Excess vs Voluntary Excess on Fully Comprehensive Insurance

New Home

I've been getting a few quotes for my car insurance renewal. I've noticed that adding a voluntary excess doesn't decrease the premium by a similar amount (e.g., a voluntary excess of €150 in my case decreased the quote by €60) so it's not worth it, in my view.

In some of them I was given the option to change my voluntary excess on the online form, but not on all. However, when I asked one insurer who called me back how to decrease this, I was told that in their case it was already at zero, but that all fully-comprehensive insurance policies in Ireland had a "statutory" minimum excess of €300. This seems a bit strange to me, would that mean that if you have a voluntary excess of €150, in case of an accident you'd have to fork out for the first €450 yourself anyway?

Could somebody confirm this, please?

Thanks.

Eggs For Dinner

There is no such thing as a statutory excess. The vast majority of policies have no excess for claims payable to a 3rd party. The own damage, fire & theft aspects of a comprehensive policy usually have a modest excess (circa €250 to €350). This can be increased by way of additional voluntary excess or imposed by insurers for such things as young driver, learners permit etc.

coylemj

New Home wrote: »

I've noticed that adding a voluntary excess doesn't decrease the premium by a similar amount (e.g., a voluntary excess of €150 in my case decreased the quote by €60) so it's not worth it, in my view.

What you're saying would make sense if the premium calculations were based on an average of one claim per annum. Which they're not.

Eggs For Dinner

coylemj wrote: »

What you're saying would make sense if the premium calculations were based on an average of one claim per annum. Which they're not.

I've clarified the system of policy excesses, whether it's of value or not is for individuals to decide

New Home

Sorry folks but I'm still very confused.

Generally speaking, is there a standard excess (I used the word "statutory" earlier because I didn't know how else to describe it - "built in", perhaps?) in every comprehensive insurance or not? If so, does it vary or is it the same for every insurance company? Can it be decreased?

For instance, let's say I took out a policy with zero voluntary excess. If I were to have an accident and were my car to sustain €1000 of damage and €1000 my counterpart's, would I have to pay something towards the cost of repairing the cars?

I'm not sure if I'm making much sense...

coylemj

Eggs For Dinner wrote: »

I've clarified the system of policy excesses, whether it's of value or not is for individuals to decide

I was replying to the OP. Whom I quoted.

Eggs For Dinner

New Home wrote: »

Sorry folks but I'm still very confused.

Generally speaking, is there a standard excess (I used the word "statutory" earlier because I didn't know how else to describe it - "built in", perhaps?) in every comprehensive insurance or not? If so, does it vary or is it the same for every insurance company? Can it be decreased?

For instance, let's say I took out a policy with zero voluntary excess. If I were to have an accident and were my car to sustain €1000 of damage and €1000 my counterpart's, would I have to pay something towards the cost of repairing the cars?

I'm not sure if I'm making much sense...

There is always a standard excess for damage/loss to your own vehicle. A voluntary excess is in addition to this. E.g. Standard excess €250, voluntary excess (if taken) €150. If you claim, you would be responsible for the first €400 of any claim. Unless stated, you would not have to incur an excess for the 3rd party's side of the claim

New Home

Thank you, that's much clearer.