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Speaker 1: Developments for you to think about around your insurance cover.

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Speaker 1: Last week it was flood protection, this week it's multi

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Speaker 1: coover discount. So Tower has become the fifth major plier

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Speaker 1: to dropped these multi party discount deals for both new

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Speaker 1: and renewing customers. So their line is they're shifting to

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Speaker 1: quote personalized pricing. Rebecca Styles consuming New Zealand's Investigati lead

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Speaker 1: team leaders with this, Rebecca, good morning, Good morning. Tower

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Speaker 1: ran into trouble, got fined. Is this all part of

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Speaker 1: this overall problem? Or is that just a bit of

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Speaker 1: an excuse.

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Speaker 2: I suspect it's a bit of both. I think a

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Speaker 2: lot of insurers, including Tower, got fined big penalties for

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Speaker 2: not charging customers the correct premiums. They're not doing the

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Speaker 2: discounts properly, so I think them dropping it is certainly

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Speaker 2: a reaction to that.

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Speaker 1: Also, sure we carrit carry on when we say one.

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Speaker 2: So I also think they are moving to personalized pricing

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Speaker 2: so they can get at a house level, they can

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Speaker 2: tell what the risks are all place and price accordingly.

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Speaker 2: So I think two things are happening at the same time.

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Speaker 1: Okay, when we say the fifth out of how many,

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Speaker 1: how many dozen insurance companies we have in this country.

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Speaker 1: Is there real competition?

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Speaker 2: Well, this is a big question. Like ninety two percent

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Speaker 2: of the market is controlled by two Australian based underwriters,

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Speaker 2: Sun Corp and IAG, So we have a lot of brands,

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Speaker 2: but we don't really have that many insurers as such, so.

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Speaker 1: This isn't an house move so once I mean, how

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Speaker 1: individualized does each of those companies within the broader corporate structure,

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Speaker 1: So in other words, when one goes, they all go

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Speaker 1: well exactly.

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Speaker 2: So for instance, the IAG has Ami in State and

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Speaker 2: they both have essentially very similar policies through similar pricing structures,

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Speaker 2: and they were fined for not charging the discounts properly,

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Speaker 2: so very similar product. So there is we think a

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Speaker 2: lack of real choice in the house and contents and

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Speaker 2: car insurance market in New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: Can you still shop around if you want to?

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Speaker 2: You can if you want to. People mainly do set

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Speaker 2: and forget, Like seventy five percent of people have had

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Speaker 2: the same insurer for the past five years. So while

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Speaker 2: in theory there are still some competitions. So there's your

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Speaker 2: Aussie based and riders, and there's like Tower, there's mass

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Speaker 2: there's FMG, there's a small few smaller players. People do

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Speaker 2: find it hard to find the time to compare policies

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Speaker 2: and look at prices, so it is a lot of

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Speaker 2: life edmund to change.

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Speaker 1: And when you say individual pricing, that will personalize pricing,

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Speaker 1: that is a thing, that's a real thing as opposed

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Speaker 1: to just align.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. In the past, we've been community based pricing

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Speaker 2: where the risk was spread across communities, and that is

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Speaker 2: very much house by house, and the data that insurers

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Speaker 2: have is getting more and more sophisticated. So I could

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Speaker 2: be charged one price in the house across the road

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Speaker 2: could be charged something different because yeah, I don't know, they're

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Speaker 2: on the side of a cliff or.

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Speaker 1: Something interesting insight. Well then Rebecca appreciate it very much.

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Speaker 1: Rebecca Styles, who's the Consumer New Zealand Investigate investigative team lead.

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