Just got Home and contents renewal from Coles Home Insurance for my home in southern Sydney.
Bottom line is it's gone from $799 to $2487 in one year. I've never made a claim and circumstances have not changed.
Here's the breakdown -
https://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/160676/104300/35367535…
Has anyone had similar experience? Anyone had any luck or advice shopping around?
Thanks in advance
CH
Did that cheapest now $2200😢
Request a review from them ( tell them you have finance hardship ).You may have chance !!!
What's the risk analysis reasoning for tripling the premium?
Obviously the THREAT has gone up to justify it right? RIGHT?
<to all of you who voted for this BS inflation, you are getting it>
The LNP delivered us this inflationary period. I assumed you voted for the ALP?
@serpserpserp: facepalm! Yes the LNP is also running the rest of the world. Some people live in a bubble
@serpserpserp: Ummm global low interest rated caused this inflationary period - it's just not possible to point the finger at policy makers. Rates are set by the FED and everyone else has to follow or our banks would not be able to operate in a global market.
@serpserpserp: There was a little event called covid 19. Our government, along with most other Western governments, responded with massive fiscal stimulus (as demanded by the electorate) to keep the economy afloat. That stimulus is still washing through the economy and we are now facing the consequences. Our government at the time was LNP. If it had been ALP, they'd have done the same, if not more so.
@R4: Tell me how Jerry Harvey and similar companies making mass profits from Job Keeper was a great idea. The Liberals weren't shy about using COVID-19 as a way to line their mates pockets.
@Yawhae: It wasn't a great idea but cast your mind back to early 2020. Covid was raging across the world and governments had to make quick choices to stop their economies going into meltdown. Mistakes were made, especially here in Australia and I particularly didn't agree with a lot of it but there it is. Some Jobkeeper payments were nonsense that's for sure but the ALP would have done exactly the same, if not more. We're now paying the price for those decisions.
Personally, I reckon a lot less should have been done. Not quite 'let it rip' but not the massive amount of state intervention that we had but the electorate wouldn't have tolerated that. It would have been harder at the time but we'd be in better shape now.
@R4: I agree with your statements but it's an absolute red herring to say ALP would have done the same or worse.
The fact is we don't and can't know exactly what they would have done, and what that outcome would have been.
Speculating on what never was is arguing in bad faith.
If we took the absolutely shit card the ALP was dealt during the GFC as a reference for Covid, the assumption would been that they would have performed better. Australia was in a very strong position during and after the GFC, but once again that argument is mute,
The LNP was dealt a shit card and I personally don't believe they acted in the interest of the Australian people. Especially considering they waived means testing for Job Keeper and Job Seeker. No business should have been allowed to keep taking payments once profits returned.
@Yawhae: Agree that we'll never know what the ALP would have done but I reckon that they'd have done something similar - in the GFC, the then ALP government kept up with stimulus long after it was known that Australia was doing okay and wasn't going to fall into recession. A total waste of taxpayer money, especially seeing how that money was used.
The problem at the beginning of covid was that governments, including ours, panicked and made up policy on the fly - never a good idea when huge sums of taxpayer dollars are at stake. Going into the GFC, Australia's finances were in pretty good shape when you compare us internationally (and they still are to a degree) and I reckon that they thought that they could afford a bit of fiscal largesse - which is now biting the current government. Morrison wasn't a very good PM, but neither is Albanese - good times, weak men. The curse of the Western world currently and unfortunately.
@R4: Well, it was all part of the plan. Agenda 2030, Event 201 for Covid, cost of living up, energy through the roof, etc, . It's been out in the open for many years
It's all so tiresome.
Could it be the number of claims made in the area by other persons/households due to crime? Might have to check police crime rates by suburb to see trends of crime rates.
Reference:
https://www.news.com.au/national/crime/the-five-most-dangero…
Who u with?
Mines due shortly, up about 30% on last year (Suncorp) but from the first few alternate quotes I've gotten still cheaper than what I could find elsewhere.
All thanks to our little buddies inflation/profiteering etc
All thanks to our little buddies
inflation/profiteering etc
LoL at the down voters
You can blame the last guy for so longer
It is like Chalmers saying LNP left the country with $1T debt leaving out ALP handed LNP $300bn of it and there was no JobKeeper
Given long enough the blame it on the last guy gets a bit tired
All I can say is all politicians are the same
@netjock: The same issues currently exist in plenty of other countries, and surprisingly they haven’t been magically solved there either!
Edit: blaming all of the countries problems on the government is also very tired.
@whatgift: How can country's problems be solved when individuals don't solve their own problems. You solve individual problems, you solve family problems, you solve country's problems.
Country is made up of individuals that make up families that make up countries.
Government is just a reflection of the people.
@netjock: Government doesn't directly control insurance companies just like they don't control the RBA. The more you know huh
@hasher22: Insurance fraud is conducted by individuals which increases the cost insurance for us all
@Yawhae: I might have gone in the booth and put a piece of paper in the ballot box. Who said I voted?
None of your business too.
Politicians are the same = they tell you what you want to hear but to those who they believe will vote them in
If you look at the historic records major economic shifts can be pointed to a few things (tax reforms in the late 1980s, work place reforms etc) and minerals boom which is actually not the doing of any government.
Yes, housing has boomed. Problem with the $300k house that is worth $1m now is. If you sell your house can you buy another one that is $300k that will turn into $1m in 20 years? Your neighbor's house was probably around the same price when you bought it and about the same price now. You are only richer than people who haven't got a house or live in suburbs that haven't had such explosive growth.
A simple slogan for simple people.
@smartazz104: Righto.
Back at ya.
I'll wait for Snake Chalmers to give his best impression of his idol when he delivers the slogan, 'This is the recession we had to have.'
Is that one simple enough too?
@garddn: Perhaps, but maybe too much for you. I picture you as more of a “stop the boats” kind of guy, or maybe “never, ever”. Or the LNP’s favourite, “NO”.
@smartazz104: Not really mate.
I'm more of a 'you don't give more free cash out in the form of welfare or increase minimum wages during periods of high inflation' type of guy.
@garddn: Definitely better if we give it to companies and banks instead :s.
People on minimum wage and welfare don't even have a say on housing interest rates as most of them are likely beholden to the landlord.
Love all the down votes from the dreamers!
My house insurance has also increased substantially.
It's basically not worth having house insurance now.
I'm trying to think through the pros and cons of self insuring the house.
After all, in metropolitan areas what is the likelihood of a house being completely destroyed?
And should there be need to claim for leaking roof, broken glass etc. , my calculations are that I can just pay for that with the money saved from not having insurance.
Thoughts?
You're basically insuring for the rare event that your house gets burned down in a fire. Unlikely but still possible so worth insuring imo.
Came to this conclusion after my recent premium rise and since I've never claimed anyway. Increased my excess from $750 to $5000, reducing the premium by 20% (AAMI).
There is a downside to such high excess, in case of a major claim I have heard of some insurance companies charging an excess for each category of the claim. The case I heard was of Westpac charging five excesses on landlord insurance policy for extensive damage by a renter. This was in Victoria. The owner was left with no choice but to fix the property themselves.
@spal: That would be 5 separate causes of damage/claim hence 5 excesses applied
Anyone who takes a high excess on a rental property is asking for trouble
This. Insurance is something you have but hope you never have to use
That, and most banks require insurance to protect their investment (your mortgage). If you are uninsured and you have a mortgage your bank will come after everything you own if it gets written off.
Has just happened to 2 people I know personally. Electric scooter on charge and the battery exploded and caught fire, burning down enough of the house so that it's uninhabitable.
One is insured, the other isn't.
The insured person is obviously fine but the other is couch-surfing with her kids while she awaits the legal process that may not even yield anything.
Fires happen a lot.
"cons of self insuring the house"
Do you have the money to buy another property in case of a full blown fire? You would probably need to pay for demo etc before even selling as land
.
Insurers should probably look into launching a fire damage only insurance product.
Wife: Oh no someone has broken in and spray painted all our walls.
Husband: Don't fear honney, we're insured - bring me some matches.
In Victoria fire insurance is out of fire service levy collected on the rates notice. Other major threats would be storm/floods and earthquake. Although, with earthquake I wonder if the insurer will get away with claiming an act of God event. Bottomline is that we don't have much option.
Do you think that the fire services levy acts as inurance against a fire?
The fire services levy helps fund the fire brigade/emergency services.
It is not insurance. The government will not pay to rebuild your house if it burns down
My house is of an age when knocking it down and building a new one is quite a reasonable option even if it didn't burn down. So I think self insuring would look good to me if I got that sort of a premium hike. Luckily has not happened yet in Perth.
I'm lucky enough to be in a financial position for that to look like a nice option though. Could be another matter if paying off a large mortgage.
Another consideration is your home insurance includes personal liability insurance. While it is rare you need it if you do it'll save you millions.
I always choose the highest excess possible and minimal contents.
Its more so public liability insurance.
I would still hold on to it. Play the insurance excess game; up tiddy up and your premium will reduce. Furthermore, you can just go building cover rather than contents. But I'm sure premiums are geared into reducing cover with minimal price differences.
A house near me was half destroyed by fire last year, and has later completely demolished. It is the only house fire I have ever seen in the suburbs in all of my life though. Even if your house is taken out by fire, you still have the most expensive part, the land.
Hi, Do you live in a Flood Zone or something weird?
No, and if I was, I would’ve been living in the previous years too so just doesn’t add up to me.
Building costs are up, thus replacement of the house costs more
There is probably an element of the insurer recouping payouts from floods etc too
Shop around.
My insurance premium went up substantially but when I shopped around, that was the going rate
I’ve shopped no better really unfortunately
Ive insured for the same amount so not sure how building costs can justify?
@Captain Hindsight: Flood maps get re-mapped and evaluated etc…. are you close to an area that has recently flooded.
Some insurers offer policies without flood cover, try a quote through one excluding flood cover and see what result you come up with.
For such a dramatic change there must have a been a fairly major change in a risk rating of fire or flood.
People post this (about building costs) but most insurance policies have a limit to how much is insured, so I'm not sure why this would affect the premium?
@altman: Yes, that's my point. That was already fixed in most insurance contracts, i.e. you insure your property for $500k or whatever. So the actual building costs are not that relevant to the premium.
$799 seems pretty cheap, mines been over $1k for years. $1800 this year with Woolies.
You can save money by going direct to the company that Woolies use to actually insure you. Think it's huddle insurance.
No love from Huddle
Thanks for taking the time to get a quote with us.
We aren't able to offer you cover today:As we can’t cover this address due to its location
Bad luck mate
wow mine is only $1,200, expires end of aug
Check if the bank you’re with offers H&C insurance.
thx comm bank the best so far $1730 for H&C but had to increase my excess to 5k from 3k.
Still almost 1k over last year, surely I can do better.
Check qantas home insurance
My home insurance went down last renewal, I had to check it a number of times because it was just unbelievable. Still don't know why, but I'm not about to call them and find out.
Mind to share which provider you're with ?
St George, underwritten by Allianz.
Switch buddy.
Mine went from $1900 to $2800 on renewal for CGU. Quoted RACV and it's $1600.
Mine went up 30% last November. Not looking forward to the renewal this year.
Eastern suburbs of Melbourne;
for 2022/2023, house and contents is $2,060.
For renewal with same insurer $2,800
AAMI $4,100
ANZ $6,500 (yes, $6.500) and that is after a so-called discount of $1,500
Did you quite for total replacement?
I'm with AAMI and the renewal came at 25% extra, I quoted with ANZ and it was like 3 times more.
Unfortunately, we're all paying for the years of lower premiums people in disaster areas have enjoyed because the insurers didn't price risk appropriately.
So now they have gone the other way and made insurance uneconomical in those ar as, so they need to gouge everywhere else to maintain and grow their profits.
I'm sympathetic, I live in a fire zone, but this is the result of insurers refusing to take the hit that they stuffed up. So they are hoping to slug everyone.
If there was s enough competition in the market, it will sort itself out, but all we can do is go to competitors or up the excess.
So we just need a new insurer to enter the market, who hasn't got that legacy payout on their books, and they will corner the market..
Almost. But all the insurers lay off some/most of their risk to reinsurers like Lloyds or Berkshire Hathaway or SwissRe.
There are only a handful of those huge reinsurers, and they will have the same issues backstopping the existing insurers, so not even a new entrant could avoid the history at this point.
It's how the premium works. It's there to make them money and gets raised to recoup previous losses.
They wouldn't last in insurance long if they hoped that would work. They need to make sure premiums collected today match claims today, otherwise customers will desert them after the cheap initial premium when they try and raise prices.
A bit like everything these days, the less impacted insurers are taking the opportunity to raise prices to match those who need to recover losses. Another market failure.
Mine jumped from about 800 to 1200.
Shopped around but all are more expensive except for 1.
It was only a small difference and I didn't think it worthwhile to change.
Just tried aus post came to $4500 ha.
Only useful thing I learned- Think I’m underinsured now, home $550,000, contents $45,000 for 2 storey 5br brick veneer.
I think so. My 1 storey 3br weatherboard 'n tile on stumps is insured for $500k suburban Melbourne.
I'd say you're over insured. Look at the approximate cost to re-build your home, even if it's brick veneer replacement, it won't be anywhere near $500k for 3br. You don't need to insure the land.
thats a massive increase…and some of your other quotes are crazy
RAA in SA is around $12-1300 for $500k house and $200k contents. $750 excess. Eastern Suburbs.
Mind you, we get policy discount for multiple policies and time served.
That's really good. I tried a quote from RAA for a 600k house and 80k contents in NE SA and RAA wanted $2k
Just got mine. My building insurance is Up 40%. So I shopped around with 5 other quotes and it is still the cheapest.
Mine went up considerably this year and I noticed they had increased the sum insured by about $300k. I rang them and asked WTF and they said the premium has increased due to increased risk of flood. I told them my house was on the top of a hill and then after a couple of minutes they came back with increased risk of bushfires as there is bushland a couple of blocks away. Honestly, these insurance companies are making it up as they go to support their socialised business practice. I.e. Had to pay out some people for floods last year so now everyone has to pay more in premiums to cover it.
I rang them and asked WTF and they said the premium has increased due to increased risk of flood. I told them my house was on the top of a hill and then after a couple of minutes they came back with increased risk of bushfires as there is bushland a couple of blocks away.
If there ain't any bushland nearby, it's gonna be weather forecast increased risk of lightning strikes fires being on top of hill.
Not sure which state you are based in. But, if they are claiming fire risk, just check if you are paying fire service levy/emergency services levy. If you are, then the insurance will not be covering these fire/flood risks because the government would cover that.
No it doesn't.
"socialising" risk is the whole point of insurance though. Your premium goes up when large numbers of houses get flooded/burnt down even if your own house is not at risk of this because the money all goes into a big pool to payout claims.
If fact much of it effectively goes into a REALLY big worldwide pool among the handful of multinational reinsurers that insiurance companies use to hedge their risk (ie in punter's parlance layoff their bets). So a large catastrophe in, say, Turkey can eventually lead to a price hike in insurance in Australia.
I'm not denying in any way that insurance companies are greedy bastards, but they always have been. That has not changed - hence their greed cannot explain the sharp rise in premiums. It is like blaming "greedy landlords" or "greedy developers" for the housing crisis - these have always been the same, so they cannot cause the change.
Well said.
Insurance is a crazy business - we repeatedly pay them more and more money for an agreement to help if something seriously goes wrong. You then do everything in your power to stop anything seriously bad happening and having to lodge a claim. Then if something seriously bad does happen, they do everything in their power to avoid having to pay out the claim. If they do have to pay it out then they punish you and everyone else by making everyone pay more each year. Hell, they will make everyone pay more each year just because .. floods, greed, bushfires, greed, inflation. I mean What The Actual F.
Doesn't fix the root cause but increasing your excess will help reduce the cost. I've got mine set at $5k for building and $2k (I think) for contents as I wouldn't consider claiming for anything less than that and that reduced my premium by a couple of hundred dollars a year.
That is ripped off.Quote other company and compare.