Understanding your car insurance premiums

What goes into car insurance premiums?

There’s a lot that goes into pricing car insurance, so we’ve put together some info to help you understand how we calculate your premium.

How we calculate car insurance premiums

Calculating car insurance prices involves weighing up a number of things. Some are related to you (the driver), like the kind of car you own, where you live and other details that help us figure out your risk of having an accident.

Other factors affect everyone’s premiums equally. Things like more weather events and increased repair costs for high-tech cars. Once we've considered everything carefully, we do our best to keep insurance affordable.

Personalised premiums

The roads can be a risky place, and as an insurance provider, we need to calculate your risk of having an accident, so we can work out how much you should pay. Factors like past claims and your age, as well as your choice of car and where you live, can help us determine your likelihood of having an accident. That’s why from year to year, what you pay may change.

Smarter cars

The average car on the road today is a lot smarter than they used to be. With features like lane departure warning, parking sensors, and collision avoidance, they’re easier to drive and most importantly, safer. But these benefits can be costly when it comes to repairs. Not only are parts more expensive but our repairers must be skilled specialists to fix them. These costs can add to insurance premiums.

Wilder weather

In the last 50 years, New Zealand has experienced over 150 natural disasters and weather events. We’re rated as one of the riskiest countries in the world to insure. Plus, with climate change affecting global weather patterns, we’re likely to see wilder weather more frequently. Insurance companies have insurance too (it’s called reinsurance). As NZ experiences more weather events and disasters, the cost of reinsurance increases and can impact the price of your car insurance.

If you’d like more support on how to reduce your premium, give us a call on 0800 501 508 and our friendly team will go through the options with you.