We have used the same insurer (Club 4x4) for our car & van since 2016. Between 2016 & 2022 the premium had risen over that period by around 100% (with an annual reduction in agreed value).
This year however the premium has only risen by 3%. It was a pleasant surprise.
Different vehicles are treated very differently, but this is rarely publicised. A couple of years ago we were in the throes of buying a vehicle (which ultimately fell though), but we reached the point of arranging insurance for it & paid for it. This new (to us) vehicle had an agreed valued of more than double our existing vehicle, but the the premium was less than half that of our existing vehicle. When I asked "How come" I was told that our existing vehicle - a Nissan Patrol was considered a 'high risk vehicle' on account of many of the older ones (GQ's) being bought & optioned up by young off road hoons with a high risk profile.
Recently we had to reinsure our home & contents, having had to cancel our 'Landlord Insurance' after our tenants moved out & we decided to leave the place empty (with friends visiting regularly & staying overnight on a monthly basis to ensure conditions for insurance are met) for a spell. The difference in premiums quoted was astonishing with the most expensive being over 500% higher than the lowest. Admittedly the lowest wasn't an apples for apples comparison , but of those that were 'apples for apples' there was still a 280% difference in premiums. What was more surprising was that the highest quote of all was from the insurer we had always used in the past because of their reasonable prices & good reputation - RACV. We were sure that we or they had made a mistake, & quadruple checked. Of 13 different insurers the quotes varied between around $800 to a whopping $4200. Most were around the $1500 mark. We picked Suncorp at $1550 which has better cover/benefits than the RACV had at $4200! (And we have 36 years of RACV membership with no previous insurance claims - other than utilising their roadside recovery service which we think of very highly).
It's a real pain shopping around for insurance, ploughing through the details of each company's cover etc, but definitely worth doing - or at least it has been in our case.
Harder with our Patrol though - no other company (except Shannons who seemingly will insure anything if the premium is high enough) will give us cover for the agreed value of all the modifications as they fall between 4x4 & motorhome which means most companies 'computer says no' as it's not a motorhome (no bed) & most 4x4 insurers restrict the value of mods to a percentage of the value of the base vehicle (but with Club 4x4 the mods are accepted & don't get depreciated & are now higher in agreed value than the agreed value of the 'base vehicle', plus their 'off road recovery' cover is something no other company provides - so no 'apples' to compare) .
-- Edited by Cuppa on Sunday 16th of April 2023 02:24:25 PM
Doesn't matter what type of insurance you have, natural disasters have cost a lot. The money
has to come from somewhere.
And yes, they've had it good in the past but no more.
Havent had a caravan renewal notice yet but we recently received our house and contents renewal notice from Alliance. They had increased our premium from $2100 to $3400 because they said that they had reviewed our flood risk. I thought that was a bit rough as our house sits on a hill about 10 metres above the street level and the closest body of water (Lake Macquarie) would probably have to rise by 20mtrs for our house to get flooded. I checked out what the other providers were offering and went with Budget Direct, I dropped the flood cover and left everything else the same - we are now paying $1800. The Alliance policy was set up years ago by our mortgage provider when I read the documents that they sent along with the renewal notice that disclosed their fees and charges it seems that they are getting paid a pretty decent commission for acting as an agent. I dont know if any of this commission was being factored into the cost of the policy but as we paid our mortgage off a few years ago I punted them as well and organised the new one myself.
BB
-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Monday 17th of April 2023 12:12:23 AM
