Rip-off Culture

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WolfeTone

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www.thejournal.ie

Cost of car insurance rises by 42% despite an overall reduction in number of claims

Figures showing the average cost of premiums and payouts were released by the Central Bank today.
www.thejournal.ie www.thejournal.ie

Central Bank reports car insurance premiums up 42% while total cost of claims fell by 2.5% between 2009 and 2018.

The overall frequency of claims fell by 40%!

Claims settled through litigation for amounts less than €100,000 had average legal costs of less than €15,000.

I hope no-one would think that legal costs are a barrier to corporate insurance companies to contest fraudulent claims?

The Rip-off culture in this country continues. But at least the picture is becoming clearer and action can be taken to ensure that policy holders, personal and business, can finally get a fair deal on their premiums.
 
Bring back Dorothea Dowling I say. The premiums dropped significantly when she was keeping an eye on the insurance companies. Since her departure they have risen steadily.
 
At this stage it would be shorter to list the sectors in Ireland that are not ripoffs. Supermarkets maybe, thanks to the opening up on shop sizes etc by the PDs?

There's obviously not enough competition in the insurance market. If the government are unable to open it to more competition, it needs a pro-active aggressive regulator not a passive one. Too many industry captured regulators here who just rubber stamp whatever the industry asks for e.g. comreg, energy regulator.
 
Fine report but I don't really get it. Insurance companies enjoying 9% profit margin. OK. Car Insurance premiums higher than should be. Ok. But car insurance is a highly competitive market with numerous options for customers. Are they saying that the insurance market is operating a cartel when it comes to pricing? Well that's illegal so what are the Central Bank going to do about it? The EU already announced an investigation into whether a cartel is operating so sorry if I am not exactly blown over by the report.

I would be delighted to see car insurance come down (which it did this year) but that is not where the main problem is. The main problem is with public liability insurance and the business costs. Where is the report on that? We have seen numerous insurance companies leave this market over the past couple years. We have seen businesses and social clubs etc often struggle to get any cover apart from specialist UK companies. We have seen rising premiums. We have seen businesses close and events cancelled. I would have thought a report into that section of the market would be much more urgent than car insurance.

Perfect example:

waterfordwhispersnews.com

“This Will Be My Last Year”: Rising Sleigh Insurance Grounds Santa Claus

NORTH Pole-based magical toy distributor Santa Claus has announced that he may be forced to shutter his operation for the foreseeable future, if something isn't done about the soaring cost of his insurance premiums. Like a …
waterfordwhispersnews.com waterfordwhispersnews.com
 
Sunny said:
Fine report but I don't really get it. Insurance companies enjoying 9% profit margin. OK. Car Insurance premiums higher than should be.
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An increase in prices of 42% from 2009 to 2018 represents a 4% increase year-on-year...hardly a Rip-Off!

Sunny said:
Are they saying that the insurance market is operating a cartel when it comes to pricing? Well that's illegal so what are the Central Bank going to do about it?

The EU already announced an investigation into whether a cartel is operating so sorry if I am not exactly blown over by the report.
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And what about our very own Competition and Consumer Protection Comsission? How come it took the EU to investigate? Is the CCPC yet another waste-of-space Quango?

Sunny said:
The main problem is with public liability insurance and the business costs. Where is the report on that? We have seen numerous insurance companies leave this market over the past couple years. We have seen businesses and social clubs etc often struggle to get any cover apart from specialist UK companies. We have seen rising premiums. We have seen businesses close and events cancelled. I would have thought a report into that section of the market would be much more urgent than car insurance.
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Exactly!
 
Yes, I suggested that exact point in another thread about insurance premiums,

"Aren't insurance companies required by law to keep significant amounts of their capital reserves in government bonds? The same bonds that are yielding negative interest rates? Could this be a factor in driving premium rates higher. In other words, a bail-in."
 
WolfeTone said:
Report on the Cost of Employer and Public Liability Insurance

I haven't read it, but may be of interest.
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Not really. It's a Government working group. Sure there are some interesting things in it but they wouldn't have access to the data. As far as I know though, the Central Bank made the insurance companies submit every motor premium and every claim so they had access to much more quantitative information around the cost of claims including legal costs and that's what made it interesting. This report is based more on interviews and other research.
 
WolfeTone said:
Yes, I suggested that exact point in another thread about insurance premiums,
"Aren't insurance companies required by law to keep significant amounts of their capital reserves in government bonds? The same bonds that are yielding negative interest rates? Could this be a factor in driving premium rates higher. In other words, a bail-in."
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That's an interesting angle, but if that is the reason why don't the insurance companies say that when they are up in front of Oireachtas committees?
 
odyssey06 said:
That's an interesting angle, but if that is the reason why don't the insurance companies say that when they are up in front of Oireachtas committees?
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I can only assume that to do so may prompt follow on inquiries and questions like - if you are losing money, why are policy holders taking the hit and not shareholders? Is your company actually solvent?

Im more surprised that the questions are not being asked anyway (or not that I know of).
 
WolfeTone said:
if you are losing money, why are policy holders taking the hit and not shareholders?
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If they are losing money then they have to increase premiums and cut costs. The owners of the company (the pensioners who own the pension funds who own the shares) are not a source of revenue.
 
Purple said:
If they are losing money then they have to increase premiums and cut costs. The owners of the company (the pensioners who own the pension funds who own the shares) are not a source of revenue.
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True, I was thinking in terms of share price.
But critically, if they are losing money, and there is significant evidence to suggest that that is the case, then this more explains the increase in premiums rather than costs and frequency of claims which have fallen.
 
WolfeTone said:
But critically, if they are losing money, and there is significant evidence to suggest that that is the case, then this more explains the increase in premiums rather than costs and frequency of claims which have fallen.
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Absolutely. While dishonest lawyers and dishonest doctors are certainly helping to defraud insurance companies that is not the main reason prices are going up.
 
And this is how the Government respond....they are beyond useless. So taxpayers money is being to fund private businesses insurance costs......There are going to be a lot of businesses coming with their hands out now......Sure why don't we just pay everyones insurance. And sure we will the mortgage/rent as well....

Insurance companies must be p*&ing themselves laughing....

[broken link removed]
 
And the big problem is that no "new" government will be able to change the rip-off-culture in Ireland....
 
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