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Thread ID: 103149	2009-09-14 01:02:00	Any home/vehicle insurance war stories?	Tony (4941)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
809945	2009-09-14 01:02:00	I'm considering changing my insurances from SIS to somewhere else. I'd be interested in any good or bad news stories about other companies - claims problems, poor/good sevice, premium levels etc.	Tony (4941)
809946	2009-09-14 01:18:00	Eig Ansvar and AMI are always excellent. Don't know anyone who's had a bad experience with either. Also hear good things about AA, have only dealt with them once though.	wratterus (105)
809947	2009-09-14 01:39:00	Another :thumbs: for AMI. Lodged a claim (contents) after my car was broken into a couple of weeks ago - couldn't have been smoother. No hassles at all and a pleasure to deal with. Premiums are reasonable, as was the claim payout. Edit: This is the only claim I have ever lodged, so note my comments are based on this experience only. Have heard some pretty bad stories about State, so I'd avoid them. No personal experience with them though, so take that with a grain of salt.	Erayd (23)
809948	2009-09-14 01:40:00	I've been with State for a few years now, and I can't fault them - I've only had one claim (fairly major car damage) and they were great. They're always a pleasure to deal with, and get back to me promptly with an questions etc. Only grizzle I can think of is that I can't pay my premium via their website, but that may be true of all of them.	nofam (9009)
809949	2009-09-14 02:01:00	I've been with State for a while (never made a claim), but it was their attitude earlier this year which has changed my perceptions of them a bit. They increased the excess on my cover, and when I questioned them on why they were doing so (given that I had made no claims, and had a perfect record) their reasoning was that it was "best for all their customers" to hike the excess as it would discourage people from making claims - apparently it was being done across the board and I wasn't the only one to kick up a fuss about it. I'm still with them for the time being, but will look at changing to another company when my current cover expires.	somebody (208)
809950	2009-09-14 02:08:00	I've been with State for a while (never made a claim), but it was their attitude earlier this year which has changed my perceptions of them a bit. They increased the excess on my cover, and when I questioned them on why they were doing so (given that I had made no claims, and had a perfect record) their reasoning was that it was "best for all their customers" to hike the excess as it would discourage people from making claims - apparently it was being done across the board and I wasn't the only one to kick up a fuss about it. I'm still with them for the time being, but will look at changing to another company when my current cover expires.Interesting - that is basically the reason why I am looking to change frrom SIS.	Tony (4941)
809951	2009-09-14 02:29:00	Have been with State for years and until now have been very happy with them. A few weeks ago I received the premium renewal notice for my car. Normally I would throw it in the drawer and forget it but for some reason I read this one. I found that they had changed the policy on my car ( a VR4 Legnum) so that only people named on the policy were covered instead of the old 'anyone over 25'. I rang them to find out when this had happened and was told it was changed in February. As I had recently lent my car to my 30 year old son I was upset to discover that there would have been no cover if he had had an accident. They advised me that all I had to do was to add the name of anyone who might drive the car and we were covered again. Sounds OK? I asked to add the name of my son and was told that to add another name would cost me another $4.00 per week in premiums. It didn't matter what their age was or what their driving record was. I think this is a rip off. I am insuring a car, not the driver. Suggest anyone with State should check their policy ASAP	phatman (1352)
809952	2009-09-14 02:35:00	I'll tell you from the other side. Having done a few PC claims....... FMG - the absolute pits. Don't even go there. Numerous reasons why. Tower - they were the best at paying me and didn't fuss about the quotes really - and a few Insurance companies like to use their own supplier. However, husband hates them as he did a job where the leaking cylinder trashed the particle board floor and had to be replaced by builders. Tower refused the claim as they had "let the cylinder leak causing the damage". State - always paid out for us when we had them (car excess $750 after though), however they never ever got any information right. Endlessly. Always had to phone and get passed around various people and they'd still get it wrong. A neighbour of mine has had the same experience with them for over a year now. God knows why she bothers staying with them. Their excess can be disgusting too. Like $300 disgusting - on contents. State also wanted to send some other IT crowd to my premises to confirm the PC I said was stuffed, was stuffed and not repairable. Cheek of them. The customer declined to proceed with this claim and changed Insurance companies shortly after. This was a PC - medium age and condition that blew up after lightning. STate had happily paid out the glasshouse that was smashed, a cowshed that was crushed by a falling tree, but were being *^%$s about the PC. I had quoted, box replacement only, the budgetest thing I could build, use existing Windows etc. AMI - on the whole pretty good. Paid out 4 times on things for me without much fuss. Excess is great. Car excess $100. But. They have 3 contents policies - based on how much your stuff is worth in total. They don't tell you this, but what you can claim depends on which of the 3 you have. If you want full, replace the lot cover, you can't just choose the highest value policy - cause they say your stuff has to be actually worth that much. So if you are a new household, flatting or poor, tough luck, you have to have the lame policy. Also their annoying "Agreed Value" ad they have lately on cars? Bollocks. It's agreed (to a point that THEY will agree to) when you first insure it, the following year and every year thereafter - it just becomes the same as everyone elses crap market value policy. AMI were the slowest and worst at paying me with PC claims. Had to chase them up a lot. And they only paid by cheque. AA - they have Agreed Value too. I had a long conversation with them about this. Yes it will go to Market Value the following year too, but you can renew it instead and have it back at Agreed Value. However, the policy sucked on husband's ute so I didn't bother. No idea what pay outs are like with them. I did have a Classic car with them once but never made a claim. AMI don't do Classic cars. Wouldn't even consider State for that either even if they did. State was also the most expensive for business insurance, NZI was cheaper.	pctek (84)
809953	2009-09-14 03:24:00	Wouldn't touch State, gave my mother a lot of grief. I'm with AA. Market value is pretty dodgy as far as I am concerned... I bought a car for 12k. According to CarJam (http://www.carjam.co.nz), the average price at auctions is 5k. Chances are I will get closer to 5k than 12. After you cut out the excess and don't forget possibly their legal costs, you will have next to nothing. I'd rather pay more and be a bit more confident. No one plans for accidents after all, but if they do happen you want to be protected. And a random sum is not protection as far as I am concerned.	Cato (6936)
809954	2009-09-14 04:04:00	I'm with Vero (have been for many years) - never had a problem with claims, premiums are reasonable and they are very easy to deal with.	johcar (6283)
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