Finder Awards: New Zealand’s top-rated car insurance brands revealed

• • • • Trade Me awarded Best Car Insurance in the Finder Awards
      • AA Insurance and State receive highly commended awards
      • 38% of Kiwis with car insurance haven’t switched policies in over 10 years

11 March 2021, New Zealand –New Zealand’s top-rated car insurance brands have been revealed as part of the inaugural Finder Awards.

Finder, a financial research and insurance comparison site in New Zealand, asked 1,300 Kiwi drivers about their car insurance to uncover the brands that are delivering the most exceptional service and value.

Drivers rated their current or most recent car insurance provider against a range of metrics, including overall satisfaction, online experience, how easy their policy is to understand and how likely they are to recommend the insurer.

Trade Me secured the top spot, taking the Finder Award for Best Car Insurance with an overall score of 4.41/5, and a recommendation score of 94%.

This was followed by AA Insurance, who received a Highly Commended Award for its 93% recommendation rating.

Rounding out the top three was State, who also nabbed a Highly Commended Award, coming in with an 85% recommendation score.

Kevin McHugh, Finder’s publisher in New Zealand, said that smaller brands can sometimes deliver the best value.

“As anyone who has ever purchased car insurance knows, policies aren’t cheap, so it’s important to ensure you’re getting the best bang for your buck.

“Kiwis want to know they’re purchasing a quality product from a reputable insurance provider, and our awards seek to recognise that.

“Trade Me outperformed some of the bigger insurance names like AMI and State with a near-perfect recommendation score of 94%

“AA Insurance and State were also top performers in the Finder Awards, both with high customer satisfaction ratings and recommendation scores,” McHugh said.

A separate, nationally representative Finder survey of 1,501 New Zealanders aged 18 and above shows that over half of Kiwis (54%) are stressed about their financial situation, with 6% citing car insurance as their leading cause of financial stress.

Yet Finder data also shows that 38% of Kiwis with car insurance have not switched their policy in over 10 years.

McHugh said that some drivers may not be aware of how much they could save by switching.

“Switching to a better value provider could shave up to $1,000 off your policy for the same car, location and driver profile.

“Even if you managed to save half as much as by switching, you would be $500 better off,” McHugh said.

View the full results here: https://www.finder.com/nz/finder-car-insurance-awards-2021

Best Car Insurance – Finder Award scores

Source: Finder survey of 1,300 New Zealand drivers aged 18 and above