If you have an inexpensive car, chances are you also want some insurance that doesn’t cost the earth.
The first choice is whether you choose comprehensive insurance or third party insurance.
Comprehensive insurance, also commonly called full insurance, will give you cover for your car regardless of who was at fault.
You talk directly to your insurance company when you crash into Joe Blogs.
You talk directly to your insurance company when Joe Blogs crashes into your car.
You talk directly to your insurance company when an annoying vandal smashes the rear quarterlight (one of the hardest windows to replace on a car) to grab the kids schoolbag left on the back seat and steal their lunch.
This doesn’t always go well for you and that is why there is an insurance ombudsman to complain to.
Sometimes it might be better to have your insurance arranged through an insurance broker – hopefully they will go into bat for you!
With third party insurance, you sometimes talk to your insurance company, and sometimes to the other person’s company.
If you crash into Joe Blogs, you talk to your insurance company and they fix his car, but not yours.
If Joe crashes into your car and he is insured, then you talk to his insurance company, and they fix your car.
But if he is not insured, then talk to your insurance company. If you have the uninsured third party extension, your insurance company may fix your car (up to a limit) and then make Joe pay.
If you have a Third Party, Fire and Theft policy, then you can talk to your insurance company about the vandalised window.
If you have Third Party Only, then you have to fix the window at your own cost.
The premiums are highest for a comprehensive policy, Third Party Fire & Theft is in the middle and a Third Party Only policy has the lowest premiums. But remember to shop aroud – premiums vary! Premiums can be paid annually, monthly or even weekly.
A quick Google search for online car insurance quotes in New Zealand gave the following three quotes by just filling some information into online forms and getting an immediate quote.
Comprehensive
Company A: $639.93 pa or $58.02 monthly
Company B: $392.00 pa or $35.93 monthly or $16.58 fortnightly or $ 8.29 weekly
Company C: $621.92 pa or $51.83 monthly
Third Party, Fire & Theft
Company A: $217.62 pa or $19.73 monthly
Company B: not quoted
Company C: $458.15 pa or $38.18 monthly
Third Party Only
Company A: $145.24 pa or $13.17 monthly
Company B: $201.00 pa or $18.42 monthly or $8.50 fortnightly or $ 4.25 weekly
Company C: $325.23 pa or $27.10 monthly
There may be differences between the policies such as the amount of excess payable, whether glass cover is included and if you get a rental car while your car is off the road and no effort has been made to adjust for these differences. But if you just want a plain TPO insurance policy and have a quote from Company C, then you could switch to Company and pay less (or even upgrade to get fire and theft cover too and still pay less). Or you could opt for a slight increase in premium and upgrade to a full policy from Company B.