[Chalkie]

Just received my insurance renewal today for home and contents insurance.

I nearly fell over.


Our premium has increased by 30%. Last year we had a 20% increase and I thought that was horrible.

We live in Sydney, have never had a claim. I think the sums insured are about right - and they have increased a little with indexation - but around 3% - not 30%.

The worst bit is that I have spent a couple of hours seeking other quotes from insurance providers and I cannot beat the current provider.

Next step is to increase my excess to see if that will reduce it a little.

Just wondering if anyone else has seen a huge increase this year? Or did we somehow have cheap insurance before and now it is catching up?

[laridae]

Yes - mine have gone up about 25%. There were a lot of disasters last year. I think everyones has gone up.

Kinda one of those things you just have to pay though.
Currently getting my house repaired under insurance after a water pipe started leaking in the wall. 1 room needed the wall replastered, 2 rooms
(downstairs) needed the ceiling re-plastered as they went moldy. All 3 need repainting & also part of the outside does. Pretty sure it would cost more than I've paid in insurance so far to get it fixed, so I don't mind so much.

[JBaby]

Same here. Went up 20-25% last year, and then another 30% this year.

Both years I did a ring around and couldn't get a much better deal

[dessiesgirl]

Haven't had our renewal yet, but having been through a house fire 18months ago, i would happily pay double whatever they ask for!!

Haven't had our renewal yet, but having been through a house fire 18months ago, i would happily pay double whatever they ask for!!

[Chalkie]

Thanks for the replies - at least I am not alone in my misery.

It is something that I won't do without, and I don't want to change the cover amounts, but I was shocked by the increase.

I suspect it is a combination of natural disasters here and overseas (Japenese tsunami and NZ earthquakes for example) as well as the cost of funding for insurers due to the European issues. But even though I can understand why funding costs have increased - I am still gobsmacked by the extent of the increase.

I guess I am fortunate as I can afford to pay for it - but I am so worried about my pensioner income parents - how on earth are they going to afford such an increase on top of all the other utility increases?

Crazy.

Thanks again for your reponses, it is at least somewhat comforting to learn that our household wasn't singled out!

[Chalkie]

Haven't had our renewal yet, but having been through a house fire 18months ago, i would happily pay double whatever they ask for!!

Sorry you have gone through that and thank goodness you did have insurance.

I wouldn't consider dropping ours, but I am still shocked at the increase.

[Spring Chickadee]

Mine hasn't gone up by anything noticeable in the last 2 renewals , I'm with real insurance.

[Chalkie]

Thanks Springchickadee I will look into them, I have only been phoning the major ones, GIO, NRMA, AAMI etc.

[Leeloomina]

Yep. Ours went up 25% too this year - the insurer decided to add floor cover to their home & contents. I got a few quotes online and all were comparable (within $50 difference) - some didn't even cover flood.

[Snack]

mine went up 47% last year - I am in QLD so of course they used everything that happened here as an excuse. I removed a few of the "extras" from our policy to get the cost down - the policy was almost $1500 - I nearly died ! I increased the excess, and lowered the overall value of the policy.