O'Malley Griffin

[Bernard]

I thought I'd post this for anyone who's premium is up for renewal soon.

I got a nasty shock when my renewal arrived today, last year's was €650, this year they're looking for €830
That's with Zurich through Britton, who (in fairness) have been very good in the past.

Anyway, I've been ringing around insurance companies and I found O'Malley Griffin (in Limerick) the best: http://www.omalleygriffin.ie/.
They offered me fully comp. for €680 with Setanta. They proved the cheapest for Dragonheart too.
When I told Britton that I had beat their offer they came back with a reduction to €713.

Now I still have to find out exactly what the difference is between the policies (NCB protection & breakdown cover ect.) but it's looking better now than it was this morning anyway.

It's also worth noting that Sananta will let you use your NCB on more than one car... http://www.setantainsurance.com/resources#product-21

[Dragonheart]

That is one ridiculous hike! Would love to know their basis on hiking up, the insurance should surely go down the more years you're with them with no claims and not up by an extra 33%!
Who is supposed to be regulating this type of stuff and why aren't they doing their job properly and stopping this type of nonsense!?

[Bernard]

What annoys me is how easily they could drop €115 off the asking price, one phone call

[Dragonheart]

Thats the other thing, its like they're setting up for haggling, that they know people will come back and say they got a lower quote so then they can drop theirs to something lower but still higher than last years price. Same way as a lot of people selling a car will put a higher price cause they know people will offer less for it. Its a joke.
Did they give a reason for a higher premium or did the person at the other end play dumb?

[Dilogoat86]

The simple reason for price hikes can be pointed directly towards the fact that there have been so many FTO claims. My Uncle's wife is an underwriter for a group of insurance companies and I was asking her how they work out premiums and one of the highest factors involved is literally the vehicle. If they see compared to their last price work out that there has been a 25% increase in accidents involving a particular vehicle it factors in.

[Dragonheart]

Ah hold on a second now, sorry for coming across as rude but thats absolute rubbish! (Not your post dilogoat, but the fact that thats they're reasoning behind it in case you think I'm directing this towards you, I'm not by the way.)
Take the amount of Corollas, Avensis, Yaris, on the roads, how many claims a year do they have, take the amount of FTOs on the road, then how many had claims this year? I would be absolutely astounded if it was a higher percentage than any of the common cars!
A 25% hike is no way to work it out, if there were 4 claims in 2008, then that means that 1 extra claim will push it up? Nonsense. If thats how they work then there should be a certain amount of cars that need to be claimed on before the hike goes up. Like it has to increase by 50 claims, or else a number dependant on the amount of vehicles of that type registered in the country.
Say there are (for arguments sake) 10000 Yaris on the roads, and 200 FTOs, if 1% have a claim, (100 Yarii (?), 2 FTOs), so the next year the Yarii drivers are allowed 25 more claims before they get a hike and we're allowed a half a claim??

[CJ]

The simple reason for price hikes can be pointed directly towards the fact that there have been so many FTO claims.

I find that hard to believe thats this is the sole reason for silly insurance rates.

The FTO has been classed as group 20 from day 1, the actuaries obviously haven't taken a second look at the FTO since the mid-late 90's, theres also the issue of spare parts (it being JDM only). I'd be interested to speak with someone in the actuarial field in terms of getting a better feel for the classification process.

CJ

[Dilogoat86]

Absolutely, I agree. But as I said that factors in, it's not the ONLY thing that's taken into account. They write off some of their losses through premium I'd imagine. I've always thought that working out premiums based on a formula is wrong and unfair.

[Dave]

Insurance premiums across the board have increased, this is the general rule of thumb during recessionery times...reason being is that people claim more, rather than paying for a small claim themselves, they claim off the insurance and fraudulent claims increase, therefore insurance companies profits go down, so someone has to pay for that.

[Dragonheart]

But sure every industry and company makes a loss in a recession. How many companies have even broke even this year? Very few is the reality.
Everyone feels the pain of it. Do they hike up their prices? Do building contractors hike up prices to make up for the loss in a recession? No, they don't, cause they know people wont go back to them or recommend them if they do.
Insurance companies know they can do it cause people legally have to have insurance, they are holding people to ransom and getting away with it. If anything they should be dropping prices like other people are forced to do to get business, to allow people who have been in financial trouble to be able to afford insurance. And I thought I saw somewhere that they made profits last year anyway, any business making a profit should count themselves lucky and not be riding the people of the country for every cent they've got!

[mcgon1979]

hey bernard,
did these guys ring you back on the same day?
rang them this morning and they said they would ring back before lunch. no word.
so I rang at 3pm, and they said they would ring me when they had some news, nothing today though.

[Bernard]

I can't remember there being a problem, it might have been the following day but I'm not 100%.

[cullen5998]

hey bernard,
did these guys ring you back on the same day?
rang them this morning and they said they would ring back before lunch. no word.
so I rang at 3pm, and they said they would ring me when they had some news, nothing today though.

They were slow to ring me back, said the same day but i think it was a few days later when they called back.

[mcgon1979]

cheers. I'll wait it out so

[Dragonheart]

Worth waiting it out McGon, they came back with a serious good quote for me on the FTO and for Grace on DC5 so should be able to give you a good one too. I'm 30 as well on full Irish with less NCB, only 4 years.