It's often a non-negotiable for car owners and, like most things, it's costing Australians more and more each year.
Comprehensive car insurance may get cheaper the older you are, but even people in the age group with the cheapest average premium (drivers aged 60-69) are paying out $1220 in car insurance premiums on average.
Older drivers aged 70 and over pay the second-cheapest premium from any age group ($1230 per year on average), while younger drivers under 21 are forking out $3836 per year to insure their wheels.
Younger drivers under 21 are forking out $3836 per year to insure their wheels
When you're talking thousands rather than hundreds of dollars each year, it's even more vital that you're getting the best value for your money.
CHOICE insurance experts have reviewed over 60 comprehensive car insurance policies from around 40 brands, assessing each one on their price and the coverage they offer, including exclusions and limits. We then calculate an overall CHOICE Expert Rating – a percentage score that reflects a policy's level of cover and the value for money it offers.
Not only can this help you compare policies like-for-like, but it also gives you an idea of the policies you probably want to swerve hard to avoid.
Lowest scoring car insurance policies
The policies below received the lowest CHOICE Expert Rating of all the policies we looked at.
CHOICE car insurance expert, Mark Blades, says, "The biggest reason these policies have ended up as our bottom performers is how much they cost".
"These policies are either middling for coverage and poor for price, such as these specific products from Bupa and Stella, or in the case of CGU and Kogan, are some of the most expensive products in our entire comparison and are missing the premium cover to match. There are better policies out there that will give you much better value for money.
"To keep the cost of your car insurance down, ensure you're not paying for optional inclusions you don't necessarily need. These can include things like being provided with a hire car after theft or an accident, roadside assistance or new car replacement if you write off a new car."
Remember, you can save money and get better cover by choosing one of the policies recommended by CHOICE experts. We're not like the other insurance comparison websites – we don't get paid by any of the insurers we're comparing.
And CHOICE is not-for-profit, so your membership fees help our fight for fair consumer rights and empower you to get the best products and services.
These policies rated the lowest in our latest CHOICE car insurance review.
1. Bupa Comprehensive
- CHOICE Expert Rating 46%
- Cover score: 57%
- Price score: 38%
This policy from Bupa is 'OK' for coverage with a score of 57%, but CHOICE experts flag that it has some low limits on what the insurer will pay in certain situations, such as:
- $500 limit for personal items that are stolen from your vehicle or damaged in an accident. Many other insurers have raised this to $1000–1500 in recent years.
- $500 replacement cost for baby seats, capsules and prams; some insurers opt to provide 'reasonable costs' of replacement for these items. With some prams alone costing over $1000, this coverage may not be enough to replace items damaged in an accident.
- $500 for emergency accommodation and travel, which only applies 200km away from home if the car cannot be driven. More typical coverage from other policies $1000 and 100km away from home.
And, if you choose the option to add on coverage for a rental car after a not-at-fault or at-fault accident, you'll only get the rental for 14 days, whereas other insurers offer 21 days or longer.
This policy offers virtually the same cover as
Everyday Comprehensive
and
Real
(which come from the same underwriter, Hollard), with some minor differences, but in the quotes we received, those policies were significantly cheaper. So, why pay more for essentially the same cover?
View the full policy details here.
2. Stella Comprehensive
- CHOICE Expert Rating 47%
- Cover score: 63%
- Price score: 37%
With this Stella Comprehensive policy, you're getting what you pay for. It has similar cover to the above Bupa policy, albeit with unlimited cover for baby seats, a $2000 limit for baby gear and a slightly higher limit for personal property coverage at $1000.
This policy also only offers 'Insurer's choice of repairer' which means that in the event of an accident, you don't have the option to go with your preferred provider, but instead have to use one from your insurer's network.
There are pros and cons to this condition (find out more here).
View the full policy details here.
3. CGU Comprehensive
- CHOICE Expert Rating 47%
- Cover score: 72%
- Price score: 31%
This Victoria-only policy offers good coverage, including the ability to choose your own repairer in the case of an accident, however it falls down on value for money, with our CHOICE experts rating it as the second-worst on price out of all the policies we have looked at.
It does include mobile phones and electronics in 'personal items' up to a $1000 limit, in case your items are stolen from your vehicle or damaged in an accident.
View the full policy details here.
4. Kogan Comprehensive
- CHOICE Expert Rating 48%
- Cover score: 72%
- Price score: 32%
We're usually wary of anything sold by Kogan (a two-time winner of the CHOICE Shonky Award), however CHOICE experts say that the coverage offered by this policy is, well, not too bad.
Underwritten by QBE, it offers the option to choose your repairer in the case of an accident, has no excess for windscreen replacements (if you choose to add on windscreen cover for an additional cost) and offers three years for new car replacements. This means that, if you have a new car and it gets written off in an accident, the insurer will replace the car with an equivalent new model instead of paying out a depreciated value.
But it falls down on price. It received the third-lowest score on price in our review, and CHOICE experts say it's the perfect example of why you should closely scrutinise any price increases to your policy each year and compare alternatives in our car insurance review before you automatically renew.
View the full policy details here.
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Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
