For Money Week 2021 ICNZ encouraged New Zealanders to make one day during the week their ‘Insurance Day’ to check their insurance and that the cover it provides meets their needs.

The activity was driven by ICNZ’s research which show a disturbing lack of understanding of insurance – with only 54% understanding what their insurance covers them for.

To encourage Kiwis to think about their insurance ICNZ ran a quiz during the week, with the chance to win a $200 prize for one lucky participant. And it worked, with close to 700 people taking part.

The quiz asked questions on the three most commonly misunderstood parts of insurance – sum insured, excesses and the difference between sudden and gradual damage. Here’s what the results told us.

• 17.7% of respondents don’t understand that you should set your sum insured at what it would cost to rebuild – meaning they may not have enough cover if they suffered a total loss!
• 18.2% of respondents don’t understand the difference between sudden and gradual damage, which means they might get a nasty surprise at claim time.

With your house often the biggest asset you own it pays to regularly check you have the right level of cover and use the calculators available online to understand what it would cost to rebuild your home. 

ICNZ has a range of consumer guides to help understand these areas of your insurance – including a guide to calculating your house’s sum insured, excesses and gradual damage and resultant damage.

For those that didn’t get a chance to check their insurance policies during Money Week, ICNZ’s Insurance Health Check page to walk you through what you should check for your house, contents and car insurance each year.