It's that time of year again - Car Insurance Renewal

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#3266423 30-Jul-2024 17:44

My Aqua's premium almost doubled in price with State and I really don’t want to be paying $1200 for a $10k car. Protecta had a reasonable premium but reading reviews everyone says keep away as they don’t honour claims. So I’m also looking for alternatives. Does anyone here have experience of Protecta?

Wheelbarrow01

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#3266459 30-Jul-2024 21:04

Eva888:

My Aqua's premium almost doubled in price with State and I really don’t want to be paying $1200 for a $10k car. Protecta had a reasonable premium but reading reviews everyone says keep away as they don’t honour claims. So I’m also looking for alternatives. Does anyone here have experience of Protecta?

Yea I think State heavily rely on inertia to milk their customers, and I think I can say that with some authority. I have a 1988 Hilux that I have owned for over 20 years now and it was insured with State from the start. Because it was on direct debit I just never paid much attention to it - it just renewed every year automatically without me needing to do anything at all, exactly what I think State were relying on.

By around 2015, they had written down the "agreed value" to around $2500 and I suddenly realised I was paying over $500 a year for it - with a $1000 excess. By this time the Hilux had been parked up in the back yard for several years and wasn't even being used, so I cancelled the policy.

Fast forward to 2020 and I embarked on a reasonably comprehensive restoration. It's now insured through Star Insurance as a hobby restoration vehicle which is now garaged, registered and wof'd (and which I actually use occasionally). It's now insured for $15k and the Star Insurance premium? A modest $232 per annum!

The only reason I have been using State to insure my Touareg recently is because they were the cheapest at the 2023 renewal. Prior to that it was with AA (cheapest in 2021-2022) and Tower (cheapest in 2019-2020).

No experience with Protecta but I did actually get a quote from them today (forgot them on the list) and they were by far the most expensive for the Touareg at over $1400. The Kiwibank quote was $857 by comparison.

Eva888

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#3266476 30-Jul-2024 22:23

I just tried Toyota and was pleasantly surprised with a higher excess can get back down to around $750 but if stolen I have to pay another $1k on top of the excess if it doesn’t have an immobiliser. So tomorrow will price immobilisers if I can figure where to get one fitted. Sounds as if a one off cost is worth it for future insurance. The car is worth keeping as it’s an economical runaround and really can’t be bothered buying and selling again and risking a lemon.

I will leave State after 20 yrs loyalty, whichever way this goes.

Handle9

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#3266488 31-Jul-2024 04:30

Eva888:
I will leave State after 20 yrs loyalty, whichever way this goes.

Being loyal to a corporation is fools gold. Corporations do not have any loyalty to you, if you dont make them money then they will ditch you without any consideration. It is the very definition of a marriage of convenience.

Show loyalty to people, not to sociopathic companies.

rscole86

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#3266490 31-Jul-2024 06:32

Stu1:
rscole86: Similar experiences to the OP with our TradeMe/State policies. The 6 year old car had a large devaluation and large increase in premium. .....

was your car under tower from Trademe insurance ?. My car dropped to a ridiculous value no way I could get an equivalent replacement. I ended up paying a higher premium so I could get something decent as a replacement

Yes, Tower via TradeMe.

One year we got a small refund as they hadn't applied the TradeMe discount. Not sure how that happened as we always got quotes as both a TradeMe customer and not.

Didn't make up for the hundreds of dollars increase in premiums.

scuwp

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#3266508 31-Jul-2024 08:41

I didn't even think about Kiwibank when I last looked at our options. Just threw one of our vehicles into their online calculator and with the exact same cover it's over double what I am currently paying with AMI. I think I will stay put. OP must have got some kinda mates rates!

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

Eva888

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#3266514 31-Jul-2024 09:11

Just got the Aqua immobiliser priced at around $700 installed at Toyota. I think it’s worth getting if it cuts insurance premiums right down and I don’t get an enforced high excess. Am uncertain yet if Toyota will insure if we haven’t bought from them but they provide roadside service and no excess on glass plus a loan car, so a few extras. Also a very attractive easy application to get a price. Some outfits almost require shoes size before they give a quote which you then find is too high, rinse and repeat with someone else.

Aquas may be top of the list for being stolen but there are a few more to consider.

https://www.ami.co.nz/hub/driving/2022-top-10-stolen-cars

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hbngan

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#3266524 31-Jul-2024 10:18

Same with me, when I got house ins renewal from AMI, went up 20%, had to start shopping around.

Unfortunately, I found you really cant cherry pick polices, need to move all insurance to another provider to get any form of discount

our cars are too old and wasnt worth much (< $3000) so end up getting just third party

For comprehensive car insurance you can try this lot www.coveinsurance.co.nz

I have no dealings with them so cant recommend etc

alasta

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#3266526 31-Jul-2024 10:37

I don't know what an Aqua is, but I thought immobilisers were standard fitment on all modern cars?

jameshammond

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#3266528 31-Jul-2024 10:53

alasta:

I don't know what an Aqua is, but I thought immobilisers were standard fitment on all modern cars?

Aqua is a Japan import, smaller Prius essentially. These imports generally don't have immobilisers.

Jvipers2

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#3266535 31-Jul-2024 11:37

I'm with BNZ...surprisingly, I have been paying a similar sum yearly for the past 4 years as value depreciated a bit and premium rise a bit...still the cheapest for me than going to the insurers directly or AA...

alasta

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#3266536 31-Jul-2024 11:53

Jvipers2: I'm with BNZ...surprisingly, I have been paying a similar sum yearly for the past 4 years as value depreciated a bit and premium rise a bit...still the cheapest for me than going to the insurers directly or AA...

BNZ were really good to me for several years until they suddenly tried to slap me with a 30% increase on my contents insurance a few months ago.

Eva888

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#3266552 31-Jul-2024 12:57

hbngan:

Same with me, when I got house ins renewal from AMI, went up 20%, had to start shopping around.

Unfortunately, I found you really cant cherry pick polices, need to move all insurance to another provider to get any form of discount

our cars are too old and wasnt worth much (< $3000) so end up getting just third party

For comprehensive car insurance you can try this lot www.coveinsurance.co.nz

I have no dealings with them so cant recommend etc

Looked good but would not quote for Toyota Aqua

Eva888

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#3266559 31-Jul-2024 13:37

alasta:

I don't know what an Aqua is, but I thought immobilisers were standard fitment on all modern cars?

Interesting you should say that because the lady at State when I asked if getting an immobiliser would lower the premium she kept insisting that all cars after 2005 had immobilisers and thus my premium already took this into account. She refused to accept that I didn’t have one. Mine is 2015 and I do NOT have an immobiliser until I get one fitted tomorrow.

States best offer was raising the excess to $700 and I would only save $250 and note this was for the 8k they lowered it to.

Towers quote came to $1,800 for a 10k car. Plus an extra $1k on top of the $500 excess if it’s stolen. No immobiliser discussion.

So far best quote is Toyota between $730 to $940 depending on the excess.

alasta

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#3266624 31-Jul-2024 14:45

Eva888:

Towers quote came to $1,800 for a 10k car. Plus an extra $1k on top of the $500 excess if it’s stolen. No immobiliser discussion.

Wow. I'm only paying $1,350 for a car insured for $57k.

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