Car Insurance Shannons or RACV

tissueboxonwheels

Hi. My mum's Volvo 240 is with RACV comprehensive insurance. She's paying $423 a year.

Recently a truckie hit her car in the carpark (she was parked) - long and short of it is RACV said that if we submitted a claim and the truckie didn't want to pay (he left a note with just his phone number) RACV would scrap mum's Volvo cos the cost of estimate repair was $2400. (We settled the matter privately and thanks to Berry Motors the repair cost zero)

Would going with Shannons Insurance be better? I have a vintage VW Beetle insured with Shannons and the agreed value is $30k. I'm paying $360 a year.

Philia_Bear

You just need an agreed value policy that covers you
Any provider that will do agreed value for somethething resonable will have u covered

Ex850R

Shannon's let's you have a newer daily insured as well.
They will give a combined discount won't they?

Chris

Bear in mind any of them don't like insuring comprehensive if you have dents or scratches and some are extremely picky. IIRC you said there was a bit of a dent remaining?

tissueboxonwheels

Yeah there is a slight dent

tissueboxonwheels

Its hard to see though

egads (she/her)

3rd party and chuck the difference into a savings account?

familyman

I was with Shannons a few years ago, because AAMI and NRMA wouldn't allow me to insure a car for anywhere near what it was worth. But Shannons allowed me to jack its value way up on the phone without viewing it. As I said, this was a while ago, and the car had very low km. But even so, they did it sight unseen. Next year they dropped its value on the renewal. I phoned and explained I'd hardly driven it. At first they said no. But then the guy said, "Hang it - ok." He jacked it up again but said something about new depreciation tables, so next year they wouldn't be able to do it. Next time the value dropped again, excess jumped as well, and a phone call confirmed they wouldn't raise it. If I had an accident, and after paying excess, plus their value decrease, it meant I'd only have to put in a couple of grand and get another complete car.

So I left for the NRMA (which I avoided for years because they were always more expensive. That seems to have reversed in recent years.

Ex850R

Despite all the annoying ads on TV , Allianz are very good.
Budget Direct have been amazing for claims and price but call them policy time and ask to lower the price increase as you could go online and get new policy cheaper....
All these little insurers with funny names use Auto and General as the policy provider , check the small print. This is a good thing.
What you want is good response when you break the car , an option to buy it back and not be ripped every policy anniversary.
Make damn sure you get ALL the details , photos and a witness to any incident then you are covered. Miss any of that and they will not cover you. Bad luck.

Vee_Que

Shannons look after you in a car accident, choice of repairer etc. I didn't like the experience with racv for repairing my car recently. but they are cheaper with agreed value on the wagon.

UNM

Ex850R;85406 wrote Budget Direct have been amazing for claims and price but call them policy time and ask to lower the price increase as you could go online and get new policy cheaper....

My experience with budget direct was different. Took 18 months negotiation to get our car repaired (X-trail, around 4 years old, hail damage). Then when my daughter started learning to drive, they upped the premium so it was over $1000 more than going with GIO.

As a result I will never, ever, ever use them again - the price difference was the final straw, but I was extremely unhappy with them over the appallingly bad claims experience.

Shannons do seem to be good for classic vehicles, based on feedback from other BSA club members.

deleted_user_160

Here is a little inside information I was told directly from an aami assessor. (Yes Shannon's is serviced by aami, who is owned by suncorp)

There are over 100 cars being written off every month due to shitty jobs carried out by aami/Shannon's repairers. (Note not all clients utalise the choice of repairer option we have) they follow the suggested repairers and/or aami repairers. Many of these are a numbers game. Get them out the door so they get paid.
Lots of reworks, and so on.

he also went on to say that he has seen many clients leave Shannon's for other insurers that favor the club permit scheme.

Ex850R

Yeah Jock , for everyone who has a good experience there is someone who doesn't.....
I bet it's the workshops relationship with the assessors and companies in general.
I took the car to the Auto and General (Budget Dir) assessment centre twice , back to my panel shop man , and he had his quote in in the time they allocate , he gets ALL his quotes into each insurer on time , a very strict time frame , and gets the jobs.
He has a good team who get them done in the time frame allocated as well. Such strict criteria.
Maybe this process is the reason others get a bad run I don't know.
I had good runs with many , the best , Allianz , hands down.
My inside insurance industry mate says they are good too.
Also , the underwriters for all the insurers number 2or 3 iirc.
Basically , it's a closed shop on insurance in Australia and we are all being ripped off.

deleted_user_160

Closed shop @Ex850R ? Do you mean only one or two parent companies driving all the brands one direction?

UNM

Ex850R;85507 wrote I bet it's the workshops relationship with the assessors and companies in general.

Because it was a major hail event, Budget direct told us to take the car to their assessment centre in Southbank. My wife took it in and they then automatically booked it with a third party repair centre (again a long way away from us and with no loan vehicle).
I went to a local panel shop - he agreed to work with Budget direct and provide a loan vehicle, but that didn't work out. After a few months he stopped returning my calls.
I then got a recommendation from my mechanic (Police Rd Panel Service FWIW) - they worked with Budget direct to get the job done to an acceptable standard, rather than the shoddy job Budget directs assessor wanted. The panel shop told me Budget direct are the hardest to deal with out of the insurers they work with.
I have since had two other experiences with this panel shop - they were able to work directly and effectively with the insurers (AAMI and GIO). GIO specifically told me it would be at least 6 weeks to organise an assessment but the panel shop managed it far quicker. No trouble at all with AAMI except in paying for the hire car when I had a not at fault accident and used Compass claims. I ended up serving them with a civil suit and they paid after that

So yes, we each have different experiences and the panel shop used is very important, some people are no doubt happy with budget direct.

Ex850R

blondejay;85542 wroteClosed shop @Ex850R ? Do you mean only one or two parent companies driving all the brands one direction?

The consumer names you see are backed by a bigger insurer.
The bigger insurers are overwritten by one or two major worldwide risk insurers.
So yes , it's all a product of what they want to give out not market forces.
World domination of course.

deleted_user_160

So basically what I was saying before about Shannon's/aami/suncorp

tissueboxonwheels

Just a followup.

I contacted SHANNON Insurance. And the bloke asked me whether my mum was a car enthusiast and goes for the car meets and rallies.

I said she loves her 240 and wants to keep it.

Long and short, my mum's 240 was made in 1990 and the SHANNON sales guy said they only cover vehicles 35 years and older.

So we are sticking with RACV. RACV offered to up the value to $3700 if she pay $500+

Third party fire and theft is $350+

Just third party for RACV is $290.

I told her the options and she said....

do everything the same.

lasercowboy

Shannons never seem to have a consistent story, at least from evidence on here. They were very happy to quote for my 240 (1989) with an agreed value of $5k - happy to share that quote if you're interested. It seems to depend a lot on who you get on the phone, and some of the answers to their questions...

egads (she/her)

Seems to depend if you get true Shannon's staff or suncorp