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Cover types

The three types of car insurance in New Zealand

Every insurer here sells some or all of three levels, under the same three names. They differ in exactly one thing: how much of your own car they pay for. Third party only pays nothing for it, third party fire and theft pays for fire and theft, and comprehensive pays for accidental damage too.

Last checked against insurers' own pages and wordings on 2026-09-16

  • Third party only

    • Damage you cause to other people's vehicles and property Yes
    • Your car stolen No
    • Your car damaged by fire No
    • Accidental damage to your own car No

    Covers the damage you do to others. Nothing for your car.

  • Third party fire and theft

    • Damage you cause to other people's vehicles and property Yes
    • Your car stolen Yes
    • Your car damaged by fire Yes
    • Accidental damage to your own car No

    Third party, plus your car if it burns or is stolen.

  • Comprehensive

    • Damage you cause to other people's vehicles and property Yes
    • Your car stolen Yes
    • Your car damaged by fire Yes
    • Accidental damage to your own car Yes

    The only level that pays for your own car in a crash you caused.

This is what the three kinds of cover are, by definition. What an individual policy covers, excludes and limits is set by its own wording — see what each insurer’s policy says, and read the wording before you buy.

What are the three levels called?

Third party only, third party fire and theft, and comprehensive. Every insurer on this site uses those same three names, so they are worth taking literally: “third party” means somebody else — their car, their fence, their shopfront — and only comprehensive pays for your own.

Third party only

Third party only pays for damage you cause to other people's vehicles and property. It pays nothing for your own car — not if you crash it, not if it burns, not if it is stolen. It is the narrowest of the three kinds of cover sold in New Zealand.

What it covers →

Third party fire and theft

Third party fire and theft does everything third party only does, and adds two things about your own car: it pays if the car is stolen, and it pays if the car is damaged by fire. It still pays nothing for accidental damage to your car in a crash.

What it covers →

Comprehensive

Comprehensive is the only one of the three kinds that pays for accidental damage to your own car in a crash you caused. It also does everything the two third party levels do. It is the broadest cover sold here, and it is the level lenders most often require on a financed car.

What it covers →

What does picking a level not settle?

Three things, and they are the ones that decide what happens at claim time. Whether the car is insured for an agreed value or its market value, the excess and every additional excess stacked on it, and what each insurer’s own wording says. All three vary between insurers selling the same level.

Agreed value or market value

Decides what gets paid if the car is written off, and it is set long before that happens.

Read the guide →

The excess, and the excesses on top

One wording we read names six kinds of additional excess that can stack on the standard one.

Read the guide →

What each insurer’s policy actually says

Eight insurers, side by side, with the wording and the date we read it against every cell.

Compare policies →
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Sources

Read on 2026-09-16. If a source and this page disagree, the source is right.