diamond (bendigo) replied:

gday landie.
you bet me to it i was just about to put a post up on insurance.
our renewal came in today for the patrol allianze $360.
we recently changed from westpac for our home and contents to cga.
westpac$600 gca $300. so i thought i would give cga a call about car insurance.
i phoned up and went throu the usuall make/model/year ect and got quoted $240
i said that sounds ok i just have a couple of questions.
where am i insured and where arnt i insured.
young lady asked what sort of things do we use the car for and what do i mean when i go off road.
i said 90% on road with the occasional day trip of road.
she said that they had just recieved an email a couple of days before saying tcis where underwriten bye someone else now and to be carefull with who they insure.
i asked her about being covered of road on things like fire tracks ect and she said she will have to speak to the underwriter.
anyway after a few more questions which she had to keep asking the underwriter i said it might be easier if i spoke with them direct.
when i got the underwriter on the phone he was very help full.
i am insured anywhere im legally allowed to be except racing ect.
tag along tours ok and they will even insure the winch(allianze wouldnt insure it.
so if i had an accident they would repair bull bar but not winch.
i sussed the guy out about the bit about tcis and being carefull who they insure and was told that they have to ask what type of driving people do so they can pick and choose who they insure eg weekend drives ok but simpson desert crossings ect they wont cover he said it can be to expensive eg run into a camel ect and cause $10000 damage and will cost them say $5000 to get car recovered so in case of that they would right the car off therfor to much money.
he said there is nowhere in the policy that states conditions where they wont insure you like simpson ect so thats why they ask/pick and choose.
so i asked about the fact that i dont plan on going to the simpson will you insure me and he said yes.but what if out of the blue i decide to go there on hollidays he said we would still be covered.
also another important thing i found out say you put a 10"lift 35" tyres all the mods you can think of and you were involved in an accident even if the car is tottaly unroadworthy if you can prove that none of the mods caused the accident they cant nock back a claim.

Truckster (Vic) replied:

Every insurance co will get out of it if they can, non specialized 4wd ones seem to try a little harder to get out of paying.

Theres cheap insurance and cheap insurance.. Personally I dont mind paying a few more $ if I know I AM covered everywhere...

Search for the thread by GaryinOz.. His questions took days to get a straight answer.

Call again tomorrow and see, I bet you get different answers if you get a different person on the phone.. THATS the problem. They all tell you something different.

YMMV

Rowie replied:

As I said in my reply to the last post re 4WD
Insurance. Give Mr. Kim Harrold a call @ ELDERS Insurance in Sth Brisbane. You'll get all your questions answered unambiguously and they insure vehicles based in any State / Territory.

Tell Kim Rowie referred you.

If your insurance company is giving you the run around and you are fed up with taking advice from call centre operators who dumber than you are, take your business elsewhere.

Member - Raymond replied:

Hi Landie
I am insured with TCIS.
The cost was slightly dearer, but the cover was for more and they also cover all the accessories which were over $10,000, with HF radios Satalite navigation etc with no problems.
I went through several brokers (two I know personally and owe me favours) and they could not come up with the same cover for any less.
Insurance companies knocked it back because the suspension has been upgraded to take the camper.
Others did not want to cover the accessories for more than 5000.
Ring Ken at TCIS, he is the boss and ask him your questions
Ray
wanderin' in retirement. victor 2010

flappan replied:

TCIS was an alternative.

The benefits of TCIS were, they covered you anywhere at anytime doing anything (other then racing). So it covered any club trip you went on.

The main stream Ins co's (NRMA, AAMI etc) never used to cover you for club activities, so thats were TCIS was attractive. They covered club trips because you had to be a member of a club to get the insurance.

That is changing though, AAMI will now cover Club trips, and as I understand it, NRMA look like they are changing their attitude to this as well. (maybe because of the pressure from AAMI).

the other thing though was that TCIS covered you for bush recoveries. ie Your pride and Joy ended up upside down in the creek, 50k's from the main road.

NRMA, etc NEVER covered that recovery. You always had to get it to a main road for them (and its the bush recovery thats the expensive bit).

Also TCIS were a lot free'er with the allowed "Mods". Something the main stream Co's still struggle with.

So, yes, TCIS had its benefits, but of late, with their attitude and increased premiums, its not so attractive anymore

Member - Melissa replied:

Landie,

We have our GU insured with SGIO. I too was also told that we were insured anywhere as long as we were legally allowed to be there and of course, not participating in rallies, races etc. Didn't ask about club trips as it is not relevant to us. Annual policy is $380 with 60% no claim bonus and discounts for having multiple policies with them.

Last year I came off 2nd best with a car park barrier (hubbies talking to me again, LOL). I contacted SGIO within hours and lodged a claim over the phone and was then instructed to take it to X panel beaters which I did the next morning. By that afternoon SGIO called to say the claim was approved and all I had to do was book it in for repairs and pay the $100 excess at pick-up. That was it...no paperwork, no hassles and the car back on the road good as new a week after the bingle. Now that's service!

Took longer for hubby to stop crying over his pride and joy, LOL!

:o) MelissaPetrol 4.5L GU Patrol &
Camprite TL8 offroad camper

flappan replied:

As I said, it really depends on your requirements.

The "standard" insurance will cover most folks for most situations.

The real benefit of TCIS is for the club guys, that do lots of offroad stuff with modded to highly modded vehicles and for those that travel into the real outback stuff.

NRMA, AAMI, SGIO etc, will cover you for the accident out there, but they wont cover the recovery of the vehicle. Depending on where you are/were, that could be VERY expensive.

It seems the main stream insurers are actually getting their act together better for proper offroad insurance. They used to give boundaries as to where you could and couldn't go, normally by reference to specific maps (which led to all sorts of confusions).

Both my 4bys are covered by NRMA because as yet, TCIS doesn't even get CLOSE.

bruce.h (WA) replied:

the big question to ask your insurance company is not where your covered but what they clasify as part of the car you will find most will tell you that if it is bolted on they deem it to be part of the car & therfor insured as part of the total value of the car which is not a problem if you have a minor bag up they will repair the damaged parts but in the case of a total write off you will loose all your extras with out any compensation
Regards bruce