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Wishing you all a Merry and safe Christmas

December 22, 2010

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Well here we are again in the midst of the festive season, another year nearly over, and this year there’s certainly no doubt as to whether it will be a White Christmas! Pretty much guaranteed given the arctic conditions that have taken hold of the country. And what a year 2010 has been for No Nonsense with the recent launch of our Home Insurance product, our shortlisting for the Eircom Spider awards, sponsorship of both TV3′s The Apprentice and the Top Gear Festival and most importantly, growing numbers of No Nonsense customers getting the cover they really want for less!

As for this cold snap, we’d like to share with you some helpful safety tips for protecting your car and home during the festive period and throughout the winter. Please see the end of this post for these. Of course, if you do encounter a problem during the wintry days & weeks ahead, please just call us on;

1890 25 27 39 – If you would like to report a Motor Claim
1890 68 56 85 – If you would like to report a Home Claim

Finally, can we take this opportunity to wish all our customers a most happy, safe & peaceful Christmas and the very best for 2011!

Now for those safety tips…

Driving in bad weather – stay safe behind the wheel!

When possible, carry a can of de-icer, a plastic windscreen scraper, a first aid kit, a mobile and charger, a torch and batteries, jumper cables & tow rope, a warning triangle, a hi viz jacket, your car tool kit and winter clothes.
A simple but invaluable addition is a small shovel to allow you dig out snow to clear in front of wheels.
Check your battery, antifreeze, lights/bulbs, tyres, wipers, fluids, fuel, heater and demister – in addition to your normal recommended vehicle checks.
Try to avoid hill climbs or descents by planning your journey in advance.
To maintain traction change gear gently and smoothly.
Descend an incline in a lower gear allowing the engine to control speed.
ABS on modern cars helps by not locking the wheels but cannot compensate for excessive or sharp application of brakes on ice. When braking on ice, gently does it. If you do not have ABS, gently touch brakes, release and repeat. This will allow the wheels to re-grip and prevent prolonged wheel locking.
In heavy snow fall or blizzards consider using hazard lights if visibility is particularly poor.
Road markings may be obscured so be extra vigilant of your road position, avoid unnecessary manoeuvres.

Protecting your home in freezing temperatures or heavy snow…

Lag/insulate outdoor pipes, attic tanks and supply pipes.
If a property is unoccupied, the water should be shut. Run the hot taps to drain the attic tank.
If your home is unoccupied for any period during cold weather, leave the heating on timer to protect from freezing and bursting pipes
In the absence of central heating, use thermostatically controlled portable heating to maintain temperatures without unnecessary energy waste.
Open the attic door to allow heat into your attic. This helps to prevent the pipework and tanks in your attic from freezing over.
Leave the underside of the attic tank un-insulated to allow warm air to reach the tank.
Ensure boilers are serviced annually by a qualified professional.
If applicable, purchase ample solid fuel and check your oil tank.
Flat roofs are particularly susceptible to snow gathering. If snow fall is excessive consider brushing snow off such roofs. Please only do so if you have appropriate access and equipment and can do so safely.
If roofs are subject to excessive weight, the joists can give way. In very heavy snow storms accompanied by acute snow accumulation of roofs, it is advisable to monitor the roofs and observe the integrity of the joists and the roofing material.
Some modern houses have horizontal boiler outlets, often at low level. Ensure these are not blocked or obscured.
Frequently clear your path to maintain access to the public road. You may wish to salt or grit the cleared surface, but do not use water – it will freeze and create an ice rink.
And finally…a great tip both for safety and for spreading the festive spirit!….visit your neighbours to see if you can help them.

Posted in A guide to insurance, Christmas, Claims, insurance, Safe driving, Winter safety | Comments Off

NoNonsense.ie shortlisted for 2010 Eircom Spiders Awards

November 12, 2010

Certainly not a load of nonsense but the happy truth in fact that No Nonsense Insurance has been nominated in the Financial Services category of this year’s Eircom Golden Spiders Awards. The Eircom Spiders are an annual event honouring Irish organisations and individuals for their ‘outstanding achievements online and celebrating the successes of the Irish internet and digital media’. The awards aim to recognise and showcase online excellence in Ireland and are considered an important benchmark of distinction of web-based business strategies. Needless to say, we’re delighted to be shortlisted in the first instance and would like to point out, should we win, we’ll keep our feet firmly planted on the ground – promise! Well, maybe a little victory dance..!!…no, errr, eh-hemm, maybe not…

The Financial Services category which we are included in hosts a strong and varied range of web sites, all uniquely demonstrating their understanding of customers’ needs and the importance of a simple, user-friendly, relevant online customer experience, so it’s a pleasure indeed to be in such good company. The full list of shortlisted nominees both for this and other categories is viewable at www.eircomspiders.ie

The awards ceremony itself takes place on Thursday 18th November at the Burlington Hotel with the M.C. this year being no less than sharp-witted comedian Jimmy Carr so we’re looking forward to a few laughs at least, whether we win or not. It’s certainly very encouraging to be shortlisted and another vote of confidence for No Nonsense. Roll on the 18th…!

Posted in Awards, insurance | Comments Off

Our new TV Ad and Top Gear Festival fun on the horizon

September 13, 2010

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2010 – check out our latest TV advertisement, your chance to secure two free Top Gear Festival tickets and while we’re at it….finally an answer on our last post’s scrappage scheme figures conundrum.

Hello again all, da-da-da-dum, drum rollllll please….for here it is, our latest advertisement to air on TV any day now with our favourite nonsense-spouting Mags; this time pitching just your average “nitro-hydrogen powered, part jet-engine, part caravan, part family saloon” car insurance! Nonsense! No thanks! You’d be much better off contacting No Nonsense Car Insurance today to get the cover you really need for less. We’d be interested to hear what you think of the ad of course, so don’t be shy, check out our latest ad here below and let us know what you think;

Oh and er, just that small detail (not!) which you just MIGHT have noticed at the tail end of our latest ad – grab two veritably ‘gold-dust’-like exhibit entry tickets for the upcoming Top Gear Festival at Citywest Event Centre in November, proudly co-sponsored by No Nonsense; so an extra reason to get covered with us!

One other thing; last time we spoke we posed the question as to exactly how much success we could attribute to the Government’s car scrappage scheme in light of the relatively positive new car sales thus far in 2010. Well, quite a bit it would seem, or moreover 1 in 7. That’s by my maths anyhow! In other words, 1 in 7 of all new car sales can be (partially/fully) attributed to the trade-in savings afforded by the scrappage scheme. Without too much number bamboozling, basically figures released by SIMI as of end of June stating that 8,790 reclaims were made against the scrappage scheme compared with the CSO’s running total of new private cars licensed between January to June of 61,361, suggest the ratio as described above. If anyone has any other thoughts, perspectives or indeed calculations (help!) on the impact of the scrappage scheme, by all means please do drop us a line.

- Damien

Posted in A guide to insurance, Advertisements, insurance | Comments Off

All hail the Scrappage Scheme for huge jump in new car sales?

July 20, 2010

Hi folks, alas it has been a while since we’ve been chatting, but at least on returning it’s to discuss some news of the more positive variety; namely the huge increase in volumes of new private cars licensed in June 2010, comparing year-on-year with June 2009. Briefly, there were 8,314 new private cars licensed in June 2010, compared with 4,833 in June 2009, an increase of a hefty 72.0%!. Full details are available from the Central Statistics Office but some quick, interesting snippets to mention include;

Of the 8,314 new private cars licensed in June 2010, 2,550 (30.7%) were petrol and 5,447 (65.5%) were diesel.
The highest number of new private cars licensed in June 2010, classified by make, was Ford (1,205) followed by Toyota (984), Volkswagen (944) and Renault (898).

So the love affair with Ford continues! On that first point, it appears that we’re now a diesel-guzzling bunch like our European counterparts, who have known the merits of diesel driving for many a year. This came as a slight surprise to me; I thought we were still very much ‘petrol heads’ here in this part of the world. Those reliable, economical and ever-more sophisticated diesel options have clearly convinced the petrol masses to switch over. Plus, the lower running costs and generally longer vehicle life are always going to be key purchasing factors on choosing diesel. The VW Golf Tdi , Ford Focus Tdci and such like are out in force…

The question remains as to what is behind this huge uptake on new cars? First of all, we are simply comparing against a very low base, namely the worst year in new cars sales (2009) in recent memory. It’s hardly that as a population at the moment we have handy extra disposable cash for conspicious consumption just sitting around in a biscuit jar or under the mattress. This year, dealerships have been offering better prices & financing deals in light of the massive slow down in new car sales over the past 18 months. There’s ample suggestion in the recent national media coverage regarding this increase in new car sales that it’s the Government’s car scrappage scheme which is the main driver of this increase. The fact that sales have remained strong into June this year (typically car sales ’tail off’ after the first 3 or 4 months of the year), compared to the same time last year, would suggest that the car scrappage scheme has had some impact, but exactly how much of this growth in sales can be attributed to it?

While the scrappage scheme clearly has contributed (e.g. note various manufacturers trumpeteering of the deals available on foot of it, such as Ford’s ‘Save €3,000′ with Car Scrappage Scheme), I personally haven’t seen it recorded by the CSO, SIMI or anyone else that there is clear statistical evidence of this. It would be useful to know exactly what percentage of these new private car sales to date in 2010 can actually be attributed to the scrappage scheme. I’m going to go hunting for a clear answer on that. I’ll keep you all posted on how I get on. We just wouldn’t want to be giving the Government all the credit without the facts, now would we!!??

Posted in Car Sales, insurance, Questions, Saving money | Comments Off

Comprehensive car insurance for only €225

September 4, 2009

We don’t talk about ourselves very much here on this blog but I thought it opportune to share with you just how much good value we are. You’ve heard the ads on the radio and you know that we don’t offer cover for attacks by zombies in Cork, bears in Cavan or insurance brokers anywhere in Ireland. What we do try to offer is the lowest cost car insurance without all the extra bits and bobs that most of us don’t really want or actually use.

In case you haven’t heard it, here is our latest radio ad:

Here’s how our car insurance works. If you have a car worth a couple of grand that you’re not particularly worried is going to get stolen or burnt out, then Third Party cover is all that you need to get you on the road. This is the legal minimum cover required to drive. If you were a 30 years old lady girl, living in Dublin, driving a 1.4 Golf the annual premium would be €156.57. Now that doesn’t come with breakdown assist or windscreen cover, but is designed to get you on the road for the lowest possible price.

So let’s say that Golf is worth seven or eight grand. You’ll want cover for fire and theft and even cover in case it gets a bump. Comprehensive cover will cost our friend here just €279.75. I don’t believe there is any other insurance company that will beat that.

Now, it actually gets better:

Firstly, for that €279, our lady in Dublin can add on her partner or hubby at no extra charge, provided (like herself) he has a full clean driving licence, full NCD and is around the same age as her. That’s two people insured for the price of one.

Secondly by adjusting the claims excess she can bring down the premium further. The default excess on that policy is €500. This means that if there’s a claim we will pay the full cost less €500. You can reduce the excess to €250 or increase the excess up to €2,000. If she chooses the latter option she can bring her premium for Comprehensive cover right down to €225.

So that’s Comprehensive car insurance for just €225. Stick that in your pipe.

Nearly forgot, you can get a quote here yourself. It takes five seconds and there’s no strings attached, or zombies.

Posted in A guide to insurance, About us, insurance, Saving money | 6 Comments »

Bigger insurance premiums for Facebook and Twitter users

August 28, 2009

Such nonsense! There were over three hundred online news articles this week reporting on how insurance companies are going to start hiking insurance premiums for customers who reveal personal details about themselves on Facebook or Twitter. This is nuts.

photo courtesy of ARTS (cc)

The premise here is that because people reveal personal information on their social network sites, such as their address, their date of birth and critically when they are away from home, they are opening the floodgate for burglars to target them. On this basis, an insurance company in the UK suggested that it might start uping the price for people who use social network sites. They claim that young people are more prone to reveal personal information and so their thinking of asking questions such as “how many youngsters are in the home”.

This isn’t about insurance. This is about protecting yourself online. I’m sure that there are tech-savvy cat mouse burglars out there who are/could do exactly what is being described. Each of us does indeed need to be aware that what we say online is in the public domain and that much of our personal information can be gleaned from various websites.

Here’s how easy it is. Let’s pretent I’m a crafty burglar and I’m looking for tonight’s target. I head over to http://search.twitter.com and check for all mentions of “airport” by people living in Dublin. I can see that Paddy Murphy (not his real name) left for the airport an hour ago to head to Denmark. Presumably he won’t be back for a few days. Now Paddy’s profile tells me that he’s got a decent job and lives in Shankill in Co. Dublin – nice one! So, now I head over to the eircom phonebook and get Paddy’s exact address and phone number. I’ll give the number a quick buzz before I head over to Paddy’s house, to make sure he’s not home, like. Couldn’t be easier!

Will this make our friend Paddy more likely to be robbed tonight? Firstly, I presume that Paddy’s house is well locked up and that he has an alarm. Secondly, I imagine that for your average burglar it would be easier to take a little drive around any suburb in the city and spot the houses that are unoccupied, easy to access and easy to make a quick getaway from.

That being said, there is a little reminder here for to be aware of the range of personal information that is available about us online.

Posted in In the news, insurance | 1 Comment »

What is a no claims discount?

June 26, 2009

Your no claims discount (often called your ‘no claims bonus’) is a reduction in your premium based on the number of years since you made a claim or a claim was made against you. Your no claims discount can be transferred from one insurance company to another and from one car to another.

At renewal time your old insurance company will send you a letter confirming the current level of no claims discount that applies to your policy. If you choose to switch insurers you will be required to send this letter on to your new insurer.

A no claims discount is earned by you where you are the policyholder on the policy. However, if you are a named driver on someone else’s policy and have not had any claims you will also be entitled to a discount if you switch. In this case you will need to get a letter from your old insurance company verifying that you were named on the policy and that you made no claims.

The maximum no claims discount is allowed if you had no claims in the last five years. If you have not had a claim for 10 years, you will still only get the five-year maximum. A full no-claims discount means your premium is 50% less than it would be if you had no discount.

Your discount may be reduced or lost if you make a claim or if a claim is made against you. This is the case even if you were not at fault – for example, if your car was stolen. If you lose your no claims discount and you were not at fault, your discount may be restored if your insurance company recovers its costs from the other person’s insurance company.

No claims discount protection is offered in order to protect your no claims discount even if you have a claim. No Nonsense offers a choice of two types of no claims discount protection. Our “No Claims Discount Protection” cover will result in your discount not being affected at all if you have one claim in a year less than €10,000.

Our “No Claims Discount Stepback Protection” cover means that in the event of a claim of any value your no claims discount will be reduced by a maximum of 20% points. So, if you had a 50% discount, it would be reduced to no lower than 30% in the event of a claim and so on. Our stepback protection also rewards you if you have been a customer for three full years without a claim. If you then make a claim there would be no impact on your no claims discount.

Posted in A guide to insurance, insurance, Questions | 7 Comments »

Explain THAT to the insurance company

May 8, 2009

Our claims guys probably thought they’d heard it all, but can you imagine how this driver went about explaining this incident to their insurance company:

Thanks to the nice people over on FailBlog for sharing this with us.

Posted in Humour, insurance, Safe driving | 1 Comment »

Our latest TV ad

February 19, 2009

Well we love a bargain here in No Nonsense, so we were delighted to get two TV ads for the price of one from our friends in Tank and a Half Full Productions. We released the first one last week and here is the second ad which is currently appearing on a TV screen near you: