{"id":847335,"date":"2026-08-07T23:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/847335\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:46:12","slug":"brisbane-nurse-recovers-9k-junk-insurance-refund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/847335\/","title":{"rendered":"Brisbane nurse recovers $9k junk insurance refund"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Brisbane nurse recovered almost $9000 after reviewing old loans that had long been forgotten \u2013 and experts say millions of Australians could be in for a similar windfall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carl Fornilios never expected money back until friends encouraged him to check his old bank statements<\/a> and loan documents.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have almost $9000 returned has been a huge help,\u201d Fornilios said.\u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly had no idea this money was there,\u201d he told nine.com.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Industry estimates reveal up to one in three Australian households<\/a> may have held consumer credit insurance or similar add-on products before lenders pulled them from the market in 2019 following the banking royal commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fornilios was one of them. After looking at his previous accounts through claims management company Claimo, he secured refunds for two old novated leases and a credit card.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hear about refunds and compensation stories, but you never think you could be one of the people affected. To have almost $9000 returned has been a huge help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fornilios used the money to pay off an old debt<\/a> and help his wife<\/a> with her expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never expected I\u2019d be owed that much money from unused insurance … I\u2019ve told my workmates about my experience, and I hope they\u2019ve checked whether they\u2019re eligible too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Claimo managing director Nathan Mortlock said many people only discover they are owed money years after taking out a loan.\u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

Finder money expert Richard Whitten said advocates have long dubbed consumer credit insurance as \u201cjunk insurance\u201d due to its dismal return for customers.<\/p>\n

He pointed to a landmark review from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission<\/a> (ASIC), which found that customers who made successful claims typically received just 11 to 19 cents back for every dollar paid in premiums.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means it simply isn\u2019t worth the money, even for those who take advantage of it,\u201d Whitten said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Banks scrapped credit card insurance following an ASIC crackdown on junk insurance products. \u00a0Ben Rushton\/Fairfax Media<\/p>\n

Whitten said people reviewing old finance products should search loan contracts and product disclosure statements for terms including \u201ccredit insurance\u201d or \u201cloan protection insurance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked how far back people could go, he said it would depend on the individual insurance contract and its terms.<\/p>\n

Claimo managing director Nathan Mortlock said many people only discover they are owed money years after taking out a loan.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarl is exactly the type of Australian we hear from every day \u2013 someone who worked hard, paid their bills and had no idea they may have been paying for insurance they didn\u2019t need or couldn\u2019t use,\u201d Mortlock said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest lesson is don\u2019t assume you aren\u2019t entitled to anything just because you don\u2019t remember having the insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) said Australians lodged a record 119,949 complaints in 2025-26 \u2013 marking the third consecutive year complaints have topped 100,000.<\/p>\n

Banking and finance remained the authority\u2019s busiest area, with personal transaction accounts, motor vehicle insurance<\/a>, and credit cards the most complained about. <\/p>\n

\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brisbane nurse recovered almost $9000 after reviewing old loans that had long been forgotten \u2013 and experts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-847335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847335","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=847335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}