Quote Originally Posted by bazzaboy View Post
Unfortunately, many people get into the habit of just renewing their policies every year without checking other company's prices. I too was guilty of it for a while. In my opinion there is no such thing as company loyalty, they don't care about you, only your money. It was different many years ago when there wasn't as many companies offering car insurance. That is the nature of the business now. We now have phone companies and supermarkets selling insurance in a limited market. There is only a certain amount of people in Australia buying car, property, or life insurance, that's why many insurance companies, specially the big ones, are now relocating their main offices or new start subsidiary offices in the Asian countries where there are many more people, opportunities, and money. I also predict that within the next few years, many insurance policies will only be available on-line as this minimizes their costs.

Knowing all this , you need to look and all the available options in Australia and overseas. Last year I was insured by Barkleys in the UK, via an Australian broker. I took their agreed value policy with a agreed higher excess. This suited me and was the cheapest policy I'd had in years. It cost me about $650 per year with a $2,000 excess for $55,000. I have never had a claim that was my fault and had to pay the excess.
This may not suit you but you need to make the time to check all options. I find brokers are good value as they work for you and get paid by the company they sell you on.
All this can be time consuming but you can save hundreds of dollars if you look.

Now it's my turn to do the same ..... my insurance is coming due soon.
G'day Bazza,

I completely respect your views here and appreciate you calling them out.

A few things that i will call out from my own experience working with mainstream, but also with enthusiast insurance brands over my short 20 or so years.


Many people truly don't understand what they are or not covered for. Now i'm not disputing the fact that reading through these documents is about as exciting as watching paint dry (and i've done that for a crust in my time too!), but i believe that the market, including insurance providers, aggregators and finally customers have created a focus so intent on driving down price that this becomes the sole criteria when shopping. You've expressed this in the first line of your response, so for you, price is the most important factor and this is absolutely fine.

Many people have a view of insurers and their intent to always minimise costs but i wonder how many times a claim has been refused and it's actually as a result of the policyholder not adequately understanding their coverage and their responsibilities when taking a policy out. Things like the duty of disclosure (the spiel you'll hear or read before every insurance quote) call out these responsibilities. When you're so focused on getting the price to move to the next insurer, how could you expect to actually absorb that sort of information, or read that question in the quote appropriately? I'm a customer too and i will say, you wont! You will dash through, it write down the premium and make the next call.

As enthusiasts, looking for enthusiast cover, the process of understanding what you're covered for is all the more important. Combine that with a brand new player like us, where the coverage cannot be replicated elsewhere, your need to fully understand is compounded again.

My message here is that yes, price is important. But, there should always be a balance where you understand the coverage as well.