How to get insurance if you have a conviction..

At any stage during your driving lifetime, you can find yourself shut out of the standard motor insurance market. In our experience, people that have had a motoring or non motoring conviction can find it difficult to get affordable insurance when they look to get driving again or look for house insurance when buying a home. Here are our tips for getting insurance after having a conviction:

1. Get the facts: If you are contacting an insurance company, you need to know the details of y our conviction. What was the exact date of your conviction and if you were put off the road, that date did that start? Did you contact your previous company to tell them you were off the road? If so, when did  your last no claim bonus expire? There is not much point contacting an insurer without knowing the facts as we cannot guarantee a quotation until we know your details.
2. Contact a specialist insurer. Contact nonstandardinsurance.ie (well, we would say that wouldn’t we!). We deal with specialist insurers that are comfortable taking on risks that are normally declined on the standard market and do not deal directly with clients. We have over 50 years experience in placing non standard risks and will be able to offer you a solution. We will also move you from specialist insurers to main stream insurers (who are often cheaper) as soon as they will take you on.
3. Know your rights. If you have had motor insurance previously and you are now been refused cover, you may be able to force your previous insurers hand. Follow the companies complaints procedure and if they still do not quote contact Insurance Ireland (formerly the Insurance federation of Ireland) who will help you to obtain a quotation from that company (what the premium will be might be a different story..)
4. Make yourself a better risk If you have obtained a quotation but it is still very expensive, look at ways to make yourself more appealing to insurers. Do you have a provisional licence? Consider sitting the test. Is your vehicle over 10 years old? Consider a newer vehicle. Also adding a partner or spouse to a policy can reduce the cost of your insurance.
5. Take a higher policy excess. A policy excess is the amount you pay yourself in the event of a claim. If you are trying to get back on the road after a conviction, you can take an excess up to €3000 which will help reduce the cost of your policy. This can help keep the cost of your cover down for the first number of years until we can move you to more main stream insurers.

For a limited time only one of our insurers is offering a 15% new business discount on all Non standard cases. So contact us today to see how we can help. 

If you’re still not having any luck getting insurance, contact our motor dept today on 0818919699 or fill in the contact form below and we will do all we can to get you on the road.