Car insurer review
OUTsurance Car Insurance
The lowest complaint ratio in South African car insurance, reviewed in full, cover, cost, ownership and ombud record.
1998
Established
JSE
OUT
0.77
Complaints/1000 Claims
3%
Overturn Rate
The verdict on OUTsurance
OUTsurance is a direct South African insurer, founded in 1998, now listed on the JSE as part of OUTsurance Group Limited. It sells car, home, life, and business insurance directly to consumers, built around two well known features: the OUTbonus, a cash reward paid after claim-free years, and a fixed excess that does not scale with the size of your claim. On the single metric that matters most when something goes wrong, how an insurer’s claims decisions hold up under independent scrutiny, OUTsurance is the standout performer in South Africa’s non-life insurance industry. Its 2025 results show a complaint referral rate of just 0.77 per 1,000 claims and an overturn rate of 3%, both the lowest of any insurer reported by the National Financial Ombud Scheme that year.
What you will learn
- Who owns OUTsurance, and how its parent transformed from RMI Holdings into OUTsurance Group Limited
- What OUTsurance’s car insurance covers, including the OUTbonus and fixed excess model
- Why OUTsurance does not carry its own standalone public credit rating, and what that means
- The full detail behind OUTsurance’s industry-leading ombud complaint record
- OUTsurance’s award history, including four straight years as News24’s Short-Term Insurer of the Year
- Who OUTsurance car insurance suits, and who might want to compare further
Who is OUTsurance
OUTsurance was founded on 28 February 1998 by Willem Roos, Howard Aron, and René Otto, as a wholly owned subsidiary of RMB Holdings. The three built OUTsurance around a simple pitch: cut out the broker, build the underwriting and claims systems in house, and pass the savings back to clients directly. The idea worked. OUTsurance grew into one of South Africa’s best known direct insurers, expanding into Australia in 2008 through a sister brand, Youi, and later adding a life insurance business and an Irish personal lines operation, OUTsurance Ireland.
OUTsurance’s listed parent company has changed names more than once. It began as Rand Merchant Investment Holdings (RMI), an investment holding company that also held stakes in Discovery and Momentum Metropolitan. Between December 2021 and April 2022, RMI sold its stake in UK insurer Hastings and unbundled its Discovery and Momentum Metropolitan holdings to shareholders, leaving insurance as its sole focus. In December 2022, RMI formally renamed itself OUTsurance Group Limited and began trading under that name on the JSE under the share code OUT.
Car Insurance Cover and Discounts
OUTsurance sells comprehensive car insurance directly to consumers, with no broker involved at any stage. Every policy includes 24 hour Help@OUT roadside assistance, and repairs carried out through OUTsurance’s approved repairer network are guaranteed for 12 months. OUTsurance also guarantees your quoted premium for a full 12 months from the start of your policy, protecting you from mid-term increases.
OUTbonus: 10% back after 3 claim-free years
After three consecutive claim-free years, you receive 10% of your paid premiums back in cash. Stay claim-free for a further two years and you receive another 10% payout, with a further payout for every claim-free year after that. OUTsurance reports having paid out more than R8.4 billion in OUTbonus since the reward’s introduction. OUTsurance also uses a fixed excess model, a set rand amount agreed upfront, rather than a percentage of your claim.
Financial strength and Group structure
OUTsurance does not publish its own standalone credit rating from an agency such as AM Best or GCR Ratings, and this review did not find one on record. What is publicly verifiable is OUTsurance Group Limited’s position as a JSE-listed insurer with regularly published, audited financial results. As a wholly focused insurance group since the 2022 restructuring, OUTsurance’s South African motor and household book sits alongside Youi in Australia and OUTsurance Ireland under the same listed parent. Buyers who want a third party opinion on claims-paying ability specifically should treat the absence of a standalone rating as a gap to be aware of, not evidence of weakness, and can instead weigh it against the ombud performance data below, which is independently compiled and audited by a government backed body.
JSE: OUT
Listed parent group
AM Best / GCR
No rating found
+62.2%
FY2023 earnings growth
R2.875bn
FY2023 normalised earnings
The Best Complaint Record in the Industry
This is the area where OUTsurance’s reputation is most strongly supported by hard, independently published data. The National Financial Ombud Scheme, and OSTI before it, tracks two figures for every insurer: a referral rate, the number of complaints escalated to the ombud per 1,000 claims received, and an overturn rate, the share of those complaints where the ombud ruled against the insurer.
OUTsurance has led the non-life insurance industry on both measures for close to a decade. Its referral rate moved from 0.88 per 1,000 claims in 2020, to 1.075 in 2023, to 0.91 in 2024, and down to 0.77 in 2025, a new low for the company and the best rate of any insurer reported that year. Its 2025 overturn rate was 3%, also the industry’s best and the company’s own best result in ten years. In concrete terms, OUTsurance reported receiving 375,099 claims in 2025, of which only 290 became formal complaints to the ombud, and just 8 of those were overturned in the client’s favour.
This performance has been recognised externally too. OUTsurance has been named News24’s Short-Term Insurer of the Year for four consecutive years, from 2023 to 2026, the only insurer to hold the title for more than one year running since the award began.
Is OUTsurance Car Insurance Right for You?
OUTsurance suits drivers who want a direct, broker-free relationship with their insurer and who value a genuinely strong, independently verified claims-paying track record over broker advice or the option of face to face service. The OUTbonus rewards long term, claim-free loyalty, so it suits drivers who expect to stay with one insurer for several years rather than shop around annually. The fixed excess model is particularly useful for anyone who wants to know their exact out-of-pocket cost before a claim happens, rather than discovering it as a percentage of the final repair bill.
Is OUTsurance a good car insurance company in South Africa?