Terry Dignan’s car insurance has risen from €470 to €886 in just four years. Let me advise Mr Dignan that this is not despite his being 13 years with the same insurer, but because of it.
From first-hand experience of writing premium calculation software for the motor and home insurance industry, I can assure him and all your readers that there’s an in-built “inertia penalty” for such customers.
As a general rule of thumb, if at renewal time a private motorist is obtaining fewer than five quotes – including at least one via a broker – then he or she is almost certainly throwing away money.
Coincidentally, I too have been driving for 25 years with no claims. The difference is that I’ve never used the same underwriter for more than three years in a row.
Mr Dignan is, of course, still right that the Government should take a close look at the industry.
R Scanlan,
Leopardstown,
Dublin 18.
FIGHT!
The cost of motor insurance (The Irish Times letters page)
Previously: ‘There Is A Cartel Of Insurance Underwriters’
Can I advise everyone to use brokers, mine hasn’t went up from last year, it’s a policy with a big insurer I get via a broker.
it’s also coming in at almost 300 less than anything I was getting over the phone…
Can I advise you to use a dictionary and a grammar rule book?
can I advise you to come to bed with me?
That’ll quieten his guff Harry :-P
quietens the wife anyway!
Oh my lord!!!! You’re a real character, still laughing here :-)
Five! Five fecking quotes! Who has time to do that?
Exactly. It’s a pain in the hole getting quotes.
Instead of calling in the ‘inertia penalty’ it could be called the ‘pain in the hole getting quotes penalty’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGxwbhkDjZM
That is so 2009. How’s the scurvy?
Must be nice to be rich enough not to bother your arse for an hour for less than 300 euro
There’s a difference between being rich and being crap at managing your finances
The one is linked to the other
Make the time folks. My renewal almost doubled this year from 570 to 1070. I called around and eventually got a quote for 750. I then added my family as named driver and that took the quote down to 515.
I I hadn’t taken the few hours to get quotes I wouuld have been out of pocket by over 500. Well worth it. No loss of coverage either.
well like the ad says, ring up and and then ring again in a different voice….OK well not exactly, but you do have to spend time getting quotes…I find online is quicker than ringing… All you need is one quote you are happy with and then your current insurer will most likely match it….
There is a good reason that ad tries to ridicule people getting multiple quotes!
Got my insurance cheaper, by €20 this year. My insurance company increased by €170. I went online and got the same cover for €190 than their quote. Bought it and waited for the phone call. I never go back an existing company to match a new quote. If they don’t give me their best price as an existing customer, they can go jump. And my wife was getting her insurance a few weeks later, and we knocked €140 off her renewal just by having my new policy.
Insurers are trying it on. I’ll change next year again if I get same cover cheaper from another company. F-them all.
Be careful with brokers…some are afilliated to some insurance companies…and get pay offs “bonus” if they bring in certain amount of policies…..
Save €€€€€€€€€
Insurance companies HATE him!
with this one weird old trick
The key is to treat your incumbent underwriter as just another bidder for your cover. Rather than affording them a chance to “match” the best quote, actually change underwriter that year if the incumbent is not the cheapest (unless you’re talking only a few quid). It’s losing a client that will entice them to offer you a “new business discount” 12 months later.
What I’m choosing to take from this is that insurance is the biggest swiz going and insurance companies are crooked as be fupped
+1 Scooper – We also have a government that, for whatever reasons, have done nothing about it. More vested interests and cronyism I guess.
Fine Gael will put business before people every time. They are business facilitators, not citizen’s representatives.
I’ve been with the same broker for donkeys and this year they put me onto a package that brokers have negotiated. Saved 200 without having to do a thing!
Do you not have comparison websites like confused.com or comparethemarket.com over there? it takes minutes to get a bunch of quotes using them – gap in the market if you don’t have them!
@H – I don’t think we do, good point
http://www.compareinsuranceireland.ie/
Thanks Kieran NYC, its renewal time for me so I’ll be using that.
I still got a much cheaper quote from a broker
hi harry the broker.
brokers are no exemplars of upstanding citizenry by any measure, in my experience.
not a broker, you should still shop around of course but I saved a lot of money, maybe others can
what broker did you use?
Make sure you use private browser or delete cookies if getting quotes online. I reckon they are a bit like airlines and when u go back they know they have u and sneak an extra 20€ or so in there
Got my insurance renewal in last night. Only a 13% increase, which i was obviously pleasantly surprised about given the stories out there. Looked around online, and nothing cheaper from any of the big brands (im with FBD), and even the unknown coverers were only in the same ballpark. So not sure how I’m getting a half decent renewal when the rest of the country seems to be getting screwed.