Car Insurance - Write off - payouts - Ever been in an argument with insurer?

[LanceC]

Pays to shop around pretty much every year. Often a great deal of variation without much reason that I can see.

There does seem to be a tendency for the companies to gradually jack up the premium each year and you have to jump ship to another company. Does have implications for loyalty bonuses sometimes but often worth it

I've come to regard the whole loyalty bonus thing as a marketing exercise, with no relation to discounted insurance. We generally use two insurance companies as they have been a pleasure to deal with when we've needed them. In both cases though, after many years of renewals I realised that by simply signing up for a new policy each year rather than renewing, I received a significant discount. I even tried calling once to see if they would match the "new" policy price for the renewal... but no dice. So I let the old one lapse and bought the new one.

[Lappa]

That’s similar to my PC virus protection software. I’ve been with them for years but it’s about 1/3rd cheaper to buy a new install every year rather than pay their renewal fee. I asked them once and the answer was basically ‘thats the way it is”?

[elanjacobs]

Make sure you're sitting down for a Shannon's quote, they wanted over $3k to insure my S2000 for $23k (which is still way under current market price). Currently paying $1800 with QBE; still stupid expensive, but rare performance car with expensive spare parts and basically zero shared components will do that...

[Beardy]

Make sure you're sitting down for a Shannon's quote, they wanted over $3k to insure my S2000 for $23k (which is still way under current market price). Currently paying $1800 with QBE; still stupid expensive, but rare performance car with expensive spare parts and basically zero shared components will do that...

I have some cars with Shannons and are cheaper than the rest but on other cars they were more expensive so it pays to shop around

[elanjacobs]

If you choose to insure your car for market value, we’ll determine the market value of your car right before the claimed incident. We use recognised industry guides to do this, and consider things like its make, model, age, kilometres travelled, accessories and modifications fitted as well as its general condition.

What they conveniently DON'T mention, is that if your car has been previously written off and repaired, it automatically knocks some 40% off their assessed market value. That screwed me to the value of $10k in repairs after an accident.

[woodPixel]

Its all fresh and new. Ive owned it since birth. I know every scratch and dink.

I think Elan that you are right. The terms they use are so nebulous as to be worthless. "Market Value" is clearly the lowest number that they can get away with.

QBE do ask about prior prangs and whatnot. They are a good insurer and Ive no cause for complaint, BUT I don't wish to tempt the fates and get into a battle with them.

A bit of certainty would be nice.

Given that (Id wager) everyone here has "market value" insurance.... this mustn't sit very comfortably with them. All other insurances are specified, but curiously cars are not.

Its odd that I've not really given it too much thought until now..... I think its because (my beastie type) are getting are getting rare.


I thought to restate my objective in this thread:

--- First, is that the Market Value the insurance company claims it may be, can be drastically different to reality (i.e they give you $10k and the car sells for $55k on gumtree)
--- Second, has anyone ever had a battle with an insurer over them being stiffed on a payout (I assume a lawyer is hired and some stern letters are exchanged).

[elanjacobs]

When I spoke to the assessor, he said that, when determining market value, they do actually check the current market and factor that in to what "the book" says, but his hands were tied because of the write-off so he was only allowed to value it at $12k, even though I could sell it for more than double that tomorrow. With a clean title it would have been low-to-mid 20s, which is at least reasonable.

[Beardy]

I recently had a claim on my Polaris ATV which was insured for market value and they decided to write it off
I managed to get an extra 15% over what they were going to pay by getting my own valuation done with a dealer
I was happy with the outcome and thought it was fair and reasonable. Got the payout within days and have ordered a replacement which will be ready at the end of this month

[Warb]

Just to add another wrinkle, I've seen insurance policies where the small print states that if the declared value is significantly different to the market value, not only will they NOT pay the market value, but they will actually reduce the payout below the declared value by a portion of the amount for which it was under insured. So if it's insured for $10K and market value is $20K they'll actually pay less than $10K because it was under insured. I've seen this on both car and property policies, and it's done to prevent people getting low cost insurance on a high risk item by undervaluing the item in question (it also covers people over insuring items, aka fraud). It's a clause that can catch you out even if you are 100% correct with the valuation but the market suddenly changes radically......

My own experience, in all except one case, is that insurance companies are not your friend but are "reasonable" if you are reasonable. If you have heaps of undeclared modifications, or if the vehicle is illegal (modified but not engineered, for example) things get tricky if the claim is big enough that they send out an assessor. The one case where there was a problem involved an insurance company (not in Australia) who stated that "in their experience people of that age do not have audio systems of that value in their cars". They did not care that the declared value included an allowance for the stereo, they would not accept receipts as proof, nor the fact that the partner of the young woman in question owned a hifi shop (domestic, not car), and only changed their mind when the father of the claimant went to his broker (in those days there were insurance brokers with offices!) and stated that his daughter DID have that audio system in her car, and furthermore he would move all his business policies to another company if they didn't pay up.....

On the other hand I have seen a couple of people struggle with insurance (and the police) after accidents in vehicles with oversized tyres, massive suspension lifts etc.

In one case an older gentleman landed his car upside down in a tree outside my farm, and the police gave him a speeding ticket because, as the attending officer told me, "whatever he did to get to that point was wrong, and that has to be made clear to him". As the car had taken out my farm sign, gatepost and tree on its way through, I felt it was fair, but presumably it was reported in the incident report for his insurance claim..... I don't know what happens if you are at fault but were drunk or speeding etc.. Does it affect your claim?

[AlexS]

I don't know what happens if you are at fault but were drunk or speeding etc.. Does it affect your claim?

I don't know about speeding, but being drunk certainly will - have a look at the fine print on your policy.
I understand that if you are over the limit and damage someone else's property, the insurers will pay them, but chase you for the money. Open to correction.

[rustynail]

A fellow footballer went into insurance broking not long after we had both come to our senses and ventured into sensible jobs. We were both car nuts as young fellas and were always looking for the best deal. That was nearly 50 years ago. I still use his Company today to suss out the better deals. Not always the cheapest policy but best value for money. The cost for his services is much less than the savings so I continue to indulge the little bugger despite his swollen head.