The afternoon in question
I own a rental property in the Bay of Plenty. Like almost everyone, I'd paid the premium for years and never read the documents. When I finally did, I found an extra $5,000 excess on natural-disaster damage to retaining walls, driveways and paths — stacked on top of my standard excess — plus another excess because the home is tenanted, and settlement terms I'd never heard of. None of it was hidden. It was all right there, in a document I'd never read, describing a deal I didn't know I'd made.
So I read the others — the current published wording of every major NZ home and car insurer. What I found is that the policies differ far more than the premiums do: the same burst pipe pays out $2,000 with one insurer and $10,000 with another; the same slip takes out a retaining wall covered for $20,000 here and $100,000 there. We all shop on price. The product is the wording, and nobody can read seven 40-page wordings. Now nobody has to.
The rules this site runs on
Quoted, or it doesn't go up
Every trap and every figure links to the insurer's own published wording. No allegations, no vibes — their words, cited.
The register stays free
The comparison and the Trap Register are a public record, free forever, no login. The paid scan of your own policy is what keeps the lights on.
Independent, and it stays that way
No insurer pays Inuio. No commissions for steering you anywhere. If that ever changes for any feature, it will say so in plain sight.
What Inuio is — and isn't
Inuio is an information tool: it shows you what the wordings say so you can ask better questions. It isn't financial advice, it doesn't recommend products, and it can't tell you what is or isn't covered in your specific case — always verify with your insurer or a licensed adviser. The corpus is refreshed monthly, and wordings change, so check your own document.
Questions, corrections, story tips?
If you've been caught by a trap that should be in the register — or you think we've got something wrong — I want to hear it.