Lauz wrote:Comprehensive insurance is worth the cost if an uninsured driver hits you.. With comprehensive, you get a police number from the accident, quote it to your insurer and a few days later a cheque shows up.
Just on that ... things have certainly changed and improved somewhat nowadays, but there's still "clauses" within most policies that allows insurance co's to get out of any payments if they want to.
In my situation back then in the 80's, I was hit by a drunk driver, unlicensed, in an unregistered car that was uninsured and who left the scene of the accident - he'd been released from prison only three weeks prior for a similar accident where he'd killed someone! My insurance Co left me in the lurch probably as they had no recourse whatsoever for recouping their outlay on replacing my vehicle and they allowed for the fact that most "ordinary" people don't have the resources to take such large institutions through the legal processes. I tried! I stupidly ended up with high debts, no car and lost my business in the process. Although there's been much better legislation clamping down on these types of dodgy practices by those companies of old in the last couple of decades, I still know personally two other people who've had similar situations in the last few years, so it can still happen!
I'm one of those people who hardly ever makes a claim on my insurances, but TBH I'm doing it all very wrong. By comparison, my father in law claims every little thing - like a broken bedside light or for a replacement coffee maker etc - and recoups heaps on his premiums. He even somehow got the stone chips on his old EB Falcon's front bumper fixed! That bloody bumper is now the best part on his car
He works the system and gets value from it - pays his premium and makes them work for it. Only time we've ever claimed anything on our own contents insurance in 37 years was when our house got broken into! We certainly don't use the system properly 
