Youi Insurance Pushing a ‘Cheap’ Policy Benefit

It’s pretty damning about their processes and sales tactics.

While what Youi does was obvious to those in the industry, with their direct push model, and focusing on cheapness rather than benefits, it’s not just Youi who does this, they have been the most blatant.

For some reason General Insurance, that is to say, house, contents, car etc, has been devalued by the market and consumers to the point where it’s a commodity, like milk. That is, we see no difference between providers, assume they are all the same, and buy purely on price.

This report came to the ultimate conclusion with Youi, where people were buying contents policies, just because they were cheap, but never read the policy wording, that showed that it did not cover your belongings out of the home, which is pretty much standard in premiere policies with the other insurers.

I have personally seen clients who were assured by their insurers that their policy covered loss of rent for their investment property, only to find out that they were paying extra for loss of rent due to accident but had no cover for loss of rent due to tenants actions, and that other insurers cover accidental loss of rent as standard, and only charge extra for tenants actions.

Or clients who have been sold a cheap house policy, but do not realise they have moved from a policy that would rebuild their home regardless of price, to one that is sum insured only.

Many people assume that because their bank can sell them insurance that they have the right advice, but most bank staff cannot advise you, can only sell the one policy the bank sells, and its actually just another insurance companies policy with their logo on it.

So what’s the answer? The answer, from my perspective is to treat General insurance with the same important as life insurances, that is, take advice from a professional adviser with a written report, review it every year, or when things change. And don’t buy purely on price, sometimes a better policy, or a better support network at claim time, might cost a few dollars.