August 31, 2025 • 41 mins
It's no secret that the cost of living has gone a bit crazy these past few years, but insurance seems to be one of the hardest hit.
Insurance prices have increased 900% since 2000 - almost triple the increase of tobacco products.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Ed B to me, you'll be burning, but you will
see it on the face.
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Watch me.
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Just I still get the money running, they.
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Say lainlyving gos to the edge, still.
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Be looking up.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
I sell the be you can get me I am
Missen says is everyone else shakes them on even.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
When I hear until you leaving, Y's welcome back. This
is the week in Collectible. Welcome and if you've just
joined us eight hundred and eighty ten eighties and number
text nine two nine two, this is smart money. And
we're gonna have a chat about insurance because insurance prices.
I still can't get my head around us. And when
(01:04):
I say it sounds like an easy throwaway line, I
can't get my head around it. It's like anything that's
mildly challenging. But I'm really struggling to get my head
around it because I can't imagine that my insurance was
that much cheaper. But insurance prices apparently have increased nine
hundred percent since two thousand. Okay that is a while,
but you know most other I think the general impact
(01:27):
of inflations on averages around oh, God, Actually I'm nervous
because I'm about to introduce my economist. I think it's
on average probably about two hundred and fifty three hundred
percent over the course of time on just general things.
But I could be wrong and help put me in
my place. But I want to know are you making
choices around what insurance you can afford? There are even
(01:53):
stories we discussed this yesterday, I think during the one
ref radio show or on the panel, that there are
people who've decided that they've paid off their house so
that don't need to worry about getting caught with a
mortgage on a property and probably that doesn't exist if
it burns to the ground or something, and they've just gone, well,
(02:13):
you know, I don't have a mortgage at least if
there's a fire, I'll just go and live in a
caravan somewhere and that will be that. I mean, that
is a radical decision to not ensure your property. Other
questions around insurance would be whether you can can afford
to let your insurance go on health insurance? Are those
(02:34):
the decisions? Do you ensure your car a third party?
Do you have full insurance? I eight hundred eighty ten
eighty have you made some decisions around your insurance simply
because it's so blim and expensive. Well want your calls
on I eight hundred eighty ten eighty and joining us
to discuss this. He is chief economist at Simplicity and
(02:55):
it's chamabill, get a chammobil. How are you going now?
I'll just hit that buttons. How are you?
Speaker 5 (03:02):
I'm awesome, nice to be here.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Have you well? Actually, can you describe for us? Well,
you can put me in my place if I was wrong.
I took a rough guess that our average inflation's probably
over twenty five years total to whatever. But how does
the insurance price increase of nine hundred percent? How does
that compare to generally other things we've experienced to growth.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
On, it's been exponential, So compared to other things, insurance,
particularly for your house, has increased a huge amount. So
to give you some context, in general, inflation runs out
just over two percent a year, so over twenty five years,
we're talking maybe fifty percent, right, and in this instance
we're talking a ninefold increase.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
They're not compared in twenty five years.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
Yeah, and it's a huge, huge increase. And what has
happened is we've seen some step shifts and you can
almost see when that happens. So it was like after
the earthquakes in Canterbury. Every time we have those very
big climate events, but it's not just here. So what
we tend to find is those big increases happen because
of local events, big glosses, big claims, and because it's
(04:07):
happening internationally as well. We're seeing huge increases in reinsurance
costs for our insurance companies. Last two years, I think
the insurance claims have been in excess of eight billion dollars.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, that's quite a bit, isn't it.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
We're not that big a country.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
No, eight billion dollars. What's that workout? That's well, it's
a few thousand dollars per man, woman and child, isn't it.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
So all the premiums we pay is roughly around ten
billion dollars a year. And so insurance companies are not
our friends, right, They're here to make money. If they're
not making money, they're just going to raise premiums.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Actually, that's funny that you point out something that is
the blaming, blooming obvious. Isn't it that insurance companies are
not our friend? They are literally there to provide a service.
They've worked out what the risk is, how much it's
going to cost them to don't know how the old
insurance thing works with our underwriters and other companies that
(05:01):
look after the largest side of the risk. I guess
those insurance companies, the retail ones and how that works.
But it's worth remembering that they're not your friend, are they.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
No, They're absolutely there to make a give you a service,
and they should get a return just like any other business, right.
And the thing is for us, it's really about asking
when I take that insurance policy, have I got the
right amount of cover?
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (05:24):
And can I afford it? Can I afford not to
have it? Because those two questions are really important, right
and because quite often what we find is people don't
have enough coverage, which we found during the earthquakes, a
lot of people were under insured, so the amount of
insurance they had was not sufficient for them to replace
their home. So quite often, you know, for most of us,
(05:45):
our home is a biggest asset. When I lose it,
it can be a really big stress on people, and
having insurance can be a big, big help. We saw
that also recently with the cyclones floods, fires. Right, We've
had more than our fair share of this stuff recently,
and in those events, insurance really help people out to
be able to kind of transition through the very difficult.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Is in a way, there are people who would deliberately
decide they're not going to continue certain insurances. But in
a way would it be quite common, I would imagine,
is that people might keep their insurance but they don't
really review how much it is. They sort of just
let it diminish in terms of whether it's covering their
full loss because I've still got some there, but I
can't bear to pay anymore.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Sure, And I think there are different ways of managing
their risk. For example, I'm a bit of a risk
taker myself, and what I do with that is I go,
I take the maximum amount of excess, which reduces your
premiums a lot. Yeah, so I'm happy to kind of
put in, you know, two and a half thousand dollars,
five thousand dollars whatever for some of my insurance if
necessary for the first loss, but that reduces my premiums
(06:50):
a lot.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Actually, that is probably one of the better things you
can do. I think even with health insurance, you can choose.
I mean, if health insurance is expensive, and as you
get older, it's more and more expensive. But I think
that is one of the tools that sometimes people don't review.
They need to look at what their excess is. Because
if you are worried about having to get that hip
replaced as you get older, or some major surgery, then
(07:13):
just simply workout can I afford to pay for the
first fifteen hundred bucks?
Speaker 5 (07:18):
That's whatever this is it. I think it's about being
asking yourself again that can I afford the premiums? And
so you want to make that as affordable as possible
for the highest amount of coverage that you can get,
and then do you have enough precautionary savings to be
able to do that deal with that excess. So I
had a procedure recently, and because I h have private
health insurance, not only was I not hit with the fee,
(07:39):
I could see somebody quickly. So you get two benefits
from that, right, Well, I.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Think that's the only reason. I mean, surely that is
that probably the only reason you have insurance. It's speed
of service for health insurance isn's speedy. I mean, our
health sector, while it's really great when it's acute. So
you know, if you have a heart attack and you
turn up at the hospital, they're going to look after really,
really well. But if you need a procedure that needs
to be planned, you might be waiting a long time
because there's a huge queue. So private health insurance just
(08:06):
gives you that very speedy access to diagnostics, to the specialists,
to the procedures, and you don't have to pay for it, right,
So the private is there for those who can't. In fact,
I would have thought that's the only reason you have
private health insurance because once you're in the public system,
the key yet is well is fantastic.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
Not only not only because especially with things like cancer care,
you do get access to a lot of unfunded medication
through your insurance. So there is for you know, it
depends on what kind of risk profile you have yourself.
It's important to think about those other things as well.
So essentially it's that unlikely but high impact scenario, right,
that catastrophic scenario when something really terrible happens. That's when
(08:43):
insurance can be so useful.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Actually, on that insurance front, how much of a difference
is there in terms of what you get versus what
premium you pay. Is there genuine competitiveness or is it
simply that one company might structure your access and what
you can claim differently so it'll look cheaper. I mean,
how much of a price differential is there depending on
(09:06):
what company you're with.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Oh, you definitely have to shop around. I use a
insurance broker because they help you kind of compare and
contrast all the different ones. And the reason I do
that is because it sometimes very difficult to compare these
policies because they're written in quite technical language. It's getting
a lot easier with AI now because you can dump
(09:27):
all the technical documents into AIH and you can compare
that stuff. But it's still worthwhile getting some professional advice.
You just want to be careful with AI. It may
not be perfect.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Well it You would have heard us discussing that with
Kyle about yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
This is it, But when you're comparing those technical documents,
it's actually really useful. I use notebook LM, and that's
like a really good one where you can just go,
here are the ten policy documents that I have found.
You put those in and compare and contrast those things,
and here are my circumstances, and it can get you
started that.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Actually, that's actually to the surprising thing you mentioned there.
I had always viewed insurance brokers worth a great deal
of but it probably goes back decades when you know,
it was all about life insurance and that sort of thing.
And I've never had life insurance. Although i've yeah, and
i haven't. It's probably one of the risks I've taken
from a family or whatever. But I've never really thought
(10:20):
of going to an insurance breaker. But in the same respect,
I never would have thought of going to a mortgage
broker until I was told I should go to a
mortgage broker, and I used a mortgage broker and went,
thank goodness, I used you.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Well, I think there's two things. It's the service that
provide in understanding your needs and making sure you get
what you need. So you know, you mentioned before term
that you might not have the right amount of cover.
Some people let that slip, but your broker will make
sure that it's still consistent with your circumstances, that everything
is up to date. That you know, if they know
the cost of construction has gone up, they'll make sure
(10:53):
your replacement values up to date. So all of those
kinds of things generally happen anywhere with your insurance companies
because they're doing a better job of it, but you're
not necessarily having a comparison.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
So using an insurance it's broken because I always assume
just make everything more expensive. But can you save money
through using a broker as well?
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Absolutely, quite often insurance brokers will give you a better deal,
but not always so you know you're not beholden to
the broker. So it's to my mind, I don't have
any problems with using professionals. I don't mind paying somebody
if it'll make my life easier, and even if it's
the same price, it still means that I had the
professional advice. I have somebody there who can deal with
(11:33):
the insurance company as my go to.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Right, we are with Chemaville Yakap. He's a chief economist
at Simplicity, and we're talking about insurance. The cost of
insurance has gone up nine hundred percent since two thousand
and as a reference, that's almost triple the increase of
tobacco products, which they've been taxing the hell out of.
How are you managing your insurance and the choices you
(11:55):
make around it to make it something that you can
either still have or decided that maybe this particular insurance
I'll give up because I'll value this insurance more than
something else, or maybe one of those people who doesn't
have any insurance, in which case you are highly excited
by risk O eight one hundred eighty ten eighty text
nine nine two. Let's let's get into it. Marty Hi,
(12:18):
Yeshitan Hi, How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Good, thank you. I hoping you can help shed a
bit of light on maybe some pointers. I've been helping
my trying to help my parents with their house insurance.
My father got a replacement valuation on the home to
burn down, so that includes demolition and all that. That
came back at two point four million plus a margin
(12:45):
of two hundred thousand, so two point six and that
was in twenty and twenty four. Yeah, so the renewal
this year, the premiums four and a half thousand were
a broker. But when I go on one group and
look at the value of their property, one roup puts
the value at one point two zero five million, So
(13:08):
I'm sort of scratching my head why you would ensure
it for two point six when it's probably only worth
you know, one point one at the highest. So it
went back to the broker to see if we could
just get a lower value, and she reckoned that because
he had a valuation of two point six replacement that
(13:29):
the insurer wouldn't do that. And then so I went
to a couple of other and went to another broker
and got two other companies to quote, and there their
aids came back higher. So just sort of scratching my
head out at all works.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
So the total value of your property land is that
land and improvements. In fact, land and buildings is what
two points.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
On one route, But I believe so yeah, one point too,
so that the two point six is only on replacement
of the house. It's quite as a three story dwelling
on a stefish section.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
So hmmm, that is a I'm going to yield to
Shama Bille on this one.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
I'm not an insurance expert and I can't give financial advice,
so just just on that. But I suspect the issue
is the replacement value of the building rather than the
value of the property as it stands. So what you're
seeing on one roof is if you're to sell your
property as it is today, how much would it sell
for the problem, of course, is that the house when
(14:33):
you build a like for like replacement is likely to
cost you a ton of money.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Because the old building is what it is. But to
read if you are going to build a new property
property to those specs, it's simply blom and expensive.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
I think it is, and I think you could ask
your insurance broker whether you can have it a guid value,
which would be a lower amount, so it's a little
bit like your experts. You can say that I have
this a guid value of replacement rather than the total
value of replacing like the like.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Actually it's a three story house, which is sort of
on the that's on the ground side of things. How
many bedrooms are we talking?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
It's full bedroom basically, but they're really big bedrooms. But
the dearest house I could find in the suburb for
sale was one point six million, so it's still a
long way away from two point six.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Look, neither of us are insurance brokers, but common sense
would suggest to me that maybe you just say, look,
what would it cost if we were happy to settle
for a two bedroom a two story, four bedroom home
and in a greed square meterage or something. I don't know,
can you to me, you surely can say if it
burns down, I'll accept her. I don't need three stories.
(15:48):
I mean, would you be the broker.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
The broker was pushing back on that. I suspect it's
because they're commissions involves. But I wasn't dealing with the
broker directly. It was my sister. But the broker holls
hear that because there was a replacement valuation, that the
insurer wouldn't look at it for less, it might.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
Be worth while just calling an insurance company directly and
just getting a quote, because these things can be just
a little bit. Like I said, you do have to
shop around a little bit. And my personal experience was
that insurance brokers are really helpful. But in your instance,
it sounds like a little bit of direct conversation might
be quite good.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah. So yeah, go to a couple of insurance companies
and say this is what I've got, but this is
what this is all I will need if it burns
to the ground.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
That sounds like reasonable advice, doesn't it not financial advice?
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Of course, I hope not, because we're not allowed to
give that. I know that in the premium that I
had for my rental property down in christ Church, I
had something called a greed value. So you had agreed
a number which is not necessarily how much it would
cost to replace it for lake.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
For like yeah, yeah, And actually I wonder if there's
instead of a greed value, whether there is an agreed specification,
whether you could with I don't know if that exists,
and you and I are not insurance breakers, but it
would be worth asking that question. So if you had
a six bedroom, three story house and you thought, well,
if it burns to the ground local and it is
three bedrooms and a couple of stories, I wonder if
(17:10):
you can do that or do you think the insurance
companies wouldn't like it because they'd think it sounds like
you want it to burn to the ground and you've
got a nice new I don't know.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
Well, yeah, I know that a lot of the reminders
are around making sure that the value their value of
your property replacement value is up to date, because that
is the maximum that would pay for. So if the
repairs cost more, you will not be made whole. And
so it's really important that you take that risk knowingly.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah right, let's tell you what we won't take more
calls right now because we're going to take a break,
but callers who are holding stand by. We'll be back
in just a moment where Chamo bil Yaka and we're
talking about insurance. It's expensive. How are you managing the
choices you make around your insurance? What are you giving up?
What are you keeping? What are your excesses? And actually
I do love the suggestions that we've out of maybe
(18:02):
going through an insurance broker and checking what deals, what
they can get it for you. Back in the moment,
it's twenty four and a half past five.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Does your mammals.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Two brou a little bit of Elvis? Well, we're not
like this afternoon because we've got a full border calls.
We're talking insurance, but we do like to give our
guests the opportunity to choose a churn or two. And
this is one of the pecks of Schommo bill ogives
much guests, we're talking about managing your insurance. Now, when
we say insurance prices have increased nine hundred percent since
(18:36):
two thousand, Shama Bill, that is actually house insurance costs,
isn't it.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
That's right, And so the cost of insuring your home
has increased massively. Most of the other insurances haven't increased
quite as much.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Out right, let's take some more calls. How are you
managing your insurance? What choices are you making?
Speaker 6 (18:52):
Calvin High very good, leaving to too men your guess.
Decades ago, I had I think it was cool life
and downend policy for thirty years and then at the
end of that period it just cased it up and
put the money in the shoe box. Anyway, but since then,
I've only always had house and contents and car insurance.
(19:12):
I've just renewed my car insurance recently but the last
few years, and I'm definitely going to do it this year.
I'm not going to have any contents insurance because from
what I can recall, when I inquired with them, they
didn't ensure anything under it was it twelve years or
twenty years, and yet they have a receipt. All this
(19:32):
women carry on. But the problem right now with me
my insurance come the used to be in the center
of the tron then they moved to a northern suburb
and now they're not there. So I don't like dealing
with people over the phone. You people are liking to
get me to call through to you right now. I
don't normally phone up, especially on business terms and insurance
(19:53):
and all that carry on. So I'm definitely going to
not have house contents insurance because they also decided to
put on a what is it excess?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Is it?
Speaker 6 (20:05):
Oh? Yeah, well I never ever had that previously, but
the actual house insurance. I was sort of dubious about that,
but I'll just go ahead and that's.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Yeah, Well, I think you've got to I mean I
think you you know, probably I don't. I wouldn't say
you need your head read if you haven't got house insurance.
But it's a big risk, massive risk.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
So your previous caller is correct. If your house is
going to burn down, your coverage has got to cover,
you know, the demolition and removal, so you finish up
with a beer section as such and starting again, so
the actual value of your house is always far less
than what that overall costs is going to be. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
The contents thing, actually some of it is an interesting
one because I recently made a content's claim and it
was sort of all right, but the excess sort of
I was almost thinking to myself, how much my spending
on contents insurance.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
But you know, well, I think it's probably more thinking
about what happens if there is thing like a flood
and your house is still okay and can be salvage
relatively quickly, but you lose your contents and those are
easily replaced. So it might include your kitchen appliances, your
washing machine, dry all that stuff. So it's really sort.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Of give me having yea Calvin's gone. Actually, funny enough,
we had a flood which did kind of irritate me
because it was the hot water tank burst and of
course that was the expensive thing to replace, and it
did cause a bit of a flood and that wasn't
too much to clean up, but of course the most
(21:39):
expensive thing about it was replacing the hot water cylinder.
And I was like, oh, but you can't ensure against
wear and tear, I guess. But the contents insurance, I
think it's worth remembering it's not just about replacing your
clothes and a few minor items. It's things like your kitchen,
you know, the furnishings and the stove and the fridge
and all that stuff, and that can add up.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
It can, and I think again it's about just making
sure you've got a right size. So quite often, you know,
if you're if you're renting, for example, you will have
what contents insurance only, and you can choose how much
you insure force so you can set an upper limit,
which can make the premiums quite affordable.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Okay, right, let's take more calls. Jim. Hello, Yeah, Hi, Tim,
how are you today?
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Good? My wife and I have both recently retired and
we had a subsidized health insurance through Southern Cross and
to continue on it was going to cost us about
seven hundred and fifty dollars a fortnight in premiums.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
Wow, which was yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Which was just prohibative. We both had issues with both
heart pacemakers. She's had heard issues. Anyway, To cut a
long story short, we decided that we would can health
insurance because all the bad things have happened have been done.
(23:07):
And we spoke to our surgeons and we got transferred
through to the public system. We're being looked after by
the same surgeons, the same medical team for our heart conditions,
plus a few other.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Things, as you would hope.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Yeah, And I have to tell you that the public
system has been absolutely brilliant.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Look, that's the thing that I used to think that
private got you the better care, but of course the
people who are the top surgeons, that's how the public recruits.
So once you're in the system, the key you get
is absolutely amazing. It's just that if you needed a
new hip, you might have to write a frustrating Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Absolutely, but if you're sick, sick get looked after. But interestingly,
you say about the private versus public has been better
looked after. My wife has macular degeneration and has to
have injections in her eyes every six weeks or so,
and we were dealing with a private company here in Auckland,
(24:16):
and we make an appointment there and go in and
it would invariably take maybe three hours from the time
you arrived on the time you left. It was just ridiculous.
And now she gets appointments through the through the counties,
Mannekau and a super clinic and she's in an out
(24:37):
in half an hour.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
It's nice to hear a positive story about the public
health system and it's worth probably I mean olebrating there. Yeah.
I've sometimes wondered, Jim that if people were going to
give up their health insurance and they were thinking they
might need the hips done, they might so suny chance
I get these done now while I'm still covered and
then but I don't know how that would work. Did
you ever consider anything like that?
Speaker 4 (24:58):
No? No, I mean the illness is that we've had
have been natural things and lucky that we have any
placements or anything like that. You know, we're also in
a situation that if we had to, we probably could
afford it. But yea, for those I mean seven and
fifty dollars, Oh no.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
That's something that's a hell of a lot of money. Yeah,
huge amount. And that's the tragedy of it, isn't it
When that you can pay premiums for years and years
and years, hardly ever RELI on them. Then you start
to have to rely on them and they go, oh,
by the way, we're going to make it prohibitively expensive. Yeah,
good on your gym. Cheers, mate, thanks for your call.
Speaker 7 (25:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
I mean, it's nice to hear some positive stories about
the public health system, which is getting bagged a lot,
isn't it.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Absolutely. I actually interviewed Ashley Bloomfield on my podcast and
there was one of the things that he was talking
about is actually public health system is working pretty well
it's just under a huge amount of pressure. It's just
so much demand that it's hard for it to keep up.
I've had experiences with the public health system with my
father and the care was extraordinary. So you know, we
have amazing people. And like our last caller said, the
(26:03):
surgeons are the same, so it's not like you're getting
different experts. But I'd say my personal experience has been
that the ability to access specialists quickly now that is
still faster through private compared to public.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Now let's take some more calls, Lawrence.
Speaker 6 (26:20):
Hi, you're going to.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
Make my advice to people. I used brokers. My advice
to people is to shop around and also to make
noise when you're not happy. I was paying about four
hundred dollars a month in insurance and then when the
flood said a couple of years ago, they came to
(26:45):
me said, oh, your insurance is going up eighty dollars
a month, and I go, no, I said, why are
because of the you know, the floods, And I said, listen,
I've paid you forty eight thousand dollars in the last
ten years without acclaim. And no one said, hey, Lawrence,
but on your your premiums are going down, We're going
to do this, and then when the proverbial hits the
(27:06):
ban you want me to pay? I said, day to hell,
I'm not doing it. And I made noise and they
come back and say, oh, what about four hundred and
fifteen dollars a month? And I said, okay, I can
live with that. And then they this time around, they
wanted to put it up again and I said, no,
I'm sick of this, and I shopped around. They wanted
me to go up to four hundred and forty dollars
(27:27):
a month. I shopped around. It took a lot of time.
I got it down to three hundred and twenty five
dollars a month, which is a huge saving.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, well, good on you. It's probably, I mean, in
a way that would be surprising to some people because
they just assumed that there's nothing to be haggled on.
Speaker 8 (27:46):
I think yet they try and say that it's the
same all over the board. But you know, I just
hated that while things are going well, they're happy to
take your money and then when things go wrong, oh
you know you can pay I'm sorry, No, it don't
work like that. And you know, it took a lot
of around. But you know, hey, I'm sixty five and
(28:08):
saving myself one hundred and fifteen dollars a.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Month as weak good stuff. Hey got on your line.
Speaker 8 (28:14):
People, Yeah, shop around and and make noises.
Speaker 7 (28:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I think that's great advice because it does feel that
sometimes there are certain things which feel less haggilable, aren't they?
And insurance would be in the instinctively one of those.
But there we go.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Except, of course, yeah, because I think different companies will
have different types of cover as well, so you can
because you don't necessarily need exactly all the bits and
bells and whistles that one company might offer, So you
can pick and choose based on what's available. And that's
why I was saying it's so important to get that
advice to make sure you get the right product for you,
because quite often that kind of you know that what's
(28:52):
what it says in the can may not be suitable
for you.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, you can give us call one hundred and eighty
ten eighty. How are you managing your insurance in the
wake of the fact that well insurance has got a
lot more expensive lately? Twenty two minutes to Sex News Talks,
you'd be it's welcome back. This is the weekend collective
(29:20):
smart money. We're talking in insurance with Schamaville Yakapi's is
a chief economist. It's simplicity and the choices you're making
around you know you're keeping the same insurances. I mean,
this is the I got to tell you. I don't
actually know how much my insurance is for our house
because it's not something I think I work out. They
say what the premiums are going to be, and I
(29:41):
think I set aside a certain amount of money and
a regular payment so I never have to think about it,
which is my way of just managing the stress of
the bills. So it's almost like I don't pay for it.
It's just money disappears into a different account and it
disappears out.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Yep, yep. I think for a lot of people that
is the case. But because it's getting more expensive, I
think people are noticing it a lot more so for
it for ensuring your home. It isn't the thousands of
dollars a year, so it's not cheap. But then it's
also by the value. Right now, it's the cost versus
the value, and the value is if something happens, if
the catastrophic event happens, then you're looked after. I think
(30:16):
that's the peace of mind that you're buying.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Yeah, this person says, my house insurance has gone up
around four thousand, seven hundred dollars to just over ten
thousand starting late September. Of course we don't know how
and what period of time it's gone up, but whatever,
it sounds like a dramatic that's a lot of it.
That's that's quite a That's a lot to be paying
for insurance, isn't it ten thousand bucks?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Well?
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Yeah, so the average health insurance premium for a household
in New Zealand is around two and a half thousand dollars.
But because not everybody gets not many people have health
insurance in Ziwa right, it's around twenty percent of families
that have health insurance.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
For areas in New Zealand, this is and I guess
we can't give a specific advice, but this is just
for the conversation. For areas of New Zealand, this text
to rights where house insurance cost has gone nuts, eg. Wellington.
Why can't people choose to pay a lower premium just
for fire cover and or non earthquake or flood related
damage punters is locked into one premium. In other words,
(31:09):
I want to ensure my house for a fire, but
if there's an earthquake, I don't.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Ah, well it happens. Actually, So what we saw in
places like Brisbane after the floods was you could not
get flood covered, but you could get covered for other things.
So if there was a fire, you could get you know,
you would get covered, but if there was flood, there
were certain properties they wouldn't cover for flood. And it's
that risk based approach to insurance. So that unbundling does happen,
but at the moment it doesn't happen a lot in
(31:36):
New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Well, how much people take Do you think people ever
consider when they're moving somewhere, how often they would think
ahead on insurance, Like Okay, I'd love to go and
live in this particular part of the country, but you know,
insurance costs are through the roof. I don't know if
that would ever stop someone would it?
Speaker 5 (31:56):
Well, for increasingly I think for some people at will,
Because what we're seeing is insurance companies around the world,
including starting to happen in New Zealand, is they're adding
on a lot more risk for certain types of properties,
particularly for flood risk and erosion risk. So if you're
on coastal property, if you're in waterways, in those insurance
premiums are getting far more expensive, and the idea is
(32:18):
they want to send you a strong, strong signal don't
live here because we don't want to cover you.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I actually did wonder how much difference that's going to
make on erosion because we saw what happened with an
Auckland and the properties. You know, all of a sudden,
this problem that no one would have ever considered looked
like it was something that we really do have to
have bear in mind.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Well, so far, what we have seen is when those
crisis have happened, government has essentially stepped in and bailed
us out. But it's not going to keep happening. Right,
Our local government is tapped out in terms of money.
We keep on hearing central government is tapped out of money.
So how many more natural disasters can we bail people
out of? And that's why I think it's really important
to think about how much insurance you have and whether
(33:00):
you'll be okay, because it may not be the case.
Unlike recent years, and there was A.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Okay, let's take some more calls.
Speaker 9 (33:07):
Baryl High, Hello, Tom Good to talk to you again.
And lady guest, look, I'll try and make mine to
the point. I here to pick your brains only. I
know you're not experts. But what I want to know
is this. This is what I've chosen too. I've got
full insurance on the car and I just pay house insurance.
What I've done was I went into the AA because
(33:29):
I'm like Calvin, I like to have one where I
can approach them. And I went in there and they
had made it too high, so I was so I
told them I wanted to go back to the last
year's one last year's insurance for the house, which is
four hundred and forty thousand, and I paid two thousand
and five hundred. And I said, lot, I'm on a set,
(33:51):
and come, I've got to cut my cuff to where
I can afford. And I only want to pay two
thousand and five hundred, and that will cover four hundred
and forty thousand. And what happens has happened. And the
house is made of brick, and it's an X state house,
and in our era, it's not likely to go from
million point being is that now that the houses have
(34:12):
dropped in my area, would that help me a little
bit with the fact that I've asked them and they's
allowed me to just go back to last year's premium
of two thousand, five hundred and was that four hundred
and forty thousand the houses have dropped in my area
of the valley? What do you think about that?
Speaker 8 (34:33):
Be Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
I'm going to handle over to schommer Beil, who's not
going to give any direct financial advice.
Speaker 9 (34:38):
But now are you realize that we do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Beryl?
Speaker 5 (34:41):
I think what you need to think about is when
you pay the premium that will give you a certain
amount of cover, and right if you are it's essentially
if you're if you're going to pay a lower premium
than their quoting, then the amount of cover you have
should something happen would be less, so you'd right, you'd
get you wouldn't necessarily be made whole. And so just
(35:02):
consider the fact that selling your house is probably going
to get you less money than if you were to
demolish your house and rebuild it, because the cost of
building a new home is exceptionally high in.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, So don't look at the market value of your
home is necessarily reflecting how much it's going to cost
to rebuild your dwelling.
Speaker 5 (35:21):
That replacement cost can cati. So you want to be
just quite deliberate in thinking about what is it that
you're ensuring for and if something happens, whether it would
be enough for you to kind of recover. You do
have a price eleven?
Speaker 9 (35:35):
Okay, thank you gentlemen. That's basically what I picking your brains,
That's all I wanted to know.
Speaker 7 (35:41):
So what does that?
Speaker 3 (35:42):
What does that mean for you? Now? Where to for you? Now?
On what you do?
Speaker 9 (35:45):
Well, I'll go back and like that other gentleman renegotiated
with his insurance. They allowed me to sit on the
two thousand, five hundred covering four hundred and forty thousand.
But I'm both of you. I think I will go
back and talk to them again just to see if
I can stretch my money but cut the but you know,
cut my cloth to what I could forward to what
(36:05):
they come up with. It might be a bit more negotiating.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
You could ask if you could have a higher excess.
You could also talk to another insurance company just to
get a competitive bid, just because sometimes what happens is
there might have slightly different offerings which might be a
better suited to your situation.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Okay, okay, shop around very much good on your bar. Actually,
on the insurance broker thing, how how would one go around?
I mean, because you're not going to specific advice on
this either, but how would you go about finding an
insurance breaker and who you would you know who would
do the best job for you?
Speaker 5 (36:44):
Just there there are a lot of insurance broking outfits
out there. Some of them are kind of full service
financial advice businesses who sell everything from insurance to savings products,
and others who do only insurance. And so if you
just google insurance broker in my local area, you'll find
somebody who's available.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
I think the real.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
Benefit with the insurance broker is that they will come
to you and figure out what is it that you need.
They'll pick those types of policies which will give you
the best bang for back, which is quite hard to
do on your own. Like I said before, these policy
descriptions are quite difficult to compare because they're use slightly
different language, certainly different terminology, certainly different terms, and they
(37:26):
all have slightly different mufferings.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
What are the most common? The most common insurance is
that most people would have if you've got a home,
would be what home contents, car and well they'll be
the most common ones. Those are the most common.
Speaker 5 (37:43):
And then the insurance is the most common of course
because you have to have third party, because you know
the risk of not having that is extremely high. But
we are last time I looked at the numbers, there
was only about eight percent of homes in New Zealand
that were not insured.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Eight that's a lot of That's still a lot of
people are not insured, isn't it.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
That's still a lot. And we saw that doing the
floods here through the cyclones in place, particularly in place
like Lisbon, where in a poverty I think has meant
a lot of people just simply can't afford it. And
so what can you do?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Right?
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Do you choose to put food on the table or
pay for insurance?
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Yeah? Gosh, that's you can imagine how much you get
easily spend in health and insurance if you went for
a couple of the what I would call with delight fries.
With that, like if you decided you wanted income insurance,
income protection insurance, mortgage insurance, life insurance, home insurance, contents,
car health blimey.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
It's many thousands of dollars. And as you get older,
the risk, particularly for health increases and it can become
many tens of thousands of dollars. And so again it's
that it's an important thing that helps you manage risk,
but you need to make sure you've right sized it
for your circumstances.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Right, we're going to take a quick moment back in
a teke. It's nine minutes to sex news talk, said B.
It's news talk, said B. We've been talking insurance with him.
Yakabe's a principal, sorry, chief economist as simplicity, and we've
only got about less than a couple of minutes to go, really,
so I thought we'd just sort of put a little
bit of a summary in terms of the little gems
(39:13):
we've gleaned. I think Shammer Bill. The first one for
me was fact we're about four things. One was the
use of excess as a way don't necessarily cancel things
with health insurance see IF and any other insurance. Just
check what your excess is and see if you can
change that.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
Absolutely increasing your excess can reduce your premiums by a lot,
and they can make it far more affordable, and as
long as you make sure that you have a little
bit set aside in your rainy day fund, it will
mean that you're still covered for those very large expenses,
but obviously with less of.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
That upfront, and not being afraid to shop around, perhaps
using a broker who you've also shopped around.
Speaker 5 (39:49):
For absolutely, I have no loyalty when it comes to brokers.
You will use multiple ones and see who comes up
with the best offering. But the reality is that brokers,
because of their experience and expertise, can really get to
the type of product you want and can get you
positive quite often a really good price.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
And the other one, which of course is always at
the end of just about every conversation these days, is
AI is actually a tool as well you can use
to have a look at your documents and what you're.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
Getting absolutely because quite often those documents are quite hard
to understand, and so shoving them into AI can help
you just understand what's included, what's not included, so then
you can understand whether you've got the right amount of
cover or if you've got too much cover. In which
case you might be able to save yourself some money.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
So yeah, I hope that's sort of been a useful
for an information or a vice or a discussion for
you if you're looking at what your insurance is doing
and what you're paying, what you're getting for it, because
I'm probably go ENNO have to go and look at
my household insurance details and depress myself on how much
I'm paying. But maybe it's time to shop around. Thank
you so much, Thanks Shema Bill, Thanks for coming out
the studio, and if you've missed any of this out
(40:52):
go and check out the podcast and you just talk
to your beat dot cutain it. Thanks my producer, Tire Award.
And next week we have Max Whitehead has joined us
for Smart Money, where we'll be talking no doubt, employment
issues and other things. Thanks for your company. We'll look
forward to your company next weekend.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talks EDB weekends from three pm or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Ed B to me, you'll be burning, but you will
see it on the face.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Watch me.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Just I still get the money running, they.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Say lainlyving gos to the edge, still.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Be looking up.
Speaker 5 (00:34):
I sell the be you can get me I am
Missen says is everyone else shakes them on even.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
When I hear until you leaving, Y's welcome back. This
is the week in Collectible. Welcome and if you've just
joined us eight hundred and eighty ten eighties and number
text nine two nine two, this is smart money. And
we're gonna have a chat about insurance because insurance prices.
I still can't get my head around us. And when
(01:04):
I say it sounds like an easy throwaway line, I
can't get my head around it. It's like anything that's
mildly challenging. But I'm really struggling to get my head
around it because I can't imagine that my insurance was
that much cheaper. But insurance prices apparently have increased nine
hundred percent since two thousand. Okay that is a while,
but you know most other I think the general impact
(01:27):
of inflations on averages around oh, God, Actually I'm nervous
because I'm about to introduce my economist. I think it's
on average probably about two hundred and fifty three hundred
percent over the course of time on just general things.
But I could be wrong and help put me in
my place. But I want to know are you making
choices around what insurance you can afford? There are even
(01:53):
stories we discussed this yesterday, I think during the one
ref radio show or on the panel, that there are
people who've decided that they've paid off their house so
that don't need to worry about getting caught with a
mortgage on a property and probably that doesn't exist if
it burns to the ground or something, and they've just gone, well,
(02:13):
you know, I don't have a mortgage at least if
there's a fire, I'll just go and live in a
caravan somewhere and that will be that. I mean, that
is a radical decision to not ensure your property. Other
questions around insurance would be whether you can can afford
to let your insurance go on health insurance? Are those
(02:34):
the decisions? Do you ensure your car a third party?
Do you have full insurance? I eight hundred eighty ten
eighty have you made some decisions around your insurance simply
because it's so blim and expensive. Well want your calls
on I eight hundred eighty ten eighty and joining us
to discuss this. He is chief economist at Simplicity and
(02:55):
it's chamabill, get a chammobil. How are you going now?
I'll just hit that buttons. How are you?
Speaker 5 (03:02):
I'm awesome, nice to be here.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Have you well? Actually, can you describe for us? Well,
you can put me in my place if I was wrong.
I took a rough guess that our average inflation's probably
over twenty five years total to whatever. But how does
the insurance price increase of nine hundred percent? How does
that compare to generally other things we've experienced to growth.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
On, it's been exponential, So compared to other things, insurance,
particularly for your house, has increased a huge amount. So
to give you some context, in general, inflation runs out
just over two percent a year, so over twenty five years,
we're talking maybe fifty percent, right, and in this instance
we're talking a ninefold increase.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
They're not compared in twenty five years.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
Yeah, and it's a huge, huge increase. And what has
happened is we've seen some step shifts and you can
almost see when that happens. So it was like after
the earthquakes in Canterbury. Every time we have those very
big climate events, but it's not just here. So what
we tend to find is those big increases happen because
of local events, big glosses, big claims, and because it's
(04:07):
happening internationally as well. We're seeing huge increases in reinsurance
costs for our insurance companies. Last two years, I think
the insurance claims have been in excess of eight billion dollars.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, that's quite a bit, isn't it.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
We're not that big a country.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
No, eight billion dollars. What's that workout? That's well, it's
a few thousand dollars per man, woman and child, isn't it.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
So all the premiums we pay is roughly around ten
billion dollars a year. And so insurance companies are not
our friends, right, They're here to make money. If they're
not making money, they're just going to raise premiums.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Actually, that's funny that you point out something that is
the blaming, blooming obvious. Isn't it that insurance companies are
not our friend? They are literally there to provide a service.
They've worked out what the risk is, how much it's
going to cost them to don't know how the old
insurance thing works with our underwriters and other companies that
(05:01):
look after the largest side of the risk. I guess
those insurance companies, the retail ones and how that works.
But it's worth remembering that they're not your friend, are they.
Speaker 5 (05:10):
No, They're absolutely there to make a give you a service,
and they should get a return just like any other business, right.
And the thing is for us, it's really about asking
when I take that insurance policy, have I got the
right amount of cover?
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (05:24):
And can I afford it? Can I afford not to
have it? Because those two questions are really important, right
and because quite often what we find is people don't
have enough coverage, which we found during the earthquakes, a
lot of people were under insured, so the amount of
insurance they had was not sufficient for them to replace
their home. So quite often, you know, for most of us,
(05:45):
our home is a biggest asset. When I lose it,
it can be a really big stress on people, and
having insurance can be a big, big help. We saw
that also recently with the cyclones floods, fires. Right, We've
had more than our fair share of this stuff recently,
and in those events, insurance really help people out to
be able to kind of transition through the very difficult.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Is in a way, there are people who would deliberately
decide they're not going to continue certain insurances. But in
a way would it be quite common, I would imagine,
is that people might keep their insurance but they don't
really review how much it is. They sort of just
let it diminish in terms of whether it's covering their
full loss because I've still got some there, but I
can't bear to pay anymore.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Sure, And I think there are different ways of managing
their risk. For example, I'm a bit of a risk
taker myself, and what I do with that is I go,
I take the maximum amount of excess, which reduces your
premiums a lot. Yeah, so I'm happy to kind of
put in, you know, two and a half thousand dollars,
five thousand dollars whatever for some of my insurance if
necessary for the first loss, but that reduces my premiums
(06:50):
a lot.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Actually, that is probably one of the better things you
can do. I think even with health insurance, you can choose.
I mean, if health insurance is expensive, and as you
get older, it's more and more expensive. But I think
that is one of the tools that sometimes people don't review.
They need to look at what their excess is. Because
if you are worried about having to get that hip
replaced as you get older, or some major surgery, then
(07:13):
just simply workout can I afford to pay for the
first fifteen hundred bucks?
Speaker 5 (07:18):
That's whatever this is it. I think it's about being
asking yourself again that can I afford the premiums? And
so you want to make that as affordable as possible
for the highest amount of coverage that you can get,
and then do you have enough precautionary savings to be
able to do that deal with that excess. So I
had a procedure recently, and because I h have private
health insurance, not only was I not hit with the fee,
(07:39):
I could see somebody quickly. So you get two benefits
from that, right, Well, I.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Think that's the only reason. I mean, surely that is
that probably the only reason you have insurance. It's speed
of service for health insurance isn's speedy. I mean, our
health sector, while it's really great when it's acute. So
you know, if you have a heart attack and you
turn up at the hospital, they're going to look after really,
really well. But if you need a procedure that needs
to be planned, you might be waiting a long time
because there's a huge queue. So private health insurance just
(08:06):
gives you that very speedy access to diagnostics, to the specialists,
to the procedures, and you don't have to pay for it, right,
So the private is there for those who can't. In fact,
I would have thought that's the only reason you have
private health insurance because once you're in the public system,
the key yet is well is fantastic.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
Not only not only because especially with things like cancer care,
you do get access to a lot of unfunded medication
through your insurance. So there is for you know, it
depends on what kind of risk profile you have yourself.
It's important to think about those other things as well.
So essentially it's that unlikely but high impact scenario, right,
that catastrophic scenario when something really terrible happens. That's when
(08:43):
insurance can be so useful.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Actually, on that insurance front, how much of a difference
is there in terms of what you get versus what
premium you pay. Is there genuine competitiveness or is it
simply that one company might structure your access and what
you can claim differently so it'll look cheaper. I mean,
how much of a price differential is there depending on
(09:06):
what company you're with.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
Oh, you definitely have to shop around. I use a
insurance broker because they help you kind of compare and
contrast all the different ones. And the reason I do
that is because it sometimes very difficult to compare these
policies because they're written in quite technical language. It's getting
a lot easier with AI now because you can dump
(09:27):
all the technical documents into AIH and you can compare
that stuff. But it's still worthwhile getting some professional advice.
You just want to be careful with AI. It may
not be perfect.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Well it You would have heard us discussing that with
Kyle about yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
This is it, But when you're comparing those technical documents,
it's actually really useful. I use notebook LM, and that's
like a really good one where you can just go,
here are the ten policy documents that I have found.
You put those in and compare and contrast those things,
and here are my circumstances, and it can get you
started that.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Actually, that's actually to the surprising thing you mentioned there.
I had always viewed insurance brokers worth a great deal
of but it probably goes back decades when you know,
it was all about life insurance and that sort of thing.
And I've never had life insurance. Although i've yeah, and
i haven't. It's probably one of the risks I've taken
from a family or whatever. But I've never really thought
(10:20):
of going to an insurance breaker. But in the same respect,
I never would have thought of going to a mortgage
broker until I was told I should go to a
mortgage broker, and I used a mortgage broker and went,
thank goodness, I used you.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Well, I think there's two things. It's the service that
provide in understanding your needs and making sure you get
what you need. So you know, you mentioned before term
that you might not have the right amount of cover.
Some people let that slip, but your broker will make
sure that it's still consistent with your circumstances, that everything
is up to date. That you know, if they know
the cost of construction has gone up, they'll make sure
(10:53):
your replacement values up to date. So all of those
kinds of things generally happen anywhere with your insurance companies
because they're doing a better job of it, but you're
not necessarily having a comparison.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
So using an insurance it's broken because I always assume
just make everything more expensive. But can you save money
through using a broker as well?
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Absolutely, quite often insurance brokers will give you a better deal,
but not always so you know you're not beholden to
the broker. So it's to my mind, I don't have
any problems with using professionals. I don't mind paying somebody
if it'll make my life easier, and even if it's
the same price, it still means that I had the
professional advice. I have somebody there who can deal with
(11:33):
the insurance company as my go to.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Right, we are with Chemaville Yakap. He's a chief economist
at Simplicity, and we're talking about insurance. The cost of
insurance has gone up nine hundred percent since two thousand
and as a reference, that's almost triple the increase of
tobacco products, which they've been taxing the hell out of.
How are you managing your insurance and the choices you
(11:55):
make around it to make it something that you can
either still have or decided that maybe this particular insurance
I'll give up because I'll value this insurance more than
something else, or maybe one of those people who doesn't
have any insurance, in which case you are highly excited
by risk O eight one hundred eighty ten eighty text
nine nine two. Let's let's get into it. Marty Hi,
(12:18):
Yeshitan Hi, How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Good, thank you. I hoping you can help shed a
bit of light on maybe some pointers. I've been helping
my trying to help my parents with their house insurance.
My father got a replacement valuation on the home to
burn down, so that includes demolition and all that. That
came back at two point four million plus a margin
(12:45):
of two hundred thousand, so two point six and that
was in twenty and twenty four. Yeah, so the renewal
this year, the premiums four and a half thousand were
a broker. But when I go on one group and
look at the value of their property, one roup puts
the value at one point two zero five million, So
(13:08):
I'm sort of scratching my head why you would ensure
it for two point six when it's probably only worth
you know, one point one at the highest. So it
went back to the broker to see if we could
just get a lower value, and she reckoned that because
he had a valuation of two point six replacement that
(13:29):
the insurer wouldn't do that. And then so I went
to a couple of other and went to another broker
and got two other companies to quote, and there their
aids came back higher. So just sort of scratching my
head out at all works.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
So the total value of your property land is that
land and improvements. In fact, land and buildings is what
two points.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
On one route, But I believe so yeah, one point too,
so that the two point six is only on replacement
of the house. It's quite as a three story dwelling
on a stefish section.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
So hmmm, that is a I'm going to yield to
Shama Bille on this one.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
I'm not an insurance expert and I can't give financial advice,
so just just on that. But I suspect the issue
is the replacement value of the building rather than the
value of the property as it stands. So what you're
seeing on one roof is if you're to sell your
property as it is today, how much would it sell
for the problem, of course, is that the house when
(14:33):
you build a like for like replacement is likely to
cost you a ton of money.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Because the old building is what it is. But to
read if you are going to build a new property
property to those specs, it's simply blom and expensive.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
I think it is, and I think you could ask
your insurance broker whether you can have it a guid value,
which would be a lower amount, so it's a little
bit like your experts. You can say that I have
this a guid value of replacement rather than the total
value of replacing like the like.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Actually it's a three story house, which is sort of
on the that's on the ground side of things. How
many bedrooms are we talking?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
It's full bedroom basically, but they're really big bedrooms. But
the dearest house I could find in the suburb for
sale was one point six million, so it's still a
long way away from two point six.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Look, neither of us are insurance brokers, but common sense
would suggest to me that maybe you just say, look,
what would it cost if we were happy to settle
for a two bedroom a two story, four bedroom home
and in a greed square meterage or something. I don't know,
can you to me, you surely can say if it
burns down, I'll accept her. I don't need three stories.
(15:48):
I mean, would you be the broker.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
The broker was pushing back on that. I suspect it's
because they're commissions involves. But I wasn't dealing with the
broker directly. It was my sister. But the broker holls
hear that because there was a replacement valuation, that the
insurer wouldn't look at it for less, it might.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
Be worth while just calling an insurance company directly and
just getting a quote, because these things can be just
a little bit. Like I said, you do have to
shop around a little bit. And my personal experience was
that insurance brokers are really helpful. But in your instance,
it sounds like a little bit of direct conversation might
be quite good.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah. So yeah, go to a couple of insurance companies
and say this is what I've got, but this is
what this is all I will need if it burns
to the ground.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
That sounds like reasonable advice, doesn't it not financial advice?
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Of course, I hope not, because we're not allowed to
give that. I know that in the premium that I
had for my rental property down in christ Church, I
had something called a greed value. So you had agreed
a number which is not necessarily how much it would
cost to replace it for lake.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
For like yeah, yeah, And actually I wonder if there's
instead of a greed value, whether there is an agreed specification,
whether you could with I don't know if that exists,
and you and I are not insurance breakers, but it
would be worth asking that question. So if you had
a six bedroom, three story house and you thought, well,
if it burns to the ground local and it is
three bedrooms and a couple of stories, I wonder if
(17:10):
you can do that or do you think the insurance
companies wouldn't like it because they'd think it sounds like
you want it to burn to the ground and you've
got a nice new I don't know.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
Well, yeah, I know that a lot of the reminders
are around making sure that the value their value of
your property replacement value is up to date, because that
is the maximum that would pay for. So if the
repairs cost more, you will not be made whole. And
so it's really important that you take that risk knowingly.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah right, let's tell you what we won't take more
calls right now because we're going to take a break,
but callers who are holding stand by. We'll be back
in just a moment where Chamo bil Yaka and we're
talking about insurance. It's expensive. How are you managing the
choices you make around your insurance? What are you giving up?
What are you keeping? What are your excesses? And actually
I do love the suggestions that we've out of maybe
(18:02):
going through an insurance broker and checking what deals, what
they can get it for you. Back in the moment,
it's twenty four and a half past five.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Does your mammals.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Two brou a little bit of Elvis? Well, we're not
like this afternoon because we've got a full border calls.
We're talking insurance, but we do like to give our
guests the opportunity to choose a churn or two. And
this is one of the pecks of Schommo bill ogives
much guests, we're talking about managing your insurance. Now, when
we say insurance prices have increased nine hundred percent since
(18:36):
two thousand, Shama Bill, that is actually house insurance costs,
isn't it.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
That's right, And so the cost of insuring your home
has increased massively. Most of the other insurances haven't increased
quite as much.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Out right, let's take some more calls. How are you
managing your insurance? What choices are you making?
Speaker 6 (18:52):
Calvin High very good, leaving to too men your guess.
Decades ago, I had I think it was cool life
and downend policy for thirty years and then at the
end of that period it just cased it up and
put the money in the shoe box. Anyway, but since then,
I've only always had house and contents and car insurance.
(19:12):
I've just renewed my car insurance recently but the last
few years, and I'm definitely going to do it this year.
I'm not going to have any contents insurance because from
what I can recall, when I inquired with them, they
didn't ensure anything under it was it twelve years or
twenty years, and yet they have a receipt. All this
(19:32):
women carry on. But the problem right now with me
my insurance come the used to be in the center
of the tron then they moved to a northern suburb
and now they're not there. So I don't like dealing
with people over the phone. You people are liking to
get me to call through to you right now. I
don't normally phone up, especially on business terms and insurance
(19:53):
and all that carry on. So I'm definitely going to
not have house contents insurance because they also decided to
put on a what is it excess?
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Is it?
Speaker 6 (20:05):
Oh? Yeah, well I never ever had that previously, but
the actual house insurance. I was sort of dubious about that,
but I'll just go ahead and that's.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Yeah, Well, I think you've got to I mean I
think you you know, probably I don't. I wouldn't say
you need your head read if you haven't got house insurance.
But it's a big risk, massive risk.
Speaker 6 (20:25):
So your previous caller is correct. If your house is
going to burn down, your coverage has got to cover,
you know, the demolition and removal, so you finish up
with a beer section as such and starting again, so
the actual value of your house is always far less
than what that overall costs is going to be. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
The contents thing, actually some of it is an interesting
one because I recently made a content's claim and it
was sort of all right, but the excess sort of
I was almost thinking to myself, how much my spending
on contents insurance.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
But you know, well, I think it's probably more thinking
about what happens if there is thing like a flood
and your house is still okay and can be salvage
relatively quickly, but you lose your contents and those are
easily replaced. So it might include your kitchen appliances, your
washing machine, dry all that stuff. So it's really sort.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Of give me having yea Calvin's gone. Actually, funny enough,
we had a flood which did kind of irritate me
because it was the hot water tank burst and of
course that was the expensive thing to replace, and it
did cause a bit of a flood and that wasn't
too much to clean up, but of course the most
(21:39):
expensive thing about it was replacing the hot water cylinder.
And I was like, oh, but you can't ensure against
wear and tear, I guess. But the contents insurance, I
think it's worth remembering it's not just about replacing your
clothes and a few minor items. It's things like your kitchen,
you know, the furnishings and the stove and the fridge
and all that stuff, and that can add up.
Speaker 5 (21:59):
It can, and I think again it's about just making
sure you've got a right size. So quite often, you know,
if you're if you're renting, for example, you will have
what contents insurance only, and you can choose how much
you insure force so you can set an upper limit,
which can make the premiums quite affordable.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Okay, right, let's take more calls. Jim. Hello, Yeah, Hi, Tim,
how are you today?
Speaker 4 (22:26):
Good? My wife and I have both recently retired and
we had a subsidized health insurance through Southern Cross and
to continue on it was going to cost us about
seven hundred and fifty dollars a fortnight in premiums.
Speaker 7 (22:44):
Wow, which was yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Which was just prohibative. We both had issues with both
heart pacemakers. She's had heard issues. Anyway, To cut a
long story short, we decided that we would can health
insurance because all the bad things have happened have been done.
(23:07):
And we spoke to our surgeons and we got transferred
through to the public system. We're being looked after by
the same surgeons, the same medical team for our heart conditions,
plus a few other.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Things, as you would hope.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Yeah, And I have to tell you that the public
system has been absolutely brilliant.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Look, that's the thing that I used to think that
private got you the better care, but of course the
people who are the top surgeons, that's how the public recruits.
So once you're in the system, the key you get
is absolutely amazing. It's just that if you needed a
new hip, you might have to write a frustrating Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Absolutely, but if you're sick, sick get looked after. But interestingly,
you say about the private versus public has been better
looked after. My wife has macular degeneration and has to
have injections in her eyes every six weeks or so,
and we were dealing with a private company here in Auckland,
(24:16):
and we make an appointment there and go in and
it would invariably take maybe three hours from the time
you arrived on the time you left. It was just ridiculous.
And now she gets appointments through the through the counties,
Mannekau and a super clinic and she's in an out
(24:37):
in half an hour.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
It's nice to hear a positive story about the public
health system and it's worth probably I mean olebrating there. Yeah.
I've sometimes wondered, Jim that if people were going to
give up their health insurance and they were thinking they
might need the hips done, they might so suny chance
I get these done now while I'm still covered and
then but I don't know how that would work. Did
you ever consider anything like that?
Speaker 4 (24:58):
No? No, I mean the illness is that we've had
have been natural things and lucky that we have any
placements or anything like that. You know, we're also in
a situation that if we had to, we probably could
afford it. But yea, for those I mean seven and
fifty dollars, Oh no.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
That's something that's a hell of a lot of money. Yeah,
huge amount. And that's the tragedy of it, isn't it
When that you can pay premiums for years and years
and years, hardly ever RELI on them. Then you start
to have to rely on them and they go, oh,
by the way, we're going to make it prohibitively expensive. Yeah,
good on your gym. Cheers, mate, thanks for your call.
Speaker 7 (25:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
I mean, it's nice to hear some positive stories about
the public health system, which is getting bagged a lot,
isn't it.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Absolutely. I actually interviewed Ashley Bloomfield on my podcast and
there was one of the things that he was talking
about is actually public health system is working pretty well
it's just under a huge amount of pressure. It's just
so much demand that it's hard for it to keep up.
I've had experiences with the public health system with my
father and the care was extraordinary. So you know, we
have amazing people. And like our last caller said, the
(26:03):
surgeons are the same, so it's not like you're getting
different experts. But I'd say my personal experience has been
that the ability to access specialists quickly now that is
still faster through private compared to public.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Now let's take some more calls, Lawrence.
Speaker 6 (26:20):
Hi, you're going to.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
Make my advice to people. I used brokers. My advice
to people is to shop around and also to make
noise when you're not happy. I was paying about four
hundred dollars a month in insurance and then when the
flood said a couple of years ago, they came to
(26:45):
me said, oh, your insurance is going up eighty dollars
a month, and I go, no, I said, why are
because of the you know, the floods, And I said, listen,
I've paid you forty eight thousand dollars in the last
ten years without acclaim. And no one said, hey, Lawrence,
but on your your premiums are going down, We're going
to do this, and then when the proverbial hits the
(27:06):
ban you want me to pay? I said, day to hell,
I'm not doing it. And I made noise and they
come back and say, oh, what about four hundred and
fifteen dollars a month? And I said, okay, I can
live with that. And then they this time around, they
wanted to put it up again and I said, no,
I'm sick of this, and I shopped around. They wanted
me to go up to four hundred and forty dollars
(27:27):
a month. I shopped around. It took a lot of time.
I got it down to three hundred and twenty five
dollars a month, which is a huge saving.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, well, good on you. It's probably, I mean, in
a way that would be surprising to some people because
they just assumed that there's nothing to be haggled on.
Speaker 8 (27:46):
I think yet they try and say that it's the
same all over the board. But you know, I just
hated that while things are going well, they're happy to
take your money and then when things go wrong, oh
you know you can pay I'm sorry, No, it don't
work like that. And you know, it took a lot
of around. But you know, hey, I'm sixty five and
(28:08):
saving myself one hundred and fifteen dollars a.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Month as weak good stuff. Hey got on your line.
Speaker 8 (28:14):
People, Yeah, shop around and and make noises.
Speaker 7 (28:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I think that's great advice because it does feel that
sometimes there are certain things which feel less haggilable, aren't they?
And insurance would be in the instinctively one of those.
But there we go.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Except, of course, yeah, because I think different companies will
have different types of cover as well, so you can
because you don't necessarily need exactly all the bits and
bells and whistles that one company might offer, So you
can pick and choose based on what's available. And that's
why I was saying it's so important to get that
advice to make sure you get the right product for you,
because quite often that kind of you know that what's
(28:52):
what it says in the can may not be suitable
for you.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, you can give us call one hundred and eighty
ten eighty. How are you managing your insurance in the
wake of the fact that well insurance has got a
lot more expensive lately? Twenty two minutes to Sex News Talks,
you'd be it's welcome back. This is the weekend collective
(29:20):
smart money. We're talking in insurance with Schamaville Yakapi's is
a chief economist. It's simplicity and the choices you're making
around you know you're keeping the same insurances. I mean,
this is the I got to tell you. I don't
actually know how much my insurance is for our house
because it's not something I think I work out. They
say what the premiums are going to be, and I
(29:41):
think I set aside a certain amount of money and
a regular payment so I never have to think about it,
which is my way of just managing the stress of
the bills. So it's almost like I don't pay for it.
It's just money disappears into a different account and it
disappears out.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Yep, yep. I think for a lot of people that
is the case. But because it's getting more expensive, I
think people are noticing it a lot more so for
it for ensuring your home. It isn't the thousands of
dollars a year, so it's not cheap. But then it's
also by the value. Right now, it's the cost versus
the value, and the value is if something happens, if
the catastrophic event happens, then you're looked after. I think
(30:16):
that's the peace of mind that you're buying.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Yeah, this person says, my house insurance has gone up
around four thousand, seven hundred dollars to just over ten
thousand starting late September. Of course we don't know how
and what period of time it's gone up, but whatever,
it sounds like a dramatic that's a lot of it.
That's that's quite a That's a lot to be paying
for insurance, isn't it ten thousand bucks?
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Well?
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Yeah, so the average health insurance premium for a household
in New Zealand is around two and a half thousand dollars.
But because not everybody gets not many people have health
insurance in Ziwa right, it's around twenty percent of families
that have health insurance.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
For areas in New Zealand, this is and I guess
we can't give a specific advice, but this is just
for the conversation. For areas of New Zealand, this text
to rights where house insurance cost has gone nuts, eg. Wellington.
Why can't people choose to pay a lower premium just
for fire cover and or non earthquake or flood related
damage punters is locked into one premium. In other words,
(31:09):
I want to ensure my house for a fire, but
if there's an earthquake, I don't.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Ah, well it happens. Actually, So what we saw in
places like Brisbane after the floods was you could not
get flood covered, but you could get covered for other things.
So if there was a fire, you could get you know,
you would get covered, but if there was flood, there
were certain properties they wouldn't cover for flood. And it's
that risk based approach to insurance. So that unbundling does happen,
but at the moment it doesn't happen a lot in
(31:36):
New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Well, how much people take Do you think people ever
consider when they're moving somewhere, how often they would think
ahead on insurance, Like Okay, I'd love to go and
live in this particular part of the country, but you know,
insurance costs are through the roof. I don't know if
that would ever stop someone would it?
Speaker 5 (31:56):
Well, for increasingly I think for some people at will,
Because what we're seeing is insurance companies around the world,
including starting to happen in New Zealand, is they're adding
on a lot more risk for certain types of properties,
particularly for flood risk and erosion risk. So if you're
on coastal property, if you're in waterways, in those insurance
premiums are getting far more expensive, and the idea is
(32:18):
they want to send you a strong, strong signal don't
live here because we don't want to cover you.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
I actually did wonder how much difference that's going to
make on erosion because we saw what happened with an
Auckland and the properties. You know, all of a sudden,
this problem that no one would have ever considered looked
like it was something that we really do have to
have bear in mind.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Well, so far, what we have seen is when those
crisis have happened, government has essentially stepped in and bailed
us out. But it's not going to keep happening. Right,
Our local government is tapped out in terms of money.
We keep on hearing central government is tapped out of money.
So how many more natural disasters can we bail people
out of? And that's why I think it's really important
to think about how much insurance you have and whether
(33:00):
you'll be okay, because it may not be the case.
Unlike recent years, and there was A.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Okay, let's take some more calls.
Speaker 9 (33:07):
Baryl High, Hello, Tom Good to talk to you again.
And lady guest, look, I'll try and make mine to
the point. I here to pick your brains only. I
know you're not experts. But what I want to know
is this. This is what I've chosen too. I've got
full insurance on the car and I just pay house insurance.
What I've done was I went into the AA because
(33:29):
I'm like Calvin, I like to have one where I
can approach them. And I went in there and they
had made it too high, so I was so I
told them I wanted to go back to the last
year's one last year's insurance for the house, which is
four hundred and forty thousand, and I paid two thousand
and five hundred. And I said, lot, I'm on a set,
(33:51):
and come, I've got to cut my cuff to where
I can afford. And I only want to pay two
thousand and five hundred, and that will cover four hundred
and forty thousand. And what happens has happened. And the
house is made of brick, and it's an X state house,
and in our era, it's not likely to go from
million point being is that now that the houses have
(34:12):
dropped in my area, would that help me a little
bit with the fact that I've asked them and they's
allowed me to just go back to last year's premium
of two thousand, five hundred and was that four hundred
and forty thousand the houses have dropped in my area
of the valley? What do you think about that?
Speaker 8 (34:33):
Be Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
I'm going to handle over to schommer Beil, who's not
going to give any direct financial advice.
Speaker 9 (34:38):
But now are you realize that we do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Beryl?
Speaker 5 (34:41):
I think what you need to think about is when
you pay the premium that will give you a certain
amount of cover, and right if you are it's essentially
if you're if you're going to pay a lower premium
than their quoting, then the amount of cover you have
should something happen would be less, so you'd right, you'd
get you wouldn't necessarily be made whole. And so just
(35:02):
consider the fact that selling your house is probably going
to get you less money than if you were to
demolish your house and rebuild it, because the cost of
building a new home is exceptionally high in.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, So don't look at the market value of your
home is necessarily reflecting how much it's going to cost
to rebuild your dwelling.
Speaker 5 (35:21):
That replacement cost can cati. So you want to be
just quite deliberate in thinking about what is it that
you're ensuring for and if something happens, whether it would
be enough for you to kind of recover. You do
have a price eleven?
Speaker 9 (35:35):
Okay, thank you gentlemen. That's basically what I picking your brains,
That's all I wanted to know.
Speaker 7 (35:41):
So what does that?
Speaker 3 (35:42):
What does that mean for you? Now? Where to for you? Now?
On what you do?
Speaker 9 (35:45):
Well, I'll go back and like that other gentleman renegotiated
with his insurance. They allowed me to sit on the
two thousand, five hundred covering four hundred and forty thousand.
But I'm both of you. I think I will go
back and talk to them again just to see if
I can stretch my money but cut the but you know,
cut my cloth to what I could forward to what
(36:05):
they come up with. It might be a bit more negotiating.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
You could ask if you could have a higher excess.
You could also talk to another insurance company just to
get a competitive bid, just because sometimes what happens is
there might have slightly different offerings which might be a
better suited to your situation.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Okay, okay, shop around very much good on your bar. Actually,
on the insurance broker thing, how how would one go around?
I mean, because you're not going to specific advice on
this either, but how would you go about finding an
insurance breaker and who you would you know who would
do the best job for you?
Speaker 5 (36:44):
Just there there are a lot of insurance broking outfits
out there. Some of them are kind of full service
financial advice businesses who sell everything from insurance to savings products,
and others who do only insurance. And so if you
just google insurance broker in my local area, you'll find
somebody who's available.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
I think the real.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
Benefit with the insurance broker is that they will come
to you and figure out what is it that you need.
They'll pick those types of policies which will give you
the best bang for back, which is quite hard to
do on your own. Like I said before, these policy
descriptions are quite difficult to compare because they're use slightly
different language, certainly different terminology, certainly different terms, and they
(37:26):
all have slightly different mufferings.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
What are the most common? The most common insurance is
that most people would have if you've got a home,
would be what home contents, car and well they'll be
the most common ones. Those are the most common.
Speaker 5 (37:43):
And then the insurance is the most common of course
because you have to have third party, because you know
the risk of not having that is extremely high. But
we are last time I looked at the numbers, there
was only about eight percent of homes in New Zealand
that were not insured.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Eight that's a lot of That's still a lot of
people are not insured, isn't it.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
That's still a lot. And we saw that doing the
floods here through the cyclones in place, particularly in place
like Lisbon, where in a poverty I think has meant
a lot of people just simply can't afford it. And
so what can you do?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Right?
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Do you choose to put food on the table or
pay for insurance?
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Yeah? Gosh, that's you can imagine how much you get
easily spend in health and insurance if you went for
a couple of the what I would call with delight fries.
With that, like if you decided you wanted income insurance,
income protection insurance, mortgage insurance, life insurance, home insurance, contents,
car health blimey.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
It's many thousands of dollars. And as you get older,
the risk, particularly for health increases and it can become
many tens of thousands of dollars. And so again it's
that it's an important thing that helps you manage risk,
but you need to make sure you've right sized it
for your circumstances.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Right, we're going to take a quick moment back in
a teke. It's nine minutes to sex news talk, said B.
It's news talk, said B. We've been talking insurance with him.
Yakabe's a principal, sorry, chief economist as simplicity, and we've
only got about less than a couple of minutes to go, really,
so I thought we'd just sort of put a little
bit of a summary in terms of the little gems
(39:13):
we've gleaned. I think Shammer Bill. The first one for
me was fact we're about four things. One was the
use of excess as a way don't necessarily cancel things
with health insurance see IF and any other insurance. Just
check what your excess is and see if you can
change that.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
Absolutely increasing your excess can reduce your premiums by a lot,
and they can make it far more affordable, and as
long as you make sure that you have a little
bit set aside in your rainy day fund, it will
mean that you're still covered for those very large expenses,
but obviously with less of.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
That upfront, and not being afraid to shop around, perhaps
using a broker who you've also shopped around.
Speaker 5 (39:49):
For absolutely, I have no loyalty when it comes to brokers.
You will use multiple ones and see who comes up
with the best offering. But the reality is that brokers,
because of their experience and expertise, can really get to
the type of product you want and can get you
positive quite often a really good price.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
And the other one, which of course is always at
the end of just about every conversation these days, is
AI is actually a tool as well you can use
to have a look at your documents and what you're.
Speaker 5 (40:16):
Getting absolutely because quite often those documents are quite hard
to understand, and so shoving them into AI can help
you just understand what's included, what's not included, so then
you can understand whether you've got the right amount of
cover or if you've got too much cover. In which
case you might be able to save yourself some money.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
So yeah, I hope that's sort of been a useful
for an information or a vice or a discussion for
you if you're looking at what your insurance is doing
and what you're paying, what you're getting for it, because
I'm probably go ENNO have to go and look at
my household insurance details and depress myself on how much
I'm paying. But maybe it's time to shop around. Thank
you so much, Thanks Shema Bill, Thanks for coming out
the studio, and if you've missed any of this out
(40:52):
go and check out the podcast and you just talk
to your beat dot cutain it. Thanks my producer, Tire Award.
And next week we have Max Whitehead has joined us
for Smart Money, where we'll be talking no doubt, employment
issues and other things. Thanks for your company. We'll look
forward to your company next weekend.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talks EDB weekends from three pm or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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