Cars & Motorbikes Comprehensive car insurance

Discussion in 'Living Room' started by Simon Hampel, 1st Mar, 2018.

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  1. hobartchic

    hobartchic Well-Known Member

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    I've found car insurance incredibly worth while. I also like knowing I have coverage if I hit a commercial building with my car.
     
  2. hobartchic

    hobartchic Well-Known Member

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    Oh, and insurer's legal department is invaluable in the event of an accident.
     
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  3. val

    val Well-Known Member

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    Is it really that close? I just paid my 3rd party and it was only $186. I don't think comprehensive is worth it unless the car's worth $40k+
     
  4. Blueskies

    Blueskies Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely, need to have third party property. It is the comprehensive to cover your own vehicle damage where I challenge the value.
     
  5. hobartchic

    hobartchic Well-Known Member

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    Believe me, a split second can make it worth every dollar even if you are good driver.
     
  6. hobartchic

    hobartchic Well-Known Member

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    It does not take much to write a car off, or find you've done 5k damage.
     
  7. Blueskies

    Blueskies Well-Known Member

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    A split second still does not make spending $1 to on a probability to save 70c a good investment. About as good as putting it in the pokies. Insurance is a trillion $ global business, and just like a casino, on average the house always wins. To make it worse you have a heap of finance industry types incentivised with comissions to sell you insurance for every possible scenario you may encounter.

    As I said, for things that would cripple you financially insurance is a good hedge, but for everything else just invest the money yourself and you most likely will come out ahead.

    Loss aversion - Wikipedia
     
  8. bunkai

    bunkai Well-Known Member

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    On average across their their entire reinsured portfolio. Not on average against Joe average individually!
     
  9. hobartchic

    hobartchic Well-Known Member

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    Well, the thing about insurance is that you never want to make a claim. So if all that happens to you is generally good events then I guess it feels like a waste. Naturally insurers' look at the probability of events and insure accordingly.

    I note that some larger Australian insurers for example has been struggling due to the cost of paying out from fires and floods recently and I imagine that insurance will be harder for people to procure in those areas where the probability is higher. The Australian insurance industry has been advocating for better standards of housing to reduce their long-term losses. Better standards will probably see insurer knock back payouts on older, poorly constructed, ill maintained buildings.

    I am sure that the insurance industry wishes their returns were comparable to a casino.
     
  10. Dmarkw

    Dmarkw Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely, my premium over doubled when I moved from inner Brisbane to inner Sydney post code - all other parameters identical. Difference in neighbouring suburbs in Sydney has been over $200.
     
  11. Morgs

    Morgs Well-Known Member Business Member

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    Years ago I had a BMW that was a few years old and I was plodding along on my way to work in the early morning in a quiet residential area with a 50km/h speed limit. A Camry came racing at speed, straight through a stop sign and into my car.

    Fortunately I was not injured (side lesson for me was to never compromise on safety.. a safe car is the ultimate insurance policy!) and nor were any of the occupants of the Camry. The damage was extensive though, my car was a complete write-off and presumably so was theirs.

    The clincher though was that the other driver was a completely uninsured international student, not even 3rd party property.

    Again fortunately for me, I had a comprehensive policy and with one phone call they took on the responsibility of chasing this other driver for the damage and I'd received a cheque within a week. I've never underestimated the value of comprehensive insurance since that incident. If I had to chase the individual for the write off costs I wouldn't know where to start and that process may still be going years later!
     
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  12. jprops

    jprops Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely... if you have a BMW. The cost to replace may be worth the comprehensive insurance.

    Im not much of a car fan myself, happy to drive a car thats under 15k. In this case comprehensive makes much less sense (at least for my circumstance).

    Only insure what you cant afford to lose.