Car insurance - what's the deal?

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LittleGreyCat

153 posts

Master Geek

#70922 2-Nov-2010 20:07

Much to our surprise we have just bought a car.
Went to Turners just for an initial look and spotted a coule of promising cars.
Ended up bidding on a 1999 Toyota Camry Sedan which we now own.

Turners give 4 days free insurance with Lumleys, who will try and sell you a policy.

Insurance is not mandatory in NZ; why?
If you (God forbid) hit a ridiculously priced caravan you could end up owing someone $50,000.
In the UK if you crippled someone you could be facing bill for $1,000,000.
In the US at least 10 times that.
So there must be some protection for innocent victims.

Given that insurance is a good idea, who gives a reasonable deal and is good to work with?
In the UK some of the cheapest insurance companies make their profit by trying hard
not to pay out on any claims.

What types of insurance do most people have?

None.
Third party, fire and theft (cheap option in UK).
Comprehensive (pays for your damage as well as the other person's)

We will be doing a lot of miles so will potentially be more exposed to accidents.
[Although it used to be that you were more at risk in your local area.]

So we have bought the car before we have done the reearch.

Any advice very welcome.

Cheers

LGC

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#399329 2-Nov-2010 20:15

With a 99 Camry you should be OK in terms of price as I don't it would be classed as a boy racer car or high risk.

It all depends on what you are willing to pay.

Most 3rd Party Insurers will also cover if a non insured crashed into so that you get paid upfront.

Comprehensive Covers basically everything including with my plan upto 1 replacement windscreen a year so I don't usually fix cracks.

manta

249 posts

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#399332 2-Nov-2010 20:20

AMI are good and reasonable. Cover here is 3rd party of fully comp really; fully comp is very reasonable compared with UK.

richms

28168 posts

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#399335 2-Nov-2010 20:26

If you have no assets, there is no need for insurance since the other insurance companies will not try to get blood out of a stone.

Richard rich.ms

NickiB

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#399337 2-Nov-2010 20:33

Insurance is not mandatory in NZ; why?

Insurance uptake in the UK, where it is compulsory, is around 92%, even after increasing penalties and clamping down on it. Insurance uptake in NZ, where it is not compulsory, is about the same. What would the point of compulsory insurance be? If you're not going to purchase insurance now, making it illegal is probably not going to make a difference, uptake won't increase enough to make it worthwhile.

To focus more on the issue at hand: I always had my car insured with AMI, I got a quote with State a while back, which was significantly more than I was paying already. AMI charged me an $8 cancellation fee when I sold my car though. Was not impressed after 10+ years with them and no claims!

Just ring around the major insurers, ask for quotes for both third party and full insurance and check out the specifics of each policy. Make your decision from there. If you only have four days and want to sort it asap, then just pick one and choose to pay monthly. Then you can always take more time later to shop around later and change at any point.

nOOb alert

scuwp

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#399344 2-Nov-2010 21:10

Think of insurance like a bet (gambling). You are betting the insurance company your car will get crashed/stolen, and they are betting that it wont. You need to balance the cover vs cost to see what type of gamble you are willing to take. As for companies, like other posters always had the best deal out of AMI, and IMO they are traditionally better at the claims side of things as well.

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

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#399356 2-Nov-2010 21:33

insurance in my experence a hell of a lot cheaper in NZ than in the UK for two reasons
1) it isn't mandatory, so insurers have to make it cheap enough to be appealing
2) it generally doesn't have to cover injury since we have ACC for that

a 99 camry I imagine was only a few thousand bucks, so I would probably stick with 3rd party and take the risk you won't smash it up.

We have our car and home insurance with Lantern, and although we have never claimed on the car, the couple of house claims (when the kitchen got flooded) were paid out pretty quickly with no problems.

nickd

447 posts

Ultimate Geek

#399357 2-Nov-2010 21:36

boby55: With a 99 Camry you should be OK in terms of price as I don't it would be classed as a boy racer car or high risk.

I'm an under 25 male driver. No matter what I drive, everything is priced at boy racer premiums. My little 1.8L corolla? Premium is $1300 for comprehensive agreed value with AA. Regardless of your car, age and gender is rather important it seems. My parents own an identical car. Same type of insurance, $500ish.

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LittleGreyCat

153 posts

Master Geek

#399386 2-Nov-2010 22:58

So as a decrepit 60 year od they should be paying me for the honour of insuring me? ;-

jjnz1

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#399391 2-Nov-2010 23:16

nickd:
boby55: With a 99 Camry you should be OK in terms of price as I don't it would be classed as a boy racer car or high risk.

I'm an under 25 male driver. No matter what I drive, everything is priced at boy racer premiums. My little 1.8L corolla? Premium is $1300 for comprehensive agreed value with AA. Regardless of your car, age and gender is rather important it seems. My parents own an identical car. Same type of insurance, $500ish.

How many crashes have you had? $1300? That almost matches the cc rating!

A few years ago I owned a 2003 White V6 commodore and insured it with State.

I was 23 I think, and my insurance for $20k full insurance was around $600 per year. Then I upgraded at 24 to a 2003 S V8, and my insurance dropped to just below $600 for full insurance with my Mrs included as a main driver.

Moral of the story is shop around, don't have crashes where you are at fault, at don't buy a car that's considered high risk.

Also, insurance is not that expensive here in NZ if you are a good driver.

That's my 2 cents.

Nety

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#399557 3-Nov-2010 11:58

Be aware with third party insurance that if the other driver denies responsibility even if they are at fault their insurance company will come after you personally for payment. My experience was that my insurance company would not help as it was only 3rd party so you are left to fend them off by yourself. NOT FUN.
Something that is sorted out over the phone when it is two insurance companies becomes a major pain when it is you they are after.

In my case very luckily as soon as I realised it was going south in a hurry I went back to the scene of the accident and took photos of the skid marks as they supported my reporting of events.
In the end finished up in small claims and not only did they loose but finished up paying for my repairs which I had been willing to cover myself.
An interested comment that the other parties insurance company made before small claims was that even if they agreed that it was not my fault unless their client accepted irresponsibility for the accident they HAD to try and get payment from me.

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Paulthagerous

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#399589 3-Nov-2010 13:15

c71931f:
nickd:
boby55: With a 99 Camry you should be OK in terms of price as I don't it would be classed as a boy racer car or high risk.

I'm an under 25 male driver. No matter what I drive, everything is priced at boy racer premiums. My little 1.8L corolla? Premium is $1300 for comprehensive agreed value with AA. Regardless of your car, age and gender is rather important it seems. My parents own an identical car. Same type of insurance, $500ish.

Try state ? AA vs State = big difference when i was getting insurance for my altezza .

Same for me with my car: 1800 at AA/AMI ets, $675 at State

bazzer

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#399610 3-Nov-2010 13:51

Nety: Be aware with third party insurance that if the other driver denies responsibility even if they are at fault their insurance company will come after you personally for payment. My experience was that my insurance company would not help as it was only 3rd party so you are left to fend them off by yourself. NOT FUN.
Something that is sorted out over the phone when it is two insurance companies becomes a major pain when it is you they are after.

In my case very luckily as soon as I realised it was going south in a hurry I went back to the scene of the accident and took photos of the skid marks as they supported my reporting of events.
In the end finished up in small claims and not only did they loose but finished up paying for my repairs which I had been willing to cover myself.
An interested comment that the other parties insurance company made before small claims was that even if they agreed that it was not my fault unless their client accepted irresponsibility for the accident they HAD to try and get payment from me.

I can't quite get my head around this scenario. You had 3rd party, right? The reason you have 3rd party is for this very reason, so you don't have to worry whose fault it was or what his insurance is.

In this instance, best case: The other driver's fault and he admits it. Your insurance will cover your car if he has no insurance, otherwise his does. You don't have to worry about his car at all.

Worst case: It's your fault and you admit it. Your insurance covers his car, you're left to worry about your own car.

I can't think of a way in which his insurance company would come after you and your insurance company wouldn't cover it. Which company are/were you with? Was it because neither of you would admit fault (i,e,. you said it was him ad he said it was you?). Wouldn't calling the cops/getting witnesses at the time have sorted it?

In the end, it has to be someone's liability. If it's yours and ou have 3rd party, no worries. If it's his, again, no worries. I can't see how your insurance wouldn't help you out.

bazzer

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#399613 3-Nov-2010 13:56

Paulthagerous: Same for me with my car: 1800 at AA/AMI ets, $675 at State

When I started driving 15+ years ago, State had a reputation of being the insurer you went to when no one else would insure you (young, sports car etc). They also had a reputation for making thing difficult at claim time. I never had any problems myself, but usually those reputations are well deserved. I don't know if things have changed since then, but cheaper isn't always better.

I suppose AA/AMI etc have higher premiums to discourage high risk business (or more fairly price for it). That's fine by me, since otherwise I'd be subsidising that risk.

manta

249 posts

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#399614 3-Nov-2010 13:56

richms: If you have no assets, there is no need for insurance since the other insurance companies will not try to get blood out of a stone.

Just so long as Jack's all right. Nice attitude.

bazzer

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#399618 3-Nov-2010 14:02

manta:
richms: If you have no assets, there is no need for insurance since the other insurance companies will not try to get blood out of a stone.

Just so long as Jack's all right. Nice attitude.

That's his prerogative, I suppose, and it doesn't bother me since my insurance will cover it regardless of who is at fault. Does this kind of attitude increase my premiums? I suppose it must but hard (for us) to quantify by how much.

On the other hand, one's largest asset is probably the present value of future income, whatever that may be. I'd rather not risk taking out a Maserati and having to pay $20 a week forever to make up for it. Each to their own.

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