Import insurance in 2025

[MBS206]

1 hour ago, Milkmun said:

That's the worrying thing about Enthusiast, haven't heard many if any claim stories.

Whereas Shannons you do, the good and the bad. I'm with Shannons and with my premium going up every year, I've been tempted to call around but just haven't out of pure laziness and the unknown.

Don't just call around, also call Shannon's.

 

You've just reminded me, I need to call them again and push my premium down and my agreed values up...

[Duncan]

Well, that's why I left Shannons.

First they made us pay the excess after a taxi hit the z when it was parked. We supplied the rego and police report, they didn't feel any responsibility to find the owner and would not pay for the repair until we paid the excess. 

Then our house (insured with Shannons) was broken into, and the safe containing spare keys for 9 cars was stolen. Shannons tried to tell us that as well as the house excess we had to pay the excess for each car to key them rekeyed (ie almost $10k in excesses for one theft event). They backed down on that after we went through the ombudsman but we left them after that.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Wow... What a bunch of c _ _ _ suckers.

Had to redact the word to be compliant in 2025.

[Duncan]

4 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Wow... What a bunch of c _ _ _ suckers.

Had to redact the word to be compliant in 2025.

I like that you made it gender neutral.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

5 minutes ago, Duncan said:

I like that you made it gender neutral.

Need to be in this world these days Duncan, they their 

[r32-25t]

f**k them, science over feelings 

[Murray_Calavera]

14 hours ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

has anyone actually put in a claim?

4 not at fault claims in the past 5 or so years (lucky me...). 2 windscreen replacements from rock chips. Didn't pay a cent on any of these. 

All claims processed quickly, hire care sorted, an overall very good experience. 

I haven't had any curveballs to test shannons with though. My claims were very much, here are all the other persons details, they have full comp insurance, etc. 

[Duncan]

Yeah to be clear I'm not naive, I'm sure all insurance companies are a bunch of arseholes who pay people bonusses based on the value of genuine claims they avoid....I just don't want to go back to one that has personally f**ked me multiple times in the past  

[Murray_Calavera]

@Duncan

Random side note, did the cops give you the driver/owners details of the taxi and then did Shannons give you a refund of the excess once you supplied those details?

[CRSKmD]

I’m with Shannon’s for all 5 of our cars. Agreed values seem fair, premium price is okay. ($210 ish a month, all comprehensive). 
Have claimed once with them for a not at fault claim with another car where my car had no damage. Was one call after the incident and an email after. Deemed not at fault so premium didn’t go up either. 
 

I have called up and spoken with people who are not familiar with certain cars and didn’t agree with me on value or let their personal vehicle preferences effect the call. But called back later and got someone else who was more agreeable.  

[Milkmun]

On 11/03/2025 at 11:09 PM, MBS206 said:

Don't just call around, also call Shannon's.

 

You've just reminded me, I need to call them again and push my premium down and my agreed values up...

What to even say/ask? Should I mention to Shannons I'm shopping around or is that cliche.

[GTSBoy]

You just say that the premium increase seems particularly excessive (no pun intended) and that the value decrease seems unwarranted. You say that it's not 2005 any more, and that these days Skylines are generally owned and insured only by those that have demonstrated an ability to keep them in one piece across decades, and are therefore not the horrible risk that used to be assumed.

etc.

[MBS206]

I don't even go that hard core.

I just say "how do you expect me to stay, when you increase my premium, and reduce the value of the car?"

 

Then play a game of shut the f**k up. Most of the time it's a computer that did the adjustment, and the people will happily change it around for you.

[CRSKmD]

14 minutes ago, MBS206 said:

Most of the time it's a computer that did the adjustment, and the people will happily change it around for you.

Yeah this used to happen to me every year and a quick call would at least raise the agreed value back up / reduce the premium, but usually both. 
 

That said for the first time on the renewal this year our agreed values went up or stayed the same over the fleet and the premium came down so that was a nice surprise. 

[Duncan]

19 hours ago, Murray_Calavera said:

@Duncan

Random side note, did the cops give you the driver/owners details of the taxi and then did Shannons give you a refund of the excess once you supplied those details?

No, I don't remember the exact reasoning (was 20 years ago!) but the cops didn't end up supplying it to us either.

Actually my mother went through a similar thing recently where she was hit when stationary, flustered and didn't get address (she got plate details, name, phone and insurance company, but not address). Person who hit her blocked her number and their insurance company (naturally) would not provide any details. Her insurance company also required her to pay the at fault premium because she did not have the address, cops did not help as it is a minor civil matter (they said their only course was if the other driver had left the scene of the accident without providing any details). She only ended up getting that refunded because they happened to be insured with Suncorp and she was with APIA so same company owners.

For some reason the address is critical in insurance companies recovering money from the at fault party

[GTSBoy]

10 minutes ago, Duncan said:

For some reason the address is critical in insurance companies recovering money from the at fault party

And that's a massive problem, because deadshits will deadshit and give you false details.

At least in these days of mobile cameraphones, it is trivial to take photos of any ID they are carrying at the same time as the 300 photo extensive documentation of the state of the vehicles that I recommend even for minor incidents. And you get photos of the person's face, any visible tatoos, etc etc, while you're at it.

Then you try to avoid mentioning that you're fully capable of making explosives of various power levels and will wreck their shit if you are forced to hunt them down.

[CRSKmD]

from an old insurance company i was with (Budget Direct) I had someone roll back into me at the lights
got them to pull over. Got a picture of thier licence with address, had a dash cam video and, thier phone number.

But only had 3rd party on the shitbox i was driving. insurance did nothing, cops wouldn't do anything due to the value of the damage (under $3000) so i just had to suck it up and go to U Pull It. 

[silviaz]

On 3/11/2025 at 9:45 PM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Here's the thing, has anyone actually put in a claim?

I am with Enthusiast too, however technically our cars aren't 100% road legal. In the event something happens, would they just go "oh stiff shit lad, yeah nah, your car isn't road worthy, we ain't paying you a cent"

That's what I'm afraid of, even though I've listed all the mods on the policy (max out the box).

Yeah, they'll find anything they can. "Oh aftermarket ecu, that doesn't comply with emissions" lol.

Edited 1 hour ago by silviaz

[CRSKmD]

I thought it was just if “the modification effected/caused the incident”

[soviet_merlin]

38 minutes ago, CRSKmD said:

I thought it was just if “the modification effected/caused the incident”

I would hope so. I worry that it also might depend on whether the person working on the claim has had a good day or not.

I can imagine that for example modified brakes would be an easy thing to point to for affecting the outcome of an accident.

I don't know. I will keep paying my premium and hope for the best. But at the same time keep safe distances, drive defensively and avoid dickhead P-platers in lifted utes