BEVS

Blunt question:

Who do you insure your house, contents and vehicles with please?

We have been with AMI for a long while , probably far too long when I think about this. I was expecting premium incrteases but not to the degree that is appearing. House rebuild and home contents see a rise of 33% ! We're not in a high or even a medium risk zone. No claims made. Excess set to $400 .

I understand about the underwriting and re-insurances etc . That NZ is facing increased events in many areas. That there is inflation etc . All that stuff BUT I feels the 33% increase for us is a jump too high. A case of "Loyalty Penalty" in a way .

So. Who do you insure with. do you regularly shop around year on year. Do you bundle for some sort of discount which seems to not add up to that much.

Obviously , like most all of us, we are already suffering a mammoth almost 9% rates increase which is something we cannot control. We can edge back on utilities & groceries of course.

I am stunned though by the house and also the home contents insurance premium jumps. I had not factored in anything like 33%.


Thanks

Bo-Jangles

Yeah, the price increases are crazy.

My car insurance was with Trademe (Tower) which was the lowest price I could find in previous years but I noticed that had gone up by a massive amount when they sent out the recent renewal advice; so I shopped around again and most had similarly high prices.

I eventually landed up going with Cove as they quoted almost the same as my previous premium, so I have switched to them mostly base on advise from here https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/car-insurance.html

Moses2013

Did you try the online tool https://www.ami.co.nz/
Although I'm in Ireland, the exact same is happening here and every year they send me a renewal invitation that's 30% higher than the previous year.
All I do is go online again and do a quick quote as if I'm a new customer which turns out to be cheaper than the previous year, sometimes I just change the start date so it starts a few days earlier, but saves a lot of money. Maybe you've done that, but if not maybe worth a try.

Chocolate eclair

We were with the AA for the last few years. I'm sure we would have faced increased premiums this year. OH always negotiated the price downwards from the quote we were given originally.

LittleGreyCat

Same problem in the UK at the moment.
There is legislation which says you can't charge renewals at a worse rate than new policies, but everything is going up.
There is raging inflation.

In the UK, as a general rule, cheapest is not always best.
It is important to check on the record for settling claims before you jump to a new insurer.
Some can offer low headline prices because they fight tooth and nail to avoid paying out claims.

Edit: there is low availability of car spare parts, because the spares allocation is being moved into new car production. This means that a lot more cars are being written off as uneconomical to repair. Which in turn pushes up costs and this pushes up premiums.

tht

Not lived n NZ for years now… but all the property insurance in the US has gone up. It makes sense, it would cost more to rebuild now after a fire as building prices are up 40-60% in NYC metro, so Insurnace has to follow or they loose money when they pay out for claims…

Moses2013

That doesn't make sense. The person who takes out the insurance decides what rebuild value they have. If I'm only covered for 250K, I don't receive 350K, so higher building prices have nothing to do with it. The renewal was still based on the rebuild value from the previous year.

LittleGreyCat

That isn't quite how it works in the UK.
If you insure for £250k and the rebuild value (assessed by the insurance company) is £350k then you are under insured and any pay out on claim will be reduced in proportion.
In this case you would get 25/35ths of your claim.

Bo-Jangles

I think par for the course for them all to fight tooth and nail to avoid paying claims; people are still trying to get answers some nine months after the Auckland / Coromandel Flood and Cyclone Gabrielle and I am sure plenty more still in the queue from the Nelson floods in August 2022 and some still battling with claims from Christchurch earthquakes.

Most of the Insurance brands here are connected to one insurance provider (IAG) who run the back office and when the shit really hits the fan they all have proven to be equally lacking - I have sat with phone ringing off the hook for 2.5 hours or more at a time to try to talk to someone.

IAG New Zealand is the largest general insurer in the country, trading under the AMI, State, NZI, NAC, Lumley and Lantern brands, as well as providing the insurance products sold by the ASB, BNZ, Westpac and The Co-operative banks.

tht

if you own the property without a mortgage maybe. If you have a lender they are likely to have minimum criteria.

BEVS

Yes. A good point and I am trying to get some data on that one.

I once worked at an insurers for a while. They actually had policy notices up on the pillars in a certain section which said to delay claim pay-outs for as long as possible.

Yes. I am wondering about Tower & also AMP atm. I have been slack. No getting around that. Just renewing rather than thinking properly. We have a 'bundle' with AMI but perhaps it is better to not do that really.

In regard to those properties with mortgages , the bank/lender in question will heavily steer on that one. Not that we have a mortgage these days.

Chocolate eclair

OH used to work in procurement for Lumley Insurance, sadly Wesfarmers decided to sell it to IAG. Lumley had a good record for paying out and was the best of the bunch after the Chch earthquake. OH enjoyed working for Lumley. IAG was a very different ball game and a lot of the Lumley staff left and went elsewhere, including OH eventually.
Had a friend who worked for Tower and their policy was to delay paying out and avoid as much as possible. So I'd be wary of them.

BEVS, you could look at Ando insurance. They are a South African company but some ex-Lumley guys set up with them in Auckland. They have a couple of other offices around NZ now. The CEO is John Lyon, who has a lot of time for the OH. So you can always throw in a couple of names and say you heard about them through DN who used to work with JL. The OH has done some procurement stuff for Ando in the last couple of years. I can't promise you anything but it can't do any harm. Just thought I'd throw it out there as an option.

Moses2013

That's what I mean, so higher building costs don't justify why renewal insurance is more expensive. If it costs 50K more to build a house now doesn't change the fact that the insurance is based on what I'm covered for. As mentioned, the insurance sent me a renewal invite and the rebuild value was the same as last year but was 30% more expensive. I went online and actually increased the rebuild value myself, but the price was still 120€ cheaper than the renewal with a lower rebuild value. It's all a scam and of course they just hope people will pay without questioning. It's down to the consumer to set the rebuild value and I only get what is covered.

LittleGreyCat

I'm not sure I fully understand your point.
If you under insure then no claim will be met in full.
If your house is wiped out then you will have to pay part of the cost of the rebuild.
If the rebuilding costs go up then if you want to stay fully insured then your premium has to go up (as far as I can tell).

Again, in the UK I think you can't just take the money if your house is wiped out.
You have to rebuild to claim, and the insurance company will pay the building contractor, not give you the cash.

Bottom line, I don't think that under insuring is a good plan unless you treat it as having a very large excess on your insurance.
In the made up case of £350k rebuild house insured for £250k you would have to find £100k to get the insurance money.

You don't have to insure for the retail value, which of course includes the land.
Just the cost of demolition, clearing and rebuild.

Rules may be different in NZ, of course.

Moses2013

That's what I mean, the insurance company don't set the rebuild value. The renewal they send is based on the information they currently have in system. Just because the price of 2nd hand cars has gone up this year doesn't change the fact that the value of my car is what I have set it to. The argument that they had to increase the insurance because cars are more expensive is not valid. I only get what I'm covered for anyway.