Car Insurance Recommendations - Best Value and Real-Life Claims Experiences Welcome!

Hi all,

I ended up having to buy a car just as Covid first hit. Paid the "Covid-premium" of a higher purchase price than insurance would cover & just grabbed the cheapest I could to get me on the road (Allianz). It's a 2012 TOYOTA CAMRY ALTISE, ASV50R, 4D sedan. To renew is going to be 483.62.

I know I can run around online and get quotes, but I'd love to hear from folks who changed insurers & their experiences in making claims.

That's the only way to know if they're worth the money, imho.


This is the basic rundown of current coverage:

This vehicle is primarily used for local business use & travels approximately up to 10,000km per year. Comprehensive Agreed Value $10,800. Third Party Property Damage
Limit of Liability $20,000,000.

What you're insured for:
See the PDS for the standard policy terms, conditions, limits and
exclusions that apply. This should be read together with this
Policy Schedule and any other document we tell you forms part
of your policy.

Covered?:
Accidental loss or damage to your vehicle ✔
Accidental death benefit ✔
Child seat or baby capsules ✔
Emergency repairs ✔
Emergency accommodation and travelling
expenses ✔
Lock re-keying / re-coding ✔
Personal items ✔
Rental car after theft ✔
Towing ✔
Trailer and caravan cover ✔
Transportation costs ✔
Substitute vehicle (liability) ✔
Legal costs ✔
Legal Liability ✔

Cheers everyone!

Comments

  • +1

    Following, also want real world experiences when it comes time to claim

  • Premiums vary not only by provider, but also the same company can have different premiums from one house to the next.
    Claims experience can vary even with the same company, a lot depends on the assessor and the repair shop

  • +1

    If you want to minimise your risk of having to put up with shit when it comes time to making a claim, stick with the big and reputable companies that specialise in insurance. Avoid budget insurance companies, little startups and those names that mainly specialise in other things such as supermarkets.

    If you decide to pay the absolute cheapest premium, don't be expecting exceptional customer service (but do expect a flaming from us if you come back to whinge about it!)

    • Good advice, specially the first line.

    • "stick with the big and reputable companies that specialise in insurance"

      Such as? Best to worst (iyho)?

      • Such as?

        I've been driving for a bit over 20 years and personally only ever had to deal with one claim through AAMI (when I wasn't at fault) that was pretty easy and straightforward, so I can't really say which company is better amongst the bigger brands. However, I used to work in the claims area of one of the major insurers in their claims area. It's true that insurance companies can be a*holes, but where there was doubt about anything, we often gave the customer the benefit of the doubt. In those circumstances, we wouldn't "try our luck" and automatically decline a claim based on that on the off-chance that the customer doesn't follow up.

        In my mind, I group the insurance companies such as (in no particular order) NRMA, RACV (or the WA equivalent), AAMI, QBE, Allianz, etc into what I would call "top tier". Then there's those such as Youi, Budget, Progressive, Coles, Woolies, etc that I would call "budget insurance companies". Those that have a reputation for cheaper premiums and those that you're more likely to hear horror stories about.

        It's quite logical if you think about it - the big companies usually charge more and have a huge customer base so a few extra claims won't impact their bottom line as much as those with a small customer base and cheaper premiums. Also, the cheaper premiums have to come from somewhere and it seems to come in the form of more aggressive claim acceptance policies and (lack of) customer service.

        This is not to say you definitely won't have a problem with a larger company (they are insurance companies after all!) - it just means that you lower your chances of a shit claims experience (not eliminate the possibility).

        • +2

          Literally anything suncorp, and in particular AAMI, has gone to absolute and unmitigated shit.

          Just got through having them try to illegally write off my car the same day they varied my agreed value, then tried to raise the repair estimate (without any paperwork or reinspection) to keep it "uneconomical to repair".

          Finally got through to a state manager who gulped, organised a tow and sorted it all out on the day, weeks later. Now engaged counsel to sue them to cover rental hire costs because neither they, the person that hit me, the car hire company, or counsel can get so much as an email back regarding the matter after several months of trying.

          Over to RACV I popped. Never again. Literally everyone I spoke to in adjacent industry (repairers, hire car shops, etc) had nothing kind to say.

  • +1

    Budget Direct

    Had a claim where under my policy I could choose my preferred repairer which helped a lot in keeping things localised as I travel for work. Also meant parts were genuine.

    Case manager I dealt with was professional and fast to respond and approve everything. Needed to get one of the licence plates replaced as it was damaged and he was happy to not only reimburse that as part of the claim without question but also allowed for the repairer to source the licence plate bracket replacement from the original car dealer location.

    Claim done over the phone, visit made to their assessor within a few days (not as easy given it was across Melbourne) and overall it was pretty hands off for me.

    • +2

      This is literally the opposite of every Budget Direct experience I've ever read. Not calling you a liar though.

      • +1

        Damn, that's not great to hear… My interactions were pretty much with only two people, the initial call centre person and then the case manager/assessor at the centre.

        The thing with insurance companies is that they can absolutely suck if they have to do more work than expected or if there's like a wide spread event (Bush fires) and stall payouts.

    • -1

      Thank you for being one of the .0000000000000000000000001 percent of people who read and answer based on the content & their experience.

  • Not sure if things have changed in the last few years but I know a few smash repairs owners and they all hate AAMI. I can't remember specific reasons but they made out it was tough to deal with them (as repairers) at claim time.

  • There's two options:
    Expensive or screwed around.

  • I'm most concerned with a big vs. small claim.

    For those who have had accidents, who did your claim best?

    I had 2 totals. Neither my fault. I have back issues to this day which have reversed my exercise regime to nothing. I think I prob had coverage, but insurer's are criminals.

    • Neither my fault. I have back issues to this day which have reversed my exercise regime to nothing. I think I prob had coverage, but insurer's are criminals.

      If neither were your fault, why did you think you don't have insurance coverage? WA has a CTP scheme for bodily injuries (as opposed to property damage). You would lodge a claim against the CTP insurer of the vehicle who is at-fault.

  • Following the thread, my insurance is due at the end of the month. Currently with budget but haven't had to make any claims.

  • How can reviews of insurance co's be so all over the place? According to the below site, RAC are rubbish:

    Is productreview.com.au not a good source? If not, what's a reasonably trust-worthy review site?

    • Any review site is a mosh-mash of extreme reactions, but skewed towards negative. It’s like If you love it why do you need to post a review? If you hate it, you think you need to tell everyone. If you are in the middle, why bother posting.

      Some places moderate their review and might remove ones they ‘don’t like’ them.

      Then there’s review for payment. Eg leave us a good review and we’ll give you 10% off the next one, or outright paid to leave a review.

      Then theres tons of fake reviewers and bots that are specifically designed to promote one business and denigrate another. These are the most concerning because they probably have absolutely know real knowledge of what they are ‘reviewing’

      Basically, you can’t really trust online review sites to actually be objective.

      • Or you need to read between the lines of the review to understand the level of education of the reviewer. Are they articulate and concise, do they describe a story that shows a complete understanding of their options, the discussions they've had and that the insurer has done something heinous? Or does it read "had stack, thought I'd be rich, insurance company is horrible, poor me"? If you can hunt for the former and skim over the latter - then sometimes they can be telling.

        Insurance companies can be nasty, they have all sorts of little gotchas that you skim past to the "buy insurance…gimme cover" button. Hopefully you can find reviews that highlight these little dog turds on the naturestrip of cover. One really nasty one I particularly dislike is Budget Direct's…"if a person lives in the same house as you and they aren't listed on your policy, then they are 100% NOT covered…but if you lend your car to someone you don't live with, that's fine and they're covered"…that definitely rates on the evil scale. Their definitions of write-offs too are nasty.

  • Had a not at fault claim with WFI for a written off car and the process was straight forward to make the claim and receive the payout. They appear to have small local offices all round and you have your own client representative. They were pretty cheap too.

  • I went with Ubicar last year just before they went into administration (but underwritten by RAC WA) - so I kept my comprehensive cover at about $20 a month as they weren't calculating the kms any more. Full comprehensive insurance for $240 a year, pretty cheap! My cover runs out in Sep, so here I am hunting around for any gems out there. My daughter was one month ahead of me. She's gone with Budget Direct (so I guess I'm not driving her car as I doubt she read the fine print about people who live in the same house), but she also found another similar insurer to Ubicar called Carpeesh who did a reasonable premium and hopefully weed out the bad drivers with their app connection. Though she's still on her P's and under 25 - the insurance is quite high. She got coverage for about $700 for full comp with a massive excess. I advised her to go for the biggest excess as she is a great driver and any accident is most likely going to be the other party and then excess doesn't apply. But she has enough savings that should she the faulty party - the excess wouldn't hurt her either - why hand over money to an insurer to cover something you can afford?

  • currently with aami, but thinking of switching one of the cars… was looking at Budget, but hear nothing but horror stories. I'm not UNhappy with AAMI, but their premium increases are getting out of hand. I haven't made a claim with them for 6 or so years, but my premiums increased by about $30 per month

  • Made a claim (though not at fault) with Budget Direct (they were the least expensive of the 3 or 4 online quotes) and they surprised me based on some of the negative reviews. I was expecting to jump through hoops but the process was very straight forward. Didn't even know that I had a hire car, which turned out to be great.. The annoying things included the starting point of an excess when completing the online claim. This made me reconsider submitting the claim but I went ahead anyway. The case manager called me the next day and waived the excess when I described the incident. The other annoyance was having to deal with the claim manager and the car hire department separately. When I rescheduled the repair date I did not realise that I had to call the car hire department and reschedule that as well. Apart from those gripes, it was a good experience.

  • Merged from Car Insurance Recommendation

    Hi,
    Currently I have Kia insurance, and I am in the process of renewing my car insurance and would like an indication based on your experiences to change insurance company.
    Tks!

  • I’m pleasantly surprised by Budget Direct - the claim experience so far is no better or worse than NRMA. My shopping trolley/station car got side swiped by a derp, thank fark he’s insured as I’ve only got third party property for mine. Other than the derp took forever to sort out the claim but once it’s authorised, the process so far have been fairly painless - replacement car arranged then fobbed me off to the third party claims management and even those guys appeared to be fairly alright to deal with. No final verdict yet as I’m still waiting for it to be assessed.

    • So the car was deemed an economic write-off. My nightmarish scenario didn’t play out at all, they’ve made a firm but reasonable offer up front and of course being a true OzBarginer, I have to try ask for more and bumped the offer up by another $500. Now it’s being hand balled back from the third party assessment peeps back to Budget Direct to get me my money.

      Besides the initial FU caused by the idiot that caused the accident, I don’t have a bad word to say about Budget Direct.

  • We got t-boned last year by someone who failed to adhere to a Stop sign.

    We had Coles, they had RACQ. Coles were terrible. Part of the issue is their insurance call centre is in South Africa, so trying to understand that I can't take my car to their repairer across the border wasn't possible as the Qld/NSw border was shut. They also failed to listen on the 12 times we spoke to them to call me,.not my wife as I was driving yet they called her every time.

    We tried to just avoid using them for the claim & just get the other party's insurance to fix it, but all the repairers strongly suggest we use our own as we'll get lifetime repair warranty.

    After several phone calls to-&-fro they finally decided they did have a repairer closer..about 1km away (not 20km over the border), alas they had a 7wk wait time. So we asked for a hire car (being not at fault), but they refused since we didn't pay extra for it. But they helpfully suggested that they can organise discounted rates for one.

    So.we went to RACQ (the at fault's insurer) they were lovely. They initially suggested we go through Coles and get them to hit them up for the cost of a hire car. I said they weren't Interested, so they said no worries, we'll organise one. They made sure we got a bigger sizes vehicle then we have. They checked up on us the day we picked it up to make sure we were happy (again, we're not their customers).and after we returned it too.

    The clincher with Coles was our renewal was due about 3wks after the accident, there was a $200 increase ($650->$850) . I told them I didn't want to renew about a week before hand because of the premium increase & how crap they had been. They said no worries we won't renew the policy. Then I learnt I couldn't get car insurance because the car had unrepaired damage..So I called them up with still 5 days left and said I will have to renew. They refused because the car had unrepaired damage. I pointed out that it was because their authorisied repairer couldn't fix it for another 4 weeks, they said that's a claims issue, not a policy issue, talk to them.

    So we took up RACQ third party property for the remaining 4 weeks then comprehensive after that. They were $100 more, but it'll be nice to know that they'll sort us out if we ever need them.

  • I’ve had a claim with Allianz and 3 separate claims with Shannons. Shannons in particular was good chasing the retail establishment when their untethered property hit my car when it was parked in their car park.

    All of them were good experiences and delivered exactly what they said. Shannons was nice with choice of repairer as I could take the car to a known quality body shop.

  • Have Woolworths, had zero issues making a claim a couple of years ago.

  • Claimed through NRMA as an uninsured third party (well I'm insured, I just didn't want to claim my own policy), had to use Sixt for the rental car and that kinda sucks. Surprisingly, their call centre isn't as slick as Budget Direct's.

    Now I'm starting to think NRMA is overrated?

  • Made a claim through AAMI with comprehensive, at fault as I hit a fallen tree while driving. Initial steps were easy enough for the claim, however the actual process from there fell down a bit. Firstly, I had to bring my car into an assessment centre where they wanted to hold the car while they ordered parts (I had to wait 3 weeks from claim to them having a spot for me to bring the car in for assessment too). Eta a full week for parts to come in. I told them I needed the car though for child care drop offs. The assessor recommended I take the car home and just bring it back when the parts came in. Made sense, but not sure why they didn’t just say it upfront.

    That was fine, they called me again when the parts came in. But oh, they couldn’t actually get me back in to have the repair done for 5 weeks as they were booked out. This was incredibly frustrating, because if they’d told me upfront id have to re-book and wait 5 weeks to get in, I might have just figured out an alternative while the car was with them on the first visit.

    So from claim to repair, 8 weeks, and a full 5 days to do the repairs. 9 weeks all up. I’m lucky the damage was minor and the car was drive-able, but I shudder at the thought that if it wasn’t, I’d have waited weeks and weeks to have it repaired.

    End of the day, I’ve always gone with AAMI because of the price and I’d never claimed in 17 years of driving so never thought much of it. Now after my first ever claim, I’m looking elsewhere. Not worth it.

  • My car was slammed into by a semi trailer in stopped traffic 30th May.
    I was pushed into another car and his tow bar etc ripped up the front of my nice car (Caprice).
    Both those guys drove off within 15 minutes while I was left with my bent car (and stuffed neck).
    Was on hold with Shannons for 45 mins and all they did was organise a tow truck (another 30 mins).
    Apparently I am getting paid out this weekend, so that would make it 4 weeks if its there on Monday.
    Every call to Shannons takes 45 minutes to get through, and they warn you of this, its like a prerequisite, how do they know its going to be 45 minutes each time?
    And they promise you can do most of it on the website which is not true.
    Nothing happens with Shannons unless you ring, and things move really slowly.
    In fact I had to keep ringing to prove I was innocent, otherwise nothing was happening.
    It took 2 weeks to get the excess waived and 2 weeks to get the free hire car.

  • $483.62 is for third-party insurance or comprehensive? my 2012 TOYOTA CAMRY ALTISE is about $1000 with Allianz comprehensive insurance

  • -1

    I nominate QBE Insurance for a positive recommendation for Third Party Registration Greenslip.
    If you have demonstrated a "points free" drivers licence condition JUST ONCE, I have found that they will renew the next year on that basis even if you have been booked subsequently.
    It has saved me HUNDREDS compared to the rates other insurers wanted to charge me.
    Thanks QBE for having a more enlightened Green Slip policy.
    I am in my third year with them, and don't receive all of my points back 'till later this year.

  • I recently had an at-fault accident while covered by BINGLE. Thought I would have a horrible time claiming as they are just about the cheapest insurer there is out there. Surprisingly claiming online was very streamlined and I had repairs booked at one of their repairers in less than 30 min. After dropping off the car they promised me repairs of 3 panels and a headlight within 1 week. To my surprise, in 3 days they rang me to pick up the car. As an added bonus they organized free Uber rides at drop off and pick up at the smash repairer. Even after this at-fault claim they only increased my premium by $30 so I will definitely be renewing with them.
    Also for those who may be avoiding Bingle due to their lack of customer service phone lines they actually do have customer service phone numbers just not listed publically online. You can find their phone number in all the emails they send you after you claim. An added bonus of them hiding the number away is the relatively short queue times.

  • Looking at renewing, I'm with Allianz but their renewal came out to about $300 more than last year (this is after multi-policy discount, and all that other) but if go to another company that also is part of the same umbrella, eg; Bank of Melbourne, its about $110 LESS than the renewal. I even did it as a "new customer" for both, and the Bank of Melbourne came out cheaper

    PDS appear to be the same

  • I am with AAMI and they just increased 20% on my renewal. Now searching for cheaper options.

    • +1

      Check out Auspost, underwritten by QBE: https://auspost.com.au/car-insurance

      • Check out Auspost

        Third party insurance they do NOT cover for damages to your car.

    • Just received my renewal from QBE. 64% increase ($741 - $1215). No change in circumstances. Have renewed with AAMI for $779.

      • 64% increase

        That is why I won't renew the insurance policy.
        With Budget Direct the previous year (third party only) I paid $300 while now they want $550.
        I checked other insurances too and prices go up to ~$600.
        We drivers already pay road insurance on the car registration so that should be enough to cover damage to third party.
        Also on the private car insurance we pay stamp duty (a THEFT) every time we renew plus tax so this year I'm saving this money for food!
        It's not just the insurance but also petrol, I used to fill with $20 but now It costs $35-40.
        Everything has increased by 30-40% while the salary is steady and things will go worse and worse BUT we have the money to give to US&UK for their wars while La Trobe hospital emergency department offers no more than ONE sandwich for lunch and ONE sandwich for dinner because that is their budget!
        Aussie Aussie my @$$!

  • Made a claim with Bingle a few months ago (not at fault). All done online and the one call I did have to make for a query was answered efficiently and quickly.
    Unsure if it would be differently if at fault.

  • Club 4x4 = don't even get me started
    RAC (WA) = amazing

  • Is there a listing for Car insurance providers that do and don't insure Tesla's? I'm looking to open 20x tabs and compare them all but so many are time waster sites that get all my details and then after the usual 20 questions they just say nope sorry..
    Ideally if there's a list of even say 10x that do that I can reliabily use..

    • I know your comment was 9 months ago but did you end up finding anything out?

      From my searching, Australia Post seems to give (by far) the lowest prices for Teslas. Did you find anything better?

      • https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/750004

        I just went to all of them i could and tabled it out.. ended up with Allianz based on price/glass and choice of repairer etc.

        Market has probably changed by now hopefully for the better, lots wouldn't even quote for Tesla before.

        • Thanks. Useful post.

          I'm finding the same thing even now. They make you go through the entire process, what's your date of birth, what's your driving history, then at the very end they say we're not interested in insuring you (obviously because of the model of car). Waste of time.

          It might be even worse for me because mine's a Performance model. According to AAMI the Performance doesn't even exist. They only list RWD and LR.

          • @seanneko: yeah I had a friend say if they don't show performance or LR model's they don't offer insurance for it basically.. so it's just a weird issue that most companies are just behind on.. they are usually all the same underwriters tho.. so can sometimes rule out a bunch of sites straight away.

  • +1

    Just renewing my car insurance. most are around the $900-$1000, but for some reason Bank Of Melbourne (and probably St George/Bank SA) who resell Allianz, are $750 (including choice of repairer & 30days car hire, not the standard 14, which burnt us last year as it took 3wks to get parts)

  • +1

    Aside from taking a while to settle claims, GIO have been good to me. Gave me around 3 times what I was expecting for my car.

    Recommend, if you have patience though… Even a phone call to the GIO help line means hours of wait time.

    I also used Bendigo bank insurance once and they were good to me as well and quick with my minor claim. Honestly they went above and beyond what I was expecting.

    My father uses RACV, they also seem decent, they paid him out well for his recent minor fender bender.

    Imho avoid, aami, budget direct, and especially Youi, Youi will waste your time by asking an hour worth of questions just to be much, much more expensive, and I've also heard they are not great with payouts, they seem very much a predator.

    Take it with a grain of salt, just my opinions…

  • Herro!

    On the hunt for an insurance provider - 30yo, no claims since ive had my license. Always been with RACV, although there premium this year is just tooo much, 2k!

    I dont mind paying a little more…. but thats just crazy. AAMI is quoting me 1.25k… which is a significant saving, although, im really not a fan of the forced repairer option and not allowing to chose your own….

    Allianz want 3k+, GIO in the 2k (even though suncorp, what gives)….

    Car has 50k agreed value. I got for a excess of 1k-1.5k.

    Never had experience with anyone so really dont want to go cheap, and dont want the crap of being worried about my KMs. (even though I only really do 10k-15kkms per year) Dont care about hire car, ill uber.

    Car does have technically one 'mod' a deferent air filter….

    Advice?

  • RACV increased my premium by 80%!! car is only 1 year old, truly insane! I'm hunting around, so far Allianz and Beyond Bank seem the cheapest, but still have to up my excess to get lower prices now. Crazy how much insurance costs have gone up, not sustainable at all

  • My Bingle comprehensive insurance renewal was lower (went from $1.4k to $1.3k)(?!) than last year despite having a not-at-fault claim. Any other online quote I have (with that not-at-fault incident this May) has always been between $2-3k. I tried budget brands to big names to bank car insurance, they are all taking the piss. Talking about value for money. Shut up and take my money Bingle!

  • I”m with Alliance and daughter had a bingle around a month ago and the other car drove off.
    Insurance was tardy to approve, repair yard (the only one recognised by alliance in this area)couldn’t assess the damage until 10th January so waiting on the outcome.
    Although there is comprehensive insurance on the car, a hire car is an optional extra (which we didn’t take)
    Because daughter is under 21 there is also a $2000 excess. Loved the i30 diesel so will probably go for the repair. Will keep posting as the process continues

    • had to deal with allianz about 10yrs ago - there was a hit and run but the car was dumped at the scene and the driver ran away. car was reported stolen after the accident. allianz were utter shit to deal with and on principle refuse to consider them ever again for any insurance

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