My car insurance through Trade Me (Tower) is about to renew and the new cost is 100% higher. Any recommendations for a new insurer or are we powerless to prevent these increases?
You should get new quotes every time your policy comes up for renewal. Moneyhub has some good comparison guides you can use narrow down which provider is worth getting quotes from.
I’ve moved around a few insurers in the last few years, but I haven’t actually claimed in all that time so outside of finding the cheapest I can’t give any insight into their claims process
If you crashed your car, would you be able to buy a new one?
If yes, consider third party insurance. Through ANZ (who resell Vero) the third party cover has always been cheap for us. We recently switched to full cover but I’m not convinced it’s worth it. Previously we were paying perhaps $150 per year per car (no fire/theft/windows, just cover for the other party).
I hadn’t thought about that, having always had comprehensive cover, but it’s worth investigating, thanks.
It costs us maybe $700 a year to have comprehensive cover on a vehicle insured for $10k (with an excess of maybe $1500 or something). I figure if we have an accident on average every 15 years, then that’s $10,500 when the payout would be $8,500 after excess.
Now I mention it, before you go for third party, see what your excess is. You can often save quite a bit by moving that up to $2k or even $5k (depending on the value if your car).
