Huddle car insurance

Who is Huddle underwritten by?

Huddle’s insurance policies are underwritten by The Hollard Insurance Company. Established in South Africa in 1980, Hollard Insurance went global more than 20 years ago and has been operating in Australia since 1999. Today Hollard underwrites a vast number of Australian insurance providers including Woolworths, Bupa, Pet Insurance Australia and RSPCA Pet Insurance.

What types of car insurance does Huddle offer?

On a basic level Huddle offers two types of insurance: third party and comprehensive. For comprehensive you can choose from either the ‘Everyday Comprehensive’ policy or ‘Huddle Black Comprehensive’ policy. The latter being the highest level of cover you can get for your wheels with Huddle. 

As well as these options there’s also a whole bunch of extras to choose from and you can even select Huddle’s Pay As You Drive Cover option if your car isn’t driven often.

What does Huddle’s Everyday Comprehensive Car Insurance cover?

Huddle’s Everyday Comprehensive Car Insurance comes with all the benefits you would expect from a comprehensive level of cover. These include:

• Up to $20 million of legal liability

• Cover for damage the use of your car you may cause to someone else’s vehicle or property

• Cover for loss or damage of your car if you are involved in an accident

• Cover for your car if it is damaged as a result of theft or attempted theft, malicious damage, fire, and natural events like hail, storm, flood and bushfire

• New for old car replacement - applies if your car is written off up to 2 years after original registration and you're its first owner

• $70 a day cover for a hire car following a theft for 14 days

• Up to $1,000 worth of trailer and caravan cover

• Up to $500 for essential repairs

• Up to $500 worth of cover for baby seats and prams

• Up to $500 for personal property

• Emergency travel and accommodation covered up to $500 if over 200km from home

• Up to $1,000 worth of cover for locks and keys if your vehicle’s keys are stolen

• Reasonable towing costs

If you want to increase your cover roadside assistance (provided by Allianz Global Assistance), Kanga cover, excess-free windscreen cover (for one claim per year), and up to $3,000 worth of sports gear cover (terms apply) are available as optional extras and services.

What else does Huddle Black Comprehensive Car Insurance offer?

Above is the information for Huddle’s Everyday Comprehensive Insurance, if you’re keen to get the highest level cover possible that’s offered by Huddle, you can up the ante and go for Huddle Black Comprehensive Car Insurance. This includes everything that the Everyday policy has, plus more. The main differences are:

• Up to $30 million of legal liability (instead of $20 million)

• Your choice of repairer 

• New for old car replacement for a vehicle up to 3 years old (applies if the your car has travelled less than 70,000kms and you’re the first owner)

• $80 a day cover for a hire car following a theft, for a maximum of 14 days

• Up to $1,000 worth of cover for personal property

• Up to $2,000 worth of cover for emergency travel and accommodation (if over 100km from home)

• Up to $2,000 worth of cover for locks and keys if your vehicle’s keys are stolen

• Rental car excess or bond cover in Australia, up to $2,000

• 24/7 Roadside assistance is also automatically included (provided by Allianz Global Assistance)

As you can see Huddle Black includes more extensive cover than the Everyday Comprehensive policy. It also offers a few extra perks and services such as choice of repairer, help with rental car excess in Australia and bundled roadside assistance. These are either not included in Huddle's Everyday Comprehensive policy, or are only available as optional extras and services.

What does Huddle car insurance not cover?

Of course, as with all insurance policies, there are some exclusions to be aware of. Some instances in which Huddle will not cover you include:

• If you use the wrong fuel in your car

• For non-essential repairs that Huddle did not approve

• For mechanical damage which occurs as a result of you knowingly driving your car in an already damaged condition

• Tyre damaged caused by braking, punctures, cuts or bursts

• Damage to your car from wear and tear, e.g. from rust or corrosion

• More than the insured value of your vehicle

• Damage or loss caused by deliberate, malicious, or criminal acts that you cause or give consent to someone else to carry out

Read the product disclosure statement (available on Huddle’s website) for the full list of exclusions that apply to this policy.

More FAQs on Huddle's car insurance

How does Huddle’s Pay As You Drive car insurance work?

Huddle’s ‘Pay As You Drive’ car insurance is basically its comprehensive cover but with a discount of up to 30% for driving less than 15,000km per year. That is you can get ‘Pay As You Drive’ cover with either the Everyday Comprehensive or Huddle Black Comprehensive policies - it is not available with Huddle’s Third Party Property Insurance.

Of course you’ll have to prove that you do indeed drive less than the kilometres you select in the insurance year. How does Huddle track that you ask? Well it works like this:

• When you sign up, you’ll be be able to purchase between 1,000km and 15,000km for the year (you’ll have to judge this on how many kilometres your car is usually driven in one year)

• Huddle will then ask for your current odometer reading - which you must supply within 14 days of your policy starting

• Your odometer reading at the end of the insurance period should be your start reading, plus the kilometres you bought

If you think you might go over your chosen kilometres, you can apply to top them up via the ‘manage policies’ part of your account. Although if you do have to do this, just remember that your premium payment will change.

If you need to make a claim, a $1,000 additional excess may apply, if:

• Your odometer reading is less than the start odometer reading or above your end odometer as set out on your Certificate of Insurance; or

• If you failed to provide Huddle with your start odometer reading within 14 days of your policy start date

How does Kanga cover work?

Available as an optional extra, Huddle’s Kanga cover is quite unique. It provides excess-free cover for your first animal collision during any one 12-month period of insurance. So should you be unlucky enough to hit an animal, Huddle will process your claimexcess-free.

This additional benefit may be useful if you drive late at night or live in a more rural area. Just keep in mind that opting for it will increase the amount you pay for your premium. Read our article: what to do if you hit a wild animal for tips on general wildlife road awareness.

What does Huddle’s third party property car insurance cover?

If your budget is a little tight or you’re after a more basic level of cover, you might be interested in Huddle’s Third Party Property Insurance. This will provide you for cover if:

• The use of your vehicle causes damage to someone else’s vehicle or propety

• Your vehicle is damaged by an uninsured driver (cover is capped at $3,000 and some conditions do apply)

• Up to $20 million of legal liability

If you want to boost your Third Party Property cover, there is also the option to add cover for fire and theft. With

the optional Fire & Theft Cover, your car will be covered if it is damaged by fire (including bushfire), theft or attempted theft up to $10,000. In those instances you will be covered for:

• A hire car after theft for up to $70 per day, for a maximum of 14 days

• Essential repairs up to $500

• Personal property damage up to $500

• Emergency travel and accommodation up to $500 if over 200km from home

• Locks and keys up to $1,000 if your vehicle’s keys are stolen
  

• Reasonable towing costs

What does 24/7 Roadside Assistance cover?

Included with Huddle Black Comprehensive Insurance, or available as an optional services with Huddle's other car insurance policies, roadside assistance through supplier Allianz Global includes:

• Automotive assistance, e.g. help with inflating a flat tyre or replacing a flat tyre.

• Minor automotive repairs - get help with minor breakdown-related repairs.

• Help with a flat battery - if your car battery is flat, your car will either be jump-started or the delivery of a replacement battery will be organised. The cost of the replacement battery is extra. Roadside assistance will simply help with the logistics of getting it to you. 

• Delivery of emergency fuel. Should you run out of fuel,  you'll be delivered enough fuel so that you can reach the nearest petrol station. 

• Help with lost or stolen keys. If you've lost your keys or had them stolen, you'll be provided help to obtain a spare key, or for a locksmith to be called out. Cover limit applies.

• Help to arrange towing. If your vehicle cannot be repaired at the roadside, it will be towed to the nearest repairer. This is up to 50km in a metro area or up to 100km in a regional area. 

What excess range does Huddle offer?

With Huddle you can choose to pay a car insurance excess from as little as $500 to as much as $5,000. Just remember that the lower the excess, the higher the premium on your policy.

What does Huddle’s B Corp certification mean?

You may have noticed from Huddle’s website that it is ‘B Corp’ certified. This is a private certification administered by the organisation B Lab. To achieve the certification a company must score at least 80 points out of 200 in the B Impact Assessment. The assessment looks at the environmental, social and governance impact the company has. 

To summarise, B Lab aims to encourage businesses to be about more than just profit and show that no company can be truly sustainable without considering seriously its impact on the world at large. Indeed as part of this Huddle is also part of the 1% for the planet program. Every company that is part of this scheme donates at least 1% of its revenue to a cause that supports the planet.

How do I make a claim with Huddle?

You can lodge a claim with Huddle at any time of the day or night through a 24/7 online claims system, accessible through their online portal. In fact, this is where Huddle’s tech expertise really comes into play, as the online claims system uses machine learning and clever AI technology to automatically approve some car insurance claims, begin organising repairs and help. In essence, Huddle has streamlined and digitised the claims process that would traditionally be all paper or phone-based. Here’s a quick rundown of the process:

• First you’ll log into your account through the online portal

• Then you’ll tell Huddle what happened

• After that you’ll be asked to provide some info, such as photos

• Finally either your claim will be approved (sometimes within minutes!) will approve your claim, or if it’s a little more complicated it will hand it will be managed by one Huddle's Australia based claims team.

How does Huddle calculate vehicle insurance premiums?

Some information that Huddle will use to work out your insurance premium includes:

• What type of cover you want, e.g. Huddle Black or Third Party Property

• What make and model of vehicle you have

• Where your vehicle is normally parked at night

• Who drives your vehicle, e.g. how old they are and what their driving history is
  

• The value of you choose to insure your vehicle for