COLES to Sell Car Insurance

[csv8]

COLES is introducing a car insurance product backed by its owner conglomerate Wesfarmers.

Coles said its insurance lets customers triple their standard four cent Coles fuel discount receipt once every month for a year.

It will offer lifetime guarantee on repairs by authorised repairers as standard and flexible cover options.

Customers taking out comprehensive cover will also have their groceries insured if they are damaged in any car accident, it said.

Coles chief financial officer Tony Buffin said Coles Car Insurance offered customers a quality product at a great price.

"Our customers tell us that they expect Coles to deliver great value and quality products, and with the backing of Wesfarmers Insurance, we think we've created a unique and compelling car insurance product for Australians," Mr Buffin said.

My comment..the 12% fuel discount will be built into the premium ????

[GTP-814]

if thye do build in teh 12%? into their premuims & are not competitive then they wont sell many

[Jason[98.EL]]

doesnt wesfarmers own shannons anyway ????

Jason

EDIT wesfarmers own lumleys not shannons

[Mr Hardware]

Australia Post sells car insurance, therefore Coles is no surprise.

[pottery beige]

was getting hassled about funeral insurance by some department store a while back... lady had a laugh when i said stuff that all the scabs fighting over my crap can pay for it...

[Quicksand]

Originally Posted by csv8

Coles said its insurance lets customers triple their standard four cent Coles fuel discount receipt once every month for a year.

Herein lies the catch. Yes you get to triple the discount, but only after you have spent money at Coles just to get the fuel docket. Would be good if they gave you some sort of card where you can use it once a fortnight and you dont need to shop at Coles. It should be enough that you are paying for the Insurance to get this perk.

Also, once a month is not very often, most people fill up weekly/fortnightly if not more.

Ahwell, will review it on its own merits to see if it is competitive.

[rancidpunx]

The supermarkets in England have been selling insurance for everything for years. You pick it up at the checkout like your would some gum. One supermarkets was even selling plots of land on the moon about 10 yrs ago. As for the triple fuel saving, would it not become a saving of 12 cents, not 12%. For me with a 4c saving i get about $2 off my petrol weekly so that would be come $6 once a month. About $40-$50 a year, might be ok if the polices stack up and if they have cheap premiums to start with.

[buickman]

Originally Posted by Jason[98.EL]

doesnt wesfarmers own shannons anyway ????

Jason

EDIT wesfarmers own lumleys not shannons

Suncorp is Shannons backer as well as AAMI & GIO plus other insurers

[Jason[98.EL]]

Originally Posted by buickman

Suncorp is Shannons backer as well as AAMI & GIO plus other insurers

thats prob why they didnt fight formy buisness wheni went from Suncorp to Shannons

[BA Baracus]

Originally Posted by csv8

Customers taking out comprehensive cover will also have their groceries insured if they are damaged in any car accident, it said.

Might declare your weetbix a repairable write off.

[Bucknaked]

Originally Posted by BA Baracus

Might declare your weetbix a repairable write off.

Once you add milk, your no longer covered becuase it's all soggy and can't be repaired. Hmmm, I wonder if that applies to the sao's

[yift]

westfarmers owns coles, they already sell insurance through k mart tyre and auto which is also owned by westfarmers.

westfarmers owners are scottish business men so considering they sell insurance in the u.k at the supermarkets it is no suprise to sell it here, who knows next time you go to bunnings you might be able to buy insurance there too.

[Road Games]

Originally Posted by Bucknaked

Once you add milk, your no longer covered becuase it's all soggy and can't be repaired. Hmmm, I wonder if that applies to the sao's

Yeah there was this one time at band camp ... we had this game called soggy sao... and um.. anyway ...

K-mart have been promoting Youi for a while so i'm not surprised by this ...

cheers Daz.

[DanielXR8]

Fair enough. My car insurer sold their insurance arm years ago and became a travel agent and reseller of their former insurance business. Anything is fair game these days.

Off to Australia post to buy a computer now and then ducking down to the Newsagents to buy some milk.

[jmack]

on the lumley subject anybody here had any dealings with them what are they like.just got a price from them on my 4 cars and the harley and they were cheaper than shannons who i am with at the moment with only 2 cars and the bike.need some feedback before i jump
thanks

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by yift

westfarmers owners are scottish business men so considering they sell insurance in the u.k at the supermarkets it is no suprise to sell it here, who knows next time you go to bunnings you might be able to buy insurance there too.

Westfarmers is a publicly listed company on the australian stock exchange. It is owned by you, me ad everyone who has a superannuation policy, or has shares in it.

Its all part of the "birth to grave" customer retention strategy, they sell the lemons, now they want to insure the lemons, and soon they will be buying Holdens, so they can make the lemons.

[Falcon Coupe]

Originally Posted by jmack

on the lumley subject anybody here had any dealings with them what are they like.just got a price from them on my 4 cars and the harley and they were cheaper than shannons who i am with at the moment with only 2 cars and the bike.need some feedback before i jump
thanks

I changed to Lumley last year, They undercut Shannons by a mile and added 10k of value to the policy.

[Trendseeker]

It isn't a 12% discount. It's a 12c a litre discount. If you fill on the cheapest day of the week with an almost empty tank (say 70 litres), you're saving $8.40 per month or about $100 per year. Wow. They'll get that back plus some more in your policy or your groceries. Remember, they're not a charity.

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by 2008WhiteSR

It isn't a 12% discount. It's a 12c a litre discount. If you fill on the cheapest day of the week with an almost empty tank (say 70 litres), you're saving $8.40 per month or about $100 per year. Wow. They'll get that back plus some more in your policy or your groceries. Remember, they're not a charity.

How many people here will shift insurance providers over 'only' $100? A few I'm assuming. If you generally shop at Coles anyway then you will also benefit from the discount.

Of course they make it back in the groceries... This is what they want. So you get them back at their own game, buy $30.50c of their cheapest discounted products and then get your 12c a litre off.

I will be calling them come renewal time. If they offer an equally comparable product at a price that matches or betters what I'm paying now then I will go with them...

[bobthebilda]

In complete fairness to Coles (and other food retailers for that matter), they operate in businesses with some of the tightest profit margins available. For a business that turnsover $30 billion dollars a year, it only makes profits of about $1 billlion per year. A 3 to 4 percent profit margin. Any new business they bring into the fold, is a bonus, and they are often tempted to run it as a loss for a while to build it up, and return to normal profit margins when turnover increases.

One just has to compare that business with the current insurance market, whose profit margins would be close to 10 times what Coles aims for. Even if one didnt take out Coles insurance, they can be assured that Coles entry into the market, will have made their own insurance company thinking about raising there own rates.

[RG]

Just did an online quote with them for a car I'm looking at buying. They're $150 cheaper than anyone else.

I'll be giving them a go.

[Quicksand]

Originally Posted by RG

Just did an online quote with them for a car I'm looking at buying. They're $150 cheaper than anyone else.

I'll be giving them a go.

But what about the excess, premium, extras (free windscreen replacement, free hire car, discounts), No Claim Bonus, minimum driving age, etc, etc

$150 cheaper now may turn into hundreds of $$$ more expensive in the future (near or distant).

[RG]

Originally Posted by Inducted_Breeze

But what about the excess, premium, extras (free windscreen replacement, free hire car, discounts), No Claim Bonus, minimum driving age, etc, etc

$150 cheaper now may turn into hundreds of $$$ more expensive in the future (near or distant).

All the same as RACV, GIO etc.

[phildee]

Just had a look myself, $450 to insure my xr6t with an excess of $1050, agreed value at the max of $18k

quite a bit cheaper than RACV who are the next cheapest for me

[Jason[98.EL]]

eh mine was about 150 lower as well

my insurence is due for renewal in about a months time when i put the info about the car it says they want to talk tome so will see what happens tomorrow

Jason

[Quicksand]

Originally Posted by phildee

Just had a look myself, $450 to insure my xr6t with an excess of $1050, agreed value at the max of $18k

quite a bit cheaper than RACV who are the next cheapest for me

Whoa, $1000 excess? Mine is at about $300...but $450 is pretty cheap!

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by Inducted_Breeze

Whoa, $1000 excess? Mine is at about $300...but $450 is pretty cheap!

If they use a similar system to AAMI, you can elect to increase your excess for a lower premium.

I had a $2000 excess on the Festiva for a while to keep the premium down.

[phildee]

Originally Posted by Inducted_Breeze

Whoa, $1000 excess? Mine is at about $300...but $450 is pretty cheap!

That's by choice to get the premium down. In comparison racv is pretty close to $700 with a 1500 excess

[FPV+fteT3]

Waiting for the buy one get 1 free specials to come out.............

[csv8]

Woolworths is also going to offer car insurance ,next year...
Next at the check-out: car insurance
DANIELLA MILETIC
July 28, 2010
COLES has become the first Australian supermarket to tap into the $16.2 billion car insurance market, following in the footsteps of UK retail giant Tesco.

After trialling motor insurance offers in Tasmanian supermarkets for six months, Coles yesterday announced it would sell the products nationally.

It is believed other retailers, including Woolworths and Myer, are investigating moving into the personal insurance market. Coles is also believed to be looking into expanding its insurance range to include other options, such as home and contents insurance.

Coles is offering fuel discounts with the car insurance and has promised a lifetime guarantee on repairs by nominated repairers as standard and flexible cover options.

While consumer advocate Choice welcomed a new entrant in the market, it warned consumers not to be seduced by fuel and grocery offers, advising them to instead focus on comparing prices and coverage.

Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said more online companies were offering car insurance and new entrants such as Progressive had made the market more competitive.

Suncorp and Insurance Australia Group are believed to control 70-75 per cent of the car insurance market. About 12 million cars are insured in Australia.

Mr Zinn urged consumers to shop around for the best car insurance price yearly. ''Insurance companies count on you to just renew without checking what the competition is, and there is a lot more competition out there - particularly recently there have been some new entrants.''