Great articles, thank you - this came out before I joined Choice, so too late for me to sign, but useful information. I have been seeing changes reported more recently, but nothing about the effect of this on premiums… I think a lot of people are going to be in for a nasty surprise when renewal time comes around.
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It appears you may be able to apply for Suncorp cover as the Insurer is AAI Ltd a wholly owned subsiduary of Suncorp (AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807 AFSL No. 230859 trading as Suncorp Insurance). You could try their online quote system. I used a Melbourne postcode and address to start the process and it did not decline the address even though it is out of Qld.
https://online.suncorp.com.au/home/pub/sunquote?execution=e1s1
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Yes, when you’re running your own business (I am too), time has to be rationed - so brokers and other service providers can help you manage. But I am starting to think I will have to go back to doing it myself.
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Thank you - I’ll check that out!
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If you proceed with this quote, check who manages claims. Our own broker indicated that this is outsourced with Blue Zebra to separate it from Youi claims processes. Youi directly assessing claims, is reported within the industry, can be a bit hesitant/tardy in accessing and paying claims.
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Thank you - That’s the kind of advice I would have expected to get from my broker but sadly, no.
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It is important to have a broker you can trust and also look after your interests.
Blue Zebra underwrote our property last year (their reinsurer was Zurich, but was sold to Youi mid 2020). This year our broker got an initial quote from Blue Zebra but was hesitant to recommend them until they found out that they outsource claim assessments, independently of Youi. The claims outsourcing business is well recognised an used by some other underwriters which gave them the confidence to then recommend.
Edit: We ended up changing the type of cover and due to risks, Blue Zebra were unwilling to provide a quote. We ended up with QBE as the underwriter and while our premium increased significantly, it is hard to compare with last year as it isn’t like for like.
The broker we use is excellent and have used on and off for about 10 years. We have a good relationship and she spends time explaining everything in detail and ensuring the coverage fully meets our needs.
Even moving to Tassie, our Brisbane based broker has followed us which was a relief.
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My 91 year old mother recently had to get QBE to repair the roof of her shed. A big gum tree branch had been dropped during a storm resulting in damage which QBE, her insurer, agreed to repair. However they told her that the excess on her policy was $700 and she duly paid up and they repaired the roof. Just before she closed the case she checked her policy to find out that the excess was only $500 and demanded that they repay her the $200. They agreed that is was a mistake and told her they would refund the money. My question is, how can QBE have made such a mistake? Does this happen regularly? are they just trying it on an old lady? I would have thought that QBE was a reputable insurance company and not some fly-by-night organisation that tries to get this extra money by this type of fraud.
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Only QBE could give you an authoritative answer, but it probably results from shonky internal systems. If the most common excess was $700 on their policies a disinterested staff could quote it without looking.
Insurance companies are among the most vilified when claims are made with an unsatisfactory outcome from the consumers point of view, and anecdotal reviews need to be read for what they are or are not. Reputable can mean different things to different people in spite of a dictionary definition being available.
How do they operate is a good question. Many reviews on the net are about costs/increases not claims, making the reviews irrelevant regarding quality of cover or service. Some sites claiming to post reviews are laughable such as feefos dominant 5-stars where the reviews seem jokes as far as reviewing insurance or even the companies, so I’ll omit a link to them and show some sites that might be informative. Again, each review is anecdotal and must be considered in its own context.
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Thanks all for your replies. OK. I’ll put it down to disinterested staff and give them the benefit of the doubt. However, disinterested staff in a company is still bad and I think the high paid managers should take a look at the company they are managing.
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