house and car insurance comparisons

Every year i get huge car insurance and hosue and contents bills for very modest cars and house and contents and i'd like to see how to compare or bring price down as usually i find it too ahrd to answer the above and i get scared and pay too much then. id like any good advice or hints please.
thank you
1 would you go with companies such as real insurance and woolies for car or house and contents insurance

2 for a modest 3-5 b edroom house with lounge dining room how much would you insure contents. 25000-60000 we dont have anything fancy at all and kids really have all left home though there are alot of toys fr grandkids. it seems premium doesnt come down much either way for some companies

3 how do you compare house and contents insurance eg aami promise full replacement not looking at value is that a good deal. how would i know value to rebuild a 4-5 bedroom double brick house approx .

4 how do you compare car insurance
eg some give market value or some agreed value at the moment they dont seem very different
excess
if they let you choose repairer
if them or their repairer give a replacement car

 

Don't forget to factor in multi policy discounts into your decisions making process, it can sometimes change who the cheapest is.

 

Policies are cheaper for newer cars, as they age they can exceed 10% of the value of the car and you still won't have enough to buy a similar car of the same vintage.

 

A major consideration for me is:

How good is the insurance company’s payment history regarding claims?​

 

so would you use woollies or real insurance for house insurance or budget direct for car insurance.
i do tend to like to know that either the insurance or the repairer give courtesy cars as makes like so much easier.
and if the repairer is very local its also so convenient.
i used to pay more to go with companies who let you choose your repairer for that reason.

how would you work out building or contents replacement cost please.

 

Woolworths Home and Contents Insurance Reviews

Real Home & Contents Insurance Reviews

that shou ld answer my question to not use woollies or real insurance for house and contents insurance.

what companies have people been happy with as aami only replace one room of floor and not the matching adjoining floors so nothing matches. is that standard practice in big companies

 

Everything with me is through NRMA.

I moved to them because they were cheaper than AAMI when I bought a turbo subaru back in 2010.

The claims process for both AAMI and NRMA is brilliant but the NRMA one is the better of the two with the first question being "Are you okay" which it thought was just a nice touch.

The guy who ran into the back of me claimed it was my fault (which it wasn't) and NRMA couldn't dispute it so they paid for both his and my car to be fixed (which annoyed the hell out of me but anyway) and there was no impact to me or my no claim.

This was only 2 weeks after I got it back from a paint repair also covered by NRMA, they never once questioned anything they just made it really easy for me, I pay extra for a hire car option so that was all organised for me and they ordered a cab for me to pick me up from where I was and take me to the hire car place.

I never called a cab, the hire car company or the repair company, NRMA sorted it all out for me and just kept me updated.

With regards to home insurance, we had a leak. NRMA sent someone out straight away to dry the walls and assess the damage (There was none). Turned out to be a house defect (which later turned out to be a blocked drain) so wasn't covered but they didn't charge me for the work done so far, I just cancelled the claim and everyone moved on with their lives.

Once again the process was super simple and they were very understanding and helpful.

 

from what i'm reading it seems that the cheaper companies woollies real insurance budget direct,
make it very hard when making a claim and car repairers have said they refuse to do repairs from those insurers even if they are an authorised repairer as the companies wont pay them enough.

 

thanks for that. i didnt notice your cmpany when going on comparethemarket.com
i've stayed with big companies racv and aami becasue i've been scared to change but i pay so much when i could save so much every year and pay half, but paying half isnt useful if they wont be helpful in the situation where i might need to make a rare claim. in 30 years i've only made one claim on my house insurance. not many on car either but i like to know it will be easy if i did have to make a claim and what i'm reading online or hearing from smash repairers it doesnt sound like it would be easy at all.

 

NRMA are usually one of the most expensive but in my opinion it's worth it and the discounts stack up the longer you are with them and the more policies you have with them.

 

I know people who have used Real, Coles and Woolies insurance.. avoid them like the plague. I haven't heard a single good story about them.

I use Progressive for our cars. They were the cheapest by a longshot, and a good mate of mine has claimed through them a few times with no issues at all. They were even cheaper than Budget Direct by 40%. But.. they do put the premium up and agreed value down every year (though I experienced the same with NRMA).

 

It depends on the policy, most now will only pay market value, the insurance premium is calculated on that, A new $13,000 car can cost more than a second hand car you buy for 7k which is deemed by the guide they use, to have a market value of $13k. You would have rocks in your to pay more for insurance than the value of the car. It is amazing though the number of people who don't review and adjust the insured value , and renew the insurance at the same value the car had before it was driven out of the show room giving insurance companies a big bonus for nothing. Obviously Justine you are not reviewing and adjusting your insured value on your car or you premiums would be getting cheaper. Suncorp are one of the worst payers and will spend $20k in lawyers fees trying to avoid paying minor 2k claims that they have no hope of winning.

 

thank you for all that information. re car or house insurances prices and which will do the right thing in a claim.


for car insurance a few repairers told me they found these ones easy to deal with
cgu 96018222
bupa 131243
gio 131010
blue zebra
vero

my car insurance does put up premium yet lower cost every year
my house insurance does replacement value which is similar price to if building was valued at a500000

if i do various different contents it doesnt seem to make a big dent on the price eg 20000 difference in contents might bring price down $80 from a very expensive house and contents price when everything is pretty basic .

 

There are some nice little addons too, our house insurance includes fusion burnout (motors in aircon, pool pump etc) also includes a certain value of away from home so if we go out and drop a camera off the pier or something then it's covered.

Make sure you read through all the inclusions with a fine tooth comb.

 

Justine not all companies operate in every state of Australia. From you mentioning RACV that tells me you must be in Victoria. In that case NRMA Insurance is not available to you.

Compare The Market doesn't compare some of the big companies because they won't pay for the service. Last time I looked they weren't recommending/comparing AAMI either, or GIO.

Compare the Market used to be (maybe still is?) owned by BHL which owns Auto & General which owns Budget Direct.

It's a business not a service to you the consumer.

 

Not really! Comprehensive insurance covers you AND the other car / building / power pole you have an altercation with. You might only have a $3K car that costs that much to insure but what if you run into a Rolls Royce and it is your fault?

 

Choice magazine recently did comparisons for car and home insurance.

We changed our home insurance over to St George Bank (from RACQ) and our car insurance over to NAB (from NMRA), based on their comparisons and recommendations.

 

Did a comparison of our GIO with YOUI and the quote was 60% of what we pay. Then I noticed it was market value but GIO is agreed value. I did like for like comparison and YOUI almost doubled. Had me questioning what they think the market value is !!

NRMA has a way of dealing with occasional younger drivers I like. Dont have to be named but when they do they extra premium is negligible and with no claims bonus etc it slashes extra cost. Not naming them mean a hefty age and unnamed driver premium. No other insurer I have seen seems as generous