Here's an interesting twist which I found when shopping round for car insurance renewal recently. I filled out an online quotation form, but had to think about the question "have you had any convictions/accidents/fixed penalty offences in the past 5 years"....I had 2 points from Jan 2003 - Jan 2006 (offence in Oct 2002 so still within 5 yrs).
The difference in answering Yes to this question was €170 extra on premium and a higher excess of €350!
I double-checked with the broker before proceeding, and, in fact, I can answer no to the question as I've served my penalty points time.....wonder do all brokers/insurers take this line?