Andrew was watching Sunrise in January 2023 when he saw a news segment about junk insurance.
The 47-year-old never usually watches morning TV but this particular morning it was on — probably thanks to one of his children.
After watching a segment on the show, the vice principal in Perth realised he may be eligible for a payout and months later he received a $6500 refund he had no idea he was entitled to.
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Junk insurance refers to coverage attached to loans and credit cards that is either unnecessary or worthless.
This includes consumer credit insurance, mortgage protection insurance and tyre and rim insurance.
Following a banking royal commission finding in 2019, financial institutions were ordered to set aside $10 billion to refund people who had purchased junk insurance.
The segment Andrew saw on Sunrise was for Claimo, a company that assists Australians with junk insurance refunds.
The company processes the claims by launching an investigation for the customer, taking a 20 per cent cut plus GST for their efforts.
Andrew told 7NEWS.com.au he was intrigued by the notion of junk insurance given he had taken out two car loans about 10 years ago.
“I just basically put in all my details (with Claimo) and then they came back to me,” he said.
“There was two (junk insurance claims) for two different vehicles.
“One was … insurance protection for the car loan.”
One of the loans was with Esanda (now ANZ), while the other was with St George Bank.
“The Esanda one I definitely had no idea I was paying for something,” Andrew said.
“The St George one, I think I did but I wasn’t 100 per cent sure what it was … (the bank employee) basically said it protected my loan, but then apparently the actual policy wouldn’t have done anything if I’d have to use it.”
After providing a few more details to Claimo, Andrew was issued a refund of $6500 only a few months later.
He said the money came at the perfect time, with his wife coming off maternity leave and only working part-time.
“She’s also studying, so before all the interest rate hikes, we’d budgeted (for) … her working three days a week and studying, paying for that and … to get that extra money was a really good surprise,” Andrew said.
According to Claimo, as many as one million Australian first responders, government workers, and teachers may be eligible for a junk insurance refund.
It said government workers, frontline workers and teachers are often sold car leases which promote the benefit of tax deductions.
“When these staff find out they’ve been duped into extra add-ons they didn’t want or need, they’re pretty riled up about it,” Claimo director Nathan Mortlock said.
“We even see examples of police officers getting told that they had to have this insurance on their home loans.”
Andrew said the process of claiming his refund was simple, and that it cost him nothing to check if he was owed any money.
“I certainly wouldn’t have realised they would pay (me) $6500 that I didn’t know (about),” he said.
“It’s worth doing it, even if the answer’s nothing’s there, there could be something there you’re not aware of.”
