Browse Forums Home Finance 1 Apr 09, 2009 10:59 pm Ok so I just got my first home and contents insurance renewal bill in the post after almost a year in our new home. It was $801. Buuut I could swear that when I set up the policy it was only $500 or so. I worked very hard getting quotes then haranguing the saleswoman on the phone - once i chose a company- to get it down as much as I could and was happy with what we worked out. Yes I can't remember exactly because I seem to have misplace the original policy in our "comfy" office. I will be looking for it tomorrow. I'm new at this house insurance thing because it's our first house. So how could the premium go up so much in one year? The insured value of the house has jumped up $30000 from the original agreed insured amount too. I have just done a few basic quotes online with a couple other companies and both came in at $600. I won't be paying the $800, will talk to them and see what they can do for me, or I'll find someone else. Any tips for getting finding the best insurance? Things to ask for or how to reduce the premium? I seem to remember that I got quotes for multiple policies with my car insurer, but still found it cheaper to go with who I did. I think I'll get another quote from them again. Great, guess I'm going to have to spend a day on the phone next week... Re: Insurance price jump? 2Apr 09, 2009 11:16 pm Nother quick question, I just did a quote with someone who offers unlimited house replacement cover. No more worrying about if your house is insured for enough. Is this as good as it sounds? Any catches that I need to look for? I had been worrying about this.. The current policy we have has a 25% safety net... Ta.. any insurance buffs please? Re: Insurance price jump? 3Apr 10, 2009 3:16 am Dragonfly So how could the premium go up so much in one year? The insured value of the house has jumped up $30000 from the original agreed insured amount too. without looking too far into it, could have something to do with the victoria bushfires, lots of claims money has to come from somewhere. price of your house has increased, economic climate. perhaps you could just them why it has gone up so much, our didnt go up anymore than 10% after our first year. good luck on the phone -Nathan 2nd-Fix | Blog Building with Desyn Homes previously with the insolvent [url=https://www.facebook.com/7NewsAdelaide/videos/1162546323776021/]Endeavour Homes[/url] Re: Insurance price jump? 4Apr 10, 2009 8:16 am shop around, i got a quote from suncorp for $2,000 just for my contents, and the reason given was maybe its near some bush.... http://www.canstar.com.au/ lists their top rated products per state, so ive signed with qbe and saved $200 and the policy looks great, just dont look at the car insurance quotes... Blog - http://snakedr.blogspot.com/ Build Thread - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=12084&p=307406#p307406 Status - PCI 15/10. Things nearly done. Re: Insurance price jump? 5Apr 10, 2009 9:21 am I am looking at some quotes. The cost of the house replacement is obviously just for the 'house' portion of the price I paid. E.g. excluding land. How do I calculate what the house is worth to replace? Blog: http://house.jay.net.au/ Re: Insurance price jump? 6Apr 13, 2009 1:44 pm jaytyn1 I am looking at some quotes. The cost of the house replacement is obviously just for the 'house' portion of the price I paid. E.g. excluding land. How do I calculate what the house is worth to replace? Hi Jaytyn1, I was on the RACV website the other day looking at home and contents insurance and if you go through the process of generating an estimate/quote it actually has an option to answer a series of questions to get an estimate of a rebuild. Ours came out aout $5K less than what we think our build contract will be, so we added $25,000 as a buffer on top of this just for additional cover for things such as driveways, fences, etc. I'm just a novice, no general insurance expertise really. We have a house in Doreen. Built the PD Kensington 24 (with Alfresco & Rumpus option). We are in...Decorating in progress...pics to come soon... Re: Insurance price jump? 7Apr 13, 2009 10:37 pm It's true. For our contents policy we went with GIO because they beat the Allianz quote last year. But if I didn't check the amount on the renewal they were certainly going to RIP us OFF this year. I am shopping around again. Allianz has 10% off if you do it through their web site. Re: Insurance price jump? 8Apr 14, 2009 11:36 am Well I rang the company in question to query the large jump (turned out we paid $497 last year....big jump to $800 !!!!) they said they could give me an immediate discount down to $601 but couldn't give me a reason why it had gone up. Was asking if we lived near water. I said well what did I say last year? NO! No there hadn't been any rivers or lakes popping up nearby unexpectedly in the last twelve months. Seems to me they try it on and hope you'll just pay it without question, then give you a big discount if you ask and make you think like they've done you a favour. I have a list of quotes to get this week. Going to try and get it down to $550. Re: Insurance price jump? 9Apr 14, 2009 12:53 pm Dragonfly Seems to me they try it on and hope you'll just pay it without question, then give you a big discount if you ask and make you think like they've done you a favour. I have a list of quotes to get this week. Going to try and get it down to $550. That pretty much sums it up! People are less willing to change insurance providers so they just accept it. Always shop around! A lot of companies will try to meet a quote you have received if you ring them up and ask them to do it and if they don't try, then they aren't worthwhile of your hard earned dollars! You will also find that if you rang the same insurance company up as a new customer they would probably give you a lower price than your renewal notice has on it. I once rang the RACV up about my car insurance quote and if I was a new customer it would have been ~$200 cheaper - I asked them why and their reply was 'we just do it that way' so I told them that if they wanted to treat their existing customers badly and rip them off then I don't want to be giving them my money. 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: Insurance price jump? 11Apr 15, 2009 5:55 am Every insurance renewal i always shop around , its amazing how much you save ... As an example my wifes Lexus was due feb of this year , renewal $1400 did some online quote's and ended up with the SAME company for $938 They are all a bunch of Re: Insurance price jump? 13Apr 15, 2009 8:09 pm I think you have to call them and fight through the 'retention' team to cancel. They'll ask you which insurer you are going with and how much are you saving etc? Re: Insurance price jump? 14Apr 15, 2009 8:22 pm thlo I think you have to call them and fight through the 'retention' team to cancel. They'll ask you which insurer you are going with and how much are you saving etc? That depends who you call - when I called AAMI to cancel the guy said I didn't have to do anything, just don't pay the renewal... he didn't even ask why I was cancelling or anything 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: Insurance price jump? 15Apr 16, 2009 4:56 am Dragonfly Yay I did it! Got a quote for $530 with my current car insurer. I'm a happy chicken. Can I just email my old insurer to cancel the old policy?? I just start the new one from end of current one and just throw the reminders in the bin ... Re: Insurance price jump? 16Apr 16, 2009 7:37 am I question the value of contents insurance. When we bought our house and tried to take out home and contents, the main companies i rang would only give us contents insurance if there were dead locks on all external doors and window locks or grills on all windows. our windows werent suitable for locks so we got grills put in and the deadlocks, and then we couldnt really see much point in paying for contents insurance because if someone wanted to break in, they'd have to climb through a broken window and carry anything back out again through the broken window, it would be much easier to break into another house. of course if the house burned to the ground we'd lose our contents but we could still rebuild the house from the home insurance so it wouldnt be a loss that we couldnt recover from, and the chances of a house in the suburbs or city burning down are pretty slim IMO. we havent had contents insurance in 10 years and never been broken into, and it's not because of the area (I know of at least 5 neighbours in my street that have been broken into since we've lived here but none of them had window grills so i suspect that had a lot to do with it - they were just easy targets). It's kind of ironic that to get the insurance we had to do it anyway but once we'd done these things the insurance just seemed unnecessary. Re: Insurance price jump? 17Apr 16, 2009 8:33 am piscean of course if the house burned to the ground we'd lose our contents but we could still rebuild the house from the home insurance so it wouldnt be a loss that we couldnt recover from I'm sure all the people impacted by the bush fires would disagree. Imagine having no underwear, no shoes, no clothes, no bed to sleep on, no chair to sit on, no toothbrush, no towels, no saucepans no cutlery, no plates etc etc.... Sure you would recover... eventually... but imagine you are possibly having to pay rent because you have no house PLUS possibly continue to pay your mortgage - you may not have much left over cash to use to recover with. As a renter I have about $60k worth of contents insurance just to cover my belongings in case of fire or theft 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: Insurance price jump? 18Apr 16, 2009 3:47 pm but lisanne you'll notice in my post i said the chances of people living in the cities or suburbs having their house burn down is slim. I'm well aware of what it is like to live in the bush and deal with bushfires as i grew up in the bush, but most of us live in the cities where we will never see a bushfire so the risks of your house burning down are very slim and yes i could certainly replace furniture, sheets, towels, toothbrushes without going into debt. my biggest asset is my house not the contents. imo, the biggest risk to contents is theft, the insurance companies know this which is why they stack the odds in their favour of you not making a claim. 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