Find my cover type
General information only, not financial advice. Simple Car Insurance is a comparison and information site — not an insurer, broker or financial adviser — and nothing here is a recommendation about a policy or insurer for you. How we make money.
Methodology

Every rule, published

A questionnaire that will not show its rules is asking to be trusted. This one shows them. Below is what the site publishes and why, and then every rule the cover questionnaire applies, in the order it applies them.

Last checked against its sources on 2026-09-16

What gets published

  1. A fact needs a document.Every policy fact on this site carries the insurer’s own URL, the title of the document, a verbatim quote and the date we read it. There is no state in between: a point either has all four or it renders “Not checked yet”.
  2. Nothing is filled in from elsewhere.Not from another insurer’s wording, not from what the rest of the market says, not from memory. Today that leaves 18 of the 86 cells across 8 insurers empty, and saying so is more useful than a plausible number.
  3. No prices. No insurer in this market publishes a rate table, premiums are quoted per person and per vehicle, and so no premium figure or band appears anywhere here.
  4. No ratings, rankings or verdicts. Every list of insurers on this site is in alphabetical order by name. Nothing is ordered by whether an insurer pays us, and no insurer can pay to change its position, its facts or whether it appears at all.
  5. Facts expire. Every fact is re-checked on a 120-day cycle. Past that, the cell reverts to “Not checked yet” on its own rather than quietly ageing on the page.

What the questionnaire asks

6questions. Nothing you answer is stored, sent anywhere or used to identify you — the answers travel in the page URL and go no further.

  1. Roughly what is your car worth today?
    The three kinds of cover differ mainly in whether they pay anything at all for your own car. What your car is worth decides how much that difference is worth to you.
    Under $3,000 · $3,000 to $10,000 · $10,000 to $30,000 · Over $30,000 · I'm not sure
  2. Is the car on finance, a loan or a lease?
    Lenders commonly make insurance a condition of the loan, and the loan agreement sets which kind. That requirement comes from the lender, not from us.
    Yes · No · I'm not sure
  3. If the car were written off tomorrow, could you replace it without an insurance payout?
    This is the whole question behind comprehensive cover, in plain words. Only you can answer it.
    Yes, I could · It would hurt, but I'd manage · No, I couldn't
  4. Which of these worries you most?
    Each kind of cover answers a different one of these. Naming yours shows you which kinds do and don't answer it.
    Damaging someone else's car or property · My car being stolen or catching fire · Damage to my own car in a crash · I'm not sure
  5. Will anyone under 25 drive the car regularly?
    Many policies charge a higher excess when a young or inexperienced driver is at the wheel, and some require that person to be named on the policy.
    Yes · No
  6. Is the car used for work, deliveries, courier work or ride-share?
    Private car policies commonly exclude carrying goods or passengers for hire or reward. If that's you, a private policy may not be the right family of product at all.
    Yes · No

The rules it applies

Applied in this order. Each one either rules a cover level out or points towards one, and the result page names the rules that fired so you can trace it. The three levels are considered in the order third-party-property, third-party-fire-theft, comprehensive.

1. When: The answer to “what is your car worth” is “I'm not sure”.

Then: Start by finding out roughly what the car is worth. Every other difference between the three kinds of cover is a difference about your own car, so the number changes what the comparison even means.

Added to your check-before-you-buy list: Find a value for the car before you get quotes — insurers will ask, and with agreed value cover the number you give is the number that gets paid.

2. When: The car is on finance, a loan or a lease.

Then: Lenders commonly require comprehensive cover for the life of the loan, and often require the lender to be recorded on the policy as an interested party. Read the loan agreement: the requirement is in there, not here.

Added to your check-before-you-buy list: Read what your loan or lease agreement says about insurance, and ask the insurer whether it can record your lender as an interested party.

3. When: The reader is not sure whether the car is on finance.

Then: If there is any loan or lease over the car, check the agreement before you choose. A loan agreement can require a particular kind of cover.

Added to your check-before-you-buy list: Check whether there is finance over the car, and what the agreement requires.

4. When: The reader could not replace the car without a payout, or would find it painful.

Then: Comprehensive is the only one of the three kinds that pays for accidental damage to your own car in a crash you caused. Third party fire and theft pays for your own car only when it is stolen or damaged by fire. Third party only pays nothing at all for your own car.

5. When: The reader could replace the car without a payout and it is not on finance.

Then: All three kinds are open to you, and the question becomes an arithmetic one: what the extra premium and the excess cost, against what the insurer would pay for a car you say you could replace anyway. Nobody but you can do that sum.

6. When: The main worry is damaging someone else's car or property.

Then: All three kinds cover damage you cause to other people's vehicles and property — that is what the words “third party” mean. Where they differ is your own car. Check the limit each policy sets for third party property damage.

Added to your check-before-you-buy list: Compare the third party property damage limit on each policy — it is a dollar figure in the wording.

7. When: The main worry is theft or fire.

Then: Third party fire and theft and comprehensive both pay for your own car when it is stolen or damaged by fire. Third party only does not. Check how each policy values the car and what it says about keys left in the vehicle.

Added to your check-before-you-buy list: Ask how the payout is worked out if the car is stolen and not recovered: agreed value or market value, and who sets the figure.

8. When: The main worry is damage to the reader's own car in a crash.

Then: Comprehensive is the only one of the three that pays for that. Neither third party option pays for accidental damage to your own car, however the crash happened.

9. When: Someone under 25 will drive the car regularly.

Then: Many policies apply a higher excess when a driver under a stated age, or with less than a stated period of experience, is driving. Some require that person to be listed on the policy. The figures and the age vary by policy, so ask each insurer for its own.

Added to your check-before-you-buy list: Ask what the excess is when a driver under 25 is at the wheel, and whether that person has to be named on the policy for the claim to be paid.

10. When: The car is used for work, deliveries, courier work or ride-share.

Then: Private car policies commonly exclude carrying goods or passengers for hire or reward. A private policy may not be the right family of product for you at all. Ask each insurer directly what it needs to know about the work use, and ask about commercial or ride-share cover rather than assuming a private policy will respond.

Added to your check-before-you-buy list: Tell every insurer, in writing, exactly how the car is used for work — and ask them to confirm in writing that the use is covered.

11. When: The car is worth over $30,000.

Then: At this value the difference between agreed value and market value cover is the biggest single number in the comparison, because it decides what gets paid if the car is written off. Both bases exist in the New Zealand market.

Added to your check-before-you-buy list: Check whether the policy is agreed value or market value, and if agreed value, who sets the sum insured and how it changes at renewal.

Why it is built this way

“However, a person does not give financial advice merely by doing 1 or more of the things set out in clause 7 of Schedule 5.”

— Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, s 431C(2)

A questionnaire that applies published rules to answers you give yourself is a different thing from someone forming an opinion about what you should buy. The second is financial advice. We do not do it, and the published rules are how you can tell.

Try the questionnaireSee the 9 points compared

Sources

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