Update: I told my insurance co. I was going to shop around and got some more discounts from them and I also decided to pay in one shot vs. monthly to save a further ten percent.
After that I rang around a few companies for quotes and my own was still cheaper (house, contents, car). The one that came closest to being as good was FMG but only if I used the same sum insured amount, not the replacement cover, which was significantly more expensive. MAS does indeed require referral from another member before they would do an estimate. The rep. on the phone said they also tended to be a bit more expensive. I can't be bothered hunting down a referral if they really are going to cost more.
Having used an online calculator from ANZ and heard what a mate had his house valued for I decided against a valuer and I'll stick with the calculator estimate which was unsurprisingly a bit higher than my insurance co.'s estimate.
One problem I'm having is getting my husband third party on road motorbike insurance. My provider doesn't directly provide it so I'm shopping around. Ideally he wants it for just three months now, none in winter and then get it again in the summer.
Some companies allow cancellation with a refund of the unused part. Prices are all over the show with FMG being cheapest so far. Too cheap in fact. I think they got it wrong! I'll be looking over the policy when it arrives in the mail then have the husband ring them up and make sure all the full disclosure facts are straight about any speeding tickets etc. since I just told them what I could.
I don't know about 'best' but as much as possible I'm comparing like terms. For instance, on computers and phones, FMG will replace new for old to five years, Tower to only three years. The policies seem very similar otherwise even to accommodation costs should the house become unlivable. I've also been asking what their ratings are ie AA etc.
I haven't even asked AMI for a quote. Might do them tomorrow. My insurer is Tower, through ANZ.
Something I'm planning on doing is a search online to see what kind of experiences Christchurch people had with their companies.
I never heard back from the broker I emailed after his first response.
But really, ideally I'll never have to claim on anything and the whole thing will have been a pointless exercise. ;)
Anybody know a good motorbike (on road) insurer in case FMG got it wrong?
Edit: I should add, FMG gave me that pretty good price on house, contents, car and bike straight away and the excess on the car and contents is lower on their policy so I could lower the cost with them a bit more yet by increasing the excess on car and contents. Tower, on the other hand, has required some negotiating and we've run into a hiccup on the house price I got quoted so I'm waiting to hear back from them again. So for straight forwardness, FMG is ahead.
Ok gang, so I rang up AMI and they had the cheapest car and bike policy (I guess FMG's was correct after all) but they won't do the bike on it's own. House and contents was again significantly more expensive. What I did like was their web site, it has a lot of information on it.
I had am interesting conversation with a fella yesterday.
Tells me he was insured w fmg but when the 750k property w 200k contents burnt down fmg offered 95k which was later upped to 250k and they had to settle and didn't have enough money to take it to court although they'd probably win
Of course this is narrated but do you think this is possible? Or is there more info that's been left out
From what I've read in the news it isn't unusual for insurance companies to try to do a quicker cash settlement for less. After all, it saves them money. It's what I'd try to do if I were them.
I doubt they didn't have the money for court, companies are rated by their ability to pay out and as I recall FMG's is A (excellent). Mind you, one co. as pointed out up thread, got caught short of funds after Christchurch. Might just not have been worth their while or they knew they wouldn't win. No way to know.
Edit: reread your post. You meant your mate didn't have the money. Ahh. Wonder why the company didn't think they'd have to pay out.
Did you see the story about the couple who started to operate a business on their property but didn't inform insurance? The place suffered a fire I think it was but their insurance was invalidated because of the new commercial venture. Turns out they needed to switch to commercial insurance. So if any of you run a business from home, keep it in mind!
Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly
to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.
Trusted
