Christchurch insurance customers are reporting sharp rises across car, home, contents and health policies, with some annual premiums up by more than 30 percent and consumers questioning how the figures are being calculated.

One AA Insurance customer provided chrislynchmedia.com with a comprehensive motor renewal that went from $1413.76 to $1782.53, a rise of $368.77 or 26.08 percent.

The underlying premium climbed from $1219.83 to $1525.03 before GST and the Fire and Emergency levy were added.

AA Insurance did not provide figures showing its average premium rise or how many customers had received increases of 20 percent or more.

AA Insurance Chief Product and Marketing Officer Shaun Rees said: “When calculating vehicle insurance premiums, we take a range of factors into account. Pricing is reviewed annually and customers may see their premium increase or decrease from year to year depending on their individual circumstances.”

Rees said claims history, vehicle values, repair costs, parts costs and wider market conditions could influence pricing.

Other AA Insurance customers came forward with similar concerns. Claire Turner said her home and contents cover went up by almost $500 this year, a rise of 14.32 percent.

“I rang them as I thought it must be a mistake and the lady told me it was because of all the flooding in the North Island. I told her that if this happens every year then I won’t be able to afford house insurance in another two years at that rate and she couldn’t even reassure me that it wouldn’t happen again.”

Rosie, who has house, contents and vehicle policies with AA Insurance, said her house premium rose 7.44 percent despite never having made a claim across the three policies.

When she questioned the increase, she said AA Insurance suggested lifting her excess to reduce the premium.

Her Southern Cross health cover also increased by 8.72 percent. Nicky Montgomery said her monthly insurance payments jumped from $321 to $517. That is $196 a month more, or about 61 percent, although Montgomery did not specify which policies or insurer were involved.

AMI customer Shana Brown said her renewal rose by about 34 percent despite little change in the sum insured and no change to the levies.

She asked AMI to review the policy before looking elsewhere. “Their only suggestion was to raise my excess to bring the premium down, which just shifts the risk back onto me rather than addressing the price hike itself.”

Brown said “I’ve been with AMI since I got my first car at 16, so having to walk away from every policy with them isn’t a decision I’m taking lightly.”

She has since changed providers and said her new premium was lower than what she had been paying AMI two years earlier. “Definitely pays to shop around.”

Tower customer Trish said her premium had gone up by almost $1000 despite her Sumner property being classified within the same flood zone the previous year.

She said the property had never flooded.

“I have pushed back but get the standard reply that it basically is what it is, unless I put my house on stilts.”

New Brighton Museum has also been grappling with the cost of insurance. Wayne Hawker said the charitable organisation was treated as a business for insurance purposes.

Full cover last year would have cost more than $8000, which the museum could not afford. It instead settled on $250,000 of cover including liability insurance and recently paid more than $4600 for another year.

Hawker compared that with about $1700 a year for his own home, which is insured for $450,000 and has a similar floor area.

Sarah said her house insurance rose by $504.04 this year. That came alongside an annual rates rise of about $650, roughly $400 more for car insurance and the prospect of higher mortgage costs when her loan next resets.

“I’m a single Mum paying mortgage, how are people supposed to survive when the cost of living increases this much in one year?”

Complaints also extended beyond house and vehicle insurance.

Nic said his family’s AIA premiums increased 17 percent in 2025 and another 27 percent in 2026. Taken together, those two increases represent a rise of about 48.6 percent over two years.

Consumer NZ Research Lead Rebecca Styles said insurance costs were already among the major financial concerns facing New Zealanders.

Its latest car insurance survey found that among customers who had experienced a problem with their insurer, 15 percent identified sharply rising premiums with little explanation as one of the main issues. Poor customer service ranked higher at 21 percent.

Styles said the 26 percent AA Insurance increase appeared substantial. “It does seem like a big jump in premium, especially since cars generally go down in value rather than increase.”

“Our surveying has found that of those who do switch, most find it easy, and they find a better deal.” Styles said insurers generally provided broad explanations involving reinsurance, repairs and inflation. “We would like to see more transparency about why premiums are going up.”

Consumer NZ is also concerned affordability pressures could push people to reduce their cover or drop insurance altogether.

“Insurance is a valuable safety net for unexpected events, and if people go without, it means they’re exposed to potential costs from accidents which could take a long time to recover from financially.”

Styles said Consumer NZ wanted greater regulatory oversight of insurance premiums. “At the moment a consumer has no way of assessing whether an increase is ‘fair’ and likely has no idea why it’s gone up. The only recourse is to shop around.”

Financial Markets Authority Director of Credit, Deposit Taking, Insurance and Advice Michael Hewes said the regulator did not set or monitor insurance prices because they were commercial decisions made by insurers.

Its focus was on how insurers treated customers. “A renewal increase would not, on its own, necessarily indicate a conduct issue,” Hewes said.

Insurers were expected to clearly explain renewal terms, including changes to premiums, policy conditions and sums insured.

Under the Financial Markets Conduct Act, insurers must comply with the Fair Conduct Principle, which includes acting ethically and transparently and helping customers make informed decisions.

Hewes said the FMA would generally expect an insurer to understand what had contributed to a change in an individual customer’s premium.Customers who believed they had been treated unfairly should first complain to their insurer. If the matter was not resolved, they could approach the insurer’s dispute resolution scheme or raise conduct concerns with the FMA.

The Insurance Council of New Zealand said individual increases should not be assumed to represent the wider market.

It cited Stats NZ figures showing motor insurance premiums rose 0.6 percent in the year to June 2026, compared with annual inflation of 4.1 percent.

ICNZ said those were national averages and individual premiums could move considerably differently depending on the customer and insurer.

Factors included the age and model of a vehicle, driving history, where it was kept and the cost of repairing increasingly complex technology in newer vehicles.

ICNZ said affordability remained a focus for insurers and encouraged customers to shop around.

It said around 40 percent of premiums consisted of taxes and levies collected by insurers on behalf of the Government.