Opinions on NRMA car insurance

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NRMA Insurance

• 

  loulou1 on 06/10/2015 - 18:28

  I am with NRMA for car, house and contents. I have had a few claims on car (not all my fault ha ha) and one on home contents. Have ffound them great to deal with. Have been with them for as long as I have had insurance (I am an oz-bargainer though and do shop around on renewal but due to experience and my no claim discounts, multi policy discounts, years of insurance discounts, I always end up staying with them).
  I have heard that you shouldn't just renew each year as the first year is cheap then the next year not so much. I guess that is because a lot of people will shop around initially and then are too lazy to check each year that it is still a good deal. Check what is covered is everything that you need, make sure it is comprehensive if that is what you are after and check the excess too. If you are in NSW I think they also still do a $10 discount on your roadside assistance if you have your third party with them on your registration.

  • 

    Partake0486 on 06/10/2015 - 18:34

    Thanks for your feedback.

    Just applied for the Coles insurance price beat w/ the NRMA quote and Coles are offering $278/yr w/ $800 excess; very tempting!

    • 

      loulou1 on 06/10/2015 - 18:42

      +3

      call NRMA back and advise what Coles is offering, you may get even cheaper. unlikely but possible. personally i would stick with NRMA even with a price difference as I know what to expect if I ever need to claim through them.

    • 

      RockyRaccoon on 06/10/2015 - 18:54

      You said you got an NRMA quote..

      $350/yr for comprehensive - I've had to double check to make sure I haven't made an error or something. The rest are in the $700 range and Coles want ~$500. I believe Coles will beat any quote by $100 in QLD currently (where I am)

      So if Coles are saying they will beat any quote by $100 then your quote should be $250 not $278

      Why the difference?

      • 

        Partake0486 on 06/10/2015 - 22:21

        Yeah someone posted on ozbargain $100 price beat from Coles in QLD. My offer was only $75..oh well.

      • 

        RockyRaccoon on 07/10/2015 - 07:16

        @djc3292: sounds like false advertising by Coles. Might be worth the $25 to ask them why

    • 

      Scorpiogirl on 08/10/2015 - 05:33

      Isn't that a high excess though?

• 

  OldBugger on 06/10/2015 - 18:36

  Just swapped my cars over to SGIO (NRMA) after receiving such low quotes by them. Substantially lower than other insurers. I was with Allianz.

  I did ring my well respected repairer to gather his thoughts on insurers. He said pick an insurer who allows you to choose a repairer. He then went on to say he has had least troubles with Allianz, RAC and SGIO.

  Also, the more items you have with them, the more you save. I purchased one car policy with them and minutes later applied for the next car. They gave me an extra $50 off for being an "existing member". My mate has his vehicles and house with SGIO. Claimed a few times and said he never had an issue.

  After all that, knowing it has an aussie call centre, I went with SGIO easily.

  After researching into Coles insurance, I didn't even bother with a quote from them.

• 

  Ace26 on 06/10/2015 - 19:08

  Never dealt with anyone other than NRMA. Had four claims on the car (1 was at fault rest weren't) dealing with their claims process is a breeze. They also offer multi policy discounts. NRMA mostly provided me with cheaper price

• 

  altomic on 06/10/2015 - 22:17

  I have comprehensive car insurance with progressive. had to get some hail damage sorted from that huge storm last year. very limited with repairers. either near the gabba or logan. I'm in north bris so a bit of a hassle. but they are cheap.

  I'd suggest getting an online quote from progressive, then going to coles and seeing if they will match and then go back to NRMA and say "I love you guys but can you match/beat this?"

  • 

    Partake0486 on 06/10/2015 - 22:22

    This sounds like a good plan. How about Budget Direct? Anyone have any feedback?

    • 

      altomic on 06/10/2015 - 22:26

      I was with Budget Direct 7 years ago -decent price from memory. but then progressive showed up and I then used them. and then NRMA had a price beat so I switched to them. but then they couldn't keep up that price so back to progressive.

      didn't make a claim with budget direct so can't comment on their service. had a no fault claim made with NRMA and they were pretty good.

      YMMV with insurance cost based on the car and where you live

      ever since they replaced the french girl and the dodgy old bloke with cartoon aliens…. Budget direct have lost their appeal.

• 

  Partake0486 on 06/10/2015 - 23:23

  one other question - are all these cheap premiums just for the first year and then they'll jack them up after that? in particular i'm leaning towards nrma and i'm wondering after the first year if it'll go up from $354, particularly since that's with a "$100 online discount".

  • 

    Geewhizz on 07/10/2015 - 06:55

    are all these cheap premiums just for the first year and then they'll jack them up after that?

    I think you get a $50 discount in the first year if you sign up online, but other than that, not drastically.

    We have home, contents and car insurances through them, and on ALL they were by far the cheapest. Any time we've needed to claim they have been fantastic to deal with.

• 

  Sam J on 07/10/2015 - 08:02

  Suncorp will surely be expensive coz they are not insurers. They are middlemen and get commission from insurance company with whom they have tie up.

  • 

    RockyRaccoon on 07/10/2015 - 10:16

    And what were you smoking last night? :)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suncorp_Group

• 

  [Deactivated] on 07/10/2015 - 11:03

  Two things.

  First, some places don't know how to use their quote software properly. i.e. You get a comprehensive quote - but if you get a green slip as well, the comp price usually gets a discount.

  Second, already said by someone above… I recently received NRMA renewal in the mail. Phoned up - as I do every year whoever I'm with - and it got it about $100 cheaper. I used to do the same thing with AAMI too. (Who were always cheaper than NRMA for years, but no longer are.)

  So if you don't phone/check/ask, they all 'cheat' you for laziness every time.

• 

  Blue Suby on 07/10/2015 - 12:43

  I had a bad experience a few years ago with NRMA. I was stopped at a red light and the guy in front decided he wasn't going to go around the corner after all and slammed into reverse and hit me. He then took off but I got the numberplate and reported it to police. After talking to NRMA I had the car fixed and paid the $500 excess and was told that i would get this back when the police got details. Long story short there was a change of police and then another went on holiday or couldn't find the driver. After 6 months of chasing it down I was told the time for doing anything had expired. Went back to NRMA and asked for my excess back and was told "Lucky you had insurance or it would have cost a few thousand dollars" I had followed all the instructions given to me by NRMA in order to recover the costs. This was my first and only claim for several years of being with them. I now go with AAMI as they were cheaper for my car.
  Problem is also that when you get a quote from a panel beater they seem to have 2 quotes-one if you are going through insurance or paying cost yourself. (Guess which one is quite a lot cheaper?)

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 08/10/2015 - 13:23

    I know it stinks, but I'm not sure you can lay blame at the NRMA's feet. First, police should've helped. And if they didn't you probably could've taken some kind of legal action to subpoena footage. But, what would that have co$t - maybe more than $500 anyway!?

    The problem is, most accidents are someone running into the front of - or up the back of - someone else. The vast majority are not due to reversing into someone. So in your situation, it can look like you hit the other car, until you prove otherwise. In fact, think yourself lucky the other guy didn't try that exact thing on, because…

    I was in a private carpark, in a work car. A woman had four kids jumping around inside her car - drinks and food in hand - without seatbelts on - yelling at them - stereo on - while she was reversing. I was parked. She only looked in one direction first, reversed out the wrong way compared to incoming traffic, hit me and made dent about the size of a 50 cent piece with the corner of her bumper. It was at slow speed, so it did nothing to her car - maybe a light scuff on the rubber bumper. She apologised profusely, admitted the kids had distracted her, admitted her car had dents all over it from similar accidents, didn't know how she was going to afford repairs to mine… I calmed her down, said it wasn't my car, the boss probably won't even bother about it, but we'd have to swap details just in case.

    Also, I'd just dropped off a guy that knew the boss - and he'd seen it happen. He yelled out to me, to tell the boss to contact him if there were any problems. The boss hit the roof. Then did nothing about it.

    About three months later - after I'd left the job - I get a letter of demand for a long list of unrelated and expensive repairs to her car from a lawyer!? Wrote a letter back. Told her lawyer basically what I've said above… Private car park, business car, take it up with the business - but given the above, inc. her admissions at the time, and the witness, I don't like her chances. I also mentioned having consoled her, that the boss hadn't sought damages from HER, that she had been worried about the cost to her, had been released from that responsibility - yet was now doing the dirty on me - and it was very a low act.

    She'd probably had another accident and tried to get me to pay for her repairs. Never heard anything again. So the lawyer probably told her to pull her head in.

    What I'm saying is, yes it's wrong. Yes it stinks for you. But you had to pursue the matter. In the NRMA's eyes it didn't matter did you try - what did matter was, did you succeed. It's not your fault you couldn't give them what they asked for. But I'm not sure it's the NRMA's fault either, that you couldn't.

• 

  Partake0486 on 09/10/2015 - 10:59

  +1

  I ended up going with NRMA - $349 w/ $800 excess. They confirmed on the phone that's with a $100 online discount that applies once so I'll shop around again in a year's time.

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  ndagudbargain on 06/11/2015 - 00:00

  Currently going through a complaint procedure with NRMA. In brief, my car was "accidently" spray painted by painters while carrying out works on an apartment building I live in. Although the owner of the company apologised, he sent out his painters at 5am to attempt to "remove" paint from my car using kitchen scourers. This caused secondary damage in the form of scratches to most surfaces on my car. After some phone battles, NRMA confirmed my "not-at-fault" status and cleared the car to be repaired w/out paying $800 excess. I was told the car would need to be repainted and trims/decal (?) Replaced. I left it at NRMA approved/authorised repairers for 2 weeks. Came to collect it only to find out it was cleaned with a clay bar. Independent quotes ranging from $5000-$9000+ were fixed for $1500+.
  I refused to collect the car and was assured that if after further detailing the scratches were still on my paintwork, it would be repainted. Waited an extra week. Came to collect. Car was super clean, scratches remained. Nrma assessor having never previously inspected my car, concluded the car was good to go.
  The whole experience (still ungoing) has left me in a state of shock and a very bad opinion of my comprehensive car insurance provider. Makes me question whose side are they on? The at fault party is with a different insurer.
  I guess all insurance companies are great, until it's time to make a claim…