A leading insurance company who twice quoted an Indian national in the region of €8,000 for car insurance have said it was a mistake.
Mr Thangasamy Bagavathya (27) from Tamil but now living and working in Letterkenny, Donegal, was offered insurance for just short of €8,000 by Quinn Direct Insurance last week.
The first quote was for a Fiat Punto. However, on Monday when he rang seeking insurance for a larger car, a Toyota Corolla, he was quoted €8,324. His friend, Mr Brendan Connaghan, said he then called the firm on his behalf. "I asked the operator why it was so expensive and she said that it was an automated system and she had no control over it," he said.
He added that he had himself sought a quote "giving the exact same information except stating that the quote was for me - I was born and raised in Donegal. I supplied everything else the same, even my colleague's date of birth. The quote I received was around €1,800."
Mr Bagavathya got other quotes which averaged around the €2,500 mark and finally accepted an FBD quote which was a competitive €1,506. He added that he has no bad feelings against Quinn Direct, but just could not understand why it had quoted him so much.
A spokeswoman for Quinn Direct, Ms Sylvia Coldrick, said a mistake had been discovered in the "rate instruction" for overseas drivers. "Unfortunately, someone like yourselves had to bring this to our attention but we have identified it now and are going to rectify it," she said.
The firm's revised quote for Mr Bagavathya is €3,958, still some way short of his lowest quote from FBD.