The insurance companies are adjusting how they charge, or at least how they reward customers. This month a number of insurers announce they will ditch multi-policy discounts.
In the past, most companies have offered discounts of 10% and even 20% when you have two to three general insurance policies or more.
AA Insurance customers had been eligible for a 10% discount off the annual premium for a standard policy. AMI stopped offering its multisaver discount on any new home, contents and landlord policies on August 15 last year and on renewals from October 26. State Insurance dropped its multi-policy discount for new policies in March last year and for renewals on May 27. Another major player, Vero, has said effective from May 1 this year, multi-policy discounts will not be offered on ANZ Asset Protector Home, contents or motor vehicle insurance policies. People insured with Vero through ANZ had been generally eligible for up to a 15% multi-policy discount.
Of the major brands, we believe that only Tower still had a multi-policy discount offering savings of up to 20% for people with two or more eligible policies who met certain criteria.
What Insurance Companies Operate in New Zealand?
One of the things to understand about insurance in New Zealand is a vast majority is controlled by a few insurance companies under a range of different brands.
Tower remains New Zealand’s only Kiwi owned and operated general insurer. They talk about how the humble beginnings, officially protecting their very first customer with insurance in 1869 to the current days when they report to having more than 300,000 customers across New Zealand and the Pacific.
But the Australian owned 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 general insurance products sold by ASB, BNZ, Westpac and The Co-operative Bank. IAG is an ASX listed company Insurance Australia Group and through the brands here holds relationships with one in every two New Zealand households.
Then you also have Australian based Suncorp which owns the majority of AA Insurance and Vero Insurance which provide general insurance in New Zealand. Vero is also the insurer behind some of the AMP and Warehouse Money insurance products.
There are also a few niche insurance offerings, and most of these are also underwritten by one of the major insurers.
Within the last year or two we have seen premiums continue to increase, and in many cases we just put up with that. But the question we should ask is should we. Should we put up with high premiums from the Australian insurers, or should we get a quote from our New Zealand owned insurance company – a company that still offers multi-policy discounts.
