Don’t Pay Too Much For Your Greenslip

It’s that time of year again. Car registration.

I don’t know what I was thinking buying a car so close to my birthday, but I did and now I have to live with that.

Greenslips or Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance is a form of car insurance that protects vehicle owners and drivers from legal liability for personal injury to any other party in the event of a personal injury claim. CTP Greenslip insurance does not cover damage to property or other vehicles. It is compulsory and is a condition of motor vehicle registration in NSW, Australia.

CTP insurance is provided by a 7 insurers (AAMI, Allianz, CIC Allianz, GIO, NRMA, QBE, and Zurich) who set their prices in a competitive market.

They take factors into account such as:

• Your driving record
• The age of all regular drivers of your car
• The age of your car
• The type of car you have
• What other kinds of insurance you have (comprehensive or third party property insurance for example)
• How you use your car (private, business or a combination of both eg: pizza delivery on weekends)
• Whether or not it’s a renewal or a new green slip

How this weighs out for each insurer is a reflection of the risk profile associated with those factors for each company.

I received a renewal offer from the NRMA this week with a quote of $614.43. Now I know I can do better than that.

The NSW Motor Accident Authority provides a free Green Slip price comparison service on its website which will quote the price from all 7 insurers in less than 5 minutes based on your details.

So I entered all my details and received a quote from QBE for exactly the same coverage for only $337.85! That a saving of $276.58 for only a few minutes filling out an online form!

Not too shabby.

Subscribe in a reader or Subscribe via email

Washer + My Personal MacGyver = Car Fixed

My car is all fixed! Car Guy came over the other night, took one look at it and said he would be able to fix it himself.

We were in need of a washer to bolt the bumper bar back onto the front of the car, and of course being a girl/renter I didn't have one in the garage. If only you could fix a car with cases of red wine, I'd be all set!

He then spied an ingenious and frugal solution. I had an old lamp with a broken shade stored in the back of the garage. Its shade was glass and had smashed during my move in January, and I wasn't able to get a replacement one. It happened to have a washer type bit on the bottom near the cord. To get to it we had to cut the power cord though so the lamp itself is toast.

I also thought the bulb had gone on the Speedometer, but he suspected I'd just turned the dimmer down accidentally (my car has a dimmer, who knew?) and sure enough that was the problem.

So rather than my expected smash repair expenses, I have a fully functional car again and it only cost me a tall cold glass of Coke Zero and a nice catch up chat with my personal MacGyver afterwards. Bargain!

I don't know what I'd do without my very own MacGyver, spend hundreds of dollars unnecessarily no doubt…

Note: wine was purchased before my debt diet commenced.

Subscribe in a reader or Subscribe via email

KFC Made Me Crash My Car

I worked back really late last night to get through some work I'd been pushing aside for too long, and then downloaded some Uni work.

I was really tired and decided to splurge on some KFC on my way home for dinner. So I popped home and got in the car and headed off to KFC. After picking up my food, I hopped back into the car to back out of the spot and head home.

I was absolutely convinced I was in reverse, I distinctly remember looking at the gear changer and everything, but my brain saw D and thought R. I was of course n drive and ran into a wooden retaining wall and rose bush.

I’m fine and the car itself is fine, but I’ll need to spend money getting the front bumper bar fixed, as it’s currently hanging off the front. Classy.

Serves me right buying take away food after a long day at work, I should have gone straight home and made something out of the pantry like a good debt dieter.

Home cooked meals would not have let this happen!

Car Guy is coming over this week to survey the damage, so I’ll know what to do next, but I’m not keen to drive it anywhere until it’s fixed.

I wonder how much that’s going to set me back, at least I have the cash available to pay for it, but man, just once I’d like to be able to leave it in the account for more than a month at a time!

Subscribe in a reader or Subscribe via email

Yet Another Reason Why An Emergency Fund Is A Good Idea

Tempt the fates with a bold statement for the New Year's financial plans and they mock you.

My car had started making a really loud and weird noise last week, so I took it in to the mechanic and they called to say they've found the problem. It’s the air compressor in the air conditioning unit. They can disable the air conditioning for me in the short term and use a new belt to work around it so the alternator will still charge the battery (I think I got that right?)

This will only cost around $35 including labour; however when they were testing it to locate the noise, they found the rear brakes were locking up. Further investigation found that one of the rear brake pads was installed backwards, which caused a high spot on the drum, so they need to machine the drum to correct it. So that’s an extra $70. Still OK so far.

Unfortunately the front shocks are very spongy (I had noticed this myself I confess), so they will need to be replaced which is $550.

So all up I’m looking at $655 to get it all fixed. I’m not prepared to mess about with this sort of repair and put my safety (and potentially others) at risk, so the snowball for January will be going on that, plus the $45 a month I’ve budgeted for car repairs and servicing which should just about cover it.

I’m so pleased I am able to pay in cash, it’s only a tiny thing in the scheme of things, but every time I don’t have to use a card is a step toward being free of them forever. Even if it means they only get minimum payments this month.

I've rebooked the car in for the service I'd actually taken it in for in the first place for next month, as that’s $220 and I don’t have it without relying on credit.

Subscribe in a reader or Subscribe via email

I'm A Volkswagen EOS In Debt!

It struck me today that the amount of debt I'm in is almost exactly the same amount it would cost to buy my 'realistic dream car', a brand new and fully optioned VW EOS.

It was a huge light bulb moment for me, for two reasons. One, I can't believe I let things get so bad that I'm a 'sweet car in debt'. Two, now I'm in such a debt reduction mindset I can't believe that I'd ever spend over $55,000AUS on a car!

That said, by the time I've paid off all my debt and fully funded my emergency fund, I should be able to pick up a second hand one for much less than that. Score!

Subscribe in a reader or Subscribe via email