Quinn in Administration

dacouch

Basically Quinn have relied on the small print in their policy and the skills of their claims settlers to settle claims at a low amount and not charged appropriate premiums to cover the risk.

The result is likely to be a bail out by in effect the rest of the insurance industry and in effect the policyholders of other Insurers...

Pincher

I didn't bother getting breakdown cover because it's included with Quinn's policy. The nightmare scenario is if I did have a breakdown and call up the number, they will say the sub-contractor no longer rescues Quinn policy holders because they haven't been paid for months.

Presumably there is an UK guarantee scheme that will cover claims if Quinn runs out of money, which it probably already has.

dacouch

There is a guarantee system http://fscs.org.uk/ although it might not apply to breakdown so it would be worth checking

Be aware that Quinn's staff do sometimes tell lies so it would be wise to ask for it to be confirmed in writing if you ask them anything

cogito

Premium finance houses are now refusing to fund Quinn policies. Another nail in the coffin.

shaz77_2

Hi All

As an employee at Quinn Direct Insurance I would like to point out a number of facts:

All policies within Quinns are completely safe and we continue to write new business policies for customers within the Republic of Ireland.

Anybody with a UK (including Northern Ireland) policy that is up for renewal can get it renewed up until the 13th of April.

Since the shock announcement on Tuesday we have had a large number of calls from customers who were keen to either renew their policies or take out new ones to show their support for a local business, this is very necessary and much appreciated.

Quinn's UK market is very profitable and it seems that the regulator has misread the figures, in fact we have been making a profit of 20 million Euros per month, this would be a dream for most other companies and it would not be possible without the UK market.

There is a court case on April the 12th during which we hope to have the decision reversed as this seems to have come about as a personal attack on Sean Quinn rather than being based on looking after customer's interests.

In the meantime we are committed to supplying low cost insurance and high quality customer service and we want to thank our 1.2 million customer for their ongoing support.

Pincher

That is re-assuring, of course: the financial regulator can't read the profit and loss account properly. So I'll just ignore the following then.

http://www.financialregulator.ie/press-area/press-releases/Pages/StatementonQuinnInsurance.aspx

Quinn Insurance Limited (UK)

In addition, the Financial Regulator has separately directed Quinn Insurance Limited to cease writing new business in the UK. Existing UK policyholders will not be affected by this decision as existing policies will remain valid. Customers can make claims in the normal way.

The effect of this action is to prevent Quinn Insurance Limited suffering further financial losses from its currently unprofitable UK business.

shaz77_2

Pincher wrote: »

That is re-assuring, of course: the financial regulator can't read the profit and loss account properly. So I'll just ignore the following then.

http://www.financialregulator.ie/press-area/press-releases/Pages/StatementonQuinnInsurance.aspx

Quinn Insurance Limited (UK)

In addition, the Financial Regulator has separately directed Quinn Insurance Limited to cease writing new business in the UK. Existing UK policyholders will not be affected by this decision as existing policies will remain valid. Customers can make claims in the normal way.

The effect of this action is to prevent Quinn Insurance Limited suffering further financial losses from its currently unprofitable UK business.

We could not make a profit of E20 million per month from the Irish market alone and the Irish market is a lot smaller than our UK market.

We will be putting our case forward in court regarding the UK market and it is hoped that the decision will be reversed however it is clear that the regulator has made a significant blunder on this issue.

I should also point out we are in "Provisional Administration" which means the company is being run as a going concern, I know that in UK terms this means liquidation, Quinns however is not facing liquidation.

cogito

Quinn's UK market is very profitable and it seems that the regulator has misread the figures, in fact we have been making a profit of 20 million Euros per month, this would be a dream for most other companies and it would not be possible without the UK market.

Course you have. So were Independent Insurance before they went into liquidation.

Thing is that insurance company's profits are always a matter of opinion and not an unquestionable fact. All you need to do is understate your claim reserves and any insurance company can show a profit which is exactly what Independent did. Most of Quinn's competitors are working on a combined ratio of 95% plus - in other words, they make minimal profits after claims payments and operating overheads. Quinn undercut their competitors by large percentages and still claim to be making big profits. Do you really believe that they know something that the likes of Aviva, RSA, Axa and Allianz don't? Wake up.

shaz77_2

I guess all we can do is wait for the court case on 12th April.

dacouch

Quinn Insurance, senior management telling lies, court cases and money... It's somewhere they have been before and came out the loser.

Some customers and cheap car insurance never ceases to amaze me, if you removed the compensation pool and told people Quinn were in serious financial problems a fair percentage of people would still take out cover with them as the car insurance was cheap. Some people their obsession with getting cheap insurance never ceases to amaze me.

P.S TO add to Cognito's post Quinn decided to go into all of the High Risk parts of each different Insurance market as they saw the premiums were very high. Anyone in the market could see the prices they charged were not financially viable