Hughes Insurance is a Northern Ireland insurance broker with over 40 years of experience.
Defaqto: 3/5 stars
Hughes Insurance car insurance is rated as three stars by Defaqto, an independent financial research company.
Note: Not all Defaqto products with the same star ratings have the same covers and terms.
Trustpilot rating: 1.9/5 stars
TrustPilot has given Hughes Insurance a rating of 1.9 out of five based on 16 reviews.
Hughes Insurance was established in Northern Ireland in 1977 and has over 200 employees based in six locations across the province. It prides itself on being a long-established local company and having a call centre based in Northern Ireland.
It is a private limited company that operates exclusively in Northern Ireland. In 2014, it was acquired by American giant Liberty Mutual Insurance but operates as a stand-alone business under its existing brand.
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Hughes Insurance provides three types of cover:
Comprehensive car insurance
Third party, fire and theft
Third party
Hughes Insurance offers a telematics-based car insurance product called HughesDrive for young drivers. Policyholders download the HughesDrive App for free and connect the App to their car via Bluetooth. If they don’t have Bluetooth in their car, a beacon provides a signal for the app to connect to.Young drivers are scored each week on metrics such as speed, braking, acceleration, cornering, and usage. Drivers scoring a certain amount are eligible for a weekly treat.
Hughes Insurance does not offer a multi-car insurance discount.
Taking out a multi-car insurance policy can help reduce your insurance costs:
if you own more than one car
if you’re a family with more than one driver
if you’re a couple with more than one vehicle
Hughes Insurance does not offer temporary insurance.
Compare a range of short-term insurance policies with Uswitch and money.co.uk*
Breakdown cover is provided by Motor Insurance Services and includes:
motor claims
24-hour recovery service incorporating puncture and lost keys
legal expenses
Hughes Insurance will pay up to £10,000 if the policyholder or their partner is accidentally killed or permanently injured travelling, entering or exiting their car, or any other private car.
A broken or damaged windscreen, windows or glass sunroof and any scratching of bodywork caused by them breaking are covered.
You will receive up to £200 for certain belongings stolen from the vehicle in any one incident. This will be increased to £400 in December.
If your car is involved in an accident, you will receive a child car seat replacement of a similar model and standard, even if there is no apparent damage.
The policy operates in any member countries of the European Union as long as the visit is not more than 90 days.
Hughes insurance will pay £100,000 in legal fees to pursue any claim in respect to any personal injury or uninsured loss where you are the innocent party.
If your car is hit by someone who is not insured, you will not lose your no claims bonus or have to pay an excess.
Hughes Insurance third party, fire and theft cover includes the following:
UK and Ireland breakdown assistance
Puncture assistance
Fuel shortages
Lost keys assistance
Cover for use abroad
Motor Legal Protection
Audio, telecom and sat nav protection
New car replacement (depending on insurer)
Personal belongings cover (depending on insurer)
Hughes Insurance third party only cover includes the following:
UK and Ireland breakdown assistance
Puncture assistance
Fuel shortages
Lost keys assistance
Cover for use abroad
Motor Legal Protection
if you want UK and Ireland breakdown assistance
if you like the idea of a rewards scheme
if you have younger drivers
if you want to use a local broker in Northern Ireland
Use less paper, plant more trees
Hughes Insurance is dedicated to climate change and this year launched a campaign to use less paper and plant more trees by partnering with the Woodland Trust Northern Ireland.
When an insurance customer switches to paperless communication, the company donates £2 to the Woodland Trust with the aim of planting thousands of new trees across Northern Ireland by 2022.
According to Hughes Insurance, Northern Ireland is one of the least-wooded regions in Europe, with just 8% woodland cover compared with the European average of 37%.
It has a paperless communications target of 80% and has already seen 10% of customers change their preferences this year meaning 47% of customers are now paperless.
Leave the phone alone campaign
Last year the company also partnered with Belfast Live to raise awareness of how dangerous it is to use a phone while driving.
The insurer believes driving when using a mobile phone is the ‘new drink driving’ and is the biggest challenge facing road safety chiefs today.
The Financial Ombudsman Service received fewer than 10 car insurance complaints about Hughes (that could have been a single complaint). To put that in context, 67 firms had 10 or more complaints each and those totalled 4,550 complaints. Nearly 200 firms had fewer than 10 each, sharing just 479 complaints between them.
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