On this page:
- How often we review car insurance
- How we choose which insurers to compare
- How we determine recommended policies
- How we calculate the price score
- How we calculate the cover score
- Why we don't include the claims experience or customer satisfaction in our scoring
About CHOICE car insurance comparisons
CHOICE reviews comprehensive car insurance policies on a regular basis to provide you with up-to-date information about policy cover and pricing.
We assign scores for pricing (based on thousands of online quotes) and policy coverage (looking at dozens of different product cover inclusions and limits). These scores are combined to calculate the CHOICE Expert Rating, a percentage score that reflects a policy's level of cover and value for money.
How often we review car insurance
CHOICE reviews car insurance four times a year, when we receive a new batch of pricing data from our provider.
How we choose which insurers to compare
CHOICE car insurance comparison at a glance.
- 14 underwriters
- 50 insurers
- 60 policies
- 45 policy cover dimensions assessed
The insurers we choose to review cover the majority of the car insurance market in Australia and range from brands underwritten by the biggest insurance agencies to smaller local insurers and new entrants to the market.
To be included in a CHOICE car insurance review, an insurance product must be available directly to the public. We do not include products targeting more niche car markets such as vintage and classic cars.
The insurers whose policies we cover include the following.
Big four car insurers
- IAG (RACV, CGU, NRMA)
- AAI (Suncorp, APIA, Bingle, GIO)
- QBE (Kogan, Australia Post)
- Allianz (Bank of Melbourne, BankSA, St.George, TIO, Bank Australia, Westpac)
Car insurance upstarts
- Auto&General (Budget Direct, ING, Virgin Money, Coles)
- Hollard (Huddle, Real, CommBank, Woolworths Everyday, ahm)
- Youi
- RACQ/Honey (BOQ, Aldi)
State motoring group car insurers
- RAA
- RAC
- RACT
How we calculate the CHOICE expert rating
The CHOICE Expert Rating is an overall score out of 100. It is made up of the cover score (60%) and a national price score (40%).
How we determine recommended policies
Policy recommendations are made on the basis of the CHOICE Expert Rating. To be recommended, a policy must have pricing data available and have a CHOICE Expert Rating at or above a set score which is higher than the average of all the policies we looked at.
Recommendations are made on a general basis and do not take into account any individual's objectives, financial situation, or needs. Consider the appropriateness of a recommendation before acting on it and review the policy's Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) and other documents.
How we obtain pricing data
We obtain pricing data from a third-party pricing provider that collects and sells its data to the insurance industry. If an insurer doesn't participate in the quote collection program, we can't compare them on price. This means we cannot calculate a CHOICE Expert Rating on the product, or recommend it.
How we collect policy cover data
The terms and conditions of a car insurance policy are detailed in one or more disclosure documents available from the insurer. The key sources of information we use to collect product cover data include:
- insurer webpages
- Product Disclosure Statements (PDS)
- Supplementary Product Disclosure Statements (SPDS).
How we calculate the price score
Our car insurance reviews display the results of our price comparisons in two ways: a price rating and a price score.
Price rating
A price rating is a score out of five, indicating how expensive a policy is in a region or state, relative to others in our pricing dataset. In our reviews, the price rating is represented in dollar signs. A rating of "$" indicates a very cheap policy (on average), while "$$$$$" is very expensive. Price ratings are calculated at the state and territory level.
Price score
The price score is a score out of 100, indicating how expensive a policy is across all the markets it's available in. It contributes to the CHOICE Expert Rating, but should be used with caution when deciding which policy to buy. The reason for this is that car insurance is not always consistently priced across different states and territories.
An insurer that's cheap in one area might be very expensive in another, and a national price score doesn't capture those variations – look at the price ratings instead to find out how well-priced the policy is for your specific region.
How we calculate the cover score
To calculate the overall cover score for each policy we look at what the policy covers, as well as the limits and conditions of these benefits. For example, we check if the policy covers you to choose your own repairer or gives you the choice between agreed and market value. We also look at what excesses apply, for example, an excess for young or inexperienced drivers.
Summary of cover we assess
Each cover feature is grouped into one of eight sections. Each section has its own weighting relative to the total cover score.
- Incident cover: 25%
- New car replacement: 15%
- Additional cover: 12.5%
- Choice of repairer: 12.5%
- Property: 10%
- Default cover: 10%
- Agreed value: 7.5%
- Excesses: 7.5%
| Section | Feature | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Incident cover | Hire car after not-at-fault incident | 6% |
| Incident cover | Hire car after theft | 6% |
| Incident cover | Hire car after at-fault | 1.5% |
| Incident cover | Emergency accommodation & transport after not-at-fault incident | 5.75% |
| Incident cover | Emergency accommodation & transport after theft | 5.75% |
| New car replacement | New car after total loss | 15% |
| Additional cover | Windscreen excess reduction | 6% |
| Additional cover | Repair guarantee for lifetime | 1% |
| Additional cover | Roadside assistance | 2.5% |
| Additional cover | Towing costs | 1% |
| Additional cover | Contaminated fuel | 2% |
| Choice of repairer | Choice of repairer | 12.5% |
| Property | Replacement keys | 1.5% |
| Property | Personal property | 6% |
| Property | Baby capsule/seat | 1.5% |
| Property | Trailer & caravan | 1% |
| Default cover | Default cover | 10% |
| Agreed value | Agreed value choice or market value only | 7.5% |
| Excesses | Age excess | 2.5% |
| Excesses | Unlisted drivers excess | 2.5% |
| Excesses | Inexperienced driver excess | 2.5% |
Calculating a score for each individual feature
For each individual feature, we calculate multiple individual sub-scores called component scores. Each individual component score applies to an individual feature. These scores are weighted (according to the table above) and added to provide a total feature score represented as a percentage.
The individual component scores for each feature are calculated by taking into account the following considerations.
- Coverage: Does the policy cover this feature at all? If a specific cover is included, the policy scores 100. If it's an optional extra, then the score is 50. If it is not at all available, the score is 0.
- Category limits: What is the overall benefit for this feature? If there is a good level of benefit such as 'reasonable costs' or uncapped limits, it is scored at 100. The policy with the lowest benefit limit scores 0, while the policy highest benefit limit is awarded 100. Those with benefit limits in between are scored relative to the upper and lower limits.
- Time limits: Some cover benefits have a time limit. Examples include the number of days a rental car is made available after an incident. Full points are awarded to policies with no time limit, while the shortest in the sample scores 0.
Penalties are applied where limits are specified and at least one policy in the sample has no sublimits. The intention of this penalty is to assess product complexity: a product with many sublimits, which the policy holder is required to keep abreast of, will have its score penalised across many features. The penalty is used where applicable in category limits and time limits.
Why we don't include the claims experience or customer satisfaction in our scoring
The reason for this is because there isn't any reliable data for either of these metrics. Financial regulators are in the process of developing a data collection process for claims handling. When this data begins to be published, we'll know things like what percentage of claims are accepted, and how long on average an insurer takes to settle a claim.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) publishes a dashboard summarising the complaints they receive. However, the data is not easily extracted, and we have concerns that the tool doesn't give enough information about an insurer's market share for us to compare them on a like-for-like basis.
In 2023 we conducted a nationally representative satisfaction survey for car insurance customers, looking at things like the claiming experience and what makes people loyal to their insurer. In our comparison we list the percentage of respondents who rated their experience with their home insurer as "above average" or "excellent" as the satisfaction score.
Not every insurer has this score, because it's difficult to get a large enough sample size for small insurers. As a result, we can't include this score in the CHOICE Expert Rating, but it's still worth looking at if you're in the market for a new policy.
We're on your side
In more than 60 years of making a difference for Australian consumers, we've never taken ads or sponsorship.
Instead we're funded by members who value expert reviews and independent product testing.
With no self-interest behind our advice, you don't just buy smarter, you get the answers that you need.
You know without hesitation what's safe for you and your family.
And you'll never be alone when something goes wrong or a business treats you unfairly.
Learn more about CHOICE membership today
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
