Youi vs GIO car insurance

[marky00069]

"As for incidents that occur when the vehicle is parked, like malicous damage, once your car is damaged once its considered at a higher risk of being damaged again".
Not from any of the insurers I have dealt with. Stolen cars however may be a different matter.

[marky00069]

"All insurance companies need full disclosurer on all incidents you have been involved in for the past 5 years regardless of whether or at fault or not."
Actually thats not correct. Different insurers have different time frames in their disclosure questions- I have seen 2 years, 3 years, 5 years and 10 years.

"but the cost isn't any of your business because its a contract between the insurer and the repairer, not you..."
I haven't had an issue getting claims cost from an insurer- ever. Some identify the costs (repairer, assessor, third party) on their claims portal, others will give it to you over the phone, others place it on the claims history.

but the cost isn't any of your business because its a contract between the insurer and the repairer, not you.

"And your insurer does give you a list of claims. It comes out once a year with your renewal."
Some insurers provide this- some don't. But a claims history is able to be provided by all insurers on request.

"your legally required to disclose that for the next 5 years or you can be charged with fraud"
Not generally correct. This is from a leading insurers home policy- If you fail to comply with your duty of disclosure, we may be entitled to reduce our liability under the policy in respect of a claim, or we may cancel the policy, or do both. If your non-disclosure is fraudulent, we may also have the option of avoiding the contract from its beginning.
I have never seen an insurers wording state that the insured will be charged with fraud is they fail to disclose a claim.

"Personally I would be very wary of any company that wants to know the dollar value of any claim you have made. They don't need that information at all, just the date and if you were at fault or not."
Actually some insurers rating models and acceptance criteria are claims value based- a leading insurer's commercial motor policy springs to mind.

[JAJ]

After reading a few comments I just wanted to add a few things.

All insurance companies need full disclosurer on all incidents you have been involved in for the past 5 years regardless of whether or at fault or not. This isn't to punish you its to determine what your risk level is. As for incidents that occur when the vehicle is parked, like malicous damage, once your car is damaged once its considered at a higher risk of being damaged again.

As for getting an offical letter confirming your claim, well if you thought your insurer was slow now, try getting a claim done when paperwork is being sent out for every claim ! And customers don't read the documents they get, so what is the point ? As for a summary of the costing and what was done. Well every customer is entitled to know what was done, but the cost isn't any of your business because its a contract between the insurer and the repairer, not you.

And your insurer does give you a list of claims. It comes out once a year with your renewal. If you read the document you will find everything you need to disclose to a new insurer for the past 5 years, Unless of course you had an accident in someone's car, which goes against your name, not theirs. So if your driving your friends car and have an accident, your legally required to disclose that for the next 5 years or you can be charged with fraud !

Personally I would be very wary of any company that wants to know the dollar value of any claim you have made. They don't need that information at all, just the date and if you were at fault or not.

And as for processing not at fault customers, its irrelavent who was at fault. Its discrimination to priorities a customers claim based on who was at fault. If you would like your premium's to increase by all means ask for special treatment, but everytime your insurer gets sued, you pay for it !

[IceMaiden]

I find it insulting that they ask your marriage status. I bailed out of the quote without going any further. I challenge them to produce real statistical analysis that shows this has a bearing on the motor insurance risk.

Their ads annoy me.

[fail]

Clarification of the need for claims history documentation:

Insurance claims history is quite easy to access as all insurance companies have records regarding claims on current and previous policies for up to three years. This is accessible through the Insurance Reference Service, a national database for insurers.

This documentation shouldn't necessarily be required at new business as these details are able to be accessed by insurance companies themselves. It is of course up to the company themselves as to whether or not they will accept your business without this documentation from you as an individual applying for cover.

The motor insurance market is extremely competitive at the moment particularly with web-based and overseas insurers and it's important to consider WHY they need to know the information they do when they set up policies. Factors such as kms driven, whether or not the vehicle is garaged at night etc, can lead to more of a headache than they're worth at claim time vs saving 50 bucks in premium.

Also keep in mind that it is only a requirement for insurers in Australia to HAVE a disputes resolutions service, not that it be a GOOD one. This means you may be required to make or accept phone calls outside of business hours to overseas-based insurers at your own cost to follow up on claims outcomes that are unacceptable.

[ho_k]

I generally avoid any insurance companies that ask too many questions about my driving habit no matter how cheap they are. They often advertised as a way to save you money but I see that as finding more ways to avoid a claim.

[Insuredbutstuffed]

Update on situation - in spite of some problems finding their investigators, who are out interviewing to employ more staff (a good thing) they appear to have decided my interpretation of the word "commute" is correct according to the oxford (and all other) dictionaries and they have approved the claim - They seem to be reasonable in that you can argue the point on stuff like this - although I am not convinced they actually make life any easier for themselves with all the rules about usage, and it certainly makes dealing with them feel like a bit of a lottery. I will give further reports as the process draws to completion, but so far it has just taken a few hours more of my time than I would have expected.

[marky00069]

"that is not a bad suggestioin to pass on to Youi"

I thought that Youi didn't make assumptions- but obviously they assume that you know your claims history off the top of your head...

another example where the marketing department has no grasp of the process...

[Insuredbutstuffed]

Yes - agree - that is not a bad suggestioin to pass on to Youi, if they had a checklist document you printed out before you start it woould be a lot easier.

[marky00069]

"trying to get the Youi fields filled in and you suddenly find you need a historical document".

Maybe Youi should advise what you will require BEFORE you start the quoting process. You find

FWIW, I have tried the Youi website (for competitive reasons) and found it to be terribly involved for the potential saving (which was negligible). Their wordings aren't that crash-hot either IMO.

[Insuredbutstuffed]

My point was that when you are sitting down in the middle of the night, just before your current insurance expires, trying to get the Youi fields filled in and you suddenly find you need a historical document, it is not easy to find this stuff out. If Insurance companies were required to send it out following each incident then you would have it in your file already.

[marky00069]

"companies should all be required to provide a printed summary of every incident which includes dates and their costs (which you can never find out) and who was considered at fault."

Its already available- its called a claims history... I've never had any problems getting one when I've asked previously (from a variety of insurers). You just have to ask the claims department and they can provide one to you.

[Insuredbutstuffed]

Oh - BTW - I forgot to mention the other thing that catches you out.
These days many companies, including GIO, do most of their claim processing via call centre, which is very convienient. The problem is however that the only paperwork you end up with from a claim is the scrap of paper or the back of the envelope you wrote the details down at the site. This is the worst for not at fault incidents where the other insurer is clearly picking up the costs, and there is zero paperwork. The police are the same - all done by call centre. This is all OK until you try to change insurer, at that point you are in deep trouble trying to check dates of incidents without any paperwork, and companies like Youi who increase their premiums for not at fault incidents then get you for not disclosing information when in fact it is just simply very hard to get good records from the companies. I am going to recommend to the Insurance Industry Ombudsman that the companies should all be required to provide a printed summary of every incident which includes dates and their costs (which you can never find out) and who was considered at fault. This way it makes it easier to change between companies and increases competition in the insurance market.

[Insuredbutstuffed]

I am currently suspending judgement on Youi until I see how much effort this current claim takes to resolve - I was actually one of their first customers - and wanted to send a message to GIO, since 4 vehicles being changed over starts to be significant. It took a huge effort to fill out all the Youi forms for four vehicles (GIO was on a single policy), and even more it seems to keep them up-to-date from the current dispute. My mistake was not going back to the web site to check the forms regularily since they have changed their definitions over time (e.g. "commuting" now means one trip to work it seems) and I have not kept up with their fluid definitions - So if they continue to waste my time with delays on this current claim, and play the definitions game that gets us in front of the Insurance Industry Ombudsman, then I will clearly have to ditch all the effort it took to deal with them and go back to GIO.
Watch this space to hear what happens in the next instalment.!!

[manfredh]

Their ad is based on a false premise anyway. Just because other companies don't ask something, it doesn't mean they "assume" as youi incorrectly allege. It may mean that it's not a factor they put into their risk calculation, or it may mean you get the benefit from it on average as well.

I tried them out for a quote based on their promising advertising, use of public transport and so on. I found the application process overly lengthy, and the end result was a premium higher than many competitors - and it's not due to facts that I gave them that others "assume."

All you're really doing is spending your time to give them more info. No thanks youi.