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Our verdict
It's good for choice. GIO home insurance lets you choose from 3 levels of cover: Classic, Classic Extras and Platinum.
Classic Extras and Platinum Home and Contents comes with cover for things most insurers only have as optional extras like portable valuables cover, accidental damage at home, motor burnout, a sum insured safety net and higher limits.
If you don't want a comprehensive home insurance policy, it might be worth looking at more basic home insurance providers or GIO's Classic cover.
We don't currently have this brand on our panel. But don't fret! You can head to the GIO website or compare a bunch of other home insurance companies with finder.
GIO home insurance offers 3 different policies: combined home and contents insurance, home only insurance and contents only insurance. As well as choosing what you want covered, you can also select the level of cover you want. Each level offers different optional benefits and claims limits. These options are: Classic, Classic Extras and Platinum.
Here's a short overview of what insured events are covered:
All policies come with a 21-day cooling off period, which is the same as other insurers. You can cancel your policy within this timeframe for a full refund as long as you haven't made a claim. You'll also be required to pay an excess when you make a claim, and possibly more than 1 excess depending on what you're claiming for.
We looked at home insurance complaint data from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) between July 2020 and June 2021. The data breaks down different underwriters and compares their business size to the number of complaints processed.
When comparing insurers, keep in mind that insurers with a larger market share serve more customers, so can potentially get more complaints.
Here's an overview of how GIO (AAI Limited) did:
AAI is considered a very large fund so it’s expected that it would receive a relatively high number of complaints.
Only 26.38% of complaints were resolved with the customer – most had to be escalated..
Bottom line about GIO home insurance
GIO home insurance is good if you want a very comprehensive insurance policy but not if you want an insurer with a good complaints record.
According to GIO's Target Market Determination (TMD) document, this product is suitable for:
Those who have an insured address within an acceptable state or territory
Those who own and live in their homes for residential purposes. Some parts of your home can be rented out for short-term stays but there is limited cover available
Those who want to insure their contents (used for domestic purposes) at a permanent residence, this can be for homeowners and renters
Those who have a home that meets underwriting criteria like having an acceptable building type, living in an acceptable postcode, and having a home that is maintained
Hold onto any damaged item, reports and documents after an incident and contact GIO as soon as possible. You can call them on 13 10 10 for more information about making a claim.
Yes, you need to pay an excess with GIO. An excess is the amount you have to pay for each incident when you make a claim. Sometimes you might have to pay more than one type of excess. For example, if a storm has damaged your house and a resulting flood damages its contents, you would need to make a separate claim for each incident.
GIO home insurance is underwritten by AAI limited.
A note about GIO home insurance reviews
If you've held or currently hold a GIO home insurance policy, we'd love to hear from you. Your reviews help other Australians decide if GIO is right for them. Some reviews are from a survey commissioned by Finder.
Gary Hunter is a writer at Finder, specialising in insurance. He’s been writing about life, health, travel, home and pet insurance for over three years, has pored over hundreds of product disclosure statements and written more than 500 insurance articles. Gary holds a Tier 1 General Insurance (General Advice) certification and is passionate about helping Aussies understand their policies so that they can get better value for their money.
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