Getting a lower insurance renewal - Just saved 200 quid - advice inside

Hi all,

stemming from this thread that I opened HERE I thought I would share my experience with you and hopefully might save a few people some cash.

This is all pretty much common sense but I have never had to do it/bothered to do it so it might be something others should consider.

I initially took my policy out with Quinn Direct a few years ago the details were along these lines:

Policy: fully comprehensive
Value of car: 9000 euro
Cost of insurance: 900euro

Every year a renewal letter would arrive with the new quote and if you did not call them it would auto renew and a new insurance disc would arrive in the post, very handy...

The policy dropped in price every year and I was happy enough with the rate at which it was dropping and so I didnt really bother to do anything with it like change the type of cover or the value of the car.

This year the renewal letter arrived and it was for 690 euro

I thought about it for a while and decided to see if I could get it lower. I know that is not a bad price for insurance on a Glanza V in Ireland as most insurance companies dont like the little flyer but still I thought whats the harm. I opened a thread on TGTT and asked for advice and got some suggestions of companies to try etc and then set out on my quest.

I should say before I go any further that I am very happy with the service I have received from Quinn Direct and so from the outset I decided that if I could get a quote from them that was in and around the same price, even slightly more expensive, than another company I would stick with Quinn.

I started off with a call to Quinn direct and said that I would like to get a revised quote and wanted to change some aspects of the policy. Firstly I changed the value of the car to 3500euro and that dropped the price of the policy by only 7 euro. Next I dropped the cover to TPFT and that dropped the price of the policy to 520 Euro.

I called many insurance companies including Arran and britton and they said they could not get me a policy anywhere near that price. I then got a quote on 123.ie and they came in at 420 euro for TPFT and 485 for TPFT with my no claims bonus protected fully. Their policy had the same excess and pretty much the same features as Quinn with breakdown cover etc.

I called Quinn Direct back and told them that I had a quote from 123.ie for the exact same cover as they were offering but it was 420 euro rather than 520. They at first said that it was the lowest they could go. I told the guy on the phone that I had been a customer for a few years and wanted to stay with them but couldnt justify it if they would not budge on price. He said he would transfer me to the "policy discount team".... hold on a minute... they actually have a team for this! Unfortunately the team was busy and he told me he would get someone to call me back, no one called.

I gave it a couple of days and heard nothing back, I was a bit disappointed with this as Quinn have always been good at getting back to me. So I called them today and got put through to this magical "policy discount team". The conversation went like this.

me: I have a quote for 420 from 123 for basic TPFT or 486 for TPFT with no claims protection. If you can get close to either of those I will stay with you.

them: did they tell you about their excess?

me: its 300 euro, the same as yours

them: we do breakdown assistance

me: its a toyota I wont need breakdown assistance but they do it too. They offer everything you do so can you just get me a better price

them: ehhh... okay... we can give you TPFT with full no claims protection for 495

me: sold
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Conclusion - My insurance quote this year has now come down from 690 to 495 a saving of almost 200 quid. Sure its not comprehensive anymore but realistically the car has dropped so much in value I dont need comprehensive insurance any longer. The insurance company will budge on price and have a specific team that sorts this out but they are not immediately offered to you, you have to push to speak to them. I could have gotten the cover for 420 if I did not want my no claims covered but it is a handy thing to have and so I opted for it. In that scenario I would have saved nearly 270 quid on my original renewal quote.

-Change the value of your car every year before renewing your policy to the current market value

-Call around and get quotes from other companies and if you get a lower quote bring it to your insurance company and ask them to match it

-If your insurance company will not budge on price explain that you want to stay with them and are willing to give them every opportunity to keep your business

-If you have comprehensive cover and your car is not worth a lot consider moving to TPFT

I hope this is of some benefit to others when insurance renewal time rolls around.

I saw €50 knocked off my insurance by adding the wife as a named driver.

excellent write up man, i will be defiantly trying this when renewal time rolls around again in january. Thanks

Mines just over £300 fully comp on the Glanza so I didnt bother ringing around come renewal time! Its only that cheap because I am an old git though.

Gryzor said:

I saw €50 knocked off my insurance by adding the wife as a named driver.

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ive noticed this makes a huge difference, my policy has my dad 50+ lol on it as a second driver who has 15+ years driving no points or convictions then i added my sister who is 30 11 yrs exp and no claims etc and it came down an extra 22% how does that work.this was on quotes for a new car i was looking at then i phoned them to add her to my policy and they said it would go up £14 a year which i dont get as i tried it on several cars and was the same for all of them.anyone got any ideas why?

good write up buddy.

My renewal was £1200 this november. i updated them with my new job title as a construction worker and went up to £1400 as its a high risk group. I then said to them i wont be paying that much. She said she would try and bring it down so off she went and put me on hold. Whilst she was finding out i tried changing job titles to suit my trade (ventilation).

So i found ventilation engineer as a title.

And guess what...

brought it down to £1100ish.

Anyway she finalised it all up and it DROPED to £950 fully com, 1ncb, 1 fault claim.

So changing your job titles, adding named drivers, Mileage, and value.

Also changing your status to co-habitin brings it down by alot.

Hope this helps people!!

if i add anyone on mine it goes up

also tried the old i can get it cheaper routine and some companies simply do not want your business. if your too much of a risk they would rather palm you off to some other company than take on that risk themselves

oh wait till i get a chance to ring quinn,tee hee!
nice one dylan!

good lad for sticking too your guns Dylan! Great success Nice write up too!

i gave up with quinn lol cheap but rubbish service. so when i did a lot of serious mods to the glanza had to go with a proper specialist company (sky). and some sexy sounding irish bird had a giggling fit at me when i was tryin to get the price down! lmao must of bin my brummy accent!

Gryzor said:

I saw €50 knocked off my insurance by adding the wife as a named driver.

Click to expand...

quality advise, i got £140 off mine with my mum added to the policy, and shes got one speeding conviction, next year, it will prob cut in half, as i'll have nother years ncb, and my TT99 clear of my license.

well done:rockon: my insurance is up for renewal next month so ill see how i get on

DAVID 96 GLANZA V said:

well done:rockon: my insurance is up for renewal next month so ill see how i get on

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give it a blast dude, put the effort in and try different options on offer and you might be happily surprised at how much you get your policy for.