AAMI Comprehensive Car Insurance Policy

Important general information

You can contact us:

By phone: Call 13 22 44 (24 hours a day every day of the year).

By mail: AAMI, PO Box 14180, Melbourne City Mail Centre, Victoria, 8001.

When we quote you a premium

When we quote you a risk premium for insuring your car, some of the factors we take into account include:

the insurance history, car driving history and age of the people who will be driving your car,

what you use your car for and where it is usually kept,

the value, age, make and model of your car and whether it has any accessories or modifications,

the frequency of your payment instalments, and

whether you have chosen to vary your policy excess.

Government taxes and charges are added to the risk premium we quote. The total of these amounts is the premium we charge you.

For more information about the factors we take into account, you can read our AAMI Comprehensive Car Insurance - Premium, Excesses & Claims Guide. It is available on our website at aami.com.au (under the Car Insurance section) or call us on 13 22 44 if you would like us to post you a free copy.

Excesses may be payable on any claim you make on this policy. See pages 30-32 for further details.

Paying your premium

The notices we issue at the commencement and each renewal of your policy show the various payment methods available to you.

A change to your policy details (for example change of address, change of car or modifications) may affect the premium you need to pay for the remainder of your period of cover. If a refund of $10 or more is payable, we will send you a cheque or credit your credit card account. Any extra premium needs to be paid by you within 14 days.

If you do not pay the premium in full or any additional premium required, we may reduce your period of cover to correspond with the amount you have already paid.

Paying by instalments

You may be eligible to pay in regular instalments by direct debit. The total premium we charge is higher when you pay in instalments than when you pay one sum annually.

Your responsibilities when paying by instalments

When paying by instalments:

you must be an authorised signatory on the account nominated for your direct debit payments.

you must ensure that your nominated account can accept direct debits and has sufficient funds to meet each payment at each due date.

your financial institution may also apply its own fees (including dishonour fees). Those fees are your responsibility.

What happens if your instalment remains unpaid?

If our scheduled debit attempt is unsuccessful, we will send you one or more notices to inform you of the failure. We will also attempt to debit your account again during the four weeks immediately after our unsuccessful scheduled debit attempt.

AAMI will not accept any claims after an instalment payment has remained unpaid for a period of 14 days or more from its original due date.

If the instalment payment remains unpaid for one month or more from its original due date, AAMI may cancel your policy without giving you advance notice of the cancellation.

Any notice of our intention to again debit your account will not extend our final claims acceptance date or the date we cancel your policy.

Changing your instalment payments

If you wish to change or cancel your direct debit arrangements, you need to contact us at least seven days before the debit day.

If you cancel the debit completely, you will need to arrange for another way to pay us your premium, to ensure you remain covered.

Important things to remember when paying by instalments

When you first commence your direct debit payments, or when you change your account details, it may take up to 14 days for us to first debit your account.

Where your debit day falls on a weekend or a nationally declared public holiday, we will debit your account on the next business day.

If you believe that we may have incorrectly debited your account, please call us on 13 22 44.

If we decide to make a write-off payment or replace your car under your policy, we will require you to first pay us the total unpaid balance of your premium as we have agreed to cover your car under the terms of the policy for the full period of cover. In the case of a write-off payment, we will deduct your unpaid premium from the payment we make.

Renewing your policy

When we offer to renew your policy:

we will send you a notice before the policy expiry date;

we will tell you in writing if there are any changes to the policy;

we may require an additional premium if you make a claim in the short period between the time we calculated the renewal premium and the expiry of your policy, or if you tell us about changes to your policy details in that period and we tell you they will increase your renewal premium. If the additional premium is not paid, we may reduce the period of cover to match the reduced amount paid.

Changing your address details

If you change the insured address (the address where your car is normally left overnight), please call us and we will:

update your details and tell you if there is any difference in the terms and conditions of your policy as it applies at your new address;

refund or charge you any difference between the premium you paid and the premium we charge for the remainder of your period of cover for cars insured at your new address. If a refund of $10 or more is payable, we will send you a cheque or credit your credit card account.

If you do not tell us of a change of insured address and you make a claim, we will ask you to pay any increased premium or we will reduce the claim by that amount.

Government taxes and charges

AAMI shows on receipts any government taxes and charges such as GST, Stamp Duty and Fire Services Levy that are payable in addition to your risk premium. See 'When we quote you a premium' page 42.

GST

The agreed value for your car and the legal liability cover we provide both include GST. Any amounts we pay under 'The benefits we provide' include GST.

Cooling off period and cancelling this policy

After this insurance begins or you renew your policy for another period of cover, you have 21 days to consider the information in your PDS. This is called the ‘cooling off period’.

If you decide to cancel your policy, either during the cooling off period or at any other time, we will refund the unexpired portion of the premium, less any non refundable government charges, and less $30 of premium (plus government charges and fire services levy if applicable) which we keep to cover our reasonable administrative and transaction costs.

We can only cancel your policy by giving you written notice in accordance with the Insurance Contracts Act 1984.

Joint policyholders

If more than one person takes out this insurance, each is a joint policyholder.

Each joint policyholder gives authority to each other joint policyholder to make any changes to this policy including cancelling this policy or removing a joint policyholder.

AAMI may agree to any change without notice to any person other than the joint policyholder requesting the change.

The privacy of your personal information

We are committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. That commitment is reflected in the AAMI Customer Charter and in our compliance with the Privacy Act 1988. For further information, please visit our website www.aami.com.au or call us on 13 22 44 for a copy of our 'AAMI and Your Personal Information' brochure.

AAMI's Customer Charter

We are committed to always provide you with the highest standard of service. The AAMI Customer Charter is a written document containing service and reporting promises which we are bound to deliver. In fact, we impose a penalty on ourselves if we fail to do so.

This unique Charter was drawn up through consultation with our staff, our customers and industry regulators, and is reviewed annually. Compliance with our promises is independently audited every year and the results are reported publicly.

The AAMI Customer Charter, introduced in 1996 was Australia's first general insurance customer charter, and indeed, first retail customer charter. The Charter is your guarantee that we're always striving to deliver the best in customer service.

AAMI's Dispute Resolution Process

If you are unhappy with anything we have told you or done for you, we want you to tell us about it. If we cannot resolve the matter to your satisfaction, other appeal processes are available to you. See pages 50-51.

The General Insurance Code of Practice

AAMI is a signatory to the General Insurance Code of Practice which sets out a commitment by the general insurance industry to maintain service standards and to ensure good relations between customers and insurers.

The Code describes standards in areas such as buying insurance, claims handling, responding to catastrophes, education and dispute resolution. The Code is backed by consumer groups, the federal government, insurers and the Insurance Council of Australia.

More information on the Code, or a copy of the Code, can be obtained from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). You can contact the FOS on 1300 780 808 (local call cost), or you can access the Code at www.codeofpractice.com.au