Motor Insurance brokers

J

Joe Nonety

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Can anyone recommend some good motor insurance brokers?
Or would I be better off ringing around myself?
 
I just did the rounds myself, recently, and the best quote by a long shot was from [broken link removed] (policy underwritten by Lloyds - posh, or what!):D
 
Hi Joe,

Ringing around can be very time consuming, repetitive and leaves you open to marketing calls into the future.

Has anyone ever tried producing a standard letter with all the information required and then snail mailing it to all the current providers/brokers?. An 'invitation to tender' so to speak.

ajapale
 
do the savings justify?

i found barrington insurance in blanch very helpful

Coolmine Enterprise Centre
Dublin 15
Telephone: 01 8217577
Fax: 01 8216771
 
An 'invitation to tender' so to speak
Click to expand...


That's exactly the way to go about it. I had to shop around furiously this time last year, so I took a note of all the details the online forms were asking for - some of them very arcane indeed! - and saved them as a Word document. This year, I just updated the page and inserted it into a 'round robin' email to about 15 different providers and brokers.

It was quite instructive to see
(a) the speed/slowness with which replies and quotes were forthcoming - or not. One major insurer simply wrote back saying 'use our online form or 'phone us' (to which I countered that the online form was yielding '404 Page not found' errors and that I was familiar enough with classical muzak not to spend any more of my 'phone bill sitting 'on hold'...
(b) the (frequent, and significant) discrepancies between what Company X would quote me direct and what Broker B could offer me - with the same Company X...! Sometimes the direct quote was better, sometimes the broker would beat it.

P.S. Re Barringtons - yes, they can give some very competitive quote for home/motor/travel insurance - especially if you're a member of a group scheme through your employer or trade union. Pity they don't have even a token website yet..!

P.P.S. Insurance companies are - without exception - the spawn of Satan. Don't give 'em a cent more of your money than you absolutely have to. (God himself told me this, so I know it's right to pass it on...)
 
I found local offices more helpful than online or 1850 numbers. They are more eager for business and more pleasant in my opinion. Plus, you get (usually) a normal person on the other end of the phone who understands that you don't want to be ripped off and may advise what you can do to reduce premium. Some even asked me what lower quote I had and tried to beat it. Still had the hard slog with all the phone calls though, don't think there is another way around this.

Have you tried FBD? I found them very competitive both for home and motor insurance through local office.
 
Thanks all. FBD ended up best with Britton insurance very close. The brokers were a joke (insure.ie and a few more). Every insurance company I rang beat the brokers' lowest quote.
 
I wouldn't recomment e-mails or letters at all. There's no replacing the verbal communication, and the comment at the end that should be put to everyone you speak to "is that the best you can do?", or "company x quoted me y, can you beat that?", and so on.

This kind of bargaining cannot be done over written communications.

Check out http://www.valueireland.com/tips/motorinsurance/car_insurance.htm. There is a checklist as mentioned above, and an example of how to do your shopping around for insurance.

To be fair, if you can't be bothered to ring around for quotes and take up maybe an hour of your time, you shouldn't really be complaining about the cost of insurance.
 
macshaned said:
I wouldn't recomment e-mails or letters at all. There's no replacing the verbal communication, and the comment at the end that should be put to everyone you speak to "is that the best you can do?", or "company x quoted me y, can you beat that?", and so on.

This kind of bargaining cannot be done over written communications.
Click to expand...
Actually, it can. I got 10% off the cost of my holiday apartment in Italy with a bit of email-based haggling and referencing to alternative, cheaper options.
 
I started out getting my insurance through a broker. When it came to renewal time, I didn't like the quote that they gave me. 10 minutes on the phone had me a considerably better quote. Brokers only deal with specific companies, and are not necessarily out to get you the best deal. Using a site like 123.ie or insure.ie can give you an idea of what the various companies are offering, and you can then try out their online sites to see whether you do any better on their sites direct. If you're happy in general with your current insurer, let them know you have a better quote, and they will generaly match it.
 
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