Understanding your contents premiums
Everyone’s insurance premium may change year by year. So, we want to be transparent about what makes up a contents insurance premium and why it might change.
What makes up your contents insurance premium?
To get an idea of where your money goes, here’s an overview of what makes up your contents insurance premium.
Base or Company premium
The money we use to pay your claims and our other costs, like paying our staff.
It’s also used to pay for our own insurance; this is called reinsurance.
Fire & Emergency levy
Your contribution to Fire and Emergency New Zealand. This fee goes towards supporting the fire and emergency services.
Learn more about the Fire and Emergency levy
Tax (GST)
Your premium also includes a 15% Goods and Services Tax of the total cost.
How we price insurance
We use historical and market data to analyse the risk at different addresses across New Zealand. Your specific cover is also considered, such as your sum insured and whether you have any specified items that might need extra cover. We also allow for natural hazards in our pricing, such as the risk of earthquakes.
Why does the cost of contents insurance go up?
We need to make sure we’re able to help you if something unexpected happens. This means we need to be accurate when we give you a quote for cover.
We’re always reviewing our pricing, and your premium might change at renewal. It’s based on a few things specific to you, like your claim’s history, where you live and the type of assets you own.
Inflation also plays a part, as supplies, parts, or replacement items become more expensive, so your premium may need to be adjusted accordingly.
It's important to make sure you have enough insurance to cover everything in your home. If you’re not sure how much that is, you can use our Contents Calculator to do the maths for you:
There are ways you can save
We understand that any increase in premiums is tough right now. So, if you’re struggling to pay your premium, talk to our team about different ways to pay and find out if we can save you money in other ways. Please get in touch.