehicle' bullsh*t.

Mitch Connor

sonners wrote:

I'm a 23 yr old female driving a 225bhp TT, my insurance is up shortly so I've been ringing around. QuinnDirect wont quote anybody under 30 on anything over 110bhp, absolutely ridiculous I know!

Hibernian, AIB and Tesco all quoted me with Hibernian being the best, maybe give some of these a call. Any of the rest I rang gave me the usual 'your under 25 and its a high-performance vehicle' bullsh*t.

I'm just after filling in the quinn-direct online form for a 130bhp A4 1.9TDI, was quoted €1400 (23yo - 1 year NCB)

Stephen

That's odd sonners, cos I insured my new Civic (1.8/140bhp, wooo!) with them a couple of weeks ago. I'm 24 with 2 years full licence and no claims. Hibernian wouldn't quote me, apparently I require 3 years full licence/no claims before they'll talk to me. Boo ****ing hoo.

kc66

sonners wrote:

I'm a 23 yr old female driving a 225bhp TT, my insurance is up shortly so I've been ringing around. QuinnDirect wont quote anybody under 30 on anything over 110bhp, absolutely ridiculous I know!

Quinn quoted me on my Volvo S40 which is 125bhp. I am 25. €670.

sonners

Right I always had a sneaking feeling but now I'm fully sure that THEY JUST MAKE THIS SH*T UP AS THEY GO ALONG!!!

I did the online quote with Quinn Direct, they would'nt quote me, which is fair enough (I expect it at this stage). Then an hour or so later I get a call from them telling me that I did'nt get the quote because they wont insure anything over 110bhp to any driver under 30 (I lol'd). The funny thing was it was like the girl on the phone expected my to say 'Oh, ok, I'll just sell my car so and get a little 1.1 fiesta just so you can insure me :rolleyes: '

@Stephen, I get the Feeling Hibernian are afriad of the word 'H-O-N-D-A'. When I started driving first they would'nt quote me on a 1.6 v-tech civic but insured me no problem on a 2.0ltr Celica! makes no sense.

Also, just too confuse you even more - in the last 6 months I changed from the 2.0ltr Celica (179bhp) to a 1.8 turbo TT (225bhp) and my insurance has actually HALVED!!

I swear to god they just pluck the numbers out of thin air.:rolleyes:

daedalus2097

They actually told you that they wouldn't insure a 110BHP to someone less than 30? That's mad! When I was 24 and tried the GTI they never mentioned the power, just said can't insure that vehicle til I was 25... So it sat there for a few weeks, I turned 25 and got a policy right away for around €1100. And that's 150BHP. I seemed to have trouble getting quoted in or around the 180BHP+ mark. They really are pulling these things out of their nether regions!

sonners

Yeah, going back 2 or 3 years ago I was being told I had to be 25 to insure a 'high-powered car' (I use the term loosely), now Quinn seems to have moved that mark to 30, which is fair enough but to say anything over 110bhp is high powered is a f*cking joke. Looking at the posts above, she must have been wrong for others to have got insured. I did'nt question it coz I dont particularly want to be insured with Quinn anyway. Just thought it was a bit mad that they rang me afterwards knowing there was nothing they could do for me.

Stephen

Sonners: Hibernian wouldn't insure me on a 1.25 litre Ford Fiesta or a 1.6 litre Hyundai Coupe either!

richie_rvf

eoin_s wrote:

You'd think you're driving some 5 litre 400BHP monster of a car or something, the way they carry on, isn't that right Richie!

The very thought :rolleyes:

How's things Eoin??

sonners

Stephen wrote:

Sonners: Hibernian wouldn't insure me on a 1.25 litre Ford Fiesta or a 1.6 litre Hyundai Coupe either!

A Ford Fiesta!!! now thats taking the p*ss, what reason did they give you?? (please dont say she's a high-performance car)

Stephen

They just told me they wouldn't insure me under my own name unless I had a full licence for 3 years :rolleyes:

I was given the option of doing their wonderful ignition course after which they'd still cost more than Quinn. F**k that.

sonners

Ah, when I started driving, Hibernian were the only ones who would even look at me. I had to do the Ignition Course and give them an arm and a leg of course, but everyone else just laughed down the phone when I rang looking for a quote.
I was 19, one years named driver experiance, full licence for a whole month and I had a 2.0ltr Celica - I'd laugh too

bf

I have the feeling whoever you were talkin to in Quinn may have given you a bum steer - they are likely have to refused a quote because the MR2 is a convertible...Quinn refused to quote me on the basis they don't do convertibles

I have an MR2 and full NCB all the necessary, but only 2 or 3 companies in Ireland will insure convertibles

madson

sonners wrote:

QuinnDirect wont quote anybody under 30 on anything over 110bhp, absolutely ridiculous I know!

I'm 25 with 2year ncb and a have a full licence 6 months and got insuranced by quinn on my 120bhp alfa no problem, also shopped around and had no issues with any other company giving me quotes.