General Insurance Refund Guide | Remediator
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EVER BEEN SUBJECTED TO HIGH-PRESSURE SALES TACTICS BY AN INSURANCE SALESPERSON?

you could be OWED A REFUND

Joel Gibson, Consumer Expert

Featured in A Current Affairs, The Daily Telegraph, The Advertiser, Herald, The Courier Mail

ARE YOU ENTITLED TO A REFUND ON YOUR INSURANCE PREMIUMS?

Have you ever been pressured into buying Car Insurance, Home or Contents Insurance, Pet Insurance, Life Insurance, Funeral Insurance, Income Protection or Accident/Injury Insurance?

 

If so, you might be entitled to a refund of your premiums, plus interest.

 

After hunting down millions of dollars in refunds on “junk insurance” and financial advice fees, Remediator is now looking into a broader range of “mis-sold insurances” too.

After the revelations of the 2018 Banking Royal Commission, Remediator believes millions of dollars worth of insurance could have been “mis-sold” to Australians over the past 20 years using dodgy tactics such as:
 

  • pressure selling, 

  • hawking, 

  • misleading representations, 

  • non-disclosure of key information,

  • incorrectly charged premiums and 

  • unfairly-declined claims.

No Refund, No Fee!

No Refund, No Fee!

We Find Your Refunds

If you think you might have been a victim of any of the sales tactics listed above, contact Remediator and ask for a FREE eligibility check.

REAL WORLD EXAMPLE: FREEDOM INSURANCE COLD-CALLED AND SOLD INSURANCE TO A 26 YEAR OLD DISABLED MAN

Freedom Insurance was a life insurance company that sold policies over the phone.

 

In 2016, a Freedom Insurance salesman with a history of high-pressure sales tactics cold-called a 26-year-old man with Downs Syndrome and sold him multiple policies over the phone, setting up a series of direct debits to pay the premiums.

 

The customer’s only income at the time was a Disability Support Pension.

 

The customer’s father, Baptist minister Grant Stewart, told the Banking Royal Commission how he had later discovered the policies and Freedom initially refused to cancel them.

 

Mr Stewart said the incident had a lasting impact on his son, who had not understood the cold call and blamed himself for the sale and lost self-confidence.

 

In 2019, Freedom announced it would wind up all its operating businesses and return any leftover money to shareholders.

 

In October 2021, ASIC launched civil proceedings against the former managing director of Freedom and a former Quality Control Manager, alleging they incentivised salespeople with overseas holidays if they reached certain sales targets and a Vespa scooter if they made the most sales.

WHICH INSURANCE TYPES MIGHT HAVE BEEN ‘MIS-SOLD’?

 

Examples could include:

 

  • Property & Contents Insurance

  • Car Insurance

  • Travel Insurance

  • Ticket Protection Insurance

  • Pet Insurance

  • Sickness & Accident Insurance 

  • Medical Indemnity Insurance

  • Life Insurance

  • Funeral Insurance

  • Small Business Insurance

  • Income Protection

  • Purchase Protection/Extended Warranty

WHAT IS "HAWKING"?

Hawking is when a salesperson cold-calls you even though you never opted in for a phone call and tries to sell you insurance or some other financial product. 

 

As a result of the revelations of the Royal Commission and other watchdog investigations, the hawking of some financial products is now BANNED. ASIC says: 

 

“Under the prohibition a person must not offer a financial product to a retail client in the course of or because of unsolicited, real-time contact. A consumer must consent to being contacted, and that consent must be positive, voluntary and clear.”

 

So next time the phone rings, don’t just tell them where to go. Dob them in!

 

ASIC did a big review of unsolicited life insurance sales calls in 2018 and found poor consumer outcomes, with  40% of consumers feeling under pressure to buy a product.

 

“This led to recent criminal proceedings for the hawking of life insurance, and to date ASIC has helped secure over $250 million in consumer remediation for consumer credit insurance and life insurance.”

 

Have you been pressured into buying an insurance product? Ask Remediator whether you’re eligible for a refund.

No Refund, No Fee!

No Refund, No Fee!

Don't know if you're a victim? Ask us to do a free refund eligibility check!

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