Adding an excess is a bit weird, but if you had a claim two years ago and they added the excess two years ago, it’s likely related to the claim. Maybe double check with the insurer though? It seems time to shop around.
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When we insured our new car with Suncorp five years ago I did some research by changing the address in the online quote to see if it made any difference and I found that Suncorp car insurance at our address was the dearest in the whole street by a couple of hundred dollars. After contacting them to ask why they said it was commercially sensitive information and we weren’t entitled to it. We wanted the new for old replacement for life option ao we accept to pay the extra begrudgingly. We have just purchased a new car and I thought I would do the same exercise only to find our address the dearest again by nearly $700 this time and Suncorp not willing to tell us why only to say our address is a high insurance risk. But why? We have lived at this address for 44 years. We have never made a claim for damage to our car whilst at this address. We haven’t had a break in. Our driving history is squeaky clean and we have only made a couple of small, not at fault, car insurance claims in 44 years. The car is locked in a locked garage every day and night and there is a security camera. Our house is well maintained and the biggest house insurance claim we have ever made was for hail damage which was in the last couple of years. Today I did the same research for house insurance with Suncorp only to find there were a couple of dollars difference in the addresses. So why is the car at a high risk at this address but not our house? I feel this is something consumers should be aware of when looking for insurance. It came as a surprise to me that this would be possible. Who knows how many people are being ripped off by these insurance companies. We didn’t choose Suncorp or one of their other brands for our insurance this time.
We have been with Suncorp for decades for both our Home & Contents Insurance and our Vehicle Insurance.
When we bought our current Honda CR-V VTi-L some 6 years ago, we insured ir for the free lifetime replacement, and our annual premiums have always been way less than $700. The last one was $625.
I also checked a number of insurers and the only one cheaper than Suncorp was AAMI.
“Lucky You’re not with AAMI”.
What state and suburb do you live in?
Welcome to the community @sega58
I moved your post into this topic about car insurance. You might find you are not alone in wondering about how premiums are set. There are many brands for insurance, but only a few underwriters and those underwriters have clever algorithms to try to get the highest amount they can while not losing the business to a competitor underwriter.
Suncorp underwrites AAMI, Apia, Shannons, InsureMyRide, Vero, Terri Scheer, Bingle, CIL and Tyndall insurance brands. The quote pages for them will all look familiar; as will the quote pages for the brands underwritten by each other underwriter.
As you learned it is worthwhile to do a survey of the market every year rather than believing loyalty delivers anything but a lazy tax atop your premium.
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The strange thing is when I got a quote from other Insurers in the Suncorp Group they didn’t discriminate against us and their quotes were the same regardless of our address.
Southside 4570
Consider the marketing aspect. If you ‘stay put’ and do not shop they get top dollar, but if you are getting quotes from their other brands they know you are shopping, so their own competitive brands ‘rise to the occasion’ and offer reasonable or at least understandable quotes to try keeping your business in Suncorp. Not strange, just data-behavioural driven marketing execution.
Welll they have all missed out.
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My tips on car insurance NSW. First, look out for over priced CTP green slip renewals from NRMA. At over $500 it is a rip off. You can easily save $200 using the NSW Government website https://www.greenslips.nsw.gov.au.
Comprehensive insurance, always compare but call your insurer before switching as they may offer a better price. Remember too, if you have all your insurance with one company you have more bargaining power as they want to keep your business.
Free rental car, look out for the dodgy YOUI tv ad where you need to know the fine print. This only apples if the other driver is at fault and they are insured. So all insurers will provide that.
So what if you have paid for a replacement car while yours is being repaired. First check if there are any limits. Most insurers will happily give you a car for 14 days but what if your car will be off the road for weeks or months. Will the car be “free”? Not necessarily, insurers usually have a contract with the likes of Hertz or Avis but if you live in a regional area the preferred renter could be hundreds of kilometers away. You may have to use the nearest rental agent and pay for the rent then claim the amount back when you car is repaired, which could cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Plus you still have to pay the repairer the your excess…
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Hi, just received my annual invoice for my car insurance from the NRMA and noticed that although the value of my car has gone down $1,000 over the previous 12 month period, my insurance has gone up by $65.00 ! is this right ? regards John
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The usual claim by the insurers is that as vehicles become older, replacement parts become more expensive so repairs are therefore more expensive…
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Hard to say without any comparison. I suggest you shop around a bit on line or by phone and see what others offer. Beware the lazy tax!
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Hi again @JBal
I have moved your topic into this existing one. There have been some examples of this practice among a few of the insurers. Some call it the Lazy Tax ie the insurers up the policy prices while lowering the covered value. Often shopping around can earn you some saving or even contacting the Insurer and asking for a discount.
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A article regarding the disgraceful treatment of a SA woman.
Who would have thought that Berkshire Hathaway would be such a disgusting bunch of bottom-feeding grubs?
Reinforcing there is no loyalty bonus for staying with an insurer but there is a lazy tax, APIA’s last year’s $850 premium was the sharpest reputable quote, but the renewal invoice came in at $951. APIA’s Online quote for a new policy with the same everything is $813.
A shopping I shall go. Quotes so far range from $600 to $1750 for as close to the same policy as possible. I look forward to this game twice every year (2 cars), not.
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APIA is the worst company for that kind of crap. They lost me after only 3 years because they played fast and loose with premiums… over 50 and not wrkng full time? Find someone else.
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I noticed that my new AAMI policy doesn’t adhere to the ‘Rating 1’ discount nomenclature although it was only $598 for a very similar policy to APIA’s.
They seem to be responding to more drivers having awakened to the lazy tax of blindly accepting renewals, and when policies are fairly equivalent in cover and perceived service the low price wins.
The new ‘rewards’ (aka lazy tax program) is longer and returns less than in previous experiences, albeit with more ‘arm waving’ to make the customer feel special, reinforcing the only things that matter are policy details, the service provided, and the annual price.
AAMI is another company I wont touch with a ten foot bargepole. I took out insurance on a brand new car wth them. I got rear ended some 3 months later and when it came time for the repairs to be done, they insisted on second hand parts, which might have been OK except the car model was new and there werent any bumpers in the correct colour, so I had a light coloured bumper on the front and a dark one on the back, which was from an older model. I refused to accept it of course, and insisted on a new bumper. The repairer (who I had been to in the past and who did a good job which was non insurance) never recouped the cost of replacement from AAMI. He stopped accepting jobs which were AAMI covered, after that. It was 30 years ago, so they may have improved, but that was enough to put me off for life.
AAMI’s website claims that they have almost 5,000 customer reviews with an overall rating of 4.6 stars but I cannot find how to access them.
https://www.aami.com.au/car-insurance/car-reviews.html
Product Review shows a vastly different story.
Whilst Suncorp is the premium brand in the Suncorp group, AAMI is at the other end of the horse.
My partner was rear ended 15 years ago in a 2 week old new SUV while we had an AAMI policy. AAMI was impeccable end to end. However over the past 30 years and even 15 AAMI has morphed a few times and while I too hold long term concerns and even grudges against one company or another, most reviews of car insurance claims are ‘all over the place’ with some being delighted and many being beside themselves in frustration or anger. I reckon its a lotto. As long as the underwriter is not Hollard I am willing to give most a chance.
Why not Hollard? There is a consistent and troubling trend on so may reviews of their claims and complaints handling across the policies/branding they sell with the only consistent upside being they are usually cheap and it is easy to buy. I like cheap and easy, but I also want at least a punters chance if I need to claim so I assess the odds.
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