There’s a newbie insurer in town… so can we save on car and home cover?
We pitted OUTsurance against quotes from our top brokers and *spoiler alert* it more than held its own
New arrival OUTsurance is a welcome addition to the Irish insurance market. Competition is badly needed to help reduce the sky-high cost of home and motor insurance cover. But just how competitive is it? And can going directly to OUTsurance beat even the brokers who shop around among more than a dozen insurers for the best prices?
I decided to put the ‘newbie from Down Under’ through its paces on motor and home insurance by comparing the best quotes with two of our top brokers – Chill.ie and Arachas – for car and home insurance. Here’s how I got on.
With motor insurance, I had to use my own vehicle for a ‘full comp’ quote as I had to input registration details but my Ford Mondeo is pretty standard.
OUTsurance quoted €549 with the usual bells and whistles such as windscreen cover, breakdown assist and an excess of €250.
That’s quite competitive. But can brokers do any better?
It’s a bit unfair to compare a single insurer to brokers Chill and Arachas as they deal with around 14 insurers and come up with only the very best deals among dozens on the market.
And not surprisingly, the brokers came up trumps – though not by much.
Chill’s best deal was €452. But Arachas came up with a cracker of a deal at €396 – one of the lowest car cover quotes I have ever had.
That’s with insurer Allianz, which seems to like my age and driver profile – it was also the cheapest when I went through Arachas to renew my cover last November (€421).
Arachas offered me basically the same package again from the same insurer, which (in addition to what’s in the table to your left) includes no-claims bonus protection and open drive.
This means you can drive other people’s cars and they can drive yours if they have a licence, even a provisional one.
This is a special feature offered by Allianz via Arachas and it takes away a lot of hassle if you’re ever switching cars or drivers.
Only the best two or three quotes from Chill and Arachas beat OUTsurance’s deal.
So the newbie insurer is definitely very competitive for motor cover. Its arrival also may have already sparked a bit of competitive edge as Chill was offering €40 off its online deals when we looked.
OUTsurance also offers a 10% recurring discount if you remain with it for three years without making a claim.
This would move it close to Chill’s very best deal in the third year – that is of course if you don’t make a claim.
OUTsurance, which originated in South Africa and also operates in Australia, deals directly with the public and will perhaps come up with better broker-specific deals in time.
I also asked for home insurance quotes for a three-bedroom semidetached home (see table above).
Arachas again came out on top with a €418 deal from AIG, slightly cheaper than Chill’s €452 price from the same insurer. OUTsurance quoted €521. (Brokers may have differing commission deals).
OUTsurance’s quote was within the top three deals from Arachas and just outside them with Chill.
So while not the very cheapest, it is very competitive even with the best broker quotes.
The main consideration is that most people would save money thanks to OUTsurance’s first foray north of the equator.
And for that reason, we say to it, welcome to Ireland!