This document sets out the terms under which we will provide business services to you, our client. They also contain details of our regulatory and statutory obligations and the respective duties of both us and you in relation to such services.

About Us

Prestige Underwriting Services (Ireland) Limited, trading as AbbeyAutoline, is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. We are a company registered in Ireland and our company number is 119908. We are member of the Irish Brokers Association. Our address is Ground Floor, Teach Chinn Aird, Ashe Street, Cavan Tel: 0818 8086 66 or 049 437 1505. We are a wholly owned subsidiary of Prestige Underwriting Services Limited who are ultimately owned by PIHL Holdings Limited.

Authorised Status

Prestige Underwriting Services (Ireland) Limited, trading as AbbeyAutoline, is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland and is registered with the Central Bank of Ireland as an Insurance Intermediary under the European Union (Insurance Distribution) Regulations, 2018. We are also registered with the National Consumer Agency to act as a Credit Intermediary in order to arrange finance for the payment of premiums.

We are subject to the Central Bank of Ireland’s Consumer Protection Code, Minimum Competency Code and the Fitness and Probity Standards. These codes offer protection to consumers and can be found on the CBI’s website at www.centralbank.ie.

Our Services

We are an insurance intermediary who act honestly, fairly and professionally in accordance with your best interest. We act on your behalf at all times except for the collection and refund of premiums when we act as agent of the Insurer. Our services include assessing your demands and needs and offering advice on the appropriate insurance, arranging and managing cover with the Insurers, and making mid-term adjustments to your Insurance. Where appropriate we may offer you carefully selected products and services connected with your insurance, such products and services are sold separately and are non-compulsory.

For Motor, Home and Taxi, after we have assessed your demands and needs, we make a personal recommendation from our panel of insurers using a fair and personal analysis of the market. This means that we offer products from a wide range of providers, are able to recommend the best product to meet your individual needs and, on receipt of your instructions, will transmit orders on your behalf to one or more product producers (a list of such providers is available upon request). For the following products we are tied to a single provider: Motor and Family Legal are provided by DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company, Motor Breakdown Assistance and Home Emergency Insurance are provided by Inter Partner Assistance SA who are part of the AXA Assistance Group, Key Care is provided by Keycare Ireland, Union Travel Insurance is provided by Mapfre Assistance Agency Ireland, and Prestige Travel Insurance is provided by David Oliver Associates.

Whilst we exercise the utmost care in selecting Product Producers for our panel, we cannot guarantee the financial condition of insurers with whom we place business.

Duty of Disclosure

You are required to answer all questions posed by us or the insurer honestly and with reasonable care, as expected of an average consumer. This applies when you arrange a new policy, renew an existing policy or make a mid-term adjustment to an existing policy. Where you do not provide additional information, (after being requested to do so, it can be presumed that the information previously provided remains unchanged

Failure to answer questions asked by us or the Insurer honestly and with reasonable care may result in your policy being cancelled, made void, or mean all or part any claim may not be paid. This may also mean you have difficulty in purchasing insurance elsewhere. It is an offence to drive a motor vehicle on Irish roads without valid insurance and in the case of property insurance, failure to have insurance cover in place could lead to a breach of the terms and conditions attaching to any loan secured on that property.

Completed Proposal Forms or Statements of Facts will be provided to you. These are important documents as they form the basis of insurance contract between you and the insurer. You should review and confirm that the answers contained within are true and accurate. We would advise you to keep copies of all documents sent to or received from us for your own record of what has been disclosed.

Please ask if you have any doubts on any aspect of the above, our staff will be happy to assist you.

Premium Handling

We will accept payments in cash, by cheque and by credit/debit card in respect of all classes of insurance in the circumstances permitted under Section 25G of the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995. We will issue a receipt for each payment received in accordance with the provisions of Section 30 of the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995. Receipts are issued with your protection in mind and should be kept safely.

Premium Default All premiums are due on or before the inception or renewal date of your policy. Under Central Bank legislation very strict rules apply to payment of premiums to insurance companies. We are not able to pay premiums to insurers that have not been received from clients. Therefore, to avoid the risk of cancellation, premiums must be paid when cover is incepted unless credit terms are otherwise agreed. We reserve the right to cancel your policy in the event of the following: your non-payment of premium(s) due at inception, renewal or following a mid-term adjustment; any form of payment used by you being returned to us by your bank due to insufficient funds or for any other reason; non-disclosure of relevant information; or an Insurer imposed cancellation under the terms contained in your policy documents. We would encourage you to refer to your policy documents for full details.

Remuneration and Fees When we arrange or renew your Insurance we will be paid commission based on a percentage of the premium by the Insurer. We will charge you a fee for arranging your Insurance and for making other changes or adjustments. Commission rates vary by product producer and product type (details available on our website www.abbeyautoline.ie). Such charges reflect the general service provided by us to meet your insurance needs through researching the market, placing the risk and standard advice.

We reserve the right to make an administration charge of up to €35.00 for (but not limited to) arranging cover, mid-term changes, duplicate/replacement documents, confirmation of driving experience, missed or late payments, amendments to existing instalments and direct debits, administration of refunds and issuing cheques. Any renewal fee(s) will be shown on your renewal notice and any fee(s) applied in respect of new business will be advised at quotation stage. Where we arrange for an external credit finance facility for clients to assist in premium payment, we may charge a maximum fee of up to 2% of the total premium(s).

Any cases which warrant higher charges than outlined above will be advised and agreed with you prior to the inception of your policy.

Cancellation refunds will be subject to a fee of €50. If we cancel a policy due to non-payment, all monies paid up to cancellation will be forfeited. We reserve the right to recover any discounts allowed by us during the term of your policy after cancellation and offset such discounts against any refund due.

In the event of a refund of premium, any monies owed to us by you at the time of the refund may be deducted by us from your refund. We may also charge a fee of up to €30.00 for the administration of your refund. By accepting our Terms of Business you are giving your consent in each and every instance where a refund arises for any monies owed by you to us to be deducted from any refund we may pay you.

Cancellation/Cooling Off Period

A consumer (as defined by SI No.853 of 2004) has the right to withdraw from an insurance policy (as defined under SI No.853 of 2004) within 14 days of the start of the policy without penalty and without giving any reason. This is known as the cooling off period. The right of withdrawal may be exercised by notice in writing to us, quoting your policy number. Should this right be exercised your Insurers may charge a pro rata premium for the period you have been on cover. If your policy is a motor insurance policy the premium cannot be refunded until the Certificate of Insurance and Windscreen Disc have been received by us.

You can cancel your policy by giving us notice in writing at any time and enclosing, where applicable, your Certificate of Insurance and windscreen disc. Provided that all reasonable charges owed to us have been paid, and providing that no incident which may give rise to a claim under the policy has occurred in the current period of insurance, you may be entitled to a proportionate return of the premium in accordance with the Insurer’s policy document. If you cancel during the first year (outside of the cooling off period) short term rates may apply in accordance with the terms and conditions contained in your Insurer’s policy document. Your Insurer may also reserve the right to cancel policies at any time by giving appropriate notice to your last known address.

Confidentiality/Data Protection Act

We act as Data Controller for personal data you supply in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulations and any relevant national law. We will collect, hold and process data when necessary for the performance of your contract, for our legitimate interests as an insurance intermediary and in compliance with any legal obligations. We will only hold your personal data for as long as required by law. Calls will be recorded for training and quality purposes. Recordings may be supplied to 3rd parties if required to investigate a claim, complaint or suspected fraud. To deliver our services we may use third party processors (e.g. underwriters, debt recovery firms, credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies).

You have the right to access personal information held about you by us, to restrict processing of inaccurate information, request that we correct any inaccuracies in the information held about you and to request the erasure of your data in certain circumstances.

Our full Data Protection policy is available on our website www.abbeyinsurance.ie or in writing on request. You can find more details about data protection from the Data Protection Commissioner at www.dataprotection.ie.

Compensation Scheme

Prestige Underwriting Services (Ireland) Limited is a member of the Investor Compensation Company Ltd (ICCL) Scheme established under the Investor Compensation Act 1998. The legislation provides for the establishment of a compensation scheme and for the payment in certain circumstances, of compensation to certain clients of firms (known as eligible investors) covered by the Act. You should be aware that the right to compensation will only arise where client money or investment instruments held by this company on your behalf cannot be returned, either for the time being or for the foreseeable future, and where the client falls within the definition of eligible investor as contained in the Act. In the event that a right to compensation is established, the amount payable is the lesser of 90% of the client’s loss, which is recognised as being eligible for compensation, or €20,000.

As a member of the Irish Brokers Association (IBA), we are also a member of the IBA Compensation Fund Ltd. Subject to the rules of the scheme the liabilities of its member firm up to a maximum of €100,000 per client (€250,000 in aggregate) may be discharged by the fund in its behalf if the member firm is unable to do so, where the above detailed ICCL (established by law) has failed to adequately compensate any client of the member.

Conflicts of Interest

It is our policy to avoid conflicts of interest at all times, however, where an unavoidable conflict arises, we will advise you of this before we provide any business service to you. If you have not been advised of any such conflict you are entitled to assume that none arises.

Complaints

As part of our service to our clients we operate a clearly defined complaints procedure. In the event that you are unhappy with any aspect of our service, you may make a complaint either in writing or verbally to the Office Manager. We will aim to resolve your complaint within 5 business days if we can. If this is not possible and we require further time to investigate your complaint, we will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 5 business days of receipt and issue a final response as quickly as possible once our investigation is complete. To keep you informed of our progress we will issue you updates at intervals of no greater than 20 business days until we are able to provide our final response.

If we have not issued our final response within 40 business days, or you remain dissatisfied with our final response, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Services & Pensions Ombudsman. You can find more information at www.fspo.ie and you can contact them at FSPO, Lincoln house, Lincoln Place, Dublin 2, by telephone at +3531 567 7000 or by email at info@fspo.ie

Law Applicable

This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Ireland.