‘My insurance went from €800 to €1,000. I switched and saved €300’
Father-of-two Tim Pullen said he saved €300 on car insurance after switching to get a better deal. Mr Pullen (61), from Narraghmore, Co Kildare, was insured via AA Ireland but moved to 25plus to make the savings.
Mr Pullen, who is CEO of Cloudtech, a CRM solutions company, relies on his car as a businessman and he was “annoyed” to see his insurance had risen two years in a row.
“I was insured under a 2007 BMW 730 diesel,” Mr Pullen said.
“For 2019, the insurance was €800 and then in 2020, it went up to €1,000. I thought it was ridiculous.
“The AA didn’t give a reason for such a huge rise.
They said if I didn’t like it, I could go elsewhere – that it was the best they could give me and there wasn’t even an apology for not being able to help more.
“I went to 25plus and saved €300 on my 2019 insurance. I got it down to €620.
“The AA sells a customer all sorts of stuff with the car insurance but funny enough I didn’t want the additions, or need them.
“So in the end, I thought what was the point. I was happy to shop around and I feel I got a much better deal.
“Of course the savings will disappear. I have two young children of 13 and 11, so there’s always something to spend money on.
“We have to keep the children entertained during the pandemic with lots of activities at home. But it’s nice to have the savings, especially this year.
“I guess the shock for me was it was so much more expensive at one insurer compared to another.
“And I would have thought when I’d phoned and spoken to the AA, they would have offered me a better deal.
“We had house insurance with the AA but we changed that then too, as a result.
“They didn’t seem interested in giving me a better quote – it’s like they felt they had given me a good quote in 2019 and assumed I’d stay with them.
“In previous years I would have stuck with the same company but I shop around now. I just felt it was just such a big hike from 2019 to this year. I absolutely encourage others to shop around.”
An AA Ireland spokesman said: “We operate as an insurance intermediary – meaning that we can use our buying power to negotiate with a number of leading underwriters to try to secure the best value for our customers.
“However, we’re blind to the pricing process. We have a large customer base for whom we successfully provide affordable car insurance, but on occasion there will be an instance where we are not able to provide a customer with the best price in the market.
“We do offer a number of discounts to try to help our customers secure cover at an affordable price but for a small number, shopping around – as we always advise motorists to do – may help them secure a better rate.”
The spokesman said if Mr Pullen was not satisfied with the “quality of the customer service he received when he contacted us, that is regrettable and very much out of line with our normal practices.”
Laura Lynott