As soon as you have settled into life in New Zealand, you may want to protect your family, property and possessions with insurance. Different kinds of insurance are designed to help with different events.

Types of insurance include:

• health/medical
• house and contents
• travel
• car
• life.

Accident insurance is covered by the government through the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).

• Health insurance
• ACC

Insurance Providers

Your bank may offer you an insurance policy, or you may choose to go with a full-service insurance company. While you can use more than one insurance company, insuring your home, contents and car with one company will usually qualify you for discounted premiums.

International Students

All education providers in New Zealand must comply with the Ministry of Education’s Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students. This code states that all international students must have medical, travel and property insurance.

Ministry of Education website

Migrants

New Zealand insurance companies may not be able to cater for all new migrants to New Zealand. Many require a new migrant to have residency status before they can offer the same level of insurance available to a New Zealand citizen.

However, insurance providers do have flexibility and will review each person on an individual basis. Because of this issue you may want to secure an insurance policy before leaving your home country. Otherwise, on arrival in New Zealand you should contact an insurance company or a broker in order to inquire directly.

Insurance & Savings Ombudsman

Sometimes disagreements occur between insurance companies and individuals. If a person is dissatisfied with a company’s internal complaints procedure, they may apply for help from the Office of the Insurance and Savings Ombudsman.

Insurance and Savings Ombudsman website