Tower Insurance NZ: Full Review of Policies, Pricing & Claims (2025)

Is Tower Insurance Worth It in New Zealand?

Tower Insurance NZ has been covering Kiwi homes, cars, and contents for over 150 years — but the company looks very different today than it did even a decade ago. As a NZX-listed insurer that pioneered risk-based pricing in New Zealand, Tower has carved out a distinctive position in a market dominated by the IAG-owned giants (AMI and State Insurance) and the AA Insurance joint venture. Whether Tower is the right insurer for you depends heavily on where you live, what you own, and how you prefer to manage your insurance. This review covers everything you need to know: product range, pricing philosophy, claims experience, financial strength, and how Tower stacks up against its main competitors.

Tower Insurance Products: What’s on Offer

Tower focuses on personal lines insurance sold directly to consumers — primarily online and by phone rather than through brokers. That direct model keeps distribution costs lower and is reflected in their pricing. Here’s a summary of Tower’s core product range:

Home Insurance

Tower’s home insurance is offered on a specified sum insured basis, meaning you nominate the rebuild cost of your home rather than insuring for an unlimited amount. This is now standard across the NZ market following the Canterbury earthquakes. Key features include:

• EQC (Natural Hazards Commission) levy included, providing government-backed cover for the first $300,000 + GST of natural hazard damage
• Flexible excess tiers — choosing a higher excess lowers your premium
• Optional add-ons including landlord cover and specified items
• Multi-policy discount when combined with contents or car insurance
• Online quoting and policy management via the My Tower app

Contents Insurance

Tower’s contents insurance covers your personal belongings inside the home on a specified sum insured basis. You can add portable contents cover for items you take outside the home — jewellery, laptops, bikes, and similar valuables. Accidental damage cover is available as an optional extra.

Car Insurance

Tower offers three tiers of car insurance:

1. Comprehensive — covers damage to your vehicle and third-party property
2. Third Party, Fire and Theft — covers fire, theft, and third-party liability
3. Third Party Only — the minimum level, covering damage you cause to others’ property

You can choose between agreed value (a fixed payout agreed upfront) or market value (what your car is worth at the time of a claim). Agreed value gives more certainty but typically costs slightly more. Tower also offers named driver discounts, multi-car discounts, and an optional 24/7 roadside assistance add-on.

Boat, Caravan and Motorhome Insurance

Tower covers recreational vehicles including boats, caravans, and motorhomes. These are niche products but useful for Kiwis who own these assets and want them under the same insurer as their home and car for multi-policy discounts.

Travel Insurance

Tower offers single-trip and annual multi-trip travel insurance covering medical expenses, trip cancellation, and lost luggage. If you travel frequently, it’s worth comparing Tower’s annual policy against dedicated travel insurers — see our NZ travel insurance comparison guide or our review of Cover-More travel insurance NZ to see how the products differ.

Business Insurance

Tower provides small business insurance packages covering commercial property, contents, liability, and business interruption. This is a smaller part of Tower’s book — their brand and distribution strength is primarily in personal lines.

Tower’s Risk-Based Pricing: What It Means for Your Premium

This is the most important thing to understand about Tower Insurance NZ. Tower was the first major NZ insurer to move to fully individualised, risk-based pricing for home insurance — and it changes the maths significantly depending on where your property sits.

How Traditional NZ Insurance Pricing Worked

Historically, NZ insurers used broad community rating — everyone in a region paid roughly the same premium regardless of their individual property’s specific risk. A house on a flood plain and a house on a well-drained hillside in the same suburb might pay identical premiums. Low-risk properties effectively cross-subsidised high-risk ones.

How Tower’s Approach Is Different

Tower now uses granular data to price each property individually, taking into account:

• Flood zone classification and proximity to waterways
• Earthquake and liquefaction risk zone
• Coastal erosion and storm surge exposure
• Building construction type and age
• Proximity to fire hazards
• Claims history at the property address

The practical result: low-risk properties often pay noticeably less with Tower than with insurers still using community rating. High-risk properties — particularly those in known flood plains, coastal zones, or areas with high liquefaction risk — may find Tower’s premiums significantly higher than competitors, or in some cases Tower may decline to offer cover at standard terms.

Why This Matters Post-Cyclone Gabrielle

Following Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 and the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods, the conversation about climate-related insurance risk in New Zealand changed permanently. Other major insurers have since moved toward more risk-reflective pricing, but Tower has been doing this longest and has the most sophisticated data models. For properties in affected regions, this means Tower’s pricing signals are worth paying attention to — if Tower is quoting you significantly more than competitors, that’s information about your property’s risk profile, not just a pricing quirk.

The Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) has published useful guidance on how natural hazard risk is increasingly reflected in insurance pricing across the industry.

Tower’s Claims Process: How Does It Work in Practice?

A policy is only as good as the claims experience behind it. Here’s how Tower’s claims process works and what independent data suggests about their performance.

How to Make a Claim

Tower offers three channels for lodging a claim:

• My Tower app — upload photos, describe the damage, and track your claim in real time
• Online at tower.co.nz — the web-based claims portal
• Phone — Tower’s claims team is available during business hours, with a 24/7 emergency line for urgent situations such as a burst pipe, fire, or break-in

What Happens After You Lodge

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Tower aims to acknowledge new claims within two business days and assign a dedicated claims consultant. For straightforward claims (e.g. a smashed windscreen or a stolen bike), the process is typically fast. For larger claims involving structural damage, Tower uses a panel of approved repairers and builders — you can sometimes negotiate to use your own contractor, but this needs to be agreed upfront with your consultant.

For major natural disaster events involving EQC, Tower acts as the front-line assessor and manager for claims above the EQC cap. Response times during large-scale events (such as the 2023 Auckland floods) can stretch considerably — this is an industry-wide reality, not unique to Tower.

What Customers and Independent Reviewers Say

Tower generally scores well for its digital claims experience — the My Tower app is consistently cited as one of the better insurer apps in the NZ market. Routine claims (car repairs, contents replacement) tend to be resolved efficiently. Complaints tend to cluster around large natural disaster claims, where the interaction between EQC, Tower’s own policy, and the assessment process becomes complex.

Consumer NZ periodically surveys insurance customers on claims satisfaction — it’s worth checking their latest insurer ratings before committing to any provider, including Tower.

Tower’s Financial Strength and Regulatory Standing

Tower Insurance is a NZX-listed public company (NZX: TWR), which means its financial position is publicly disclosed and subject to continuous market scrutiny. It holds a financial strength rating and is licensed by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) as a registered insurer under the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act 2010.

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) oversees Tower’s conduct obligations, including fair dealing, disclosure requirements, and complaints handling. Tower is also a member of the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO) scheme, which provides a free dispute resolution service if you have an unresolved complaint.

As a publicly listed company, Tower is smaller than IAG-backed AMI and State Insurance, but it has maintained adequate solvency margins and has been actively managing its natural hazard exposure through reinsurance arrangements and its risk-based pricing strategy.

Tower vs Competitors: How Does It Compare?

Tower’s main competitors in the personal lines market are AMI, State Insurance, and AA Insurance. Here’s a structured comparison across the key dimensions:

Feature	Tower	AA Insurance	AMI / State
Ownership	NZX-listed (NZ company)	AA NZ + Suncorp JV	IAG (Australian-owned)
Pricing model	Fully risk-based	Partially risk-based	Partially community-rated
Home insurance basis	Specified sum insured	Specified sum insured	Specified sum insured
Digital experience	Strong (My Tower app)	Good	Moderate
Low-risk property pricing	Often very competitive	Competitive	Moderate
High-risk property pricing	Significantly higher	Moderate	May still cross-subsidise
NZ-owned	Yes	Partially	No

Our full review of AA Insurance NZ covers AA’s product range and pricing approach in detail — it’s a useful comparison if you’re deciding between the two. For health insurance comparisons, our nib insurance NZ review covers a different segment of the market.

When Tower Is Likely the Best Choice

• Your property is in a low natural hazard risk area (low flood, low liquefaction, not coastal)
• You prefer managing your insurance digitally through an app
• You want a NZ-listed, NZ-focused insurer rather than an Australian-owned one
• You value transparent, individualised pricing over averaged community rates
• You’re bundling home, contents, and car for multi-policy discounts

When You Should Compare Carefully

• Your property is in a known flood plain, coastal zone, or high liquefaction area
• Tower’s quote is noticeably higher than competitors — this is a signal about your risk profile
• You have a complex claims history at your property address
• You prefer dealing with a broker rather than direct insurer

Tower’s My Tower App: Digital Policy Management

Tower has invested heavily in its digital platform. The My Tower app (available on iOS and Android) lets you:

• View and manage all your Tower policies in one place
• Lodge and track claims with photo uploads
• Request roadside assistance (if you’ve added this to your car policy)
• Update your contact details and payment information
• Get instant policy documents

For customers who dislike phoning call centres, this is a genuine differentiator. The app has generally strong ratings on the App Store and Google Play, though as with any insurer app, complex claims still require human interaction at some point.

Earthquake and Natural Hazard Cover: The EQC Layer

All Tower home and contents policies include the Natural Hazards Commission (NHC/EQC) levy, which funds the government’s natural hazard insurance scheme. Under the current scheme:

• EQC covers the first $300,000 + GST for residential building damage from natural hazards (earthquake, landslip, volcanic activity, hydrothermal activity, tsunami)
• EQC covers the first $30,000 + GST for contents
• Tower’s policy sits above the EQC cap — so if your rebuild cost exceeds $300,000 + GST, Tower covers the excess up to your sum insured
• Flood damage is covered by EQC for land, but building flood cover sits with Tower directly

Understanding how EQC and your Tower policy interact is important — particularly for properties in Canterbury, Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, or other areas with elevated natural hazard exposure. Tower’s policy documents set out the interaction clearly, and their claims team can walk you through it before you need to make a claim.

Practical Tips for Getting the Most from Tower Insurance

Always get at least three quotes. Tower’s risk-based pricing means the gap between Tower and competitors can be large in either direction depending on your property. Never assume Tower is cheapest or most expensive without checking.

• Get your sum insured right. Underinsurance is a real risk in NZ — use a rebuild cost calculator or get a quantity surveyor’s estimate rather than guessing. Tower’s online quoting tool includes a calculator, but treat it as a starting point.
• Review your excess levels. Choosing a higher excess meaningfully reduces your premium. If you have emergency savings to cover a $1,000–$2,500 excess, this can be a smart trade-off.
• Bundle policies for discounts. Tower offers multi-policy discounts when you hold home, contents, and car insurance together — this can offset the cost of each individual policy.
• Check your risk zone before buying. LINZ flood hazard maps and your local council’s GIS tools can tell you whether your property sits in a mapped flood or liquefaction zone — useful context before you get a Tower quote.
• Read the policy wording, not just the summary. Tower’s policy documents are available on their website before you buy. Key exclusions (gradual damage, wear and tear, unoccupied property) are worth understanding upfront.

The Bottom Line on Tower Insurance NZ

Tower Insurance NZ is a legitimate, well-established insurer with a genuinely differentiated approach to pricing. For Kiwis in low-to-moderate natural hazard risk areas, Tower’s risk-based model often delivers competitive premiums and a strong digital experience. For properties in high-risk zones, Tower’s pricing will reflect that risk honestly — which may feel expensive, but is arguably more sustainable than cross-subsidised community pricing in a climate where natural hazard frequency is increasing.

The right move is straightforward: get a Tower quote alongside at least two other insurers, compare the cover terms (not just the price), and make an informed decision based on your specific property and circumstances. If you’re also shopping for travel cover, our NZ travel insurance comparison is a good next stop.