Tower car insurance review
There’s no shortage of ways to save with Tower, from its GoCarma safe driving app to a multi-policy discount. We explore what its policies cover, key features, and more.
Updated: 6 February 2024
Discounts
- Multi-policy discount: Take out 2 eligible Tower insurance policies and save up to 10%. Take out 3 policies and save up to 20%. Eligible policies include all car, house and contents insurance products.
- Annual payment discount: Pay annually for your cover and save on your premiums. We ran quotes and found this discount is around 9-10%.
- GoCarma discount: Save up to $300 off the standard excess for safe driving. Learn more about GoCarma further down.
Author: Kevin McHugh, Head of Publishing at Banked.
About Tower
Tower is a New Zealand-owned and operated general insurer that has been around in some form or other for over 150 years. Tower is the underwriter of its own products and the insurer has a financial strength rating of A- (‘excellent’).
The insurer doesn’t have branches and has instead been focused on delivering the best online insurance experiences for its customers.
If you have a policy with Tower you can register for its online My Tower service where you can view your policy, start a claim or update personal details. If you want to speak to Tower’s customer service team you can call them on 0800 379 372.
Tower Insurance is a member of the Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) and it abides by the ICNZ’s Fair Insurance Code.
Car insurance policies available from Tower
Tower offers the 3 standard car insurance policy types, as well as a commercial vehicle option.
Comprehensive
Tower’s highest level of cover, its comprehensive policy will cover you for damage you accidentally cause to someone else’s vehicle or property and damage to your own car.
Key features
- Legal liability cover up to $25m
- Collision cover
- Choice of agreed or market value cover
- Accidents covered by an uninsured third party up to your market or agreed value
- Key and locks lost or stolen up to $1,000
- Child car seats covered up to $750
- Automatic cover a replacement car for 14 days
- Towing after an incident
See the full details in Tower’s comprehensive car insurance policy document.
Third party fire and theft
Tower’s third party fire and theft insurance will cover your vehicle if it’s stolen or damaged in a fire. It will also cover repairs to another vehicle or property if your vehicle causes the damage.
Key features
- Legal liability cover up to $25m
- Fire and theft cover up to your car’s market value
- Accidents covered by an uninsured third party up to $4,000
- Child car seats covered up to $500
- Automatic cover a replacement car for 14 days
- Towing after an incident
See the full details in Tower’s third party fire and theft car insurance policy document.
Third party
The lowest level of car insurance Tower offers, its third party policy will cover damage you cause to other vehicles, but won’t pay out for repairs to your own car if it’s stolen or damaged in a fire.
Key features
- Legal liability cover up to $25m
- Accidents covered by an uninsured third party up to $4,000
- Towering after an incident
See the full details in Tower’s third party car insurance policy document.
Optional add-ons
Tower has a number of optional car insurance benefits you can add on to your insurance for a cost. These are:
- Roadside assistance: From an extra $3 month you can get RoadWise nationwide roadside assistance with 3 free call-outs each year.
- Windscreen and window glass excess buyout: Pay a little extra for your cover and you won’t have to pay an excess if you have to claim to repair a broken car window. You’ll also keep your no-claims bonus. Available only to comprehensive and third party fire and theft policy holders.
- Rental car: Cover for the cost of renting a car if yours is stolen or damaged. The cover is up to $1,000 for comprehensive policies and up to $750 for third party fire and theft. This add-on is not available for third party policies.
What’s special about Tower car insurance?
There are a number of fairly unique features that make Tower stand out from the crowd.
GoCarma
GoC
arma is a mobile app that uses technology in your phone to give you a score on how safely you’re driving. While everyone can download and use the GoCarma app to measure their on-road safety, Tower car insurance customers can use it to save money.
Connect your phone to your car via Bluetooth and track your car journeys using the app. The safer you drive (judged by how carefully you accelerate, corner, brake, and stick to the speed limit), the higher your score will be from 0 to 100. The better your score, the more money you’ll save off your excess if you need to claim.
You can save:
- $100 with a score between 70 to 79
- $200 with a score between 80 to 89
- $300 with a score between 90 to 100
You must have driven at least 250 kilometres across at least 10 trips to qualify.
You can download the GoCarma app on the Apple Store or Google Play.
Remote vehicle assessments
If your car has taken some damage that needs to be assessed, some of Tower’s priority repairers can do it remotely using the camera on your mobile phone.
This means in some situations you can get your car checked over without leaving your home.
5 ways to save on Tower car insurance
- Take advantage of current promotions: Tower frequently runs promotions to entice new customers. Previous promotions have included Prezzy gift cards and a month’s free cover. Check this page to find out what promotions Tower offers at any time.
- Bundle policies and save: Tower has one of the highest multi-policy discounts among NZ insurers. Save up to 10% if you bundle your car cover with another policy, and up to 20% with a total of 3 policies.
- Pay annually: You can save around 9-10% off your car insurance premiums for the year if you can afford to pay for it in one go.
- Increase your excess: Choosing a higher excess when you take out your cover will mean you pay less on your premiums. However, bear in mind that you will then have to pay that higher excess if you need to make a claim, so choose the right balance for you.
- Save on your excess with the GoCarma app: As described above, tracking your driving with the GoCarma app as a Tower customer could mean you could reduce your insurance excess by as much as $300.
Other insurance products offered by Tower
Tower offers a wide range of insurance products for both individuals and businesses. As well as car insurance, Tower also offers:
- house insurance
- contents insurance
- travel insurance
- business insurance (asset, business interruption, liability, and commercial vehicle)
- motorbike insurance
- boat insurance
- motorhome insurance
- lifestyle block and farm insurance
- caravan and trailer insurance.
