Shannons Insurance Premium Rise

[Wonky]

I've been very happy with Shannons for both my Senator and the wife's Mazda 3, plus our house since I got the Senator in 2015. Made 3 claims on mine, initially a windscreen, then a no fault claim for very minor damage I had dashcam proof for and finally in Sept 2021 an accident when I backed into someone's garage. All handled very smoothly though they tried to convince me to go to their local S.M.A.R.T. repairer. I went to a friend of a friend.

Feb 2022 we bought a 2022 Subaru Forester for the wife (lovely car IMO) and whilst their prices had always been OK on the Mazda their price on the Forester was substantially more than RACV, so went with RACV. Late Jan this year got the renewal for the Senator and house. The agreed value on the Senator had gone down marginally but the premium had gone up, not substantially from memory but enough to warrant investigating options, especially given the house insurance had gone up too. I'm sure there was supposedly a 10% discount for combined car and house insurance, making their "normal" prices even more expensive!

Now with Enthusiast for the Senator with last year's Shannons agreed value and Budget Direct for the house and contents with combined savings of close to $1,000pa.. I hate the name Budget Direct because it sounds a bit dodgy to me but reviews are good and Canstar likes them, for whatever that means.

Sounds like Shannons is bleeding customers, though I guess that was always on the cards to eventuate when they were bought out.

[Red CV8 R]

I've used Budget Direct for my previous Lexus as they were the only ones who would insure my wife as well, who was under 25 at the time.

We had to make a not at fault claim on that car. My first experience of having to use an insurance company mandated repairer. Did not go well. The insurance company representative was very rude and difficult. The insurer mandated repairer was not good and kept the car for a long time. A few years down the track, the clear coat on the paint job had broken up, looked terrible. We then approached Budget Direct to fix it under their life time warranty. Messy but they finally agreed to fix it.

Took it to a different repairer because the original repair shop had shut down. New shop again chosen by the insurance company. They were difficult too and ended up painting the wrong side of the car... Car went back in again and they sort of fixed it but also managed to majorly damage the cars interior while it was there... They then had to make good on that but did a terrible job of it. I cracked it and traded that car. That repair shop shut down shortly after too...

Hopefully they and their chosen repairers are better nowadays.

[Red CV8 R]

I have heard good things about enthusiast insurance, but haven't found anyone who actually made a claim through them.

[Smitty]

I've used Budget Direct for my previous Lexus as they were the only ones who would insure my wife as well, who was under 25 at the time.

We had to make a not at fault claim on that car. My first experience of having to use an insurance company mandated repairer. Did not go well. .................................

I recommend that NO_ONE goes near Budget Direct, aka Coles car Insurance, aka Aust Post car Insurance, ING car insurance etc etc

My youngest had a KIA Sorento (bought as a demo in 2013) and she moved to Budget Direct back in 2015/16 (not sure of the exact date)

The day before Melbourne Cup Day last year, a trio of crims* took it... forced open the garage, got into the house (thankfully they sleep upstairs)
could not find the keys... took a wrecking bar and jemmied open the drivers door and then (my guess) hammered a large screwdriver into the
screw barrel, started the car and took off.

Next morning.. Cup Day she went to go to the shops and seeing the garage open and car gone, reported it to the police.
Thankfully she did.. as over the next 10 days, the crims who stole the KIA ran up over 20 speeding camera tickets and 30 unauthorised
trips on City Link and EastLink (she had the brains to cancel the rego straight after the police got involved...) travelling mainly out towards the airport

The cops finally found the KIA in a sports oval in Frankston (it had been stolen in Cheltenham) after it had been used to ram/sideswipe about
a dozen cars in surrounding streets and it finnaly died when they tried to drive it thru a gap in fence onto a sport oval.... that was 50cm narrower
than the car. Trashed, a write-off .. I saw the pics.

the insurer was notified of the theft, and while the car was being drive all over Melbourne, my daughter got the 3rd degree...
how much $ in your bank account? how many insurance claims in the past 10 years? (car and and house) how many traffic infringements?
how many parking fines?.. like seriously! And as a single mum with 3 kids these she did not need.

Then.. they blamed her, she left the garage open (despite evidence of forced entry) she left the keys in the car (oh.. you still have TWO sets of keys?
said the insurance co rep.. when asking about entry to the car) despite evidence that entry had been forced.

And even if you pay the excess, we MAY NOT accept your claim... so said Budget Direct staff.

In the end, she had to raise a complaint (their complaints system is biased too) and then... oh claim
accepted but sorry no... all personal items will not be covered. There were school blazers, kids sports gear
maybe $500-600 worth of stuff and becuase they were in the car (for the next school trip Wednesday)
.. not covered


Theft.. start of November, payout? ...28 Feb! Try being single Mum, school runs, shopping, swimming
and sports (footy and netball) so yes ..we did a lot of running around. Christmas.. shopping and all
taht goes with Christmas in the middle of all this

final point.. the promised 21 day rental car policy benefit in the case of a claim? no sorry.. in this case
if you want that, you will have the cost of that deducted off the payout

Moral of the story.. stay away from BUDGET DIRECT


ps.. she is now with GIO

***trio?
yes, the cops have the CityLink and speed cam photos, always 3 males in the car

[Wonky]

Fortunately our cars are not with Budget Direct.

[Red CV8 R]

How funny, I just got my shannons home insurance renewal today. No claims ever, but it's gone up 25%. Called them up this morning and they've said it's purely due to the number of claims they've had to pay out over the previous year. They said they can't budge on the premium. I've gotten some quotes from other Insurers for exactly the same thing and they are what I was paying through Shannons last year. So, I'll just switch to a different insurer.

[QIKMIK]

Still with Shannons for everything here (house, car, bike, ute, car). Happy with the premiums, excesses and values.

Quick note on claims with Shannons: Eldest wrote my old ute off in December just gone (all occupants ok). Within a few weeks, they had not only recovered the ute from a difficult resting place (in a creek), they'd assessed it, written it off, paid me out and shipped it back to my place (having bought the wreck). Pretty happy with that.

Mick

[whitels1ss]

My latest insurance company dealing..... This is RAA insurance, we have both been using for many years.

My partner had her car parked in the street outside her daughter's house & another woman ran into it claiming that "the sun was in her eyes so she did not see it."

Anyway, the car was hit quite hard, the rear bumper was pushed onto the right rear tire & when I opened the boot I could see the floor & the rail was bent.

We rang the RAA insurance & I told them that it would be a write off & we agreed that I ripped the dragging bits off
& took it to a place 5 minutes away for a 5 minute assessment.

(I only took it there because I knew it would be written off, if it was going to be repaired I would have gone elsewhere.)

Anyway, RAA sent assessor out who agreed & they paid out today & the payout was actually a few hundred dollars more than
the insurance policy had devalued the value to over the past 10 or more years she has had the car.
(The guy said that they also check other things and pay whichever is more.)

We bought her a replacement car yesterday which we pick up tomorrow lunch time & we have insured it again with RAA.

Quite happy with the (taking into account over Easter Holls) 6 business days settlement.

[Toddler78]

My latest insurance company dealing..... This is RAA insurance, we have both been using for many years.

My partner had her car parked in the street outside her daughter's house & another woman ran into it claiming that "the sun was in her eyes so she did not see it."

Anyway, the car was hit quite hard, the rear bumper was pushed onto the right rear tire & when I opened the boot I could see the floor & the rail was bent.

We rang the RAA insurance & I told them that it would be a write off & we agreed that I ripped the dragging bits off
& took it to a place 5 minutes away for a 5 minute assessment.

(I only took it there because I knew it would be written off, if it was going to be repaired I would have gone elsewhere.)

Anyway, RAA sent assessor out who agreed & they paid out today & the payout was actually a few hundred dollars more than
the insurance policy had devalued the value to over the past 10 or more years she has had the car.
(The guy said that they also check other things and pay whichever is more.)

We bought her a replacement car yesterday which we pick up tomorrow lunch time & we have insured it again with RAA.

Quite happy with the (taking into account over Easter Holls) 6 business days settlement.

Im looking at changing back to RAA insurance, Hav been with Shannons for years as well, whilst my premiums haven't gone up th value of the Monaro has gone down. Currently valued @ 12,000. RAA will insure, prisms a couple of $$ cheaper but agreed value is $25,000.

RAA Will payout agreed value or Market value whichever is more. When I spoke with Shannons and inquire about that policy they told me thy only pay out agreed value. For me its not much the premiums but the value of the payout. it wouldn't take much of an accident to write off a monaro valued at $12,000

[whitels1ss]

Im looking at changing back to RAA insurance, Hav been with Shannons for years as well, whilst my premiums haven't gone up th value of the Monaro has gone down. Currently valued @ 12,000. RAA will insure, prisms a couple of $$ cheaper but agreed value is $25,000.

RAA Will payout agreed value or Market value whichever is more. When I spoke with Shannons and inquire about that policy they told me thy only pay out agreed value. For me its not much the premiums but the value of the payout. it wouldn't take much of an accident to write off a monaro valued at $12,000

That is crazy Todd, obviously your Monaro is worth heaps more than $12,000.

I changed from RAA to Shannons a few years ago on the SS because RAA was too low value
& Shannons were easy to get a much higher agreed value but on a "Restricted Use, Highly Modified" policy.
(From memory I was only supposed to drive it something like 128 days a year??? )

When I fitted the new Harrop supercharger I phoned them to inform them & I think they called the policy "Extremely Modified / Extremely Limited use"
only to be driven up to 28 days in a calendar year & it is quite expensive but they were happy to up the value & as I said it did not go down this year.

It is going to be funny when it is eligible to go on Historic registration as that is cheap as heck but I don't think they are all that keen on doing it with supercharged cars.

[whitels1ss]

When I spoke with Shannons and inquire about that policy they told me thy only pay out agreed value.
For me its not much the premiums but the value of the payout.
It wouldn't take much of an accident to write off a monaro valued at $12,000

Hey Todd, I would phone Shannons back & talk to someone else, that is crazy.

Yes, I don't shop for the lowest premiums either because I have seen how people get treated when they make claims with those cheap mobs.

[Wonky]

Anybody who takes out policies based on purely premiums is not very intelligent!

[Pickles]

That is crazy Todd, obviously your Monaro is worth heaps more than $12,000.

I changed from RAA to Shannons a few years ago on the SS because RAA was too low value
& Shannons were easy to get a much higher agreed value but on a "Restricted Use, Highly Modified" policy.
(From memory I was only supposed to drive it something like 128 days a year??? )

When I fitted the new Harrop supercharger I phoned them to inform them & I think they called the policy "Extremely Modified / Extremely Limited use"
only to be driven up to 28 days in a calendar year & it is quite expensive but they were happy to up the value & as I said it did not go down this year.

It is going to be funny when it is eligible to go on Historic registration as that is cheap as heck but I don't think they are all that keen on doing it with supercharged cars.

I've heard of "RACV" Ins, but who is "RAA"?!
Pickles.

[whitels1ss]

I've heard of "RACV" Ins, but who is "RAA"?!
Pickles.

It is like the South Australian RACV.

[BLACK 346]

Im looking at changing back to RAA insurance, Hav been with Shannons for years as well, whilst my premiums haven't gone up th value of the Monaro has gone down. Currently valued @ 12,000. RAA will insure, prisms a couple of $$ cheaper but agreed value is $25,000.

RAA Will payout agreed value or Market value whichever is more. When I spoke with Shannons and inquire about that policy they told me thy only pay out agreed value. For me its not much the premiums but the value of the payout. it wouldn't take much of an accident to write off a monaro valued at $12,000

Where the fk are they going to find a Monaro of any description for 12K? That is ludicrous.