Contents Insurance Calculator

How does Quashed's contents insurance calculator work

By entering the value of your items across key categories—like electronics, furniture, and clothing—our calculator works to sum up your assets and gives you a snapshot at the end. This provides you with an accurate Total Sum Insured figure, ensuring you understand the true replacement cost of your belongings.

Once you have your accurate total value calculated, you can see how different insurers stack up using the Quashed market scan. This snapshot is powered by the data you input, ensuring you base your insurance decisions on your actual inventory rather than a guess.

The average savings found in 2025 is $301 on contents insurance via Quashed.

1. Factors Shaping Your Contents Insurance Premiums & Savings

1. The Owner: Who You Are

Age and Experience: Just like car insurance, age plays a role. Younger people flatting are statistically more likely to move house frequently or live in shared environments, which can influence risk.

Claims History: If you have lost items, had thefts, or made claims in the past 3-5 years, you will need to disclose them. A history of frequent claims will likely increase your premium.

2. The Belongings: What You Own

Total Sum Insured: This is the total value of all your "stuff" combined. Our calculator helps you reach this number by adding up categories. Naturally, covering more gear typically costs more.

High-Risk Items: High-value portable items like jewellery, cameras, and laptops attract higher premiums because they are easy to steal or lose.

Specified Items: Most policies have a limit per item (e.g., $2,000). If you have a $10,000 engagement ring, you must "specify" it on the policy. This ensures full cover but will increase the cost.

3. The Location: Where You Live

Region and Risk: An address in Wellington will almost always attract a higher premium than one in Auckland or Hamilton due to seismic risk. Since the EQC (now NHC) stopped covering contents in 2019, private insurers now carry 100% of the earthquake risk for your belongings.

Neighbourhood Data: Insurers look at burglary rates and flood mapping for your specific street. A ground-floor CBD apartment may cost more to insure than a house in a quiet rural cul-de-sac.

4. The Living Situation: Renting vs Owning

Renters/Flatters: You only need to cover your own goods, not the building or chattels (like carpets and curtains), which are the landlord's responsibility. This is often called a "renters" or "contents-only" policy.

Homeowners: Owners often bundle contents with their house insurance. While convenient, this can result in a "loyalty tax" if you don't compare the contents portion separately.

5. The Policy Choices: How You Structure Your Cover

Level of Cover: Most modern policies offer "New for Old" replacement, meaning if your 5-year-old TV is stolen, you get a brand new equivalent. Older "Indemnity" policies (paying what the used item is worth) are cheaper but offer far less protection.

The Excess: This is the amount you agree to pay out-of-pocket when you make a claim. Opting for a higher excess (e.g., $1,000 instead of $250) will immediately lower your premium.

2. Compare more than price, look at the benefits

Full Contents Insurance Comparison

Feature	Trade Me	AMP	Tower	Initio	AA Insurance
Financial Strength	A-	AA-	A-	AA	AA-
Theft, Fire & Natural Disaster	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Covered anywhere in NZ	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Accidental Damage	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Liability Cover	$20 million	$2 million	$20 million	$1 million	$2 million
Carpet Cover	Yes (if not glued)	Up to $5k	Yes (if not glued)	Yes (if not glued)	Rugs only
Keys & Locks	$1,000 (excess-free)	$1,000 (excess-free)	$2,000 (excess-free)	$1,000	No
Computers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mobile Phones	$1,000 limit	Covered	Covered	Covered	Covered
Jewellery (Total Limit)	$15,000	$10,000	$30,000	$15,000	$5,000
Jewellery (Per Item)	$2,500	$2,500	$10,000	$3,000	$5,000
Precious Metals/Gemstones	$500	$700	$1,000	$1,000	$1,000
Camera Cover	$5,000	Covered	$10,000	$3,000	$5,000
Cash Cover	$500	$400	$1,000	$1,000	$500
Drones	No	$3,000	No	$3,000	$5,000
Artwork	$5,000/item	$20k/item ($80k total)	$10,000	Yes	$10,000
Watercraft	<$1,500 value	$1,000	<$2,000 value	$2,500	Exclusions apply
Bicycles	$5,000/item	Excludes racing	$10,000/item	$2,000	$5,000
Child's Off-road Vehicle	$5,000/item	$1,000	$10,000	Limited	$5,000
Home Office / Business	$5,000	$15,000	$10,000	$10,000	$3,000
Spoiled Frozen Food	$1,000 (excess-free)	$1,000 (excess-free)	Covered (excess-free)	Reasonable costs	$1,000 (excess-free)
Gradual Damage	$2,000	$5,000	$3,000	$2,000	$2,000
Contents in Storage	$20k (6 months)	Approved commercial	$20k (12 months)	Commercial/Approved	Commercial only
Temp Accommodation	$25,000	10% of Sum Insured	$30,000	$20,000	$20,000
Storage Costs (Post-Claim)	$5,000	10% of Sum Insured	$5,000	Yes	No
Illegal Card Usage	$1,000 (excess-free)	$2,500 (excess-free)	$1,500 (excess-free)	$500	No
Pet Vet Fees	No	No	$500 (accident)	No	No
Excess-free Eyewear	No	No	No	No	No
Excess-free Hearing Aid	No	No	No	No	Option <$6/mo
Student Away from Home	$5,000	No	$5,000	$5,000	Yes (Edu only)
Elder Relative in Rest Home	No	No	No	No	$10,000
Moving House Cover	14 days	14 days	14 days	No	21 days
Unoccupied Home Penalty	>90 days	>60 days	>90 days	>60 days	>60 days
New for Old	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (specified)	Yes

Feature	Trade Me	AMP	Tower	Initio	AA Insurance
Financial Strength	A-	AA-	A-	AA	AA-
Theft, Fire & Natural Disaster	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Covered anywhere in NZ	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Accidental Damage	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Liability Cover	$20 million	$2 million	$20 million	$1 million	$2 million
Carpet Cover	Yes (if not glued)	Up to $5k	Yes (if not glued)	Yes (if not glued)	Rugs only
Keys & Locks	$1,000 (excess-free)	$1,000 (excess-free)	$2,000 (excess-free)	$1,000	No
Computers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mobile Phones	$1,000 limit	Covered	Covered	Covered	Covered
Jewellery (Total Limit)	$15,000	$10,000	$30,000	$15,000	$5,000
Jewellery (Per Item)	$2,500	$2,500	$10,000	$3,000	$5,000
Precious Metals/Gemstones	$500	$700	$1,000	$1,000	$1,000
Camera Cover	$5,000	Covered	$10,000	$3,000	$5,000
Cash Cover	$500	$400	$1,000	$1,000	$500
Drones	No	$3,000	No	$3,000	$5,000
Artwork	$5,000/item	$20k/item ($80k total)	$10,000	Yes	$10,000
Watercraft	<$1,500 value	$1,000	<$2,000 value	$2,500	Exclusions apply
Bicycles	$5,000/item	Excludes racing	$10,000/item	$2,000	$5,000
Child's Off-road Vehicle	$5,000/item	$1,000	$10,000	Limited	$5,000
Home Office / Business	$5,000	$15,000	$10,000	$10,000	$3,000
Spoiled Frozen Food	$1,000 (excess-free)	$1,000 (excess-free)	Covered (excess-free)	Reasonable costs	$1,000 (excess-free)
Gradual Damage	$2,000	$5,000	$3,000	$2,000	$2,000
Contents in Storage	$20k (6 months)	Approved commercial	$20k (12 months)	Commercial/Approved	Commercial only
Temp Accommodation	$25,000	10% of Sum Insured	$30,000	$20,000	$20,000
Storage Costs (Post-Claim)	$5,000	10% of Sum Insured	$5,000	Yes	No
Illegal Card Usage	$1,000 (excess-free)	$2,500 (excess-free)	$1,500 (excess-free)	$500	No
Pet Vet Fees	No	No	$500 (accident)	No	No
Excess-free Eyewear	No	No	No	No	No
Excess-free Hearing Aid	No	No	No	No	Option <$6/mo
Student Away from Home	$5,000	No	$5,000	$5,000	Yes (Edu only)
Elder Relative in Rest Home	No	No	No	No	$10,000
Moving House Cover	14 days	14 days	14 days	No	21 days
Unoccupied Home Penalty	>90 days	>60 days	>90 days	>60 days	>60 days
New for Old	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (specified)	Yes

To compare insurance providers based on your unique profile use Market Scan for FREE.

Price comparison is important so we can find contents cover that fits our budget. However, it is also important to know the differences in cover across insurance providers. Comparing the coverage and benefits helps you to find the policy that offers you the best cover at the price you're happy to pay. This is where Market Scan by Quashed comes in. A free easy to use tool that more than 80,000 NZ consumers have signed up for.

3. Real customer reviews of Quashed's Market Scan comparison

Isaac Owens: “easy to use, saved me about $700/year on my house insurance alone and with better cover/perks. Nice to see a spread of cost options.”

Chris Pilipczuk: “Quashed made it super easy to upload my current policy, and they did the rest—quickly displaying alternative options. I ended up saving nearly $1,300 on my annual car insurance!”

Zara Coghill: “I've just done a comparison for my car insurance. It was very simple and easy to use. Especially if you have your current policy documents handy. And instead of needing to answer the same questions over and over for each company, you can answer them in one place and get a really good comparison report.”

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