car insurance options

andrew1977

Hi all

Need some help,was driving a 1 litre polo, 3rd part insurance for 978 euro per year
Bought a 03 ford focus 1.4 , rang up insurance company for fully comp insurance on this will charge me 1128 euro,
Had a 5 year no claims bonus but had an accident last year ,claim costing me 3000 euro to repair the other vehicle
Am i wasting my time now to shop around for a cheaper new quote, any online site i go to says "must have no accidents or claims in the past 3 years "
Has my current insurance company got me over a barrel, i have to stay with them becuase no other company will touch me until i am over the 3 year mark from my last accident
I know the increase in my premium is only 150 euro for a bigger car but i hate giving insurance companies an extra penny, in the past 6 years i have given them over 13000 euro in premiums

thanks for any help

seamus

Other companies will indeed insure you. Afaik, only Hibernian (and maybe one other) look for three years claim free. All others look for 5 years. You'll get quoted online by Quinn Direct with an accident, but all other insurers will insist that you ring them to get a quote. So long as you're not under 23, they will quote you, and shouldn't penalise you too badly for the accident. Did you have stepback protection on your NCB? If you did, your current insurer will give you a 2 or 3 year NCB even with the accident, but may not issue you a cert of no claims if you move.

I've heard it said so often that people think you're obliged to stay with your current insurer for 5 years after an accident, but it's a myth. It's *always* worth shopping around before renewing.

andrew1977

cheers ,thanks for that
i will try the online sites now,appreciate the info you gave me ,
when i got my renewal forms, my ncd was stepped back to 3 years,
so you are right, fingers crossed i will get a better deal
i might even chance my arm with my current insurer, when i ring to change the insurance over to the new car, i might ask them for a better premium price

its good to now that my hands are not tied to my own insurer even after my accident (which was not my fault, but because i went into the back of the other car,i have no comeback )

cheers again

JungleBunny

Try
www.bestquote.ie

they deffo gave me the best price by far.... i think i managed to save around €400!!!!!

Blut

Slightly off topic insurance Q but hopefully someone will know the answer, plus it might be of some use to the OP:

You know the way with tesco's online quote system you can increase your voluntary excess to 600e up from 300e and it knocks a few percent (3% I think) off, is it possible to specify an even higher limit with companies? Like, if you stated a 2,000e voluntary excess would you get a much higher % off?

Ann Elk

Generally not,

The companies can be cagy about quoting an XS that high as chances are they'll never get the cash in the event of a claim. Also they have a built in cushion factor and a floor price that if they drop below will cease to be profitable so no matter how high you push the xs you'll never get below it.

Barr

Your not tied to this insurance company because of this minor claim. There are still a few out there that insist on 3 years claim free driving
best bet is to go to one of the bigger brokers and let thenm do the dhopping round for ya