A guide to motor insurance & FAQ's

Tilikum

Thinking of adding my gf to my policy. She had a claim in July 2011. Would the insurance company need to about that claim or would it I need to tell them as its more than 4 yrs ago?

scamalert

if the claim is settled and was 4y ago then most insurers usually ask for if you had any claims in past 3yrs some might extend on longer terms some 2yrs.

If its still open then its a lot different story,as managed to find only one broker out of over 30 that would be willing to take someone with open claim and prices are insane to say the least.

Liam McPoyle

Tilikum wrote: »

Thinking of adding my gf to my policy. She had a claim in July 2011. Would the insurance company need to about that claim or would it I need to tell them as its more than 4 yrs ago?

All insurers will ask for a minimum of 5 years claims experience for any additional drivers.

Left Back on the Bench

Anyone getting cheap enough car insurance? Have a full licence for 10 years, no claims bonus for 7 years and no penalty points. I drive an 04 Saab 9 - 3 vector turbo.

Cheapest I'm getting is around €800. Feel its madness, paid €565 last year fully comprehensive with aig and this year the quote is €955.

To say I'm not happy is an understatement.

Danger781

Seems I'm not alone..

My insurance increased by about 350 after getting a full license. I can only imagine what I would be paying if I still had L plates.

loki7777

I just get confused by 123.ie online quotation. I claimed 2 times windscreen(axa,paid premium to have it so no effect to NCB) over last 3 years and now the even won't quote me online.

jinkybhoy

loki7777 wrote: »

I just get confused by 123.ie online quotation. I claimed 2 times windscreen(axa,paid premium to have it so no effect to NCB) over last 3 years and now the even won't quote me online.

it's right - a lot of the companies are now not quoting if you have 2 or more windscreen claims within 3 years - I'd say they will all follow suit eventually.

davismorris717

Its better to get car insurance renew before selling it.!

sean1141

Maybe this has been asked before but is no claims bonus worth the premium?
Full no claims or even step back??

Liam McPoyle

sean1141 wrote: »

Maybe this has been asked before but is no claims bonus worth the premium?
Full no claims or even step back??

You mean NCB protection I presume?

IMO it absolutely is.

I've seen many cases where people don't have bonus protection and their cars got hit parked on the side of the road, car parks etc.

One claim for damage and your full bonus is gonzo.

So paying an extra €1.50 - €2 per week to have it on the policy is money well spent for the piece of mind IMO.

NATLOR

Business Cat wrote: »

You mean NCB protection I presume?

IMO it absolutely is.

I've seen many cases where people don't have bonus protection and their cars got hit parked on the side of the road, car parks etc.

One claim for damage and your full bonus is gonzo.

So paying an extra €1.50 - €2 per week to have it on the policy is money well spent for the piece of mind IMO.

Totally agree,had an accident last year,my fault,over ten grand of a claim,luckily i had no claims protection so no change on my premium this year. Its a no brainer IMO

acronym Chilli

NATLOR wrote: »

Totally agree,had an accident last year,my fault,over ten grand of a claim,luckily i had no claims protection so no change on my premium this year. Its a no brainer IMO

Can you say who you're insured with?

I actually (cynically) expected that the insurance company would increase your base premium, while leaving the NCB in place, so a nett increase. e.g. picking numbers out of thin air: if you'd a €500 premium, and a 50% NCB, paying €250, they'd then increase your premium to €1000, leave you with 50% NCB, and now pay €500. Great to see it actually work out more fairly in your case.

NATLOR

acronym Chilli wrote: »

Can you say who you're insured with?

I actually (cynically) expected that the insurance company would increase your base premium, while leaving the NCB in place, so a nett increase. e.g. picking numbers out of thin air: if you'd a €500 premium, and a 50% NCB, paying €250, they'd then increase your premium to €1000, leave you with 50% NCB, and now pay €500. Great to see it actually work out more fairly in your case.

Im with Aviva.I was totally expecting them to ramp up the premium so was pleasantly surprised to see no change what so ever.Insurance companies get a lot of bad press but i must say they were a pleasure to deal with through the whole claims process, organised a hire car immediately,gave me a more than fair price for my car (it was a write off) and sent me the cheque within two weeks so all credit to them

motownman

Looking for advice..

Son is a named driver on my policy and tipped (15kph) the back of a car in traffic. Other guy says no big deal will get fixed and look for cost when done.

Question is should you notify insurance company anyway? If you do and no claim is ever submitted is there any effect on your policy?

Thanks in advance

loki7777

In my opinion ringing them up is like making claim(even if you won't move it forward) - so it will effect your ncb.

motownman

loki7777 wrote: »

In my opinion ringing them up is like making claim(even if you won't move it forward) - so it will effect your ncb.

I thought that myself but if you don't notify them and the other guy decides he has a sore neck you're in trouble then aren't you?

Liam McPoyle

motownman wrote: »

Looking for advice..

Son is a named driver on my policy and tipped (15kph) the back of a car in traffic. Other guy says no big deal will get fixed and look for cost when done.

Question is should you notify insurance company anyway? If you do and no claim is ever submitted is there any effect on your policy?

Thanks in advance

Absolutely notify your insurer for the very reasons you outlined and do it as soon as you can. The amount of times Ive heard people say that the other party was sound about it in the immediate aftermath of an accident only to suddenly develop soft tissue damage is staggering. You may well be dealing with an honest citizen but €€ signs can turn otherwise stand up people into complete ****.

loki7777 wrote: »

In my opinion ringing them up is like making claim(even if you won't move it forward) - so it will effect your ncb.

It may be your opinion but your opinion is wrong and your advice is bad.

Danger781

Been in this exact situation before. Paintwork damage to another gents door. Inform your insurance company asap.

At first all seemed fine, we agreed he would get a quote and come back to me (Even though I didn't believe it was entirely my fault..). Took him 3 months to come back to me with a quote for the repair. He had decided to get a quote from a dealership and he straight out refused to get me any other quotes. I consulted my local gardai about what I can do, they basically told me that I'm screwed. If he decided to make a complaint against me to the gardai then I open myself up to prosecution. So at that point I engaged a solicitor to handle all communication with him because I didn't want to have to deal with him any longer.

I engaged a solicitor who told me to inform my insurance company asap of the whole situation. At first I explained to them that I was only informing them of the incident and that I did not want them to pursue it as were arranging a settlement ourselves. Eventually they took over negotiations on my behalf after I explained that he was not being cooperative. They handled the whole thing, arranged a final settlement which was about 40% of the quote he got. I was given the option to settle with this gentleman directly, thereby bypassing the insurance company altogether, which I believe would have allowed me to keep my NCB. However I felt much more comfortable arranging it through the insurance company as they seemed more official, legally binding, etc.

Lesson learned though, inform insurance regardless of whether or not a claim will actually go through.

delta_bravo

delta_bravo wrote: »

They're rarely going to say why but they're a higher risk in terms of theft, cost of replacement parts, claims history....

Surely for a 22 yr old car, the max exposure would be 1000EUR...?

In addition, anybody doing high mileage would not be using a 22 yr old car. Seems strange why the insurance costs are so high.

Or is this an indication that the NCT isnt catching old unroadworthy cars?

acronym Chilli

Business Cat wrote: »

Absolutely notify your insurer for the very reasons you outlined and do it as soon as you can. The amount of times Ive heard people say that the other party was sound about it in the immediate aftermath of an accident only to suddenly develop soft tissue damage is staggering. You may well be dealing with an honest citizen but €€ signs can turn otherwise stand up people into complete ****.



It may be your opinion but your opinion is wrong and your advice is bad.

+1
personal experience: tipped rear of another car (car park incident). Other party agreed to settle outside of insurance. I notified insurance, and they confirmed that it wouldn't affect my NCB. That isn't quite the same as a guarantee that it won't affect my premium, even though I got that impression. However, if it's up at renewal, I'll never know exactly what led to it (premia are up generally).

In my case, the outside settlement worked well (happened on Friday, other driver had car in garage (not a dealership) on Monday and I dropped into the garage to pay the bill directly on Tuesday. Months later, all fine. But I know of cases in family where it hasn't worked out so well (and that without any personal injury, just the other driver thinking it over afterwards and deciding they'd been too soft at the time).

However, (to OP) you are supposed to tell insurance (it's almost certainly a condition of your policy in the booklets you were sent), and as others have said that is probably the wisest course of action. The damage to the car is one thing, but personal injury can be an open cheque book. That may be because the other driver is trying it on, but it could equally be that an injury (or aggravation of an older injury) shows up a little later (genuinely). The other party will certainly in that case be claiming (they have to really), and you're unlikely to want to settle that privately. If you don't inform the insurance company at the time, then in most drastic situation they could claim you weren't insured and not cover you, or use it to deny you a renewal, which will put you in a really bad category when you try to go to any other firm.

SmurfX

Pretty basic question but my FBD insurance is up for renewal next month, it's gone up considerably so I'm switching to Aviva instead. I presume policies don't auto renew and I don't need to contact FBD to let them know I'm leaving them?

sean1141

SmurfX wrote:

Pretty basic question but my FBD insurance is up for renewal next month, it's gone up considerably so I'm switching to Aviva instead. I presume policies don't auto renew and I don't need to contact FBD to let them know I'm leaving them?

Unless you were paying by direct debit I don't think it will renew. I have never paid direct debit so I'm not sure even if it would automatically renew but generally unless you pay it won't renew.

Danger781

Mine auto-renewed. I was paying DD.

scamalert

thats why in this country insurance companies are F88ked up really.

say you have a small accident-and agree on damage done and to pay for it,no need to call guards etc.Then person finds out he/she can make money out of it,visit to solicitor-who will gladly take such cases,then visit to gp to complain about sore neck-which with enough moaning will be put down as back/neck injury and your totally Fcked.

Happened to two people i know and myself.
First instance person by accident started rolling before lights changed and bumped another car like 1-3mph speed,anyway person admitted fault other person was fine-scratch on a bumper week later w@anker wearing neck brace support and failing for personal injuries.

Other story person was reversing and hit a bumper of another car-same agreed to cover scratch which in turn person decides he needs new bumper wing and other stuff from dealership-thus couple grand out of pocket.

My own story had an accident my fault,person crashed into me,all paperwork was right guards on spot.had a chat for couple days afterwards since accident wrote off both cars,anyway insurance covered other party in full in few days time,then person suddenly doesn't want to hear from me and get handed papers with injury claim,thus getting open claim and sitting on it for 3 years no sight of settling it,so moral of story most people are ***** since system in place is rigged so much that any complaint of insomnia or fear alone will get settlements of thousands.

Liam McPoyle

I must say, its refreshing to see many people in here cottoning on to the fact that premium increases aren't simply down to insurers trying to line their own pockets.

Of course they aren't blameless, cutting rates to gain market share / compete was risky and short sighted, the compensation process for "injuries" and payment amounts of claims is in dire need of a massive overhaul but with the government more worried about getting re-elected than anything nothing is going to change anytime soon.

I do fear however it going to reach critical mass at some point in the near future and by that point drastic measures will be required rather than if corrective measures were formulated now.

Concerning times ahead.

Tippjohn

To anyone considering using totally online insurance companies. I have had a dreadfull 2 weeks cancelling and getting my NCB back using one of these companies. They will talk to you and all is wonderful until they have your money. Then they could not cover the car! Instant messages and requests for call backs have taken up at least 20 hours over 10 days. IMs are returned saying they cannot discuss on line due to data protection, call backs have been two rings and gone, when you get someone they cannot help but will call back, but they don't.
Thankfully an old insurer, whose name starts with three numbers, trusted me, gave me cover within half an hour after consultng with their underwriter, subject to confirmation of no claims within 2 weeks. All in all it spoilt the arrival of a new car. Never again, the frustration is as bad as an accident. 40+ years accident and points free, you would think they would jump through hoops for the business.
I now await reimbursment of an unused policy and returned disc. I live in hope.
Hope this is place to post it.

Asmooh

Help!how do people insure cars? I tried every website but I got quoted for 211 euros a month for a 1.6. How do people that have nice cars pay for this? Do they spend 1000 per month on insurance or so? I have my license for almost 10 years

Danger781

Asmooh wrote: »

Help!how do people insure cars? I tried every website but I got quoted for 211 euros a month for a 1.6. How do people that have nice cars pay for this? Do they spend 1000 per month on insurance or so? I have my license for almost 10 years

Details on the car might be helpful..
I'm 24 in a 2005 1.6 with 1 claim paying around that mark

Staph

Do you have points? How much NCB do you have? Have you called or just got quotes online? I found when I called, they would tell you why their quote was high, don't get that information from online quotes.

Asmooh

Staph wrote: »

Do you have points? How much NCB do you have? Have you called or just got quotes online? I found when I called, they would tell you why their quote was high, don't get that information from online quotes.

I have no experience with driving in Ireland , so no Ncb because it doesn't count when drove for almost 10 years in another country. Only online because of work I don't have time to call.

Based on the price of the cat I own in the Netherlands at the moment, the car I want back and get in Ireland would be aroun 2000 a month for insurance