{"id":229316,"date":"2025-10-21T06:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T06:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/229316\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T06:39:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T06:39:11","slug":"racq-apologises-to-customers-for-problems-with-insurance-renewal-notices-amid-potential-multimillion-dollar-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/229316\/","title":{"rendered":"RACQ apologises to customers for problems with insurance renewal notices amid potential multimillion-dollar lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

RACQ has apologised for problems with insurance renewal notices that have triggered a potential multimillion-dollar lawsuit from regulators, but says mysteries remain about what went wrong.<\/p>\n

“To you, and all our members \u2014 I’m sorry. This matter is certainly not in line with our high standards or the experience we strive to offer,” RACQ chief executive David Carter said at the organisation’s annual general meeting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

RACQ complaint numbers spike<\/a><\/p>\n

RACQ has seen a spike in complaints as premiums rise and insurance claims are mishandled.<\/p>\n

RACQ is one of Queensland’s biggest customer-owned organisations, with almost 1.7 million members.<\/p>\n

It offers services including insurance and roadside assistance.<\/p>\n

ASIC launches action<\/p>\n

The organisation was hit with a Federal Court lawsuit from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in September, which alleged more than half a million renewal notices were misleading or false because they did not properly compare old and new prices.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit stemmed from an ABC investigation<\/a> into problems with RACQ’s insurance arm. It had been sending renewal letters that compared a new premium for an upcoming year against a “last period premium” \u2014 but the previous year’s number was not necessarily what a client paid.<\/p>\n

That “last period premium” could exclude details such as discounts subsequently agreed to after an initial quote.<\/p>\n

In one case, the renewal notice indicated a customer’s previous period premium was $6,930.55 and new offer was for $7,033.57 \u2014 a 1.5 per cent rise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In reality, the customer had actually paid only $5,024.18 in the previous year, after negotiating a discount, so the renewal was a 39.9 per cent rise.<\/p>\n

Improvements made, company says\"A<\/p>\n

David Carter addressed the organisation’s annual general meeting on Tuesday. (ABC News: Curtis Rodda)<\/p>\n

Mr Carter on Tuesday told members that “the limitations of the comparison price shown should have been explained on the renewal notice”.<\/p>\n

RACQ has since updated its systems and renewal notices.<\/p>\n

The company is also pledging to work with ASIC to resolve the case, which is still in court.<\/p>\n

Mr Carter declined to specify any expected damages payout but confirmed any penalties would be retained, and not covered by any commercial insurance protection.<\/p>\n

“It was wrong, we reported it, and the consequences are the consequences,” he told the ABC after the meeting.<\/p>\n

The company recently sold a large chunk of its insurance business to industry giant IAG for almost $950 million.<\/p>\n

RACQ was previously hit with a $10 million fine in a separate ASIC case alleging misleading conduct with discounts, while IAG also copped a $40 million penalty in a similar discounting case.<\/p>\n

The problems with the issuing and handling of renewal notices has dismayed some former figures with RACQ who have spoken with the ABC.<\/p>\n

Do you know more?Contact Liam Walsh at walsh.liam@abc.net.au<\/a><\/p>\n

ASIC’s latest case against RACQ alleges that when the company brought in price comparison figures in 2019, several staff knew problems existed with the comparison and customers almost immediately started complaining.<\/p>\n

One complaint even went to a then-senior RACQ executive, ASIC alleged, but was never referred to internal committees until November last year when the ABC asked questions.<\/p>\n

\"RACQ<\/p>\n

RACQ is one of Queensland’s biggest customer-owned organisations, with almost 1.7 million members. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Mr Carter acknowledged on Tuesday that complaint feedback “got escalated to a fairly senior level” years earlier.<\/p>\n

“What we can’t identify is what happened with the information. So what we can’t see is what decision got made with the escalation.”<\/p>\n

Asked how RACQ could therefore ensure such a problem did not occur again, he maintained the business had been transforming internal risk processes to improve capability and culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“When things get raised, someone takes action,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Carter said technology improvements would also help determine any patterns and identify problems with complaints.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RACQ has apologised for problems with insurance renewal notices that have triggered a potential multimillion-dollar lawsuit from regulators,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5799,64,63,99,4631,138511,93566,94,701,11228,138510],"class_list":["post-229316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-asic","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-insurance","tag-insurance-notice","tag-insurance-premium","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-racq","tag-royal-automobile-club-of-queensland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}