Suncorp may have won the PR war in the wake of the 2011 floods but their insurance premiums have skyrocketted in the aftermath of their apparent "good guy" generosity.
One young Goodna couple got the shock of their lives when their annual Suncorp premium jumped from $1400 to $3565 - more than two and a half times the pre-flood quote.
Suncorp - and the rest of the rapacious insurance companies - have done very, very well in the 37 years between the 1974 and the 2011 floods, yet cry poor when they have to make one big payout.
Those same companies have very few payouts for bushfires in Queensland and relatively infrequent destructive cyclones mean that their payout levels are quite low overall.
But come one big flood event, Suncorp pays out, jacks up premiums to world record levels and even refuses to insure the entire population in some Queensland towns.
The Federal Government talks tough on cracking down on the insurance industry but then tinkers at the edges and, in reality, achieves the usual political goal - something between bugger all and nothing.
There needs to be a Royal Commission into the insurance industry in Australia with sweeping changes so that the profit hungry insurance companies have a dual and equal responsibility to both their shareholders and their policy holders. At the moment, they put company profits ahead of fair and equitable insurance policies and payouts.
Until major reforms happen, gouging of customers by insurance companies in Australia will continue unabated to the detriment of honest, hard-working Australians.
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If you know of any insurance company
which provides full flood insurance at
competitive rates, please contact:
PaulGTully@gmail
which provides full flood insurance at
competitive rates, please contact:
PaulGTully@gmail
6.10.12
