Who do you insure with and why?? (Car)

It's been a while since I owned a car and we have just purchased a second hand one today (Woot!)

I am a bit bamboozled about car insurance as there seems to be a lot more choice these days since I last looked into it.

Are there any things I should be aware of to make the decision of who to go with easier?

Bundling with house insurance?
Online companies vs traditional companies?
Any pitfalls to be wary of?

Who do you insure with and why??

We went with budget because we were with RACQ & they raised the premium a ridiculous amount. So we shopped around & Budget came back about $400 cheaper. We also have our house & contents insurance with budget. I've never had to claim so I don't know what they are like to deal with though.

I think it's always safe to go with a major so SGIO, QBE, AAMI, etc. We swapped to AAMI earlier this year for all our insurance as their prices were significantly lower than SGIO who we were with at the time.

Definitely shop around, prices vary a lot! 'Youi' seem quite good as they really consider your individual circumstances and they are advertising a lot lately with great rates.

Bundling is good but you don't save much, usually 5 or 10% but often you can get a much bigger discount than that by going elsewhere.

Good luck, it's quite confusing.

I am with YOUI, I have made 2 claims with them and they are very friendly.. they even sent me a toy garbage truck after I went up the back of one :D
I am currently still in the middle of claiming from them, it has been slow but that is because the other party ran off but YOUI have tracked him down finally..
Before I had smashed up any of my cars I was paying only $340 for 3rd party fire & theft. Now after 2 smashes I pay $410 a year for third party fire & theft but I get free car hire when my car goes in for repairs and the excess is only $400

must add.. Im an expert at smashes :rolleyes: I've only written off 3 cars.. But I've been with AAMI, JUST CARS, COMMINSURE, and YOUI is the best Ive found:)

I am with AAMI for one reason only. (well other than the fact they were one of the cheapest quote). I was the secretary to a solicitor who dealt with personal injury claims - car accidents and the like.

She said that the best insurance company was AAMI. They looked after their customers and were by far the easiest to deal with in terms of starting a claim. That was all I needed to be told. Sometimes its not who is the cheapest, but also how they look after you after you've had an accident that matters.

I'm also with AAMI and have unfortunately had to made 2 claims this year, neither at fault, and they were fantastic, highly recommend them!

My only advice is to read the fine print, especially if you are switching your house insurance, I was with REAL for a while until I read their fine print and it basically said in the case of a house fire, if the fault was from anything electrical (drier, heater etc) the claim is voided! Considering a lot of house fires are caused from this kind of thing I changed over quick smart! So definitely read all the fine print!

Our cars are with CGU because they were really reasonably priced. I've made 1 at fault claim with them and they were fabulous to deal with.

SGIC.

The main reason being they do business and landlord's insurance, we have a home based business and a rental, and they have a discount for bundling policies. I'd been with them for years and they were very good to deal with on a claim, but switched to a cheaper one for a while and came back when we needed the more exotic insurances.

Suncorp. Basically because the finance company guy put us onto them. I did check out RACQ but Suncorp seemed a bit better so :dunno:
I will admit to being lazy though & not doing my homework.

We insure our cars with Budget direct and have found them the cheapest. I've also had two bingles with them. One our fault one the other persons and both times they were great to deal with.

We're with AAMI for everything. They're not the cheapest, but we have never had any problem at all claiming. They're quick and the repairs are always good.

FWIW - My aunty was insured with RACV - they only found out their car was a write-off when they came across it being driven to a wrecker on the back of a tow truck. The repair was only one side front panel worth of damage. When my aunty brought it to the attention of RACV, they got it back from the wrecker and fixed it. Lucky they saw it being towed there! Another friend was with RACV too and they accused him of stealing his own car when he reported it stolen. I like that I can ring my insurance company and they smile over the phone.

We're with AAMI as well. Was the most competitive quote for our car type for where we live.
Have dealth with an at fault claim with them and they have been fantastic.
I also dealth with them as a towie years ago :redface: and they were by far the most professional and transparent.

Hmm... we're with RACV. We had ING for house & car insurance and checked RACV as we have roadside assist and they were cheaper so we switched everything to them. I have no idea of the fine print on any of our policies or whether another company (other than ING) is cheaper. I need to focus on insurance one of these days...

We are with GIO. Both cars are comp insured with them as well as our home & contents. So we get a nice discount with the few policies we have with them.

I drive a 99 Holden VT (paid 4 grand cash for it) and its insured for an agreed value not market value (rrp is around the 5-6k mark) never had to claim with them (im still on my green P's) but my total cost is around $750 a year, that is becuase DP has a 60% bonus which I am also entitled to :) **YAY**

DP's car is valued at 13k and his annual fee is around the $1200 mark.

Because I'm on my greens most places quoted me $1200 a year and upwards. St George even quoted me SEVEN GRAND!!!! :o .. unreal so definately shop around!

After seeing a report on TT/ACA on AAMI repairs a night or 2 ago I'd be a bit frightened to use them. I know not all repairers are shonky, but at least I can choose who I want to go with.

Thanks for all the feedback, it certainly helps to have opinions based on both price and previous experience. I guess I am lucky that I have never had to make a claim so have not actually had to deal with an insurance company.

So, look around, compare prices, consider bundling if price is right, read fine print and look for a company with a good service record. Sounds possible!

I had not considered the option of choosing your own repairer: thanks Naenae.

We changed from AAMi to REAL - Pay as you drive as they were much much cheaper. We clock up less than 7500km per year and saved over $500 on our insurance. Just after we changed we had that huge hail storm and had to get our car fixed. They were fantastic to deal with and we had no issues with our claim at all. They even called me to follow up which was a shock!

We are currently with CGU (DH is in insurance, used to work for them. And he's not one of those dodge door to door sellers haha) But we've er, had a few minor 'incidents' and they've been great at replacing stuff and getting it fixed. Home and contents are with them too. (We don't get any special treatment, most of the dealings were after we left with people who don;t know he worked for them.)
Though - we are switching to QBE when we replace our car. They're cheaper and he said something about their policy wording being a bit more friendly?
Obviously I let him handle it but thats what he's said about it.

I have delt with swann insurance when we had a 4 car pile up and they were sooo easy and polite to deal with.

Another thing to keep an eye out for is a hire car if u ever need one. I think aami doesnt cover u for that (u pay for it yourself) with gio they provide a car for u.

Hth

I am insured with Just Cars. They are quite inexpensive, I am under 25 and drive a brand new convertible and I pay less than $100 a month... although, I am not happy with the service they provided me with when I was involved in a car accident last year (I wasn't at fault).
My car was purchase for $42k, someone drove into me from behind when I was parked at the lights and pushed me into 2 cars in front causing $30k worth of 'cosmetic damage' to my car alone, and they refused to write my car off because there was no structural damage.
A 12 month old car worth $40k, and they fixed $30k of it instead of simply writing it off. To write it off they would have spent an extra $5k as my car was insured for $35k. They would have saved all the time and money in the labor it cost fixing my car. In the end it probably cos them $35k.
It took them 3 months to fix. 3 months I was left without a car and they didn't provide a hire car either. I had to pay $3k out of my pocket to hire a car on my own which the other guys company refunded when my car was fixed, 3 months later. Not happy :(