A guide to reading your car insurance PDS

A Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) is a legal document that helps you make sense of a particular car insurance product. It details what is and isn’t included, and any relevant terms and conditions. It also offers important information about features, fees, claims, excesses and use cases that can help you make more informed policy decisions.

If you’re weighing up GIO’s four levels of Car Insurance cover, the PDS can help you determine which is right for you. Knowing where to find certain information in a PDS can also help if you ever need to make a claim.  

Here’s a quick guide to what you’ll find in the GIO Car Insurance PDS.

About your cover

The ‘About your cover’ section clearly breaks down what is and isn’t covered by GIO’s different levels of insurance. Some things to look for if you’re comparing each type of cover include:

• Cover for accidental loss or damage. This can include damage from hail, storm (including cyclone), flood, fire (including bushfire), collision and theft. This type of cover can be relevant if, for example, you have a new car or live in a flood-prone area.
• Additional covers. This can include things like access to a hire car after a theft or not at-fault accident (conditions apply), or replacement of your car if it’s written off in the first two years of registration (conditions apply).
• Optional covers. Here you’ll find information on options such as GIO Roadside Assist and windscreen and window glass cover (and any limits, exclusions and conditions that may apply). Optional covers like this can help give extra peace of mind by giving you a direct line to help if you need it.

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Claims and excesses

The ‘Claims and excesses’ section of the PDS gives you a step-by-step guide on how to make a car insurance claim in different situations, taking the guesswork out of the process.

This section also describes the different types of excesses, including the standard excess, voluntary excess, age excess, inexperienced driver excess and driver history excess.

How we settle your claim

The car insurance claims process isn’t always the same. For example, if your car is stolen, the settlement period and process is different than if you’ve had an accident resulting in a total loss of your car.

GIO lists a number of different scenarios in the ‘How we settle your claim’ section of our PDS. It details benefits during the claims process related to our different levels of insurance, such as access to a hire car, and how many days it takes to settle your claim.

You can find the terms and conditions for authorising your own repairer here too, and what happens if you let GIO take care of the repair process for you.

The GIO Car Insurance Additional Information Guide

The GIO Car Insurance Additional Information Guide is a handy supplement to the PDS. The guide provides additional information about excesses, how we calculate premiums and the discounts available under the policy. If you're ever confused by an excess, claim or what's covered after you've read the PDS, this guide is the place to go!

Read more:

• What should I check when renewing my car insurance?
• Choosing third party property damage vs. comprehensive car insurance
• What’s the difference between amount covered and market value?

Insurance issued by AAI Limited ABN 48 005 297 807 trading as GIO. Consider the Product Disclosure Statement before buying this insurance.
This advice has been prepared without taking into account your particular objectives, financial situations or needs, so you should consider whether it is appropriate for you before acting on it.