Understanding Our New Suncorp Car Insurance PDS

Extra Support

Sometimes your circumstances might mean you need additional support or assistance in dealing with us. If you are comfortable, you can tell us about your situation, and we will work with you to arrange support.

Your responsibilities

You are required to follow all the terms, conditions and responsibilities in your policy. We have updated the term ‘reasonable precautions’ with ‘take steps to prevent loss or damage’. We have also included some examples of how you can take steps to prevent loss or damage, such as not leaving your car keys in the car while it is unattended or not secure.

When you need to contact us

Additional examples of when you must contact Suncorp have been included. Examples include if:

• you or any person who drives your car has their driver licence cancelled, suspended, disqualified or restricted;
• you or any person who drives your car has been charged with or convicted of a criminal act or offence;
• you have had another insurer cancel or decline an insurance policy, impose specific conditions on a policy or refuse a claim.

Excesses that apply to your claim

We have removed any requirement for you to pay your excess upfront when a claim is lodged. We have also included an example of when your excess will be waived. 

General Exclusions are now called ‘Things we don’t cover’.

Things we don’t cover include some new and updated exclusions such as:

• Extra costs or other losses following an incident covered by your policy
• Intentional or deliberate acts
• Alcohol, drugs, medication
• Driving a damaged car
• Reckless acts
• Unattended car
• Unregistered cars

See the PDS for details.

We have updated the wording to remove the term ‘Additional features’ and have combined all additional cover in section 5 ‘Additional cover that comes with your policy’.

Hire car after a not at fault incident and Hire car after theft up to 21 days

We now pay the reasonable cost of a hire car that meets your transport needs using our provider, or if there is no hire car from one of our providers that is similar make and model available within a reasonable distance of your location, we will pay you the reasonable cost you incur in hiring a car that meets your transport needs or in arranging alternative transport.

Trailer cover

Accidental loss or damage to a trailer is now covered up to $1,000 when it becomes detached from a moving car as well as when it is attached to your car.

How we settle your claim

We’ve made a range of changes to this section to better explain what you must do when making a claim and how we settle your claim.

Refer to section 7 of the PDS for more details. We also provide examples of how we settle claims in section 8 of the PDS.

If we don’t authorise repairs

You can allow us to arrange the repair or your car or choose your own repairer. If you choose your own repairer, depending on your repairer’s assessed quote, the repairs may or may not be authorised. We have updated the wording to refer to what happens if we don’t authorise the repairs. We now pay the amount of the assessed quote from our preferred repairer, if you have requested a cash settlement and our preferred repairer is able to complete the repair or replace the damaged parts of your car. 

Unavailable parts

We have removed the section ‘Obsolete parts’ from the PDS and replaced this with ‘Unavailable parts’. Where a damaged part is no longer available, we will pay you the last known market price of that part.

Contribution to repairs

We have clarified when we may ask you to contribute to the cost of repairs where we are unable to safely carry out insured repairs due to pre-existing damage to your car. Examples of this include neglect, wear and tear, weathering, rust, mould, mildew or corrosion.

If you do not want to pay these amounts, we will pay you the assessed amount for the repairs directly related to the accepted claim.

Our right to recover from those who are responsible

We have the right, and you permit us, to take recovery action against a party responsible for your loss. We have added examples of the assistance that may be required if we take action against a party for the recovery of your loss.

Changes when there are Joint policyholders

During the period of insurance, we might ask all joint policyholders first before we action a request or direction in relation to your policy (e.g. before we cancel your policy, reduce your cover or remove another policyholder). This way we can help protect the interests of all policyholders.

New section - Conduct of others

When we consider a claim, we will have regard to prejudice suffered by you due to conduct of others and may meet the claim when we are not legally required to do so.

Removed - Cancellation fee

If you decide to cancel your insurance cover with Suncorp, you will no longer be charged a cancellation fee.