TechWire: How to save €200 on car insurance (if you're 35)

My car insurance renewal is due today. Currently, it's an annual fee of €900 with Axa, fully comp with breakdown assistance.

In the past I haven't found any great difference between companies when I've shopped around. This morning, though, just to see, I went online to check comparisons.

I typed "car insurance" into Google and came up with two comparison sites, bestquote.ie and 123.ie. Bestquote turned me off immediately, requiring too many details for a quote and too many assumptions.

Onto 123.ie -- and I was astonished to find an offer of €480 fully comp (but without breakdown assistance) from some company called Traveler's.

I phoned Axa up to tell them about this and the guy said the best they could do was €760 (but including breakdown assistance). No-brainer.

True, I'll need to go to AA for breakdown cover. But that's under €100. That leaves with a saving of €200.

Why would I stay with Axa?

Loyalty? If anything, they should be loyal to me. I've been with Axa/PMPA for 12 years. I've given them over €17,000 in that time. I haven't claimed anything back once. I'm 35, live in a quiet Dublin suburb and drive an estate car (which is handy when you have a large dog). I drive about 4,000 miles a year (because I live fairly close to the city centre.) I'd say that makes me a low risk.

(This switching companies thing is becoming a habit for me. During the summer, I switched mortgage from Bank Of Ireland to AIB. For some bizarre reason, Bank Of Ireland wouldn't come within 1 per cent of what AIB were offering me. They only came back with a (crap) counter-offer when I had actually signed the contract with AIB. Terrible modus operandi. They they kept taking mortgage protection insurance premiums off me for another six months. Now they won't refund me the ill-gotten premiums.)

The moral? Many companies (in this case, Axa) still seem to think that they don't have to try to compete too hard on price.

Comments

Worth checking fbd.ie and nononsense.ie too

Posted by: Lar Veale | January 30, 2009 at 01:49 PM

Hi Adrian. Great to see you shopping around online. One thing to note is that the "comparison sites" in Ireland do not operate in the same way as the UK sites. Here they are brokers who have a limited number of insurers on their books.

You have to do quite a bit more work in Ireland to shop around and your're right that most of the sites ask you for your life history before they'll even give you a price.

Posted by: Brendan @FBD | January 30, 2009 at 01:56 PM

Hi Brendan,

Yeah, I didn't realise that. To be honest, I can't see anyone beating that quote from Traveler's. So, even though I know it's lazy, I'm not going to bother shopping around any more (though thanks for the suggestions, Lar).

I'm just amazed that Axa wouldn't come within, say, €100 of the quote. If they had, I probably would have stayed. After all, I wouldn't have to have done a damn thing. Now I have to fill in forms and do administrative stuff. Plus I have to sign up with AA if I want breakdown cover.

But they couldn't come within even €200.

I'm just amazed that, in this economy, there are companies that are still thinking this way.

Posted by: Adrian | January 30, 2009 at 03:21 PM

€900 is a ridiculous price for insurance unless you're driving a wah car. My wife is still with AXA though, despite getting cheaper quotes every single year. She goes back to them with the cheaper quote and they match, every time. It's insulting really, I don't know why she stays with them. I'm an FBD man meself, find them very good with a personal touch via their local branch network.

I'm not usually a fan of brokers but 123.ie seem to be good guys, their resident techie* posts on the Open mailing list regularly and his easygoing nature suggests the same sort of attitude in the company.

Don't forget to switch mobile providers every year too btw, or at least threaten too. The churn keeps them on their toes.

adam

* I'm sure Geoff would be highly offended by that. :)

Posted by: dahamsta | January 30, 2009 at 04:00 PM

I had exactly the same experience with my house insurance a couple of years ago. I got a price from 123.ie on their website, then rang up my existing insurers and asked them if they could match it. The nice person on the phone told me they couldn't even come within EUR100 of 123's price!

The insurance is grand, too -- I had to claim on it last year after the storms damaged part of our roof, and there was absolutely no bother getting it covered.

Posted by: Justin Mason | January 30, 2009 at 05:44 PM

Double check the Breakdown Assistance as I signed up for fully comp 2weeks ago and it does include Breakdown. Axa wanted €1075, 123.ie €511 and for €20 extra I was able to put both parents, 2sisters, and brother in-law on as named drivers so there fully comp too.

Posted by: Cathal | January 31, 2009 at 01:12 PM

I had exactly the same experience with Axa only 2 months ago. I have been with them for years and when renewal time came around I tried bestquote.ie. They were €400 cheaper. I has furious with Axa as they had told me that they had given me their best price. I have 2 cars and house insurance with the same Axa broker.

I rang the manager and told him how annoyed I was - he rang me back 20 minutes later and matched it. That actually made me even madder!!! The fact that they could have given me a more competitive quote originally but chose not to is infuriating. Because of the hassle I chose to stay with Axa - but they have dirtied their bib in my eyes.

Posted by: James | February 05, 2009 at 11:56 AM

The AA is very good at arranging cover. I have the same driver profile as yourself and ended up paying only €330 at my last renewal. That includes a discount of €40 for being an AA member.

I was with Axa for one year. At the first renewal they sent me such a ridiculous quote that I assumed they didn't want my business. That's when I switched to the AA.

Posted by: David | February 06, 2009 at 08:42 PM

Thanks for sharing. :)

Posted by: joe | February 10, 2009 at 06:04 AM

I've had a very similiar experience with Axa (€889 at first, came down to €685) and then 123.ie (€435). Axa won't come down anymore and I've been with them 4 years. I had a claim with Axa a couple of years ago and found them brilliant to deal with in terms of efficiency, no claims protection discount etc.
Does anyone have any experience of Travellers Insurance Company (who 123.ie are a tied agent of) in terms of claims, renewal quotes etc? Never heard of them...

Posted by: Anna | July 09, 2009 at 02:17 PM