Best insurance companies

[MarcelAndKrissie]

Hi there,

My partner is looking to move insurance companies from State. She has a Toyota Passo 2004.

Could I have some suggestions on ones that are good to deal with?

Many thanks,

Marcel

[molex]

Only insurance company I could recommend any more is AA insurance, funny because I work for a competitor.

Get quote online, pay online, even make claims online as of tuesday. They don't mess you about with agreed value and have value add stuff in the form of AA membership etc.

I get 50% off insurance through workplace, AA insurance was only 4% more expensive even after applying my discount!

[Crampy]

I use ami, after being with nzi for years. No problems at all. I've got house, contents and two cars with ami now.

[Mr Revhead]

Yeah I've been AMI for a long time. How ever I am not keen they were bought out by IAG. I'm watching with caution.

[Al]

Yeah I've been AMI for a long time. How ever I am not keen they were bought out by IAG. I'm watching with caution.

I felt the same initially, but with both the Corolla getting a nudge and the MR2 being written off it, both claims were dealt with quickly and professionally with no fuss.

[rollaholic]

we have most of our insurance through AA, have always been pretty good to deal with.

i have a couple of friends who work for them too, and from what they say AA is pretty decent in terms of settling claims etc (i've never had to make one)

[Leon]

I wouldn't recommend State.

I got a phone call from State this week, to say they settled my late mother's car crash (which she had in May).

In the meantime I'd been getting bills, then collection notices from Vero (the insurer of one of the two cars that she crashed into) ... despite the claim having been lodged, and both State and Vero telephoned by me to request that they please talk to each other.

[Mr Ree]

Thats horrible, Leon.

Typical State behaviour though...

[Alex B]

Megan @ Bay Insurance sorts me out pretty well. Pretty sure it's someone on here other half.

[Lanius]

Megan @ Bay Insurance sorts me out pretty well. Pretty sure it's someone on here other half.

Yep, another vote for Megan @ Bay.

She is fantastic to deal with, very helpful and accommodating. Have never had to claim though, and that is generally where the really good insurance companies prove their worth.

Another vote AGAINST State Insurance. A long time ago, I was run off the side of a motorway offramp (Manukau City southbound offramp) by someone driving a stolen car (car was found the next day with matching paint and marks on its left rear corner from hitting the front right of my car). My car spun out (it was pissing down with rain at the time), went into a ditch at around 70kph, rolled, ended up driver's side down, roof crushed down on top of me (luckily for me, only bad enough to get me some stitches in the head). Engine caught fire, and the entire car was burnt out by the time first respondents got it under control (there is still a gap in the trees/bushes along the side of that off ramp where the car went through them, lol).

State turned around and said it was a suspicious claim due to the fire, despite me being cleared by police, passing drug and alcohol blood tests, and the police report stating they'd found the car that matched the description of events from my two passengers (both were unharmed in the crash, and both gave a good description of the car). It took 2.5 months for them to agree to pay out, and that was only after the intervention of a family friend who held quite a lot of sway with upper management at State. They're a bunch of bloody pirates.

[strx7]

Megan @ Bay Insurance sorts me out pretty well. Pretty sure it's someone on here other half.

ex other half these days, but she will still sort out any car insurance woes people have.

[sleeektoy]

For classic car insurance, Swann insurance is good. Underwritten by IAG

Good person to deal with:

Peter Coombe
Automotive Product Manager

[molex]

Worthy of note that State, AMI, NAC and NZI are all IAG. Also to be added to the list in the next few months is Lumley insurance, who underwrite Westpac policies.

There's only two *real* players in NZ, IAG and Suncorp (who own AA Insurance and Vero)

AA insurance is managed as a seperate entity from Vero however, they have some quite different attitudes towards claims.

[Lanius]

It was either AA insurance or AMI insurance (pretty sure it was AA) who refused to insure my car a few years back when I put some really good Pirelli's on it, claiming that they were "performance tyres". My reply was "no shit they're performance tyres - that means better handling and braking, which means the car is safer". This was on an AE111 Trueno ffs - it wasn't exactly a sports car. They still refused to insure it despite me thrusting common sense and logic in their general direction

[snwtoy]

How did you get around to telling them what tyres you had on it? Or were you trying to insure the tyres as a mod too?

[Al]

In sixteen years of car ownership and insurance I never been asked what kind of tyres were on the car.....

Did you tell them what you were planning on eating for dinner too?

[duddley]

Perhaps they prefer Ling Longs or Triangles.

[Lanius]

lol

I quite honestly cannot remember how they came up in the conversation - this was about five years ago, I struggle to remember last week at times