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I would have thought they have specific policies for N.I. Probably on their TV's are insurance adverts that say at the end 'not available in mainland UK'
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Presumably there may be residual issues/failure to adapt to the current scale of "the troubles" (I appreciate that statement might be controversial but i hope NI readers can see where I'm coming from).
Secondly do NI policies have different territorial limits? My Great Britain policy includes the UK and channel isles but not the Irish Republic. I'd assume cross border cover is universal in NI?
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Relatively large amounts of vehicle-related crime do for starters?
What a load of old tosh!! Car crime much worse in the like of Liverpool and London!!
We have a differnet method for awarding compensation in N.Ireland as the courts work in a slightly different way resulting in higher settlement costs. We also have a higher percentage of fast unlit A-roads. Interestingly due to lower house prices there tends to be more disposable income, I seem to remember somebody quoting that N.Ireland had more BMW's per capita than elsewhere in the UK. Not that I am saying anything defamatory about BMW drivers of course ;o)
N.Ireland has a raft of its own insurance companies, but interstingly those that do not cover N.Ireland still seem to like to waste money advertising here.. the worst offender being Tesco who insist in putting the Tesco car insurance leaflets at each till in very store even though they don't cover the place... Bonkers!
N.ireland cover automatically gives cover in the Republic of Ireland, no 'Green Card' is required.
Insuracne prices in the south seem to be much higher than the North.
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Did a bit of digging and found the following contribute to higher premiums in N.Ireland compared to the rest of the UK.. not sure if these have any relation to a descision of an insurance company to offer cover in N. Ireland or not
1. Higher ratio of serious injury accidents compared to mainland.
2. N. Ireland court system tends to award much higher personal injury
claims than mainland
3. Smaller marketplace for insurance companies and so less competitive.
4. Younger population.........higher ratio of boy racers, hence accidents
5. Higher false claims ie. suspect whiplash claims etc.?
6. A tradition of flouting the law in some areas especially regarding
speed
7. Road network has a lower ratio of motorways.
8. More unlit rural roads
PS. Terrorism claims are not significant. Costs are borne by the Goverment via the NIO
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Bearing in mind most of Big Vern's points, how come they don't say "Excludes Liverpool"?
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Bearing in mind most of Big Vern's points, how come they don't say "Excludes Liverpool"?
At a guess I would say it is the differences in the legal system that put them off, they probably do not consider it worth their while to have people at 'head office' clued up on the finer points for the sake of 1.5million ish people the percentage of whom own cars I do not know.
Would be nice to hear the definitive answer from an insurance bod.
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Insurance prices in the south seem to be much higher than the North.
>>
Motor insurance in the Irish Republic is horrifically expensive and for young drivers is frequently a multiple of the car's value. I was told by my company's local broker that it is mostly as a response to the level of compensation awards, which is on a par with America as opposed to the UK.
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Big Vern's responses are pretty accurate - terrorism has nothing to do with it, nor is the rate of vehicle crime here notably higher in comparison to GB. Obviously cities like Belfast and Derry have higher incidence of vehicle theft/damage/etc, just like any other city. Belfast probably compares with the likes of Manchester, at a guess.
One other issue is also that the number of insurance companies (as opposed to agents) which cover NI are quite limited. Although there are dozens (perhaps even hundreds) of phone numbers in the Yellow Pages you can call for an insurance quotation, most of these are brokering for another company. E.g. our previous insurer was Elephant, now my wife is covered by Diamond - both policies were/are actually with Admiral. About six weeks after I took out a policy with the AA, I went back to find out what it would cost to cover a remap to the car's ECU. They said that athough they would normally quote for it, the only companies they used which could cover it did not operate in NI. Pink fluffy thingummywotsits!
--
andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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