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>> Heading: Understand Insurance >> Steve: I moved to Tenterfield permanently
about three years ago, we’ve been coming up here for more than a decade before this.
I run the community centre in town and have done for the last year and a bit. It’s a
good place to live and raise a family. However, we do tend to need to go back to Sydney from
time to time.
Unfortunately due to it being a small town, the minute you go away people notice, people
will keep an eye on your house, and unfortunately bad people will too.
The day that we were broken into, we were actually down in Sydney for a few days at
the Westmead Children’s hospital. When my child was born he was born with cataracts,
so we have to return for checks on a regular basis.
[1st Minute] Steve: We often have to go down to Sydney
every about four to five months. We were actually heading back on the Central Coast and I got
a call on my mobile just informing me that the house had been broken into.
Straight away your concern is, what have they taken? Have they ransacked the place? They
hadn’t done too much damage, but they had kicked the back door in half.
It’s your castle, when you feel that somebody has invaded your castle and when you feel
that someone has been through your castle, your space, gone through your possessions,
taken what they wanted. It’s a really hard feeling to describe, sort of anger, it’s
sorrow, it’s frustration, it’s a whole mix of emotions.
I’m sure if I didn’t have insurance, I’d be in a lot different mindset because you
would have lost both your items and your piece of mind.
[2nd Minute]
Steve: We got in contact with NRMA that evening, and made a claim over the phone. You could
tell that the company cared that the place was secure.
The robbers had stolen tobacco, alcohol, my collection of Zippo lighters - the remnants
of which I have here - they were sort of fairly unique, and I knew which ones had been taken.
Even after we’d sort of made the first claim, a couple of months later we realised that
other things were missing. They were very understanding, and knew that it took a while
to sort out what was missing.
I found the claims process pretty straight forward and painless. We dealt with one person
throughout which was great. I was really pleased with the amount of effort and time NRMA put
into our claim. [3rd Minute]
Steve: We talked about settlement options, in terms of new for old versus a cash settlement,
with the excess taken out. Obviously in a rural location, new for old wasn’t ideal
for us and the agent understood that.
>> Heading: Steve’s insurance tips Steve: I would advise people to take stock
of their belongings, think about what they are worth.
When you get new items each year, add them to your insurance policy and add their value
to your insurance policy each renewal, because it adds up rather quickly.