How has your insurance increased this year?

[Ralfi]

This is pretty ridiculous now…

RACV were leading the way years ago, but they’ve just increased my insurance for a MY16 GTI MK7…

2022 Premium: $1278.96
2023 Premium: $1512.97

That’s an increase of $234 in one year! No performance modifications, no claims ever, very low KM, & those prices include a multi-policy & 5 year membership discounts!

Got a quote from Budget Direct: $890ish….(& will probably shift Home & Contents to them also….working on that comparison now).

How have your MK7 GTI Insurance Premiums increased this year?

[spellbound]

RAA
2022 $795
2023 $832
Excess $750 , no finance , that does bump it up if a lender has am interest , less than 5000k a year .
Nice to see another manual driver .

[Ralfi]

RAA
2022 $795
2023 $832
Excess $750 , no finance , that does bump it up if a lender has am interest , less than 5000k a year .
Nice to see another manual driver .

Thanks. That’s surprising, considering RACV is an affiliate of RAA. I wonder if I called RAA direct, would they quote me or direct me to RACV….won’t hurt to try!

Yeah I’m sticking with manual for as long as I can 😏

[Guest001]

21 Kamiq 110 $40,000 agreed value ,$413, XS $600 No one under 30 driver Post code 4564 always garaged, named drivers only or $2500 XS

[petemac110]

Comparing quotes without noting all of the variables that influence insurance premiums is a somewhat fruitless exercise as it lacks context. The key info missing here is the suburb/postcode the car is parked and age of the youngest driver, with a bunch of other variables thrown into the mix too.

[Ralfi]

21 Kamiq 110 $40,000 agreed $413 xs $600 No one under 30 driver

& what did you pay last year?

Comparing quotes without noting all of the variables that influence insurance premiums is a somewhat fruitless exercise as it lacks context. The key info missing here is the suburb/postcode the car is parked and age of the youngest driver, with a bunch of other variables thrown into the mix too.

No one under 40 can drive the car.

Don’t like giving location details out on public forums, & I wasn’t going to ask others to do so. But the question was to mainly get an idea of Premium cost changes from people anyway, to see if others had big rises in costs.

[Lucas_R]

Comparing quotes without noting all of the variables that influence insurance premiums is a somewhat fruitless exercise as it lacks context. The key info missing here is the suburb/postcode the car is parked and age of the youngest driver, with a bunch of other variables thrown into the mix too.

Agreed. The suburb is a big factor as well as whether the car is parked on the street vs in a garage or locked driveway etc.

Im with Shannons insurance, and my car (Mk7 GTI) is always parked either under a carport or in the garage. No accidents ever - although I did have to make a claim a few years ago as my previous car was flood damaged and written off.

$1,137 last year
$1,184 is my current cost

To the OP, if your cost has jumped by $230 odd dollars and nothing has changed, then its definitely worth shopping around to see if you can find a better deal. BUT, perhaps your suburb and or surrounding suburbs have had a rise in claims in the past 12 months and so your risk has increased?

[Guest001]

& what did you pay last year?

---

No one under 40 can drive the car.

Don’t like giving location details out on public forums, & I wasn’t going to ask others to do so. But the question was to mainly get an idea of Premium cost changes from people anyway, to see if others had big rises in costs.

$383 For same value and it wasnt worth changing as I checked other companies

[minke]

2020 GTi bog standard.
60yo female owner / 48 me. clean records

GIO Platnium-lifetime replacement if written off. 10,000km pa

2020 - 1278 (1100 excess)
2021 - unable to find
2022 - 1175
2023 - 1468

includes Greenslip discount and multi policy discount.

[DV52]

hmm....... I'm most definitely NOT into conspiracy theories - but my observation from reviewing the appalling increase in insurance fees over the last few years (which has been orders of magnitude greater than annual inflation rates) is that ALL insurance companies are playing the same game!!

IMHO, that game is to maximize return-to-shareholders by over charging "sticky" customers (which I suspect is a large proportion of their customer market base).

Despite marketing statements from insurance companies like "we value customer loyalty", it is these very customers that provide the highest profits. So, the pricing strategy is - let's milk "sticky" customers as much as possible. The common marketing rouse that is employed by insurance companies to fool "sticky" customers is the ubiquitous " loyalty discount" that often appears on many renewal notices.

However and as is ALWAYS the case, even with the supposed "loyalty discount", the bottom line number is invariably a huge increase over the previous year's premium.

My own personal view is that anyone who simply accepts the insurance fee in the renewal notice is paying highly for the convenience of not seeking a more competitive price (even from the same insurance company).

My suggestion is that everyone should set-up their insurance renewal decision by targeting at least 2 x Insurance companies - every year. It's important when using my approach to make sure that I am comparing apples-with-apples (it's easy to lower price by reducing the insurance cover). I've found that the easiest way to do this is to target 2 x insurance businesses that have the same parent company.

For example, both AAMI and GIO have the same parent (i.e. SUNcorp financial group) and although I can't say with absolute certainty that their policies are exactly the same (I haven't read the entire prospectus documents), the highlight items seem to be very similar (choice of repairer is a difference)

So, my practice is that when it's renewal time, I call each of my chosen companies and compare prices (I ALWAYS have my renewal notice handy to ensure that the cover terms aren't changed). My experience has been that the price from my existing insurance company is ALWAYS lowered by the telephone call. And, invariably (although not always) the price from the second insurance company is better than my existing provider.

This generally means that I end-up swapping insurance company every year - but so what? I don't mind at all - because the so-called "loyalty" discount is meaningless and the driver rating doesn't change!!

Don

[The_Hawk]

"sticky" customers

I agree, there is no more loyalty from the insurers side and it definitely pays to shop around. A few years ago I went through the motions with my then insurer NRMA. In previous years they had (surprisingly) ended up the best option for my particular circumstances.
I asked why my premium had gone up so much and offered a couple of alternative providers who were significantly cheaper. I asked if they could offer something better or some incentive (like roadside assistance) or anything to make their offer more compelling. About the only thing I got was “NRMA pay the highest percentage of claims of all insurers”…
So I sign up with the new insurer and call back to cancel the old policy and I’m asked if I have spoken to the retentions team. I had enough free time and was interested in what they might offer so I accepted and was transferred to the other team… who asked if I know that NRMA paid the highest percentage of all claims, kept reminding me that I would lose my ‘loyalty discount’ (which I reminded them was still significantly more expensive WITH their discount that the alternative) and my favourite… “are you sure they cover everything you currently get”. That one pissed me off since I had read the vast majority of the PDS documents and when pushed for any specifics they simply said “we can’t know every aspect of every competitors PDS”… so it’s fear mongering? They could offer more?

It’s all bit of a ****ty game and do believe there is very little reason to stick with a particular insurer without at least considering the alternatives (and that goes for all your products).

As for comparing prices, as had been said there are so many factors it sometimes seems totally made up. I’ve seen 20 year olds with brand new R spec cars paying less than a 40 year old with a TSI.

[DV52]

@The_hawk:
We are in complete agreement!! My personal view is that these renewal processes (doesn't matter for what service) are more examples of product value. By which I mean that the ultimate decision turns more on how the consumer values stuff, rather than on it's cost!

There are clearly customers who value their own time more highly than any discount that can be achieved through the effort of seeking competitive quotes.

And for those that are prepared to investigate alternatives, there are a range of different insurance cover terms that are valued differently against varying prices.

Because ultimately value choices are deeply personal decisions, of course it's wrong for anyone to criticize individual outcomes. Nevertheless, I suspect that insurance companies are well aware of of this dynamic and I reckon that they segregate their customer market sectors accordingly.

More importantly, I suspect that the price points in their renewal notices is based on value based profit maximization for the various value-sets (I'm guessing of course).

Ain't nothing inherently wrong with the practice - it's just the way stuff is done in commerce!! However and ironically, the practice does promote a changed response from "sticky" customers to become "un-sticky" customers (like both you and me) - which is a good thing!!

Don

[Ralfi]

Thanks @DV52 & @The_Hawk.

I’ll be cutting the tentacles & ‘unsticking’ from RACV for both Car/Home & Contents. Saving $850 odd for the year.

& I’ll be shopping around every year to hopefully make a small dent into their profiteering shenanigans..

[Gutoneto]

Hi,

My is not a GTI but my insurance went through the roof as well with QBE with no claims and not changes (actually, I told them that I'd be driving less per year on both cars). They also put the max fix value down without give me chance to keep it as it was.

2022 - $1726.53, $1000 ex, fixed valued @18,500, two drivers over 40yo, over 20,000KM per year, 2075.
2023 - $1949.26, $1000 ex, fixed valued @16,573, two drivers over 40yo, 10,000-20,000KM per year, 2075.

I have another Nissan insured with them, the premium went up $387.32 and the fixed value went down $1037. Kms changed from 10,000-20,000km to less than 10,000km per year.

I'll probably be shopping around for a new insurer soon.

[ABCD]

Agree completely with Don. It always pays to shop around with car insurance, including even obtaining a new policy quote from the same insurance provider which will often be cheaper than your renewal quote and which you can use to renegotiate a revised figure.
And it is not too surprising that car insurance premiums have increased given the current economic climate.
For what it is worth I am with Budget Direct and saw a modest increase in premium from $966 to $1041 when I paid it last month.
This on a 2018 Golf R, comprehensive cover with $1200 excess, choice of repairer, drivers < 40 excluded, annual km < 8000, no garage/on street parking in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. And late last year I did make a not at fault claim to repair about $1500 worth of minor front end damage, so all up I reckon the premium increase is more than reasonable.