It’s clear that the reassurance offered by comprehensive car insurance is important for Kiwi motorists. Canstar’s research for its Most Satisfied Customers | Car Insurance Award reveals that 87% of insured drivers have comprehensive cover.
But it’s also clear that most motorists could be paying less for their car insurance. Just a quarter of car insurance customers (24%) have actively researched a better deal.
Given that car insurance premiums, like those across all insurance policies, have risen well above the rate of inflation over the past couple of years, that means hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders could possibly be paying too much for their car insurance.
So when was the last time you reviewed your car insurance? While it’s easy to renew your policies each year, if you set and forget your vehicle cover, you may be missing out.
If you’re not up-to-date with the finer details of your car insurance policy, it’s time to check how your insurer stacks up when compared to other providers in the market. And that’s where Canstar can help.
As part of our mission to inform consumers of the best NZ has to offer, each year we ask car insuance policy holders to rate their satisfaction with their insurers.
This year, Canstar canvassed the opinions of 3028 New Zealanders with car insurance, and asked them to rate their insurers across a range of categories, to measure and track their levels of customer satisfaction.
The insurance providers rated in our award research cover the biggest names in the market: AA, AMI, AMP, ANZ, ASB, BNZ, FMG, NZI, State, Tower, Trade Me, Vero and Westpac.
To decide which insurer offers the best level of customer satisfaction, each was rated across the following categories:
- Overall Satisfaction
- Communication
- Comprehensiveness of Cover
- Cost
- Customer Service
- Value for Money
Coming out on top is FMG, the clear winner of Canstar’s 2024 award for Most Satisfied Customers | Car Insurance.
This is the third year in a row that FMG has taken home our Customer Satisfaction Award, and the fourth time in five years the insurer has been rated the nation’s best by its many happy customers.
And, again, FMG won our award by earning a great set of ratings: 5 Stars across four of the six categories listed above, plus a 4-Star rating for Value for Money and a 3-Star rating for Cost.
It’s worth noting that of the 13 insurers judged in this year’s award, FMG earned more 5-Star ratings than its competitors combined.
What car insurance policies does FMG offer?
FMG offers the usual levels of motor insurance cover:
- Superior Private Vehicles: Comprehensive
- Essential Private Vehicles: Third Party, Third Party Fire & Theft, Fire & Theft, Fire only
What’s covered by FMG’s Superior Private Vehicles Policy (Comprehensive)?
This policy provides full comprehensive cover for personal vehicles, and includes benefits such as:
- Legal liability for you and approved drivers, up to $10m
- Excess-free cover if you are not at fault
- Excess-free glass cover
- Excess-free replacement of locks and keys if lost or stolen
- Misfuelling (accidentally using the incorrect fuel in your vehicle)
- Vehicle accessories (up to $5000) and non-standard wheels (up to $2000)
- Trailer, up to $1000
- Trip-completion, up to $2000
Optional benefits
You can purchase the following optional benefits:
- Hire car during repair: up to $100 a day for 30 days
Wherever you live in New Zealand, if you’re not happy with your current provider and are looking for a new insurer that delivers great Customer Service and Value for Money, why not consider changing your policies to FMG, the winner of Canstar’s 2024 award for Most Satisfied Consumers | Car Insurance.
It’s also worth noting that once again FMG has achieved a double award win by also taking home Canstar’s prestigious Most Satisfied Customers | Home & Contents Award, for more details of that win, click here.
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About the author of this page
This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in the UK and Australasia, including ACP, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.
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