Motor Insurance Renewal, the annual dance

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mathepac

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I got my car insurance renewal the other day and surprise surprise, the premium increased from last year to €428.63/annum. This is with AXA via AIB as broker as it has been for two years, having cycled (geddit motor insurance, cycled!) through other insurers and brokers, FBD, 123.ie, DirectDevil, etc. before that. Zero points on my licence, 8,000KM/annum travel, no claims, no additional disabilities, no changes of car, address and annual mileage reduced drastically as with the majority of the general population. Status quo in other words.

I tried 123.ie to keep AXA/AIB honest and got an online quote of €355 for the same comprehensive cover. This quote only had a shelf-life of 24 hours according to their site, which is a new departure I think.

In any case, armed with this I rang my current insurers and with no fighting or arguing from me, I got an instant telephone quotation of €333, a bit lower than last year. What goes on with motor insurers? My contact told me he had a bit of discount available that he could apply. Why not apply it in the half-tonne of paper they'll now send me again? I renewed on the spot, €50 deposit by direct debit on renewal date and 9 equal monthly debits for the balance and no finance costs. Absolutely painless and very convenient, excepting the two telephone calls.

Motor insurance premiums are generally on the decrease here what with COVID for 2 years and fuel costs on the way up, mileages are way down.
Makes no sense to me to quote €95.63 over and above what they settled for. That'll buy a lot of dog-food for my companions over the winter.

I wonder will having the Irish insurance industry open their address-book to Johnny Foreigner lead to reductions and changes in behaviour?

Any other experiences?
 
mathepac said:
I got my car insurance renewal the other day and surprise surprise, the premium increased from last year to €428.63/annum. This is with AXA via AIB as broker as it has been for two years, having cycled (geddit motor insurance, cycled!) through other insurers and brokers, FBD, 123.ie, DirectDevil, etc. before that. Zero points on my licence, 8,000KM/annum travel, no claims, no additional disabilities, no changes of car, address and annual mileage reduced drastically as with the majority of the general population. Status quo in other words.

I tried 123.ie to keep AXA/AIB honest and got an online quote of €355 for the same comprehensive cover. This quote only had a shelf-life of 24 hours according to their site, which is a new departure I think.

In any case, armed with this I rang my current insurers and with no fighting or arguing from me, I got an instant telephone quotation of €333, a bit lower than last year. What goes on with motor insurers? My contact told me he had a bit of discount available that he could apply. Why not apply it in the half-tonne of paper they'll now send me again? I renewed on the spot, €50 deposit by direct debit on renewal date and 9 equal monthly debits for the balance and no finance costs. Absolutely painless and very convenient, excepting the two telephone calls.

Motor insurance premiums are generally on the decrease here what with COVID for 2 years and fuel costs on the way up, mileages are way down.
Makes no sense to me to quote €95.63 over and above what they settled for. That'll buy a lot of dog-food for my companions over the winter.

I wonder will having the Irish insurance industry open their address-book to Johnny Foreigner lead to reductions and changes in behaviour?

Any other experiences?
Click to expand...
Have you tried Aviva. I find them good.
 
They are the same as utility companies.

They profit from customer inaction.

Why would they offer you a discount if you didn't ask for it?
 
callybags said:
They are the same as utility companies.

They profit from customer inaction.

Why would they offer you a discount if you didn't ask for it?
Click to expand...
Why would they try their standard over-charging ploy when their real price is lower? Further evidence of greed by a financial institution or large organisation perhaps?
 
Good question, I never checked. I took a quick photo of the relevant page, attached below. Please note this is from the original renewal notice and the agent informed me during the phone call that the cover was identical, so I've no reason to think the excesses will change, although the new documents have not arrived yet.

This is a photo of a page from the renewal. I'll convert it to text and try a copy/paste.

It's me isn't it? I can't make attachments here either!!

In simple term it's €350, but there's T&Cs attaching to that excess. "I'll be back", as someone once said!
 
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From my friends and yours at AIB/AXA. I've done my best to reproduce Page 4 of my document as it appeared in my package, the exception being the part in bold-red-underline, which I've never seen in a renewal before, but I did answer "No"to that specific question on the proposal as I've retired.

Read the full document folks, there could be surprises. If I find any differences in the new documentation set I'll post it. I don't expect any, but even Homer nods as Marge will acknowledge. HTH.


"Please take some time to read this information

Your class of use

lt's important that you have no concerns regarding your cover. We appreciate that one area that can be complicated is the circumstances under which your cover operates. This is commonly known as the "class of use". This defines (for example) it cover is only for day to day driving excluding or limiting any use in connection with your occupation. Alternatively, cover may have to include full business use during the working day or even the carrying of sales materials.

The class of use that you have under your policy is shown below. If this is an accurate reflection of your needs, then you do not have to do anything (and your class of use will be shown on your new insurance certificate). However, if the description is not suitable for your driving circumstances, please contact us immediately so we can amend your cover.

Class 5

Your cover is for Social, Domestic & Pleasure purposes only excluding cover for commuting to and from work.

Your accidental damage excess

An excess is the first portion of any accidental car damage claim that you have to pay. For example:-

You have a €350 excess and you damage your car (e.g. scratches to paint work). The cost of repairs is €25O. This is less than your excess so you would have to pay the full amount.

Your car is damaged and the repair cost is €800 (e.g. replacement body work). You have a €85O excess. You would have to contribute €85O toward repair costs and we would pay the balance (€450)

A €350.00 excess applies to your policy. This includes a €100.00 voluntary excess for which you receive a premium discount.

Could we also take this opportunity to inform or remind you that:-

  1. if you use an AXA Garage for repairs, we will reduce your excess by €100
  2. No excess applies to fire, theft, windscreen or breakdown assistance claims
  3. Your excess will increase by another €200 where any named driver under 25 is involved in the inciden
  4. lf you take a voluntary excess of €250, your premium will be reduced

lf you have any questions concerning your excess or any other part of your cover, please contact us.

Thank you for your business."
 
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My updated documents arrived this morning confirming new premium of €333, down €42 from last year and no changes in cover, or so I thought.

The cover period specified on the cert starts from 11:32 on the commencement date, the old cover expiring at midnight the previous day. This would, to my way of thinking, leave me with no cover for 11.50 hours.

I rang and was told "You'll be grand, our mistake and it also happened to me. I was stopped and the Guard just waved me on." I politely asked if I could get just an updated cert emailed or texted for confirmation that I would "be grand". Hard-copy cert in post on it's own to try to save a few trees.

Read the full document folks, there could be surprises, even inadvertent errors.
 
I got a letter dated 4/7/2022. It states, inaccurately, in part,

"Dear Sir/Madam,

Please find enclosed information relating to car insurance policy redacted

If you have any queries regarding this matter, please phone us on 0818 27 26 25. Our lines are open 8am-8pm weekdays and 10am-2pm on Saturdays. "

There is no enclosed document or indeed any further information of any kind supplied.

I rang to ask what was going on and was promised action.

I got a letter dated 7/7/2022. It states, inaccurately, in part,

"Dear redacted

Please find enclosed your temporary certificate.

If you require a copy of your policy document please call us on 0818 27 26 25
and we will send you out a copy by post.

Thank you for your custom and we look forward to being of service to you in the future."

Once again, there is no enclosed document or indeed any further information of any kind supplied.

I didn't request a temporary certificate, I requested a certificate and disc displaying the accurate start and finish dates and times of my cover.

I rang again to try to find out what's going on and the answer, as usual, is "de system". "De system dat sends ou' dem lehhers". No doubt another letter is on its way from the system. The renewal date is approaching fast and no up-to-date certificate to hand

No matter what consumers ask for these days, the request is invariably followed by a long silence, sucking of the teeth, and a comment like, "So like, Jayz man, lissen, it's not that simple like, it's compilicarah ..."

I'd love to show the scanned images suitably redacted but complete with logos etc, but I still can't. I still cannot attach files here other than by URL.
 
I'd have moved my insurance cover on principle, if my existing insurer tried to rip me off like that - and I have done, in more than one previous occasion, for that very reason. If we tolerate that sort of treatment, it only encourages the insurers to keep doing it.
 
Anyone looking at renewal quotes, might try Easytrip (yes, the people who do the electronic tags for toll payments). - I was very happy with the quote that I got from them. Then, they also threw in a few freebies (car parking credit etc)... and I was hooked.
 
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