Insurance rant!!!

MARTINGTI

Octane Boostaholics
I know this topic has been hammered to death but just want to give my experience which might benefit someone down the road.

To paint the picture, I took out my first policy in 1997 with pmpa, Axa now.... It was on a one litre micra and I paid £1,300 for it. I was only 17! From '97 to now I have never left Axa, and never had a claim, ever! No convictions, no penalty points, nothing! Over the years iv had a few celicas, even had a year old 2.0ltr turbo petrol vrs octavia which is 200bhp abd worth 25k with them. My last car was a 2009 2.2 mondeo, 175bhp, paid them €550 last year for it.

So in February in bought the Impreza. It's a 2005 Wrx, Irish car so turbo is on log book etc... Got my renewal in the post Monday, €1,150!!! To say I nearly fainted is an under statement! 35yrs old, full licence from 17, no points, with Axa forever, car worth 6k, and they hit me with that!

Well I rang anyway and got through to some guy in Dublin, said best he could do was €950.... So I told him I was leaving, and he didn't give one fook! So then I started ringing around.... Best I got was Liberty ins, same cover, full comp, bonus protected etc, €720. I tried a few brokers too, and wait for it, Sullivan insurances came back with €740, from who..... AXA!!! Well was I hopping! A total stranger could get it for €740 from Axa, and they tell me €950 is the best they can do!!! And I a customer for 17 years!!!

So I rang Axa again, got through to my local office in Clonmel. Told him the full story. Low and behold, now he can match the €740 the broker got me! Is this the most corrupt sh*t ever!!!

I'm just dismayed.... I'd love to leave them, move to liberty.... But, when I said that to him, he gave me full comp on any car I drive, which is normally only third party, and free lifetime no claims bonus protected! Which are two nice touches....

So I guess I'm staying, but just goes to show, keep fighting with them! One guy in Dublin tells me €950, guy in Clonmel can do it for €740..,,

Oh ya, nearly forgot. He told me that in Axa they have a scale for all cars. It's done from 1 to 50. And there is the impreza, sitting at 50! Told me he was looking at the list, Porsche, Ferrari etc all up there at 50. Even an audi rs4 is only 45 on list....!
 
I was with AXA...clonmel branch...I'm from there.. When I sold my bmw and bought the astra opc was something like 100 extra for the last three months of the policy. Got my renewal, my story much the same as yours, they wanted €1650 off me fully comp...crazy...rang the boss there hes a family friend.. Best they could do...€1500...wait for it...got the exact same deal off liberty for....€658.....crazy the lack of standardisation in this country
 
It's shocking! I used to deal with michael butler there, he a family friend, but he retired! Now dealing with Greg McGuire, he got me the €740....

He told me straight out, there not competitive with high performance stuff. Liberty only crowd to deal with for it..,
 
Insurance pricing has become a joke lately. My girlfriends renewal came in on Monday. It rose by about €250. We had expected it to increase but not by that much considering it's only a diesel Focus. When I sat down to look over the renewal what jumped out at me was the increase in the base premium before the bonuses where deducted. Last year her base was c. €1100 and then a 50% ncb bonus. This year though her base premium is €2380 before her 65% ncb is deducted. That to me is a ridiculous increase considering it's the same car as last year, same circumstances and the both of us insured as always. Even when she rang up to query it they wouldn't or couldn't give a reason as to why there was such an increase and were not interested in reducing it to keep her custom even though she has been with the same company since starting to drive. Time to start shopping around.
 
try JLT if you havent paid up yet there the only people that insure me at 18 i had a bl5 twinscroll legacy no one would insure me they did at 5.5k but im 20 now 2 years no claim no one else would insure me on my forester xt but JLT gave me a quote for 1330 for third party fire and theft JLT 1800 200 200 :thumbsup:
 
Cheers for that, just remembering now, did u ever find out if that Forrester was ex Garda?
 
no i didn't i asked my cousin to check in his garage but he never got back to me any other way i could find out ?
 
I feel your pain. I've long experience with AXA in Clonmel. The 2 older men working there to me a
pretty useless. they are too slow and most of the time they have no idea what are doing. Once I went for a proof of no claim bonus. One of them bang with two fingers on the keyboard for 30mins (I'm not joking) scratch his head and at the end ask one of the women there to print it for me.
Now to the point. I was thinking of buying Impreza STI, so I took random reg number of and add and went
to AXA to get a ''trial quote'' just to know what am I against. After ringing Dublin they told me that since Im ''such a good customer'' they will give me a quotation although they usually don't insure Impreza since is grade 50. And the quotation was for 1150. I said thanks and went across to O'Sullivan. They quote me 950, and when I ask with who - it was with AXA. Then I went online and remembering treads on here I check few companies and AA give me 750 full claim with protection of the NCB.
Anyway I didn't found decent Impreza so I had to insure old Audi A3. I went again to AXA and the best they could do was 595. I went home and tried again AA and they give me 420. When I rang them the
customer service rep. told me he can do better than the online quote and I ended up going with them for ....370 full+step back. When a week later my disk turn up from the post.. needless to say I was Insured with AXA!
From my experience with insurance company in Ireland for the last 10 years me living here I have to say that there is no regulation or organization that supervise those companies. And they act like a cowboys! Only thing you need to do is read few treads on forums like ISDC to know that something is terribly wrong.
 
That's unreal! I questioned him on it today, says that brokers don't have the same overheads and they work off a different rate....? But if you provide proof of a cheaper quote from an Axa broker then Axa will match it!!
 
Just got mine there with first Ireland on the JAP legacy estate twin turbo for €461 tpft I'm happy out with that as i paid €400 on a 1.6 bmw estate with 123.ie
 
The insurance companies can now access the information on our licence regarding penalty points or endorsements so best fess up before renewal or they won't stand over accidents. Was talking to a broker local to me last Friday and he said they will not stand over accidents when car is out of NCT either.......
 
had da same problem wit axa wen i bought my 1.6 bug rang up 2 insure car twat on phone wld not insure me because i was 29 had a full licence gf was 26 on a prov toll me it a group 50 and there a rally car 2 which i said so is a pug 206 r ford foucs had 2 go in clonmel da mornin after 2 graig mcguire who i was palyin soccer wit at the time cost me 150 euro for da last month of da policy now wit mc cartys in fermoy also had a qoute from axa beatin by axa broker by axa broker by 300 a few years ago sum and axa wld not match it its a bit of a joke martin wrx might of spotted u at chrisses bar a cuople of weeks ago if dat is ur car in da pic under ur name i drive a dark blue bug 03 kk if u c me round town give me a flash
 
It's gas! An impreza is an impreza to them, I told him mine was a wrx and not an sti. He said it didn't matter!!! Still group 50! It's mental!

Hey bugeye John, very seldom I'm around Clonmel. I'm living down near Adare in limerick now. But originally from Killenaule. That's how I ended up with Axa in Clonmel....
 
Same here got quote for sti ended up buying a wrx went back same price.
 
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