Insurance tip for first drivers

bmoferrall

I've been getting (third-party F&T) insurance quotes for my girlfriend on her first car (with me as a named driver).

The conventional wisdom seems to be that Quinn Direct are good for provisionally-licenced first-time drivers. They gave me a quote of €1270.
AXA gave me a similar quote, but required a larger deposit.
Hibernian would only quote after securing a date for the driving test.

On a tip from a friend I tried Eagle Star. They quoted me €646! Plus, I was insured immediately over the phone with a credit card. The fact that I'm an experienced driver and was specified as 'partner' on the policy seems to have earned a discount (didn't ask how much).

ciarsd

sounds good, nice bit of shopping!

i'd like to know Eagle Star's description of 'Partner' though.

bmoferrall

ciarsd wrote:

sounds good, nice bit of shopping!

i'd like to know Eagle Star's description of 'Partner' though.

Well, the agent asked me if I was married to the insuree or a partner.
I'm guessing they would classify partner as live-in boyfriend/girlfriend but, to be honest, I didn't get into those legal niceties. I just took the quote and ran

(Most online quotation forms seem to give 'partner' as an option for named drivers, but not 'girlfriend/boyfriend'.)

TheMonster

might be worth clarifying it and that it covers your situation - insurnace companies will jump at a chance to nullify a policy.

bmoferrall

TheMonster wrote:

might be worth clarifying it and that it covers your situation - insurnace companies will jump at a chance to nullify a policy.

Fair enough. The only question the agent asked was whether we lived at the same address, which I answered truthfully.
Anyway, I'll check for small print on this point when I get the proposal form tomorrow.

Oh Boy!

Conventional wisdom says that married or co-habiting couple are a lesser risk as they are "settled"! Quinn direct used to go along with that. But with a little more research we found that whether someone was married, co-habiting or single made little or no difference to our claims experience. So we don't discount for that, we treat everyone as an equal risk!! Which is really how it should be i suppose...

And Eagle Star do have a reputation of giving really good quotes for female drivers!

Stephen

Oh Boy! wrote:

we treat everyone as an equal risk!! Which is really how it should be i suppose...

So you guys quote men and women with equal driving experience and equally classed cars the same? I doubt it.

alias no.9

Oh Boy! wrote:

Conventional wisdom says that married or co-habiting couple are a lesser risk as they are "settled"! Quinn direct used to go along with that. But with a little more research we found that whether someone was married, co-habiting or single made little or no difference to our claims experience. So we don't discount for that, we treat everyone as an equal risk!! Which is really how it should be i suppose...

And Eagle Star do have a reputation of giving really good quotes for female drivers!

Can you explain how with Quinn Direct, the addition of my girlfriend to my policy is no additional cost when I'm 27 with a full license for over 5 years, 5 years NCB and she's 26 with a provisional license, no driving experience yet getting a quote in her own name it costs about 10% extra to add me to her insurance?

Oh Boy!

alias no.9 wrote:

Can you explain how with Quinn Direct, the addition of my girlfriend to my policy is no additional cost when I'm 27 with a full license for over 5 years, 5 years NCB and she's 26 with a provisional license, no driving experience yet getting a quote in her own name it costs about 10% extra to add me to her insurance?

Stephen wrote:

So you guys quote men and women with equal driving experience and equally classed cars the same? I doubt it.

Sorry, i didn't mean we rate male/female equally, i meant we were looking at whether rating differences between married/co-habiting and single people were needed. We concluded that there was no difference in our claims payouts if someone was single or not, so we abandoned the idea.

Now the male female thing is another kettle of fish! Unfortunately guys, based purely on our claims experience in QDI a female with a provisional licence is a lesser risk than a similarly aged male with a full licence. Hence quotes are rated accordingly! The next time you give us a ring, just ask why its more expensive to add you on. You'll be told our quotes are based on what we call the "Worst offending driver" or the highest risk driver on the policy. Its not discrimination, its purely business. As i said in another thread, we have to make a profit too or 250,000 policyholders would have no insurance.

deRanged

Oh Boy! wrote:

he next time you give us a ring, just ask why its more expensive to add you on. You'll be told our quotes are based on what we call the "Worst offending driver" or the highest risk driver on the policy. Its not discrimination, its purely business.

Yeah, I got a policy with QD about 18 months ago, male, 28, prov. license.
I asked if I could add my 23 year old sister (full license) to the policy.
It was free to add her in - I asked why and was told that the policy was based around the 'highest risk' driver i.e. me!

Incidentally I've got a full license now but I'm still the highest risk driver

thatkindofgirl

I just got my first insurance quote -- on a provisional/international license.

For myself and my partner (through ES) on a 1998 Micra (how typical!) it's around 700. My partner has about 10 years no claims and a full licence for that long too.

As for the partner thing, we are a female couple -- legally married, but that means nothing in Ireland -- so I assume they just accept people who are living together, whatever their situation.