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
Last year my Home and Contents Insurance was $1201 with Coles Insurance, this year they wanted $1947. So I looked around.
iSelect were useless, they enticed me with a graph on their website saying that average premiums in WA were $724. So I spent 10 minutes typing in all my details, to receive three quotations of over $1900. But they did have one useful feature, they sent me off to another site to work out what the Rebuild Cost for the house would be, if it was a total loss. This site was very useful:
https://sumsure.cordell.com.au/#/products/7/profiles/116 (it may not work in the future as it is a paid service by iSelect, and you may have to go in through the iSelect site to access it.)
Australia Post (QBE) quoted $2381, they also asked detailed questions like is the property within 20 metres of bushland, between 20 and 100 metres, and over 100 metres. We are about 30 metres from bushland so this might have jacked the price up.
Fortunately, I found a useful comparison site (most “comparison sites” only offer two or three companies):
https://www.choice.com.au/compareproducts/money/insurance/ho…
The important part of this comparison site is that it compares cost for the insurance. Only crudely, between one and five $ symbols, but enough to differentiate between expensive and cheap companies.
I took a look at AAMI which was one of the “one $” companies. They gave me a quote of $1178.
After reducing the excess to match Coles, and adding Unspecified Portable Valuables up to $2000, the premium was $1,367. Bazinga.
Also those comparison sites only compare those that they get a commission from (and of course that commission is built in to your premium)
Choice doesn't get kickbacks - it is a nonprofit built on a subscription model and, unlike user review sites, are tough for any company to game. They can certainly be wrong (it happpens) but they are not biased.
I'm in Perth Metro and last year's Budget direct was just under $700, this year $15xx. Everywhere else was also expensive AF but weirdly AAMI came out to $1050 with a complete home replacement.
Anyone has any recommendations for home insurance with more hassle free claims? I claimed a travel insurance due to 7+ hours delay and the agent was basically trying to bend the wordings to reduce claims. Some of the rules he pulled out of thin air which were quickly rectified when I mentioned the points in their policy booklet. So dodgy… Now my building insurance is due for renewal I want to know which insurance company is more "trustworthy". Thanks a lot in advance.
I've only ever done 2 home insurance claims and they were both with AAMI, super easy. 1 was when my power went out for 18 hrs, I called them and gave them the estimate of the food in the fridge/freezers and the next day it was debited in my account, I didn't need to provide any receipts or photos, just the estimate.
Then we had a freak storm where something cracked my bathroom window and the patio roof ceiling panels detached, called them, sent an assessor out and it was approved, 0 hassles overall
Ah thanks, appreciate your feedback. May i know if that was under emergency assist or building insurance? Thanks
I've also had several claims with AAMI. They've been a pleasure to deal with. One was a substantial claim relating to a flood that required an assessor to visit the property. The visit was prompt, professional and clear communication throughout.
I believe you also get discounts if you have multiple insurances through them. I price check every year and they have been either the cheapest or so close its not worth the trouble of switching.
Pretty sure just building insurance
AAMI are quite good for Home and Content and premiums are competitive for my area.
I have made a claim.
I wouldn't use them for a valuable car as their repairers are rubbish.
That's interesting, could you share you travel insurer?
I've had my car insured with Coles for many years and never made a claim. Nothing has changed but this year a 40% increase in the premium. I contacted them and they said there's nothing they can do. After shopping around it seems it's still the cheapest.
Surely this isn't wage induced inflation?
Maybe wages in India call centres is up 40%
Just your run of the mill oligarchy price collusion
My car insurance is getting a bit ridiculous now.
2022 $402
2023 $647
2024 $1210
No claims and no changes to the policy.
Rising premium prices spark 5-year high insurance sector profit
https://kpmg.com/au/en/home/media/press-releases/2023/03/ris…
Also worth a read:
https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/business-law/why-are-insur…
Great conversation thanks everyone has already helped me get a better offer but still looking.
Got a feeling my last deal was good, but nothing I see justifies Coles 300% price jack.
Mine isn't till January, so it looks like I'll have to shop around then. thanks for the heads up!
Try Commonwealth Bank. I was suprised at how much cheaper they were for my insurance.
Make sure you double check your policy. It is white label of Hollards which I am not 100% sure people’s experience.
Thanks for the heads up.
Thanks for this thread OP it spurred me into action to look at our cover.
In Melbourne outer eastern suburbs (near but not in the Dandenongs bushfire overlay) our current insurer is Budget Direct for $990pa on a 500k (with overshoot protection) house and 70k contents. I've just saved myself almost $250pa by increasing building excess from 1k to 5k and contents from $500 to 1k.
So you will probably start to gently weep but thats now $750p/a home and contents.
When we bought here a few years ago I looked at some other houses that were in the bushfire overlay, but I ultimately rejected those because of ever increasing insurance costs. At that time a similar house nearby but inside the overlay were insuring for 3 times the price of this one. I shudder to think what their insurance is now.
OP what are you actually insured for? And up to what levels? If you are highly insured to a dollar amount they might have increased the premium because you now sit in a riskier payout bracket.
Also did you make any claims in the last year?
No as I mentioned no change to policy amount or circumstances
Yes but your policy amount might now fit in a riskier bracket
I guess it depends on how much you're prepared to pay for maximum peace of mind.
Worrying about trying to save a few dollars and predict the future is putting the cart before the horse. Peace of Mind starts right now.
Good luck and decide to be happy with whatever you choose to do.
My H+C has gone up between 30% and 50% each of the last THREE years, so it's now more than twice what it was (about $4300 now I think). No flood risk.
Each time I've checked the market and the existing company has remained the most competitive - so I've no options but to suck it up.
Definitely insuring against fire/total loss though. Can you imagine your house burning down and you're self insured - and you still have to pay the mortgage…
All of my premiums for house and car all increased by 30%. shopped around and was able to get my premiums back to what they where before the increase. I have 3 cars. 2 insured with the same company and the other with another compnay. House insurance with another company as well. So i have policies with 3 different insurance companies. It pays to shop around, though it take time its defintley worth it. Also some companies give you a discount if you pay the premium in full as oppsosed to paying by the month.
Same here with crazy increases. Never claimed and no significant adjustments made to building values and content values - just inflationary.
2 years ago premium went up 25% on previous - $1500 - annoyed but still cheapest I could find so figured this was catch up from prior year good deals.
1 year ago premium went up a further 55% on previous - $2300 - complained to insurance company and even went as far as ombudsman as never got any satisfactory answers to my specific questions other than concerns over general weather events and previous disasters in other states.
Last month premium went up again by a further 103% on previous to over $4600. This does not and never has covered flood.
Once again tried to get some reasoning and understanding behind the specifics of the increase given the previous 2 huge increases without any success. One did say that I was within 5km of the coastline so that may have caused the increase until I pointed out that their policy has never covered me for flood. Once again the underwriters were the ones being blamed but you cant speak with any of them. Even the ombudsman said they were powerless to help as long as they gave a generalised reason for their decision.
Eventually moved away from budget (Auto & Legal) and went with Allianz for $3300. Still another 50% increase but I was void of any other alternative solutions.
Wife and I took opportunity to do a complete detailed revaluation of house build valuation and contents on a room by room basis. Results meant value of house build went up as surprisingly we were currently undervalued, but contents went down as these were way overvalued. Also played with Excess values and $600 was the sweet spot for me. I was going to increase this to $1000 but I was quite surprised at the saving from increasing our Excess from $500 to $600 and yet beyond that was marginally small.
Allianz did offer an option to insure the house for flood separately so I ticked the box just to see what the premium would be - and it would have been a staggering $14,000 extra. I have no idea how this is calculated but needless that there was no way we could afford this.
That's a crazy price increase
Is it still a requirement of the banks for a mortgaged property to be insured? It might be worthwhile talking to your bank. My insurance went up this year as well so it seems to be a widespread issue. If you don't need flood insurance, then you should be able to find a cheaper policy. Budget direct do not offer flood cover & I have found them to be amongst the cheapest.good luck
Did I mention a mortgage? Fortunately I own now just.
Budget direct does offer flood cover. It's on the cover summary document as a yes/no option.
Insurance is sky rocketing from the cost of extreme weather events come about from climate change.
Climate change deniers can deny the science but they cant deny the extra costs to insurance they now have to pay.
That’s…..not the win you think it is.
Who said it was a win?
This is part of the reason.
There was an industry-wide report sent out last year IIRC that outlined all the findings and insurers have reacted.
Australia has had a lot of natural catastrophes with floods, fires, etc.
Insurers raised their premiums as a result.
And then…you woke up from your obvious dream..You lot are hilarious.
What are you talking about?
Are you denying the last few years of fire and floods have happened and thats driving up insurance prices?
many quoted me north of 7k and only Westpac did 3k which I have been with them for a couple of years.
At my last renewal, I told them my previous price (~$1250), and my new price (~$2300 - basic as basic can be) - support person on the other end of the line said "That's preposterous! We can definitely fix you up a better rate!" - after checking everything over, they embarrassingly admitted defeat that my excess was already high and amount covered is underinsured. They did their best; and in the end; underwhelmingly could only provided a $50/month discount for 6 months under the new rate.
I'd wager its somehow attributed to poor data. Our postcode is in a new area; and postcode is HUGE (should not even be a factor in calculation) - it covers 25+ suburbs; a huge amount of land/homes - and risk profile varies greatly as most are nowhere near river (~30km away but not even looking at flood; newer infrastructure in the area prevents weather-based flooding anyway). I imagine there were a few properties claiming damage in the past year close to the river, with rainfall - and being a new area; theft is a given. Number of houses would have almost doubled; but perhaps that isn't taken into account and crime, claim rate etc. is affected as looking "high per premises"; if using data from 2016 to determine number of houses; vs number of reports. Sprinkle on some inflation; etc. etc.
Almost doubling the premium year on year is wild!
With your insurance company, did they have a massive payout to alot of customers?
I used to work for QBE and with the floods in QLD, they paid out 98% of claims. And people's insurance went up by 2, 3 and even 4 times the next year trying to recoup the losses.
Also I wouldn't be surprise that the covid excuse is what making insurers jack up the price.
You already said you already shopped around and it seems every other insurer is in the same boat.
I don't see why QBE policyholders should carry the burden of the company getting the reinsurance wrong.
Are the QBE Board going to take a pay cut? lol
I am with virgin money $855 home and contents
I got my renewal and its about 23% increase as well without any claims and $hit… Going to shop around soon.
My contents almost doubled with Budget Direct a year or two ago. Their reason was increase risk to bushfires. I live in an apartment complex surrounded by everything but bush, there’s never been a fire remotely close to where I currently am. They wouldn’t budge, very scripted responses etc so I never renewed.
Most likely with regard to other homes burning down in a bushfire. Your premium helps pay for that!
Maybe don’t worry about it and start a heartbreaking gofundme when the time arises.
Similar situation and our home insurance price doubled and we ended up moving to another company
We had been raising our excess fee year after year after year to reduce the premium. Started with $500, $750, $1,000 and then $1,500. Was told $1,500 was the most we could opt in for but surprised by a $5,000 excess offer this year. We took the $5,000 excess option as we had not made a single claim for 40 years. Lucky to keep the premium below $1,000. Our no claim history most likely to have helped.
which provider?
CGU. Last year $1,500 excess $660. This year offered us $2,500 excess for $900 and $5,000 excess for $700.
mine doubled, will not renew with current provider.
2400 cheap in north Queensland our start at 5000 and be as bad as 15000
tip: make a new policy every year
I was going to guess QLD but NSW has been pretty wet too…
wow - literally just got mine today as well from AAMI. 30% increase from last year. just the standard renewal with no changes made. Im already at the 3k excess so no where to move :(
Mine went from $1400 to $2300 last Nov; can't wait to see how high it goes now.
I also just got my renewal and suncorp went up 20%.
All the cheap insurers have gone up and, worse, they don't pay most substantial claims.
If you read your PDS, you'll find they exclude resultant damage, so all they need to say is that it's wear and tear or a defect and you're out of luck.
Cheap insurance is pretty worthless.
I was scratching my head about this all afternoon and I think I figured it out….
You know how several banks in the US bought bonds that as interest rates rose lost a significant amount of value leaving the banks under collateralized and eventually bankrupt.
I strongly suspect the exact same thing is happening here. The insurance companies generally use premium income to buy government bonds and other traditionally safe securities and with the same interest rate rises that is crushing the banking system is also damaging the insurance companies.
They are on a desperate scramble for cash so that they don't need to sell their bond portfolio at a massive loss and bankrupt the company.
Coles Insurance went from 844 to 1320, Melbourne. I shopped around and Allianz was 1080 and permits monthly direct debit payments without penalty. IE. 90 per month.
Suncorp was about 2k
Guys try Youi.
ING doubled my insurance cost with them last year (despite never having a claim in the 5 years I was with them). Youi were fantastic with pricing and answering questions over the phone. Even got $50 cashback from Cashrewards with signing up to them.
This year the premium went up $30 and the excess increased by $20.
Their reviews were also decent on ProductReview from what I recall, and they have some deals in the app from time to time with Flight Centre, coffee shops, etc.
Thanks just tried youi, was ok but found cheaper.
I have coles as well, last year I paid $750 and this year they want $1850. Due in July, Allianz and budget direct have provided reasonable quotes so far. Which one did you buy op?
I am also with Coles Insurance, last year I was able to get the price down to $1350…. received this years renewal….. $3690.00. I spent about 4 hours this afternoon doing the compare online for NSW Home Insurance sites, even did those that are not on the compare the market. … matching apples with apples.. ie.. sum insured at $749,000 and Excess at $2000 the lowest I have found so far is $3320.00 and the highest is $6457.00. No Claims, No Mortgage, No business, No insurance refusals etc, single story, 100m above lake water level ( on the opposite side of the hill and Iam at the top of the hill too, just in case that makes a difference to some of you.. )
I have faithfully insured my home for the past 30 years.. and never made a claim.. I dont care about the floods etc.. I worked in the insurance industry for a number of years.. and understand how it works.. the ins and outs… but guttered, at the fact I am unable to pay that , even if choosing to pay monthly….
Dont drink, dont smoke, dont do illegal drugs, dont gamble, yet I still dont have the $ to pay the asking premium..
Brutal
FWIW, Budget Direct is not so "Budget" any more (this includes all the "insurers" who resell Budget Direct e.g. Westpac, ING, Bank of Queensland, etc). My premium increased from 1,050 last year to 1,920, an 83% increase, with the sum insured only increasing by 10%. AAMI and QBE provided slightly better quotes, so went with AAMI, when in past years they were the more expensive insurers. Other insurers were around the same mark. It is an oligopoly, there is no serious competition in the industry.
Nasty although I would have been happy with a 83% increase compared to what I was offered.
I think there are only a few underwriters, and that's why the prices are short of the same for a lot of insurers
sadly maxed out those options