Father in law just had his caravan written off by the insurance company after it was clipped by a road train.
He got offered $11k for it. Just bought the on-road, half the size version of the same van for $9k.


Renewal for my Troopy just landed. The "agreed value" is $8200. They get this figure from Glasses which is relevant only to the base model without factory fitted AC, dual fuel tanks etc and takes no account of any accessories (cause I just paid the $16 to find out) The Glasses valuation has this handy disclaimer "The values provided by this service are NOT insurance settlement values, cash values or replacement prices and should not be presented as such"



The Redbook valuation came in at a more sensible $15800 for an Average example (even the Poor condition version is $9700!)

The insurer said that the $8200 is market value... The local Toyota dealer said "where is this magical fairy selling Troopys for $8200, cause I'll buy all that he's selling"



I'm pi$$ed because you would assume that you when you insure your stuff you would be able to replace it for something that is similar, not something that is half of what you had.








(And to top it off I now have the smug beyatch smiling at me in the advertising space at the top of the page!)

Can someone explain the differences in third party insurance. Personal injury and/or damage to other vehicle. Compulsory or not,thanks.

My third party insurance was nearly 500 for 12 months on 3 litre 6 cylinder. That better cover me for damage to other vehicle. This bill was on same bill as licence.

petermac33 said..

My third party insurance was nearly 500 for 12 months on 3 litre 6 cylinder. That better cover me for damage to other vehicle. This bill was on same bill as licence.

It doesn't.

You need 3rd party from an insurance company (not the license joint) to cover another vehicles damage caused by you. As Doggie said what you pay for with the license is to cover injury.

I'd recommend it pretty highly considering the value of some of the cars on the road! Would suck to crash into one and be paying for it for several years...

Edit: That is only if your third party is one from your rego renewal... AHhh confusing.

Rod, shop around, "agreed value" normally means what you and insurance company agree its worth and that will be the payout figure for total loss, alternatively "market value" is based on red book/glass etc

I've just been through a "new for old" claim on house insurance, the first offer was a half baked amount of $150, i objected and referred to the "new for old" clause in my policy and they paid up $2100 !

Never accept their first off the cuff offer on anything, they need your money.

Petermac, car rego includes third party person injury, however car insurance "third party" covers third party property damage ie hit another vehicle, house object etc, insurance "third party/fire/theft" cover should only be a couple of hundred on an older vehicle, I only pay $450 for comprehensive insurance on a near new car.

Cheers

You will always come out better with an insurance broker.
Well, a good one anyway....
(Disclaimer - I'm a broker)

Mackerel said..
You will always come out better with an insurance broker.

Well, a good one anyway....(Disclaimer - I'm a broker)

Sorry,.. but I have to disagree with that.
From long personal experience, you do get a better deal for a year or three, but then you pay more.
After getting insurance bills via a broker which we had for years, I did a ring around and could get better prices just by ringing around as a random customer.
We ditched the broker and now just arrange our own.
So far so good because the insurance company knows that they are talking to the person who can immediately take their business elsewhere, rather than an insurance broker who will argue the case for the insurance company.

I dont get how they can get a cheaper price though than what we can if we look around? Or do they get cheaper deals straight off the bat being a broker?

saltiest1 said..

shop around.

I do... just annoyed that they dropped the agreed value over the years that doesnt reflect the reality of the replacement cost.
ie 2 valuations for the same car and 200% difference??

Pweedas, I didn't mention anything about price mate, just said that you will always come out of a claim better with a broker.
Think of them like a doctor - you can put a bandaid on a cut and everything will be fine but if you need a heart bypass you should not try and do it yourself but find the a great surgeon - the best you can afford.

Likewise with insurance, if your just getting some third party property damage cover for the old ute - get the cheapest. If you are buying a policy to protect your biggest assets in life, being your home or business, get a professional to find you the best damn policy you can afford.

MDS, wow $4800 annually is a pretty serious premium - but then a young bloke in a super high powered, expensive car is one hell of a risk for the insurer. Always remember that if an insurer is asking for an unreasonable amount of money to buy the risk off you - be concerned. Basically they are banking on something going badly wrong and they are playing on the amount of time before that happens.

No mate I don't personally do health insurance, only general being business ect. A qualified life advisor can help with that kind of thing as it's quite different to general.

A good thing to remember when buying insurance is 'what will happen when a disaster unfolds' ie Your home wiring starts fire and burns all your possessions and house to the ground or you rear end a brand new Bentley or your new $500k prime mover hits a bloody cow and you roll. That's when your insurance policy comes into effect - till then it's just an expensive bit of paper. (Speaking very broadly).

Pitbull said..
Because they deal with them on a regular basis, they tend to get a discount for using them.

The broker doesn't offer this service for free though.
In the end, you are paying for the insurance policy plus a percentage for the broker.

And pardon me for stating the obvious, but if your wife is an insurance broker then I would expect she provides a very good service to you for no extra cost at all.
I don't think she would offer me the same service.
Or would she?

rod_bunny said..

(And to top it off I now have the smug beyatch smiling at me in the advertising space at the top of the page!)

How come I can't see him???

pweedas said..

Pitbull said..
Because they deal with them on a regular basis, they tend to get a discount for using them.

The broker doesn't offer this service for free though.
In the end, you are paying for the insurance policy plus a percentage for the broker.

And pardon me for stating the obvious, but if your wife is an insurance broker then I would expect she provides a very good service to you for no extra cost at all.
I don't think she would offer me the same service.
Or would she?

Hi Pweedas

The service the broker provides is free to you. They are paid a commission by the insurer for finding you for them. In order to stay competitive in the market, they try to offer lower rates to be on their books. The service wifey gives to the family is the commission is removed thus lowering the premium further - a perk of being in the industry.

Pitbull said..
But they do look at it in a realist view. For example, if you were to insure a 1979 commodore for $50k, then they would want to send out an assessor to see the true value. Most would say that the maximum value would be $900.

Completely agree, then you could then not accept that lower value and take your business elsewhere, which was the point of my earlier post.

As for a $50k Commodore, here's one from 1980 on the market at $69k but as we know price does not equal value

http://www.carsales.com.au/private/details/Holden-Brock-1980/SSE-AD-2148056/?Cr=5&sdmvc=1

J

Poida said..

rod_bunny said..

Father in law just had his caravan written off by the insurance company after it was clipped by a road train.
He got offered $11k for it. Just bought the on-road, half the size version of the same van for $9k.


Renewal for my Troopy just landed. The "agreed value" is $8200. They get this figure from Glasses which is relevant only to the base model without factory fitted AC, dual fuel tanks etc and takes no account of any accessories (cause I just paid the $16 to find out) The Glasses valuation has this handy disclaimer "The values provided by this service are NOT insurance settlement values, cash values or replacement prices and should not be presented as such"



The Redbook valuation came in at a more sensible $15800 for an Average example (even the Poor condition version is $9700!)

The insurer said that the $8200 is market value... The local Toyota dealer said "where is this magical fairy selling Troopys for $8200, cause I'll buy all that he's selling"



I'm pi$$ed because you would assume that you when you insure your stuff you would be able to replace it for something that is similar, not something that is half of what you had.








(And to top it off I now have the smug beyatch smiling at me in the advertising space at the top of the page!)

yes I've been burnt by not checking this. you can ring the insurer and ask to increase the agreed value. they will increase the premium though.

you have to balance it out as if it is too low they will right it off every time and you can't replace your vehicle without chipping in more money. if its too high they will fix it, but it may not be best to fix it.

Just been through a couple of insurance claims and had "cleverly" lowered the agreed value on my car to save money on the premiums. Then it was written of, they paid the agreed value after a few months but of course in hind sight the money I saved by lowering the agreed value wasnt worth it.

Replacement car I made sure the agreed value is what it actually cost me to purchase the car PLUS enough to cover the excess they will charge.

Regarding third party property, in a seperate accident we hit a parked Mercedes, no damage to speak of to my Toyota but boot and rear of Merc bent, $25,000 for that one but only had to pay the excess !

What really surprised me was when insuring the replacement car I expected I would be a higher risk/lose any no claim bonus but they said that as I wasnt the driver who claimed and it wasnt the same car it was just like any new person - no penalty even though we had just made two major claims in 1 week. So insurance companies arent always the greedy sods we think of.

I have heard you have to be careful of market value cover as its the value of your old used car not the nice shiny one you started out with. I feel agreed value at least lets you know what your going to get back.

Hopefully wont be making any more claims for a long time !