Australian Unity Health Insurance Reviews 1,245

Australian Unity Bank is the worst banking service I ever had. As other reviews have pointed out, reaching their telephone customer service is extremely difficult and frustrating. They don't have any physical branch so bad luck if you have any banking problem!

Australian Unity Bank has a pathetic $1250 daily transfer limit, which makes their online banking ridiculous and frustrating. They promise to increase your daily transfer limit to $10000 if you set up a mobile SMS OTP. To my disappointment, my daily transfer limit is still $1250 after setting up their SMS OTP.

What a joke! You have to manually make the transfer for 10 days if you have $12500 in Australian Unity Bank!!! This makes me wonder if they deliberately make transferring money difficult so they can hold your money for a longer period...

I made a transfer out of my Australian Unity account on Saturday, but it's still not received on Monday night. Again makes me wonder if they deliberately make transferring money difficult.

Update: the other bank said they might refuse to accept my transfer from Australian Unity bank because it's 'held under a different name'. In fact, Australian Unity has used my initials and my surname for my account instead of my full name. This again shows their incompetence and disrespectful attitude towards customers. I will move all my assets away from Australian Unity and consider a formal complaint to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and other government regulatory bodies. Why don't they display my full name for my bank account?????

There’s no branches and they save on costs by redirected to a overseas call centre , there bank is terrible and not disability friendly be aware if you have a disability they are extremely hard to deal with

I broke my leg and finger in November which meant I needed to have 4 surgeries. I went to the private hospital, thinking that private insurance meant I could do that since I clearly have accident cover. I was booked in to surgery less than 24 hours after my accident. Much to my dismay, I discovered that you have to wait for your claim to be approved and Australian Unity are not open on weekends to verbally assist the customer or the hospital to confirm the cover.

What resulted was a convoluted process where I had to be transferred to the public system to wait approval, or pay $7000 straight up and that was just for the first surgery. I decided to go to the public hospital and wait the several days they needed to apparently approve the claim.

In written communication they stated that I should have gone to a public hospital first, and that normally people go to the private hospital when it is a pre-booked thing. They didn't write the correct name of the hospital so clearly they didn't pay too much attention to my complaint.

I raised the issue that my policy document and the website for Australian Unity do not make it clear that there is a process to follow before going to a private hospital. The complaints team was empathetic but I didn't end the conversation feeling like they were actually going to do anything about it except for suggest to another team that a change could be made. One staff member even simply asked me if I wanted to upgrade and pay more money for a different insurance plan, which just felt insulting.

I would have preferred to hear that they will establish an emergency line or a guidance document for people who have accidents on weekends if they cannot pay staff to be available on those days.

I have been a customer for 5 years and I do not believe my experience was good, I should have been able to have my operation when it was offered to me, less than 24 hours after the surgery.

Additionally, I was out of pocket $5000 by the end of my experience. I never received any clarity about how much the final cost would be, or I wouldn't have used my insurance.

Overall, I am not pleased with my experience. They did offer me a $500 voucher for my poor experience, but that was after talking to maybe 3-4 different people and the complaint lasting maybe 3 months. Plus, I want to move overseas so it probably will not be of much use.

In the end, I just feel like this company doesn't care about the customer and I will be taking my money elsewhere when I need Australian Cover again.

i changed funds and when went to hospital Aus Unity stated I had to serve a 12 month waiting period. Had cover for 40 years. Sent them the transfer certificates dating back multiple years. in March because of this issue had to pay hospital visit up front then lodged a claim for my refund. It is now end of May and still trying to sort out. Au Unity claim I have to now sort out with hospital - spent 4 hours in queue over multiple weeks trying to sort out - will be looking to move on.

I joined this fund one week ago and realised I made a mistake I sent them a email stating that I wanted to cancel a few days later they took a month payment then I get a email stating I am now applicable for six weeks free insurance. AHM sent them a request to stop but have been met with silence. Now I’m paying for 2 health premiums. I’m a pensioner and it’s killing me. What does one have to do to stop this ?

After 20+ years of excellent service from Australian Unity, over the last couple of years everything has deteriorated. In the past, claiming online was simple and straightforward and payment was almost instant. I knew I could rely on this and I could look back and check that the claims I had made were in the system. Now claims made 1 week and 2 weeks ago have still not been paid and there's no way online of confirming they have been received by Australian Unity (after 2 weeks you start to wonder if it actually went through).
Some extras services are now combined with others, like Chiropractic, and the yearly limit has been reduced by $150. But the limit for Physiotherapy is still $400. Why?? I rang today and waited 27 mins for my call to be answered only to be transferred to another consultant for whom I had to wait another 38 minutes. The recorded 'on hold' message replays every two minutes - it's like a form of torture, preventing me from being able to concentrate on other tasks while waiting! Ugh!
Unlike last year, when I spoke to three different consultants about one issue, today the consultant was very helpful and escalated my claims - time will tell if I do actually receive payment within 48 hours.

After joining, I realised that I had made a mistake, and reverted to my previous insurer, who said that they take care of everything, so I had no need to contact AU. That was a mth ago, and AU have still NOT PROVIDED the required Cert Of Tfr to my current provider, despite several requests, inc some from myself. I have waited on the pho at least an hr each time...and still no Cert received. SHOCKING!

Australian Unity are the worst health insurers I've ever been with. Took out hospital and extras with Aus Unity 1 year ago because they claimed they paid better benefits on their orthodontic cover than our previous insurer. We moved to a comparable policy which made us immediately eligible for all the extras without a waiting period.
Tried to make a claim for orthodontic which was rejected. Spent a very long time on the phone to someone who had no idea what they were talking about. This became too hard so I contacted our dental office to find out if they could provide additional paperwork to support our claim. Lodged the new paperwork (more than I ever needed to supply for our old health insurer), again the claim was rejected.
I rang and it was confirmed, by the only staff member who had a clue, that the claim was eligible for full benefit. The case was reopened and escalated for immediate processing. No payout and no correspondence after 3 weeks so I called and was told the case had been closed again - this time with no notification.
Case was reopened and escalated AGAIN! I called again after 3 days to be told the case was closed AGAIN, without any correspondence. 1 and 1/2 hour phone call speaking to "senior staff" who still had no idea and could not answer any of my questions - just kept giving me answers to questions I hadn't asked.
I have contacted our dental office again and they have kindly forwarded every note on file to prove when we attended appointments and orthodontist's narration of exactly what work was done - the invoices, receipts, treatment plans and written confirmation from the orthodontist of ongoing treatment was not good enough for Australian Unity.
I am now hoping for the best (but expecting the drama to continue). I made a complaint to Australian Unity but I doubt it will be taken seriously. I also politely advised them that I would make as many people as possible aware of how poorly they perform - communication is pathetic, their staff have no clue, their procedures and document requirements are unreasonable, the wait times are horrendous and I 100% regret ever taking out a policy with Australian Unity.

Australian unity bank. Incredibly dissapointed. My bank account which I’ve had for 30 years back when it was racv credit union. My account was compromised by several overseas “websites” there was little assistance with the exception of “contact the merchant” that’s tricky when it’s a dodgy scam site. I have lost hundreds of dollars with absolutely no resolution. I feel there is option but to cancel my account. Their app has been glitchy my trust in the bank is at all time low. Thoroughly pissed off

The company make it incredibly difficult to lodge a query for existing members regarding claims. You are forced to ring their number and wait ages, or wait for a call back. There’s no way to get written help online or via the App. Only the useless FAQs. So frustrating. I wasted ages fruitlessly trying to find a simple way to email or lodge a question. Service is really only 1 star. To add insult to injury they replaced our more generous plan with a much reduced rebate on items, claiming that the lower monthly fee warranted the change —it doesn’t.

Zero communication, I was asked to keep supplying additional documentation every time, despite stressing that I was on a very tight time schedule. There was no clarity around the process, I waited over an hour each time to speak to someone. I called twice a day for 7 days straight and kept getting bounced to different departments with no solutions. When I asked for a call back service, I was assured someone would ring, and no one did.

At the end of a 2 week period I was rejected - thoroughly disgusted with the level of service and absolute lack of care for members. I have only claimed once in my 6 years of being a member. And to have to jump through a million hoops to get a claim through when people are sick and needing help asap - and then be rejected - is appalling.

The previous time I put in a claim was for urgent surgery. Aus Unity confirmed they would cover my procedure - they did not, citing a change in the policy (but no communication to members about it, and still taking extra cash for it). No apologies, no refund, nothing.

If your with them then leave, there are better options .. I'm not going into all the unsuccessful dealings I've had with them there are too many and im on hold trying to make a formal complaint as I type this out .. I've been with them for 25 years and the stress is on par with bloody Telstra. They only want to build retirement villages and not customer oriented but want your money because govt told you you have to and that money pays for all their bs retirement villages ..
DO NOT USE AUSTRALIAN UNITY , YOU'VE BEEN TOLD AND YOU WILL REGRET IT ..
ITS A NEGATIVE 10 STAR FROM ME ..
Still on hold so this is what I've put up with .
... Aust Unity Dental in boxhill could not fix a tooth twice tried (just to fill a gap so food not stuck) third time told them to pull it out they refused to.

🤬🤬🤬🤬 THEY HAVE JUST HUNG UP ON ME AFTER BEING ON PHONE FOR 1 HOUR AND 25 MINUTES. AND ON HOLD FOR 15 WHEN SHE SAID WOULD BE BACK IN 2 MINUTES .

... went into hospital for a 4 hour/half day stay para thyroid removal and my insurance I had paid for 18 years did not cover a thing NOTHING and when I queried it they said your on an old out of date policy but they kept taking my funds every month and when I needed them NOTHING COVERED ..

They have changed their App and their total login system and over last 3 and half days I've tried to change my direct debit details and nothing sorted but total frustration and spoke to 5 different people and THEYVE JUST HUNG UP.. DISGRACEFUL AND UNPROFESSIONAL IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT..

DONT USE OR GO NEAR THEM DO NOT DO IT ...

Update I have a complaint case number, today I spoke to 7 people.. one hung up on me and was documented at their end that phones collapsed BS ! ! After over 2.5 hours today on and off phone on hold one worker supposedly a supervisor turned around and asked "so what would you like to happen now" 🤬🤬 they are trained to say this to put it all back on the customer DO NOT PUT UP WITH IT and same woman said she was told I wanted to cancel my policy WHICH I TOLD HER 3 TIMES I NEVER EVER SAID but she kept repeating it for a bite ..Australian Unity are the lowest of lows ..

Oh and Cat if you read all of this dont reply because whatever generic crap you feed everyone else on here I don't want to hear and with the amount of all one star reviews I think the average at top of the main post must be completely incorrect.. I'm looking at contacting the Govt Ombudsman because this company needs a red hot poker and I honestly hope that a tsunami of people leave and Aust Unity collapse, the govt made us prop you up and you don't deserve any of it. I hate this company with a passion .

I visited them last week, but the reception staff was busy in their personal chores. Although the physician later made it up to me, but still there is need to work on it.

After 12+ years with Australian Unity, I've just cancelled and moved to NIB. What was once a usable app is now barely tolerable, and what was once a fund I could get on the phone to without a long wait is now completely unresponsive. At 11:48am on a Tuesday I was on hold -- unable to get through -- on the 03 8682 7000 number for 34 minutes before hanging up, calling Compare the Market and moving funds. I would've stuck with AU Unity had their app been usable or I got through to their call centre. Absolutely shocking turn from a fast response time and a usable app to a shell of what it used to be. I'm also saving money with comparable cover at NIB, and the app is refreshingly user friendly. Poor form AU Unity. Really poor form.

new app recently. Hopeless!!! not face enabling. So you need to put in user name, then password, then verification code. Then really had to navigate. I use it mostly for Remaining Claims. Used to be on front page. Now its buried in 3 or 4 steps after front page. Had to call them to find out where it is. Still not clearly presented. Hope they fix it.

nobody answering the phones to pesolve queries

no customer service, no one answering phones, app and website don't work...I seriously think this company has financial difficulties , avoid like the plague...

The worst health fund in terms of customer service provided to members , waiting times over 1 hour to be even. It spoken to after which one can’t waste any more time , no information on website regarding claim back for hospital services , need to fill out multiple forms with original receipts , pay them to have more work done by you instead of the fund claiming from Medicare & doing the needful you have to do the run around, even an email reply takes 6 days!! No staff have any clue of what you ask as a consumer & no answers provided .. will never recommend this fund , do so at your own risk .

I lodged a claim early September (only asking for $102 refund). We are mid November and am yet to receive my refund. I have called them at least 5 times and on each occasion, was told that the money would be in my account within the following 3 business days. A LIE!!!! I have now lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman! This company is a joke! Do not fall in their trap!

This is by far the worst Health Insurance company that I have ever dealt with in my life. They make it so hard to make a claim and will ask you for more information that takes 14 days to process and then ask you for more information, this goes on for months before they reject your claim. I am done with them, overpriced, long telephone wait, times, terrible systems and customer service. I could go on but won't waste anymore of my time on AUST UNITY. Cancelling my policy and both adult children policies.