Who is your home and contents with?

[Doing my best]

We are with NRMA and get pretty good multi policy discounts. We have only ever claimed on the cars (both DH's fault mind you ) and they were fantastic both times.

However, I am not so sure on them for house and contents and am currently looking for something else. Main reason is that they don't cover for flooding, so if we get the cyclonic weather that is 'predicted' and it happens to be a high tide, and the storm water drains have no where to take the water, and my house floods, I am not covered. (I use this scenario cause it happened to my parents about 15 years ago). For me, I am paying insurance, I want to be covered, especially when there are others that will cover us.

But it is just a case of shopping around to find who will cover you for what you want to be covered for.. GL.

[Beckibee]

Bwwahahaha, mine isn't placed through my workplace. *L*

Anyway, we used to have our car through RACQ but when we moved to NSW, our comp cover went to AAMI and our CTP through NRMA. Home contents are through NRMA as well. Used to go through a broker which I still believe very strongly in, and now that we're moving back I'm going to ring up one of the brokers I dealt with and organise to have my insurance transfered back to them.

Have never had to claim under our home contents (*touch wood*) so I can't respond from there, but my experiences with RACQ to do with the car were great.

BTW - Nil excess home policies still exist with quite a few insurers - you just pay more for your premium.

RE Flood cover on home policies. This is a toughie because very few insurers cover flood damage across all aspects, especially in the example that Heather gave - for many you need to apply specifically for flood cover under your policy, a much higher excess will apply and each property gets individually assessed in order to consider extending cover for flood. ie. sometimes you'll be required to contact the local council for flood mapping for your suburb. In a few cases, particular areas are decline postcodes to be offering cover. For commercial properties/businesses there are many changes going on in the industry with regards to flood cover at the moment

[nic]

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[Trillian]

We're with an independent who is very reputable and has been around locally for a long time. He even comes out to our house for the odd visit and to sign policies etc (his office is over 1hr away) and nothing is too much trouble for them. We were with Elders Rural, but we had a few issues with them at our local branch so decided to change.

[AngelPunks]

Wow, some interesting info here. Punkin, we have our 2nd car with Shannon's and I had thought about getting a quote from them for H&C and checking out their policy and what it covers. I do remember them covering tools and memorabilia, i thought it would be good with DH's shed full of tools lol.

Shannons also do daily drivers now which is good

When we got a quote, their contents (we were renting) was a bit more than we were currently paying but it specifically covered the tools etc which was great considering xh was a mechanic and had a lot of tools.

Coz I'm back in the unit (which I own) I'm with Vero because they were the ones I was using when I had tenants in here, so I just swapped it over (had contents at the house with Vero).

[Astrid]

We are with AAMI for both cars and H&C. We have had 3 claims through AAMI in 8 years and they have been fantastic at all times. Have not had to do a H&C claim yet, but I do like the unlimited amount for rebuilding.

I used to work in insurance investigation, in particular MV theft and single vehicle accident. It is so important that you are honest with your insurer from the start about your driving history and any modifications on the car. In the case of a claim they can use a modification they did not know about to deny the claim. In particular if they have any doubts about the claim and cannot fully prove it, they will try to use the unlisted mod to deny. I found that if claims were quiet, then they were more likely to investigate minor claims than if they were inundated with claims.

[Beckibee]

^^ Ditto what Astrid said about ensuring that you're honest and disclose everything.

Remember to take 'reasonable care' (particularly when it comes to your vehicle), ensure you have all non-standard accessories noted and allowed for on the policy (nothing worse than someone thinking their written off vehicle actually had $10,000 worth of accessories not noted on the policy and then the argument that ensues over the payout including these....), and review your sums insured each year for home & contents (which you SHOULD be doing with your broker/intermediary if you have one) - it's another HUGE issue when it comes to claim payouts, especially if your policy has underinsurance clauses that apply.