“There must be a catch. What’s the catch?” says he. “There’s no catch!” says I.
A friend of mine was shopping around for his car insurance recently. He’s currently with one of those big foreign-owned insurance companies – you know the type; the ones that can’t decide what to call themselves so they change their name every year, presumably at huge expense to their customers…
Saving money isn't just for Christmas... (photo CC by Crowcombe Al)
Anyway, his renewal with them is €520 for Third Party, Fire & Theft on his 5 year-old auto. He poped over to NoNonsense.ie and for the same car and same cover is quoted €295. So, he rings me and the conversation goes something like this (I’ll call him Joe here to protect his identity):
Joe: “What’s the story with that quote I got on No Nonsense? Is it right?”
Me: “Sounds right based on what you’ve told me. Are you going to switch?” – that’s me with my sales hat on 
Joe: “There must be a catch. What’s the catch?”
Me: “There’s no catch! If you don’t want the bells and whistles and just want cheap car insurance, then you’d be mad not to switch. Our price is over €200 cheaper than your renewal.” – sales hat on again
Joe: “Hmmm…”
So I get into explaining why No Nonsense can be cheaper than many of the other insurance companies.
Firstly the car insurance we offer is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get type of product. If you want third-party cover that’s what you pay for. Every other insurance product in the Irish market has a host of additional benefits bundled in. Some customers want that, but No Nonsense customers don’t. By taking out all the frills we can cut out all those additional costs that go towards things you don’t want or may never need.
Secondly this is an Internet-only product. We don’t sell through brokers or through any other intermediaries. This means there is no commission pushing up the costs. It also means that we don’t have big overheads or administration costs.
Another area where we keep the prices down is in the complex field of underwriting. As Howard pointed out in a previous post, we don’t get involved in “specialist underwriting” which is costly. This means that some people won’t be able to get a quote from us. We know that this can be frustrating sometimes but we do try and be as transparent as possible about this up front in our Assumptions.
One thing to remember is that we do pay out if you have an accident. The feedback from our customers who have been unlucky enough to need to make a claim is that we look after them and are very efficient. Other low cost insurance companies have developed a reputation in the past of not paying out and we’re very clear that we’re not in that bracket when it comes to customers with genuine claims.
Oh and finally, we don’t spend a huge amount on marketing (as you can see). We won’t be changing our name any time soon either, although I do quite like the roll-off-the-tongue sound of “No Nonsense Churchill Irish Insurance plc.”
TV ad we see our favourite “Take You for a Ride Insurance” employee Mags on a rare trip out of the office (apparently she even sleeps there).
