[Caroline and Dave]

I am aware that car insurance is not compulsory in NZ. Why? I apologise if this has been dealt with before but I can't seem to find much about it. Do most of you have insurance. We will certainly get our car insured but it means if someone whacks us is it highly likely that they are not insured? Do they have no claims bonuses like UK? It seems a bit of a minefield to me.
Any advice would be appreciated

Kindest regards

Dave and Caroline

[NooDleS]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it the same situation as Australia?

Road Tax (or Licensing) covers for personal injury as well as maintaining road surfaces?

Insurance is generally a LOT cheaper. For example, I've got quotes in advance, I've been paying £2700 per year for a 1500cc Toyota Sera here in the UK and can afford a GTO in NZ for well under half of that.

[Rizak]

WOW! I pay just under $150/month for house and car insurance here. That's with the proviso that I don't drive to/from work and have a cap on kilometres.

Every time I come here I notice something new.
Head getting full now. Must take a nap.

[Park City Partner]

I just paid our YEARLY insurance for house (rental contents) and car and it was about $900. We have a 2000 Subaru and have it insured for replacement value. Insurance tends to be a lot cheaper here vs. the States for example as you don't have liability insurance....

[Rizak]

:eek:

I just did a little math:
$150 times 12 months, factoring in 1.25 exchange, carry the pi, add my shoe size twice ...

That's NZ$2250!
That's some difference.

[zardell]

We pay about $400 a year for fully comp car insurance.

Can't tell you exactly how much it is because we get a discount for taking out the house insurance and other policies etc with them. Them being ASB Bank.

We took everything out with them when we first arived, basically because it was easy. We will shop around next year, but from what I can gather (and I have to be honest and say I didnt make checking prices out a main priority) there isn't too much difference when comparing prices, but that's obviously only in our situation.

And yes, when you pay what we Brits would call road tax, a portion of it is for ACC.

Julie

xx

[Nelsonian]

Hi - car insurance is cheaper here - although I only went for 3rd party since I'm driving an older car. It was $80 - annually!! - and would have been lower but that was their minimum premium. I insured with State.
Might be an idea to call the AA since they have offices in NZ and might be able to provide a comparison.
Otherwise I'd just pretend you want a quote from an online site.
The equivalent of UK road tax is registration - usually payable annually - but like road tax, you can pay 6 monthly or even 3 monthly. This is administered by Land Transport NZ (like DVLC) and costs around $180 p.a. for a normal car.
And yes no claims bonuses exist here too.
Cheers

[sidabrine]

We have our old car fully insured, but may reconsider next year. Having had a really bad luck for the first 3 months in NZ (2-3 near crashes every day, car burglary, etc), we are starting to see things in perspective. Our car costed us $4500, annual insurance $700 and we still have $250 excess, if I'm not wrong. This is with Tower and it was by far a better deal than what we got offered by AMI (though we have our other insurance with them) and State. Kind of gives you an idea what is insurance companies' expectation about your chance of going accident free.

If we do not insure and worse comes to worse, we may choose to just pay for the new (old/used) car upfront from our emergency fund. Its not worth getting a good car here, because you can never be sure that some cowboy/hoon won't run into you. (That's talking about Auckland)

[gil]

We are insured 'cos we bought a new car when we arrived. It's about $600 a year, fully comp. UK was about £850.
Our 18 year-old bought an old banger on arrival for $1,000 and her annual insurance here is $198. She has gone back to UK and bought a car for £600 and her first quote for insurance was £2,800 a year!!! I think she managed to get one nearere £1,500, but compared to here...:eek:

Gil
PS we used State, v helpful.

[Trigirl]

If we do not insure and worse comes to worse
don't forget that if the worst does happen you can be liable for damage to the other persons car. ACC will pick up the tab for injuries to them but not their car.