There are a lot of reasons why people believe (and why people are told) Northern Irish drivers pay more for their car insurance than their counterparts in the UK. You can't help but notice when you're being quoted over a grand for car insurance (last year my quote was nearly a grand and a half!). The reason most quoted to me when discussing the issue with friends is "sure they all think your car could get blown up" - or something troubles-related anyway.

I always thought this was a myth and it was to do with a claim culture incubated through high payouts from insurance claims here - and the fact that more claims are successful. However a representative from the Motor Accident Solicitors Society said most claims are now settled out of court "because the insurance industry and a lot of the claimants solicitors are able to settle a lot of claims and that means insurance companies are quite happy to pay these awards."

Added to this, a recent Endsleigh survey found 30% fewer cars are stolen in Belfast than the UK average and drivers in Belfast are less likely to have an accident than drivers in any other city in the UK.

Follow up:

Despite all that, the AA says average premiums in Northern Ireland cost 10% more than London and Manchester, and a whopping 25% more than Birmingham. Only some insurers have begun to reduce their premiums, while many still don't offer insurance to Northern Ireland at all. With less competition than the mainland there's less incentive to redress this imbalance. It seems we'll continue to be ripped off for some time yet.

Even when Tesco opened petrol stations in Northern Ireland, the reduced prices didn't last and didn't get as "low" as the prices on the mainland. Logistics makes up a very small part of the price of petrol these days, so there really is no excuse. Despite this, it's taken the threat of Asda selling petrol at GB prices to get Tesco et al to act. We may be waiting for an Asda to enter the car insurance market here before we see any sort of normality in our prices too.