Quinn in Administration

dacouch

adrian41r wrote: »

my son has just passed his test and his instructor informed me that he thought Quinn had gone bust. when i phoned to update his insurance from prov - to full they only wanted £400 so in total it was about £1200 for the year. when i checked the comparison web sites to see how much others they were £4000. so i dont agree with the last post that suggests that they give cheap insurance for learners and then tries to get you when you pass. I know you get what you pay for but when there is such a huge difference the only choice i had to insure my son was legal when driving was the Quinn option. Even if they dont pay out the car only cost me £1500 so i am still saving. Does this not show how much some insurance companies ar making on young drivers and that it can be done cheaper if not to the level of quinn but at least less than £4k.

It does not show how much money Insurers are making, the fact that Quinn were £100s of millions of pounds out demonstrates they are not charging the correct premium. If they were not such a big employer in Ireland / owe so much money to the Anglo Irish Bank which is now in effect owned by the Irish governement after a bail out, they would have been allowed to go to the wall.

If your son ever has a claim you will find out one of the other special tricks of Quinns which is to come out and go over the car with a fine tooth comb looking for defects they can use to throw the claim out.

Their other speciality is offering less than the claim is worth (To policyholders and third parties) with the offer of an immediate cheque or a long wait if you don't accept it.

Have a read of this article about just one of their court appearances to see the above in effect and also how their senior managers treat the sworn oathe in a court.

http://www.tribune.ie/archive/article/2007/may/20/judge-slams-quinn-direct-in-54m-dispute/

P.S With most other companies, the price they quote you at the start does not change when you pass your test. I've heard of plenty of poeple who have been asked for between £1000 and £2000 when they have passed their test. I suspect your son passed his test near the end of his policy.

dacouch

former_student wrote: »

Why do you start all your posts with Ermmm?

Do you have an ailment or as I suspect you are a Broker?

I don't start all of my posts with Ermmm.

Yes indeed I'm a broker, judging by your posts your a Quinn employee.

We have a Quinn agency which I avoid using, some of my colleagues have used Quinns against my advice. They have learned their lesson when the clients have had claims with the inevitable problems.

I could have placed loads of business with Quinns, but a previous boss looked at their accounts a few years ago and spotted the discrepencies in their accounts. The small print and poor cover in the policies also puts me off.

The difference between a broker and a CS at a call centre in Ireland / NI is that I deal with customers over a long period. They come to me for my experience and knowledge so I can find them a good deal but with a good company. If I place them with a crap company such as Quinn or Tradex and they have problems with a claim, it is me they come to sort the problem out. If the problem is not sorted out I lose the client's business. Working in a call centre the chances are you won't deal with the customer again so don't see the problems caused by a rubbish policy being sold to them.

adrian41r

dacouch wrote: »

It does not show how much money Insurers are making, the fact that Quinn were £100s of millions of pounds out demonstrates they are not charging the correct premium. If they were not such a big employer in Ireland / owe so much money to the Anglo Irish Bank which is now in effect owned by the Irish governement after a bail out, they would have been allowed to go to the wall.

If your son ever has a claim you will find out one of the other special tricks of Quinns which is to come out and go over the car with a fine tooth comb looking for defects they can use to throw the claim out.

Their other speciality is offering less than the claim is worth (To policyholders and third parties) with the offer of an immediate cheque or a long wait if you don't accept it.

Have a read of this article about just one of their court appearances to see the above in effect and also how their senior managers treat the sworn oathe in a court.


P.S With most other companies, the price they quote you at the start does not change when you pass your test. I've heard of plenty of poeple who have been asked for between £1000 and £2000 when they have passed their test. I suspect your son passed his test near the end of his policy.

the policy was only 4 months old. so an extra £400 is about right as when i first looked at insurance i also put full license on search and it came out at £1800 a year so pro rata it is about right.
I also go back to my other point in the fact that if it was going to be £4000 (minimum) he may well not be driving now as we simply cant afford the £4000 insurance. If they dont pay me out in full i am not that bothered as the car only cost £1500 so its still cheaper. You only have to look at what the insurance companies make each year to see that they overcharge young boy drivers ( i know they are the greayest risk ) but there must be some way that the insurance can be cheaper, even if not to the level of Quinn. Quinn insurance was the only way i could get my son driving legally with all the insurance etc he needed. It is no wonder that some young drivers try and get away with no insurance. Also as my son is still at college paying £4000 for car insurance is a non-starter.

as to your PS this is simply not true all insurance companies see learner drivers as less risk and charge less.

Oscar_The_Grouch

former_student wrote: »

Why do you start all your posts with Ermmm?

Do you have an ailment or as I suspect you are a Broker?

Ermmmm... Why haven't you answered my question posted on the NI Board? You accused me of being a troll and then asked for guidance on why your employer were in administration. Several days later, you have not gone back to the NI thread on Quinn. Is it because you are too scared?

To save you from having to look, here's what I said:

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

Personal questions: why are you a "former student"? What went wrong?

Now if you'd like to either answer the questions put to you or go play somewhere else, we'll all be happy. You and your Quinn Numpty colleague, Shaz77, really should consider getting some proper insurance knowledge rather than blindly following the dubious press releases and what turns out to be financial misinformation (as we all expected) touted by your employer. Perhaps if you decided to stop being a "former" student, you'd be in a better position to argue your case.

THIS should help you. Maybe your employer would help with the costs... Oh.... I forgot.... They don't have any money.

Oscar_The_Grouch

dacouch wrote: »

I don't start all of my posts with Ermmm.

Errmmmm.. No... That's my prerogative. Typical of a Quinn employee to miss a key fact.

dacouch wrote: »

We have a Quinn agency which I avoid using.

Sensible chap!!

dacouch wrote: »

The difference between a broker and a CS at a call centre in Ireland / NI is that I deal with customers over a long period. They come to me for my experience and knowledge so I can find them a good deal but with a good company. If I place them with a crap company such as Quinn or Tradex and they have problems with a claim, it is me they come to sort the problem out. If the problem is not sorted out I lose the client's business. Working in a call centre the chances are you won't deal with the customer again so don't see the problems caused by a rubbish policy being sold to them.

A broker is answerable to their customer. A CS at a call centre is answerable to their manager over targets and sales, with no reference to regulatory adequacy or performance. The average (or in Quinn's case; below average) CS at a call centre will have no knowledge of Solvency II, ICOBS (especially ICOBS 3, 5 & 6 for sales) and has probably never heard of the FOS. A broker has to know all of this, just to keep their head above water.

Brokers are an essential part of the insurance chain, allowing customers to obtain the CORRECT policy at the best price. Direct writers who "Cut out the middle man" and other such nonsense are not offering the best deal; just the cheapest. Quinn tried to jump on the bandwagon and fell off in a big way.

FlameCloud

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

THIS should help you. Maybe your employer would help with the costs... Oh.... I forgot.... They don't have any money.

This is quite amusing to me. This week is the April period of CII exams and a colleague was taking the 820 (Claims managment) exam yesterday. I'd suggest that Quinn's employees read chapter 7 (Reserving). It goes into great depth as to why under reserving is exceptionally bad, and what the FSA does if it finds it. They could almost have based it on Quinn, if it wasnt written a couple of years ago!

Oscar_The_Grouch

FlameCloud wrote: »

This is quite amusing to me. This week is the April period of CII exams and a colleague was taking the 820 (Claims managment) exam yesterday. I'd suggest that Quinn's employees read chapter 7 (Reserving). It goes into great depth as to why under reserving is exceptionally bad, and what the FSA does if it finds it. They could almost have based it on Quinn, if it wasnt written a couple of years ago!

They'd probably benefit from studying 510 (Risk, Regulation and Capital Adequacy) too!!

dunstonh

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

They'd probably benefit from studying 510 (Risk, Regulation and Capital Adequacy) too!!

They dont need to know about capital adequacy as the directors will just dump all the liabilities on to the FSCS and let all the good companies pay for it.:mad:

dacouch

adrian41r wrote: »

as to your PS this is simply not true all insurance companies see learner drivers as less risk and charge less.

Actually the majority of Insurers do not raise a fee mid term when you pass your test. It is something that Quinn were one of the pioneers of in that they raise the additional premium when you pass your test.

I do not have an issue with them quoting low premiums to attract provisional licence holders, what I have an issue with is they do not advise provisional licence holders that they will raise an extra premium when you pass your test. There are many many MSE users who have been caught out by this with very large extra premiums. There are also many who have only learnt about the extra charge when they came onto MSE, after seeking advice they asked the Quinn staff for an indication and without fail they try and skirt around the issue.

By all means charge low premiums for provisional licence holders but make it clear to them they will receive a large extra premium to pay so they can factor in when comparing quotes with companies who do not raise the charge mid term.

With regard to Quinns claims handling, it's not just your car you have to worry about, if your son has an accident and the other person is claiming against you. Quinn will go over the car with a fine tooth comb looking for modifications. Are you aware their policy contains exclusions that they won't pay out if you have a mirror missing or a light not working. These exclusions are not always enforceable but Quinn do and will try and use this to avoid paying claims.

dacouch

I have found a solution to Quinns problems (Apart from the Ocean Finance solution). Last year they lost £44m (Underwriting) in the UK, if they stop underwriting in the UK for a year they will have actually made money in the UK.

Admitingly this solution only works if you apply Quinn accounting methods to it though...