Comprehensive Insurance

How on earth do they decide one area has higher risk than another?

I finally rang my insurance company today to change my address (yep, silly move, thank God I haven't needed it yet!)

My excess dropped around $200.
My windscreen cover dropped from $50 something to $30 something.

My monthly installments went up $30!! My total price went up over $300 a year!

I was paying $98 a month for the first 12 months (had the company recommended to me, so went with them), then with my 12 month no claim bonus it dropped to $67. Its now back up to $93!

I asked what the go was. 'Oh you must live in a higher risk area, like a culdesac' Higher risk. Here? You've got to be kidding!

Ok I moved from the mid north coast of NSW. That stretch of Pacific Highway just south of Coffs that we've been trying to have fixed for the past 8 or so years? The small town I was in was 12kms from there. I had to travel that road every time I had to go to town. I lived on a busier road in town. The only reason my car wasn't damaged one night was because it was in the driveway. 4 or so cars were all damaged that night & a teen killed.
My car was broken into, other cars around the corner were stolen & smashed into. The number of incidents just on our corner in 2 years was unreal.

Here. Small town. No teens here (literally maybe 5), they all get sent away to boarding schools. Pretty much no crime rate whatsoever. My brother & SIL have been here almost 4 years. No car thefts/break ins at all that they've heard of. No accidents that I've heard of. The closest town big enough for a centrelink office is 2.5 hours away!
My 'culdesac' is a dead end street that runs along a main back road, with houses only on one side of the street. There is only one house past me. One car past me. Its not a suburban culdesac!

The only thing I can think of, is that my house is the OTHER end of the main road that goes from Perth to Esperance. Lots of trucks & traffic goes through here through the week, but they all turn the opposite way at the T intersection 500m or more up the road. Even that lots of traffic is no more than something every 20 minutes or so. If that.
Or kangaroos? But there were roo's in NSW. I don't know how they can compare that?

I'm not happy. That means the total amount I'm paying has gone up over $500 a year, when you add in the drop in excess & windscreen.

I'm not happy & not impressed that it couldn't be explained to me properly. Maybe its time to shop around & consider another company.

shop around - and let your insurers know you're shopping around - and see what happens.

I agree with PN, but it also depends on the cost of repairers in your area too. Like if you need your car fixed under insurance will it cost them more to fix. We're isolated too and it costs a bomb to repair anything.

One of the catches we found was if you chose to have a smaller excess amount, you paid a higher premium, but if you hedged your bets and decided that the chances of you ever having to use your insurance was low, then you could raise your excess and pay a lower premium. We always do that one to save on the premium because we figure that when it comes to insurance, you are paying for something that might not happen so it makes sense to try to pay less and we're happy to pay the higher excess if we ever need to make a claim.

It's not fair. Over the past few years my car insurance has risen because we do have a lot of accidents in the area (thanks to the council putting in a too small roundabout so people don't slow down and colide). My car insurance is now more expensive than when it was when I first got my licence.

Keep us posted on how you go. I'm interested because we need to shop around.

Trill, that makes sence. But I didn't choose to have the excess dropped. It happened when they put my new details in. She didn't explain it at all, so who knows.
RAC is alot cheaper, but through the online quote it wouldn't insure for more than $1000 less that what the car is currently insured for.

Oh well, just got a massive stone chip in my windscreen & crack, from a speeding truck. Best sort that out then deal with the company :rolleyes:

Is it something to do with all the ridiculous govt charges on insurance Clover? Could be the difference between taxes/statutory charges in WA and NSW.

Otherwise, would definitely be shopping around though. Percentage wise that increase is nuts.

I always thought it had something to do with the crime statistics for your area as well.

As I said above, crime statistics would be way lower in this area than back home. Theres just no comparison there.

I had someone from an insurance place tell me once that companies charge more or less in certain areas - so AAMI might charge more in your area and RACV less yet one suburb over it will be opposite. It's kind of a sweet heart deal they have going on with each other to share the market.
I always do a shop around for quotes each year, keeps them trying to match prices. I was looking at buying a new car and got quotes for insurance to see what it would be like. They varied so incredibly as much as more than double in some instances, it's crazy.

Thats pretty much what happened. I am with a company you mentioned (lol, was that cryptic at all?) & RAC was about half what I pay now.

You can make your excess higher to lower your premium. But if you have an at fault accident or if you can't provide the details of the person responsible, it may not be worth it.

You can also call them and ask for a discount ;) doesn't hurt to ask. We always get people asking.

Some companies also charge a lot if they don't want to provide cover in the area so it's worth doing a few online quotes to check the difference. You can cancel your current insurance and get a refund of the remainder of your premium.

I'm paying by the month, so I don't need to be refunded any major amount. Not a bit deal.

I just felt that the company I had was right & am scared to change to someone else. I really dubious about insurance & am freaking that for some reason something will happen & I won't get what I think I'm entitled too. Probably silly, but I've not had insurance before this car, but heard alot of not so great stories.

And there are so many policies/companies out there, its so hard to decide which one really is best!

I work for an insurance company hun so feel free to pm me if you wanna ask any questions about policies etc I work in the claims dept so I can help with those questions :)

I moved about 5 kms away to a different street and when I finally updated (about 6 months later) it was cheaper than at the previous address. He said it was different 'zones'.

Cannex (canstar) is a company that have compared and rated companies on their financial products including insurances- assessed per state on what is covered and what you pay extra for (most companies you'll also pay extra to pay monthly, some don't). That Cannex ratings might help in working out which companies to do quotes with.

And yeah- increasing your excess will definitely make it cheaper.

Also they do take into consideration the natural disasters we've had. I've noticed most insurances have increased ALOT over the last 12months whether you were effected or not (I wasn't anywhere near being effected yet all my insurances went up). And yeah- the cost of repairs, parts etc play a part too.

Bec sent this on her Samsung using Tapatalk :-)

It may be a repair thing then, but the car/parts etc haven't changed. No natural disasters here either. Another thing that really should've made it higher back home... every time QLD & Northern NSW flooded we were right there in it as well (Coffs Harbour area).

Thanks Schonell :) I'll keep that in mind.