If you read a few posts about insurance and especially car insurance, there is no ‘credit’ or recognition for being a long standing no or low claiming customer.
On balance they put a ‘lazy tax’ on renewals by not offering their best deals on renewals. Loyalty counts for zero, and each year is a policy experience unto itself. All the ‘perks’ they add for ‘free’ at renewal time are marketing driven and usually at the expense of higher premiums.
It was not always like this, at least to the extent it seems to be in these times. It pays to shop for insurance every year and go with the lowest cost policy that provides what you need, with the best claims satisfaction reports.
Many online reviews are about purchasing experiences. They are usually irrelevant regarding what happens with a claim unless they are about claims experiences.
The Choice insurance reviews are good starting places, but many of us have different experiences, at least on our individual premiums so it requires research and shopping around and careful reading of the PDS’s as well as online reviews that as I indicated often are irrelevant, and mostly anecdotal. Also, unhappy customers are more likely to review a claims experience than a happy one so keep that in mind that some forums will be skewed. Also search the Community for insurance topics, many that will have links to good resources.
In 2012, we had a collission with a kangaroo near Clermont after it ran across the highway then tried to double back, followed by a woman reversing into the back of our vehicle in a carpark in Mudgee.
I had to pay the $500 excess for both to get our vehicle repaired in Mudgee but I later queried both with Suncorp.
One person agreed that the carpark accident was not our fault and I had supplied the details of the other driver so Suncorp refunded the excess.
I called again and asked how a kangaroo running onto a highway could be my fault and another person agreed and refunded the excess.
We have a top of the line MY2015 Honda CR-V and we had to wait around 2 months for an under warranty replacement aircon evaporator as there was no stock in Australia,
Just great having no aircon in FNQ in the middle of summer.
Agreed, Suncorp are a far superior establishment to insure with. Have had most of my insurance on and off over the years with them. At one stage I went into an RACQ (NRMA) office in QLD to insure my car, was that livid by their attitude, I jumped into my Torana and dropped a filthy burnout in their carpark. I then sedately rolled across the road and pleasantly took out a cover with Suncorp, easy.
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to let you know how my story ended. Firstly I did eventually make a complaint to AFCA about NRMA’s treatment of me and disgraceful non- handling of my complaint. The complaint to AFCA apparently went into the same black hole that all the other correspondence had gone into and NRMA even failed to respond to AFCA within the required time frame. Presumably AFCA followed up and I got action. A customer relations person in Australia (hurrah!!!) rang me and we started resolving the issues. NRMA apologised profusely and often. They agreed that I was the not at fault driver and immediately provided me with a hire car which I have kept until today. This was all confirmed in writing (at last).
I was reimbursed for some of the expenses that I had incurred. I was given the name and number of a very helpful person who was always there when I called. I never again had to speak to someone in a call centre in the Philippines. NRMA acknowledged that my case had been handled extremely badly and that this was “not normally how we operate and we are ourselves disappointed by what happened”. it was a huge relief to have the use of a hire car for an extended period. However, the wait for the missing part for my late model Honda CRV continued. Today, almost 5 months to the day after my accident (1 April) my repaired car was returned to me, the missing part having been received in Canberra on 27 August.
I am most appreciative of the advice and moral support that I received from the Choice Community.
Thank you so much for closing the loop, and letting us know that the system can work. Yet the apologies from NRMA Insurance would not have been necessary if they ‘walked their talk’ in the first place.
