CIL Vs YOUI <span class="highlight">caravan</span> insurance, Has anybody had bad experiences?

Submitted: Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 20:37

ThreadID: 117114 Views:11446 Replies:14 FollowUps:5

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Member - BUSH CAMPER

Hi, hope I can get some help here! We are about to pick up a new off road caravan and have just had a quote from both above companies, quite a big difference in price but no doubt the big difference is in the results if a claim is required.
They both promise everything to get your business, interested to know of any problems with either company.
Thanks Hugh

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Reply By: Louwai - Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 20:44

Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 20:44

Don't have Caravan insured, but have Land cruiser, Motorbike, Car, Building (house), contents (apartment), + approx $60k of telescopes all insured with Youi.

Have claimed on the car.... No issues. No claims on anything else yet.

They were the only insurance co. that were willing to customise my policy for the telescopes to minimise my premiums.

Have had no issues with them.

AnswerID: 551178

Follow Up By: Member - Andrew W14 - Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 21:44

Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 21:44

YouI refused to insure my van for agreed value. Market value only with some vague way of how they worked it out. CIL - agreed value, As far as i am concerned Market Value on a caravan is a complete waste of money.
Andrew

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Follow Up By: Honky - Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 23:15

Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 23:15

I would check the PDS for what is covered in regards to the telescopes when away from home as the YOUI policy has some very low limits or no cover at all in particularly to accidental damage.

Honky

FollowupID: 836649

Follow Up By: Louwai - Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 11:19

Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 11:19

Honky,
Yes agree with your comment. This is why I have a "customised" policy with Youi. They were the only company willing to do this.

While at home, my telescopes are covered under the standard Contents policy. Annual premium under $500.

My policy is set up like a bank acc where I can log-in. All of my scope equipment is listed within my policy. I log-in & add or remove items for travel away from home.
When I am taking scopes & equipment away from home, I log in & "add" all of the items that I am taking. They are then 100% covered anywhere in Oz until I log-in again & remove them.

In this way I only pay the additional premium per day for the days I have the gear away from home, rather than paying a fixed annual amount of more than $5000 which is what I was quoted by Suncorp, NRMA & the like under the traditional system.
If I take every bit of scope gear the daily premium is $35/day. But I rarely take everything. Usually about half of the gear.

Annually I only have the gear away from home for a maximum of about 25 days total. So with this customised policy I save about $3500/yr in premium compared to a standard style "away from home" clause in a standard contents policy.

Cheers, Bryan

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Reply By: Member - Tony H (touring oz) - Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 21:49

Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 21:49

Ditto to Andrew's comments

Insanity doesnt run in my family.... it gallops!

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Follow Up By: Member - Tony H (touring oz) - Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 22:06

Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 22:06

Just to follow up....
If Youi have accepted your potentail maximun claim with all of your telescopes listed (and your happy with yours/their description & VALUE....go with them....wishing you all the best....hope you dont have to make a claim.....if you do,...... I really do hope it is painless!

Insanity doesnt run in my family.... it gallops!

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Reply By: My Aussie Travel Guide - Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 22:11

Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 22:11

I'm actually writing an article on this subject at the moment. Read the PDS statements for each carefully, then call both to have any of your questions clarified as their coverage does differ and the PDS isn't always that straightforward. Market Value by
Youi vs Agreed Value by CIL. That was the clencher for me.

Linda.

AnswerID: 551186

Reply By: MarkHugh - Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 22:15

Wednesday, Mar 18, 2015 at 22:15

Hi Bush Camper,

We had our camper insured with CIL. Called on insurance once in eight years - required a tray truck to come out to recover camper and transport it to nearest town, Thargomindah, about 150 km away, then repairs/replacement parts etc. No problems with CIL whatsoever - or with the recovery vehicle or the service in Thargomindah!

Mark

AnswerID: 551188

Reply By: Sand Man (SA) - Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 07:27

Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 07:27

Can't help you with your comparison, but have you tried your state motoring body?

At the time I purchased our van, I was given a CIL brochure to contemplate by the dealer.
When the time came to take out insurance, I tried to get a quote from CIL online. This was an onerous and unsuccessful task.
I then contacted my local RAA branch in South Australia and their coverage was as good, or better than that stated by CIL. Better still, a further discount was offered as all our other insurance is with the RAA and the best thing of all, I only need to deal with one company in the event of a problem or claim.
Took coverage out over the phone and three days later I had a policy and product disclosure document in the mail.
Couple this with my Plus membership advantages and I am pretty happy with the overall coverage I have while traveling.

Bill

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AnswerID: 551192

Reply By: Member - wicket - Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 09:44

Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 09:44

You might also want to consider insuring through CMCA
CMCA insurance

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AnswerID: 551198

Reply By: Rangiephil - Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 11:33

Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 11:33

I have had Youi for 4 years now on my cars.
I had a write off and severe damage claim in 1 year.
The claims were both "no Fault" so recovery was made from the person at fault.

The write off was at market value which was established by the sale price of cars of similar age and Ks to mine on "Carsales.com".

The payout IMHO was very fair and actioned within 2 weeks.

Youi have been great to deal with , I guess with the annoying exception that when they send you a renewal it is an "ambit claim", and you only get the best price by calling them, when they review all your policies and in my case give me significant discounts to last year on all three, and those around minimum $100 less premium than anyone else.
I inquired on caravan insurance for my 1997 Camp'o'matic but they were twice the AAMI policy cost of $250 so I stuck with AAMI.
Go Figure!
Regards Philip A

AnswerID: 551200

Reply By: MEMBER - Darian, SA - Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 12:33

Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 12:33

Ultimately, because talk and fine print is cheap, we never know the real worth of a policy until we make a claim ! As for CIL.....we insured our van with them when new, for a good price (a couple of others didn't want the business - was over their $ limit - others just wanted far too much....my motoring organisation had the highest premium .....and I'd been a member since forever). BUT.....when it came time to renew, CIL wanted a sizeable jump in the premium....(that old scam - "new customer pricing"*). I went back onto the market again and ended up with SGIC....and have stayed there.
*Some insurance companies are trickier than a hatfull of monkeys....despite indications to the contrary, their sales staff obviously have the ability to pull all sorts of on the spot discriminatory 'shuffles' with pricing, depending on who is calling and for whatever reason. In my case with CIL, the fact that I was about to get a better price elsewhere made no difference.....maybe that is to their credit ? :-).

AnswerID: 551203

Reply By: Sawtybt - Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 15:03

Thursday, Mar 19, 2015 at 15:03

Our Bushtracker was insured with CIL when we first picked it up. We have made two claims over the years. Our awning was replaced several years ago after being damaged and last year our van was damaged by a severe hail storm which resulted in a complete van re-skin. In both instances our claims were handled quickly and without hesitation. We will be sticking with CIL

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Reply By: Grumblebum and the Dragon - Saturday, Mar 21, 2015 at 12:06

Saturday, Mar 21, 2015 at 12:06

I agree, our Bushtracker has been insured with CIL for ten years now, whilst I have never had a claim, their reputation with regard to claim in excellent. Lots of Bushtracker owners use them .
John

AnswerID: 551328

Reply By: Gone Bush (WA) - Saturday, Mar 21, 2015 at 23:31

Saturday, Mar 21, 2015 at 23:31

My BT is insured with CIL too.

I've made one claim. They were excellent, even pointing out that they would cover my accommodation while the van was repaired.

When renewal came around last time I rang around a lot of companies and ended up sticking with CIL.

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Reply By: Member - Laurie K (WA) - Tuesday, Mar 24, 2015 at 23:58

Tuesday, Mar 24, 2015 at 23:58

I've had my caravan insured with CIL for 6 years. They have replaced a video camera, computer and damage from a breakin, and an awning .... all no problem

Laurie

AnswerID: 551571

Reply By: 877 - Thursday, Apr 16, 2015 at 14:29

Thursday, Apr 16, 2015 at 14:29

Can't advise on caravan insurance but I just had a very poor experience getting a car insurance quote with Youi

I called up a few days ago for a quote and notified them of all the mods and accessories on our 4x4 (totalling about 15K). I was on the phone to them for an hour going through all the add-ons and had explained that i needed insurance to cover not only the vehicle but also the mods. And I ended up with a fairly good quote

After thinking it must be too good to be true, I called them again today to confirm and was told the quote in their system was only for agreed value of $17000, for car and accessories.

I would just say be extremely careful with YouI, and make sure you go over all the PDS and policy quotes with a fine tooth comb

AnswerID: 552535

Reply By: 877 - Friday, Apr 17, 2015 at 11:42

Friday, Apr 17, 2015 at 11:42

Also, I currently have my camper trailer insured with CIL and am going through a claim with them at the moment.

So far it's been 5 weeks since we first notified them of the accident. It took a long time to get the claim documents correct, because no one from CIL was contacting me to inform me of what was needed (and their online claim manager system never works).

It should take 7 days to get approval from the claim manager to go ahead with repairs, but have since been informed it can take up to 3 weeks from now due to "a backlog".

That takes it to over 2 months since the accident! This trailer is our home at the moment, and it's just not good enough.

I went with CIL due to their good reviews, but obviously their business etiquette is declining of late. The bottom line, each insurance company is as bad as the rest, and when you have an accident prepare to be screwed......

AnswerID: 552581

Follow Up By: 877 - Saturday, Apr 18, 2015 at 10:49

Saturday, Apr 18, 2015 at 10:49

Sorry to hijack your thread, but for the sake of transparency i just wanted to add the following.

As i was pretty furious with the above response from CIL, i rang back and pulled the "let me speak to the manager" card. As a result the assessor called me within half and hour and had the repairs approved..... good outcome, but should this be necessary?

FollowupID: 838259