Are Quinn Direct really that bad?

FrankGrimes

I’m a 25 yr old male in Dublin with full license and named driving experience since Dec 2004. No other driving experience.

I’m looking to get fully comprehensive insurance in my own name for my 1999 Opel Astra G 1.4Litre 16V. I also want to have my girlfriend on the cover as a named driver: she’s 25, provisional license and no driving experience.

Have done a lot of shopping round and only really FBD, Quinn Direct, and AXA were in the running.

FBD: €2042 fully comp with girlfriend on cover, €1471 without
AXA: €1990 fully comp with or without girlfriend
Quinn Direct: €1570 fully comp with girlfriend.

Others came in at around the €1950 mark but wanted me to do the Ignition course to get that price – yeh good luck with that lads, hardly gonna take a day off work when you’re more expensive than the opposition anyway am I?

At €1570 that’s a good quote from Quinn Direct as some companies were looking for 2.5k – 3k and I had to laugh when they said ‘that price is killing us we can’t afford to compete with that’ and then I refer to their recently revealed monster profits and they still say theres nothing they can do.

Anyways, I’ve heard horror stories about Quinn Direct – are they really that bad? They offer the same benefits as the other quotes above and as far as I’m concerned they’re legally obliged to cover me if I have a legitimate claim. Other than that I don’t wanna talk to them till this time next year when I’m shopping around again. But I’d really appreciated any insight on this people might have – is the price hiding something?

Either way I’ll try get FBD to match the quote as they were the only company that had a big difference between having the girlfriend on it and not having her on it, but we’ll see.

Oh Boy!

I work for them, and while there are errors made (We're only humans after all!!) the vast majority of the policyholders are happy campers!! As for problems with claims, up until around 4 years ago we did have a reputation for not paying claims very quickly, but that has changed a lot!! In fact if you have a claim, someone will be out to discuss it with you within 24hrs as part of QDI's "Fast-track" claims process. And the international standards organisation have accredited the company for quality. And the plain english crew in the UK have also acccredited the company for using....well plain english, i suppose, in dealing with clients!!!

There are complaints about the way we deal with claims, but they come mostly from the law society as they don't get a lot of business from us because of it! Thats one of the main reasons your quote is so cheap, we have a lower claims cost than other companies. Legal fees used to cost up to 46% of the total cost of a claim. And guess who had to pay up for that...............

Also it might have something to do with the fact that Sean Quinn wants QDI to be the largest insurance company in Ireland!! We're not far off at the minute (No 3 if my memory serves me right). And now he's trying the same thing in th UK. And he usually gets what he wants so...............

Squirrel

It's great that we have somebody who works for a main insurance company among us here, but as you say they are legally obliged to pay out if you have a legitimate claim, so I don't see much problems, the way I see it there'll always be horror stories

Oh Boy!

Squirrel wrote:

but as you say they are legally obliged to pay out if you have a legitimate claim, so I don't see much problems, the way I see it there'll always be horror stories

Thats right, all companies gotta pay if it's a legit claim. Its the law. Quinn Direct (and as far as i know, most other companies) will fight a claim if it sounds a bit fishy. You're not supposed to profit from insurance. It's called the principle of indemnity (Thats to leave a policyholder in the same financial position after an accident, as they were in before the accident occurred).

If you're still in doubt as to Quinn Directs bona fides, just call and ask them to send you out a policy booklet. That details whats covered under the policy and also how we deal with claims. If we don't match up to whats stated in the document, you would have a case against us. Its a legally binding document.

gaui3d0pnbz86o

i have to say i have been with them for a few years, they were always cheaper then other would quote me, i am very happy with their service and i do recommend them, as they have always be polite and honest and taken the time to explain different things to me, and so forth

however, i have never had to claim off them so i do not know how quickly they pay out (hopefully i will never have to find out)

as ohboy said, ask them for a policy booklet or call them about the policy and make sure it covers you for all you need!

best of luck
tom

conor-mr2

Ty Deep Pantsuit wrote:

i have to say i have been with them for a few years, they were always cheaper then other would quote me, i am very happy with their service and i do recommend them, as they have always be polite and honest and taken the time to explain different things to me, and so forth

however, i have never had to claim off them so i do not know how quickly they pay out (hopefully i will never have to find out)

as ohboy said, ask them for a policy booklet or call them about the policy and make sure it covers you for all you need!

best of luck
tom

Im in the exact same position as Tom here.
Im with them years but have never had a claim. Touch wood.

MrPudding

Oh Boy! wrote:

You're not supposed to profit from insurance. It's called the principle of indemnity (Thats to leave a policyholder in the same financial position after an accident, as they were in before the accident occurred).

Thats interesting. Has anyone ever managed to get what their car was worth off any insurance company?

I phone a company for a quote. I give them my details and the value of my car. Based on my details and the value of my car they provide me with a quote. I accept the quote and we both sign an agreement. I write my car off but they will not give me the amount of money we agreed at the beginning. How does that work?

MrP

vector

Oh Boy! wrote:

...the vast majority of the policyholders are happy campers!! ...

the vast majority of policyholders don't make claims
everyone is happy until a claim is made

vector

MrPudding wrote:

Thats interesting. Has anyone ever managed to get what their car was worth off any insurance company?

I phone a company for a quote. I give them my details and the value of my car. Based on my details and the value of my car they provide me with a quote. I accept the quote and we both sign an agreement. I write my car off but they will not give me the amount of money we agreed at the beginning. How does that work?

MrP

agreed value vs market value

in other countries you can say which you want, agreed value is usually for special cars like vintage

Guy:Incognito

FrankGrimes wrote:

Others came in at around the €1950 mark but wanted me to do the Ignition course to get that price – yeh good luck with that lads, hardly gonna take a day off work when you’re more expensive than the opposition anyway am I?
.

Hibernian do a Partner/Spouse discount. mpmium was €2100 on my own. When I put my ex down as my partner it dropped to €1533. If I put her down as anything other than partner or spouse it goes up from €2100 to around €2500.

FrankGrimes wrote:

At €1570 that’s a good quote from Quinn Direct as some companies were looking for 2.5k – 3k and I had to laugh when they said ‘that price is killing us we can’t afford to compete with that’ and then I refer to their recently revealed monster profits and they still say theres nothing they can do..

Considering all its costing them is a letter and a disc I dont see how it would be killing them.

theShire

I couldn't get a quote from them- I've got 5 years Full Clean licence and 2 years NCB(22yearold male)! They wouldn't quote me on an imported Levin 1.6 but with Hibernian, which is who I have all my experience under, I'm paying 850euro fully comp.

Quinn Direct said I'd have to be over 25 to get quoted on a 1.6

With Hibernian, I did the Ignition course and payed 1700euro first year third party fire and theft, 2nd year it was 950 TPF&T, both on a 1.4 Astra! Then changed to the Levin- I'm delighted!!!

Oh Boy!

MrPudding wrote:

Thats interesting. Has anyone ever managed to get what their car was worth off any insurance company?

I phone a company for a quote. I give them my details and the value of my car. Based on my details and the value of my car they provide me with a quote. I accept the quote and we both sign an agreement. I write my car off but they will not give me the amount of money we agreed at the beginning. How does that work?

MrP

You get what the car is worth at the time of the claim. That leaves you in the financial position you were in before the accident happened. It doesn't help when most people would way over value their car! Depreciation kills all car owners, unless its a rare or vintage car.

theShire wrote:

Quinn Direct said I'd have to be over 25 to get quoted on a 1.6

It's not that its a 1.6, QDI dont quote under 25's on a car with 110bhp or more. To cut a long story short, we try to limit young drivers on "boy racer" cars.

By the way theShire, i'm not accusing you of being a boy racer!!

Our man in Havana

Just a bit of contrast and objectivity here.

I had a bad run in QD a few years ago. I rang up for a quote and they quoted me €x for insurance. When I went to take them up on the offer they took my money and then they said they wanted more money. Apparently their quote meant nothing.

Ended up in the courts and QD lost. I would avoid.

PaddyFagan

Oh Boy! wrote:

<snip> As for problems with claims, up until around 4 years ago we did have a reputation for not paying claims very quickly, <snip>

Certainly my experience, my wife had a claim about 5 years ago when she was insured with them and had a really hard time getting them to pay up. Nothing too complex, she was insured fully comp and rear ended someone - about 2k damage to both cars - all agreed and inspected, then they took weeks to issue a cheque, won't pick up when she called or put her "on hold" and then dropped the call.

Things may well have changed, but I wouldn't touch them with a barge-pole.

Paddy

MrPudding

Oh Boy! wrote:

You get what the car is worth at the time of the claim. That leaves you in the financial position you were in before the accident happened. It doesn't help when most people would way over value their car! Depreciation kills all car owners, unless its a rare or vintage car.

I take issue with the fact that they ask you for what you think the car is worth and give you a quotation based on that. I understand what you are saying but both parties enter into an agreement. The insurance company gives you a quotation based, amongst other things, on the value of the car. They then refuse to give you this should you right the car off. Would it be acceptable to the insurance company for me reduce by premium on the basis that they are not going to hold up their side of the agreement?

MrP

Bluetonic

I notice you don't mention anything about the actual policies with each company. No mention of excess, no claims protection etc..,

You wouldn't say I'm looking to buy a car and I've seen three different cars, one garage wants €2042, one wants €1990 and one wants €1570, which car should I go for?

It beggers belief how many people compare insurance policies only on their cash cost.

Anyhow it's all aside from your Quinn Direct question but I thought it was worth mentioning.

FrankGrimes wrote:

I’m a 25 yr old male in Dublin with full license and named driving experience since Dec 2004. No other driving experience.

I’m looking to get fully comprehensive insurance in my own name for my 1999 Opel Astra G 1.4Litre 16V. I also want to have my girlfriend on the cover as a named driver: she’s 25, provisional license and no driving experience.

Have done a lot of shopping round and only really FBD, Quinn Direct, and AXA were in the running.

FBD: €2042 fully comp with girlfriend on cover, €1471 without
AXA: €1990 fully comp with or without girlfriend
Quinn Direct: €1570 fully comp with girlfriend.

Others came in at around the €1950 mark but wanted me to do the Ignition course to get that price – yeh good luck with that lads, hardly gonna take a day off work when you’re more expensive than the opposition anyway am I?

At €1570 that’s a good quote from Quinn Direct as some companies were looking for 2.5k – 3k and I had to laugh when they said ‘that price is killing us we can’t afford to compete with that’ and then I refer to their recently revealed monster profits and they still say theres nothing they can do.

Anyways, I’ve heard horror stories about Quinn Direct – are they really that bad? They offer the same benefits as the other quotes above and as far as I’m concerned they’re legally obliged to cover me if I have a legitimate claim. Other than that I don’t wanna talk to them till this time next year when I’m shopping around again. But I’d really appreciated any insight on this people might have – is the price hiding something?

Either way I’ll try get FBD to match the quote as they were the only company that had a big difference between having the girlfriend on it and not having her on it, but we’ll see.

Macy

MrPudding wrote:

I take issue with the fact that they ask you for what you think the car is worth and give you a quotation based on that. I understand what you are saying but both parties enter into an agreement. The insurance company gives you a quotation based, amongst other things, on the value of the car. They then refuse to give you this should you right the car off. Would it be acceptable to the insurance company for me reduce by premium on the basis that they are not going to hold up their side of the agreement?

MrP

Yeah, they don't give you the replacement value. It's a massive con imo, after watching the brother in law have to make a claim. They were coming in several grand under what he could get a replacement for.

My only other experience was with CIS in the UK when my car was nicked (and used in a ram raid!), I got the full replacement value of the car (after meeting with their loss assessor).

Just another way of the insurance companies ripping off it's customers here...

seamus

Oh Boy! wrote:

It's not that its a 1.6, QDI dont quote under 25's on a car with 110bhp or more. To cut a long story short, we try to limit young drivers on "boy racer" cars.

It's another way of being able to reduce the cost of insurance, since you don't have to cover the higher risk groups. Although the problem there is that it then encourages (indirectly) more uninsured driving. The amount of boy racers driving around who are paying insurance, but are functionally uninsured is staggering. Small omissions, such as a "TDi" in the model name, or insuring Skylines under farming policies, are rife. In theory, this kind of thing should be cracked down on more. I'd like to see insurance companies insisting on examining the vehicles of certain high risk groups.

Quinn-Direct are, as far as I'm concerned, the Ryanair of the insurance market. They give you the basics that every other company give you, at a slightly lower price, but are just generally not a nice company to deal with.

Dades

I've always found them efficient and courteous.
Of course I've never had a claim...

Ryanair is a good analogy - you may have extra hassle in the event of a claim (or a loss of cabin pressure ) but you'll save a bunch as long as you don't crash.

gibo_ie

Hi all,
this link was provided by PaddyFagan in a post of mine, it outlines just exactly what you get for fully comp with different companies. Its quite amazing actually!!!
QD penalise you for everything!!! follow the link and check it out. Iw as with them for years but from yesterday i am now with FBD (with no claims protection!!!)

IFSRA

Oh Boy!

seamus wrote:

Quinn-Direct are, as far as I'm concerned, the Ryanair of the insurance market. They give you the basics that every other company give you, at a slightly lower price, but are just generally not a nice company to deal with.

Yes, agree there. But then the market QDI goes for tends not to care whether breakdown assistance etc is offered. Its been called "get you past the Gards" insurance. And it's been a successful strategy so far. But the one thing i can say bout working here is that change happens very fast. So what we dont offer today may be offered tomorrow.

Also agreed, as with most companies, there are some people here who would not be the nicest to deal with, but they are a dwindling minority. They are being rooted out.

MrPudding wrote:

I take issue with the fact that they ask you for what you think the car is worth and give you a quotation based on that. I understand what you are saying but both parties enter into an agreement. The insurance company gives you a quotation based, amongst other things, on the value of the car. They then refuse to give you this should you right the car off. Would it be acceptable to the insurance company for me reduce by premium on the basis that they are not going to hold up their side of the agreement?

You're right, but this is explained in the policy booklet sent to policyholders (Which no one reads!!). It is, i suppose a win win situation for insurers. To limit this happening, it might be a good idea if everyone found out what the trade value of their car is, for insurance purposes. It would certainly limit the impact of a clause like that one.

gibo_ie wrote:

Its quite amazing actually!!!
QD penalise you for everything!!! follow the link and check it out. Iw as with them for years but from yesterday i am now with FBD (with no claims protection!!!)

We have NCB protection if you have a full NCB. But remember, we don't hide the fact that our policy is a bit basic, if fact we base our adverts on that. Remember, you pays your money, you takes your choice!! I'm insured with Hibernian myself (Oh the treachery!!), i wanted the extra covers provided. But it cost me more than the quote from QDI

blastman

Oh boy, can you give me any advice on insuring a second car in my name? PM me if you want.....

Eurorunner

How could an assessors evaluation (of the value of your carO) be chalenged? Is it possible to get an independent assessment that would have as much (or more) credibility and if so where?

Have any of you ever stood your ground on this one?

DirkVoodoo

Im with Quinn, have been for many years.

I used to be a named driver on my sisters policy but two years ago I got my own policy. Can't remember what it started out as, i think it was high enough. I got my renewal and wow! it had dropped considerably.

22 Year Old male, living in Dublin, Full Licence for 2 years, No Claims.

1.2 Fiat Punto Sporting

Cant remember if its TPFT or fully comp, im pretty sure its fully comp

was 1500 last year, got my renewal in the mail and its dropped down to 1000!!! Great. Meanwhile my mum who is with AXA got a few hundred euro slapped on because she changed car (different make, similar car). Now if that aint loyalty, i dont know what is!

Quinn reward loyalty, and I like them because they give young drivers a chance rather than the "guilty till proven innocent" mentality of the other insurance companies

vector

>How could an assessors evaluation (of the value of your carO) be >chalenged? Is it possible to get an independent assessment that would have >as much (or more) credibility and if so where?..

a quick search brought back this sort of thing
http://homepage.eircom.net/~jkane/frontpage.htm

>1000
how funny that you have been conditioned to think that 1000 is a good figure

slade_x

Can anyone tell me if a second quote from QDI would be more expensive

For example just over a month ago i was quoted for €2500 on a 1.2L Corsa and was told the quote would last a month

I planned on taking that quote as soon as i had more lessons taken, but with between waiting for the lessons and such the quote would now be expired

I only ask as i was told by a friend that it may very well be.. but i honestly wouldnt believe that getting a second quote after leaving the first expire would result in a higher priced quote..

have there been any instances where this happened?

Eurorunner

vector wrote:

a quick search brought back this sort of thing
http://homepage.eircom.net/~jkane/frontpage.htm

Thanks for that Vector.

Ann Elk

I work for an insurance company myself (we only sell to the uk market) and we review our rating criteria on an ongoing basis, henec the reason that the quotes are valid for a set period. If costs rise in that 30 day period, your new quote could rise, and vice versa - it may be wort calling to alter a minor detai (eg middle initial) and so refresh the 30 day period.

opus

I've been with Quinn for the last four years, haven't had any problems. Nobody even came close to their quote for me, €523 for TPFT on a 9 year old 328. In fact, I was able to add someone on as a named driver for free this year!

slade_x

One more question for Oh Boy!

how many driving lessons are required before you can proceed on a quote with QDI?

I was told that if i had 25 lessons they would deduct 19% off my quote but what would be the minimum they would ask of a client?

Thanks

MadsL

Question for Oh Boy!

Why do Quinn Direct operate a nationality based loading? One of the questions in their script is "Where were you born?" I can provide multiple examples of where a person born outside of Ireland with exactly the same Full Irish licence and driving history have been quoted often 1000's of euros more than someone born in Ireland.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=192883