Insurance Rant - woe is me.

[Jaydubs 0]

So I saved my pennies and after a wee while of deliberation bout myself some shiny new Alpina replicas for my little german princess. (89 325i)

Thinking, responsibly, that I should call my insurer, of 4 years (fully insured, 27 years old, no criminal/driving offenses, with no claims whatsoever) and let them know, I call state insurance.

bad idea.

The abridged conversation went as follows:

Me: "Hi, i just bought some new wheels for my car, and thought I should let you know..."

State: "okay sure, how much were they and what size?"

Me: "17 inch and approx $800."

State: "Sorry sir we are no longer insuring your vehicle. Is there anything else i can help you with?"

Me: "..."

They actually cancelled my insurance over a set of $800 wheels because "the cars with the flash wheels get stolen" thats actually what she said. Were not talking 3k chrome spinners here, just some tidy nice looking cheap wheels.

They then sounded surprised when i pulled my contents insurance with them to take my money somewhere else.

State: "well we hope we can do business again in the future sir."

Me: "Unf**king likely."

/ end rant

[OLLIE 26]

mate i would be so pissed off ....

If that was me and I was in their office, some very strong words would be exchanged, stuff might even get broken.

[DRTDVL 0]

Did the same thing to my gf's car... 

[Apex 693]

That sux,

If your car is stolen chances are they will steal the said wheels and therefore dispose of any evidence the vehicle had them… tell them it had stock wheels an get the money to replace them.

What’s a set of new 15†basket weaves worth? Well over 2k I would think.

[pjay 8]

That is some pretty crap service, but imo all the better for you. I have heard some pretty horrific stories with State lately, and would not insure with them.

[Jamez 2147483647]

pretty pathetic effort on their part , should weld the wheels to the car so they can't be stolen

[nath 134]

Oooooo I'd be fuming as well!

I have had the same problem but when i was younger......

I am insured now with ASB who are fantastic (IAG/ NZI also) and now realise that it is STATE that is the problem and not IAG...

[drifty325i 0]

Thats a shocker! sometimes i think it depends on who you talk to when you ring up if you get looked after etc

[Jaydubs 0]

@Riley, absolutely, Ive been shopping around and had some complete retards on the other end of the line.

Even though I shouldnt have said it, I rang vero, and when they asked why i left state i told them (Noob) that State wouldnt insure me with my wheels, and they instantly said that if i have been refused insurance by state they wouldnt insure me either. So i got a little fired up and tried to explain how rediculous this whole situation was, so she said the underwriter "didnt like the sound of my story" which made it (me) worse again, then she proceeded to tell me it was just Vero's policy not to insure ANY vehicle AT ALL that has been modified in ANY way."

Bullsh*t.

anyway, a couple of hours on hold with all the major insurers later, Im with tower now for a decent amount, good prem and excess, so im happy.

I reckon if you started an Insurance company that actually WANTED to insure people, You'd be rich.

Edited July 8, 2009 by Jaydubs

[Nobimmer 694]

I've had the same problem when I had my E39. Just ask to be put through to whoevers in charge and have a go at them. Normally solves the problem- well it has for me.

[tibbs.james 1]

I Rang AMI which and told them that my car had a couple of things done to it, and they told me the same deal basically that legally lowered wof standard was all ok but that it was totally different as soon as I add mag wheels

My mate bought a fairly standard 1996 Primeria while ago 5 spd Manual with mags about $6k worth, he got refused insurance, then he got a job at the insurance company and now has fully discount insurance !

[Driftit 2078]

Sure I have said this once on Bimmersport. But I had that exact same result from State. Many years ago though.

Had a 1995 180SX insured under my Dads name back when I was 19. I put some wheels on it. Thought we had better get them to revalue the car. Expecting to pay a little more per year.

Dad was given a very blunt answer.

State: From this moment you are no longer insured by state for the 180SX

Dad: Your kidding right? Why not.

State: You have breached the agreement by adding wheels to your 180SX

45 Mins of arguing which resulted in no resolution

Dad: Please cancel the house and contents and insurance on the other 5 cars under the account please.

State: Oh...

Been with AMI ever since. Cost less too.

[mivtec 0]

I thought thats IAG was NZI and State's head?

When my car got stolen last year i listed i had mag wheels and that was it. But by that time it got stolen i had done alot of work to it, had the full rice works and changed my 17s to 18s.

then when it got stolen they asked if i had any mods done apart from the mags, i said "No, apart from a head deck" and then my whole insurance cover had to go to an under writer to see if i could get paid out having an after market head deck.

Lesson learned... dont do too many mods with out stating it! because if the unfortunate happens and it gets ripped off you loose ALOT of money.

Then 2 weeks later my flat got robbed, NZI was really good to deal with (but my flat mate that was with state seemed to have got a way better deal and quicker).

Ive never been a fan on Tower, they are good to deal with when it comes to claiming.

I guess in these tough economic times theft rates are at the highest level, due to people that dont have jobs. So who can really blame the insurance companies for wanting to stare clear of vehicles which are more attractive to thieves.

[elmarco 56]

Just one more reason I wouldn't touch State with yours...

[nath 134]

I thought thats IAG was NZI and State's head?

NZI, while trading as an insurer same as state, ami etc etc, is IAG's NZ face.....

[M3 Cab 0]

State are total arse. High cost low service and seem to stuff everything up. Tower FTW

[Mavrick 0]

Im insured with state, 21 e39 540 1 speeding ticket against me and its only $900 for full cover, which i think is pretty reasonalble. Although it has no modifications from factory, still no problems so far but all this bad talk about state is a little worrying.

M,

[M3 Cab 0]

Ya gets worse when ya come to claim

[Wom 0]

I haven't had any troubles with State and the claim I had went through fine ... it was the panelbeater taking 2.5 months to fix my car that was the problem

on the other hand, my girlfriend has had nothing but constant issues with State from day 1

AA tried telling my mate that there is no such thing as a Corolla GT Liftback

[antil33t 90]

State wanted something retarded like, 1300 dollars p/y for my E30, I quickly told them I wasn't interested...

[318Touring 40]

Tried to insure my Mazda for 3rd party. State quoted $100-ish a year, Tower $85/year. When I complained, State tried to justify the 'additional' benefits, which Tower also has. And I have 5 other insurance policies with State.

Will start moving them to Tower, bad things is Tower doesn't have any web quoting system which means I have to actually call them.

[sharp1989 0]

state is bad. i signed up a year ago with them for full insurance on my e36. when i asked them how much extra it would cost if i redid my interior they said they would cancel my insurance. i also paid a lil extra at the start to get no claims bonus for life but when it came to a year and time to receive my no claims bonus they made up some bs story and decided they needed to charge me $3 dollars more per week instead of giving me my 45% no claims. i am now in the market trying to find a different insurer but getting some ridiculously priced quotes atm. any ideas for a highly modified e36?

[Wom 0]

Just got a quote through my broker for full car insurance with windscreen cover through NZI ... $691 per annum

That price does include a no claims bonus of 45% (the broker is going to try to get me 60% if I switch over ) and it's a multi policy discount because I'm also looking at contents ... but including all those discounts, AMI still was over $1200, Vero just a touch over $1000 and AA didn't believe me that my car only has 2 doors.

Only issue is that at claim time, NZI base the car's value on current market value, which is perfect if they use car yards to determine the value, but if they use Trademe then it might not be so good.

I guess it's not that bigger deal because State was reducing the value of my car by $2500 each year while at the same time putting my premiums up by 35% to 40%.

So before I go and accept NZI's quote ... has anyone had any bad experiences with them in regards to either car or contents insurance?

[elmarco 56]

So before I go and accept NZI's quote ... has anyone had any bad experiences with them in regards to either car or contents insurance?

I had NZI for a year a while back, and no problems (although I made no claims). My parents use NZI for house & contents, and they have had no problems with claims for fishing rods getting nicked from the boat etc. Paid out full replacement value with no hassles.

NZI seem to be OK (even though they are the same parent company as State).

[m_power 0]

My Falcon is insured with State at $11 a fortnight...thats $1 cheaper than it was with AA. Plus state was a lot better in exlpaining and setting up, AA were just annoying. BUT have yet to claim...

In saying that i can't get anybody to insure the iS at a reasonable cost.

Edited July 17, 2009 by D1BMA