Car Insurance

[j*oono]

I dumped my old car insurance with GIO and took up a policy with Coles, underwritten by Wesfarmers.

I was a bit shocked with the renewal policy from GIO, or Resilium.  $763 with a $500 excess on a car that is only insured for $12,900.  No claims in the past and with 65% no claim bonus.

Coles/Wesfarmers gave me a quote and with extras it came to $490.  It's fully comp.  Has anyone else switched to Coles and any problems?

[cherry*135]

PDS wording

choice of repairer (choice of repairer from within in the insurance comapnies repairer network only)

or

choose your own repairer (anyone you want, not restricted to ones on insurance companies approved list)

Coles Car Insurance

• Choice of repairer: you can use a quality repairer from our extensive national network, or you can select your own. If you choose your own repairer, they must be properly licensed, and they cannot exceed our assessed fair-repair cost. This helps us protect you and keep your premium down.

[j*oono]

That's not such good news then Daydream.  Who has the paperwork though?  the claimant or the repairer?

Am3, I'm not sure now but I will check it all out again when I get the paperwork.  I had a read of it on line but I'll have another look. I thought it did say that you could chose the repairer. 

[cherry*135]

Yes, you can choose your own repairer( with conditions attached) and that will be accepted IF their quote for repairs is the same or lower than the Coles "assessed fair-repair cost."

Another thing

• Lifetime guarantee on repairs – through our national partnered repairer network

If you choose your own repairer you don't get the lifetime guarantee on repairs.

[cherry*135]

This is from Drivedotcomau. These things may not be important to you. It is dated 2011

The cheapest

With a starting price for our fictitious drivers (see table) of $468 for a premium in NSW and $585 in Victoria Coles offers the cheapest car insurance, regardless of whether the car is under finance or a claim was lodged.

However, the Coles insurance misses out on some features of other companies.

If your new car is deemed a write-off, it will only be replaced if it's less than 12 months old (some offer up to two years), there's no free car hire following a theft or accident (the latter is an option) and the contents of your car, such as sunglasses and other personal belongings, are not covered. Most insurers cover up to $500 and exclude cash, mobile phones and portable sat-nav units.

Coles also increases a premium by up to $148, or 25 per cent, if you need to make a claim. This is above average among our targeted insurers using our case studies.

This is more than the 21 per cent average of our targeted insurers.

Haves and have-nots

Coles offers a competitive policy in most areas, such as the option of a variable excess to reduce your premium and even grocery replacement of up to $200 if your ice-cream melts and meat spoils, for example, at the time of an accident.

Another incentive is a monthly fuel discount of up to 12¢ a litre for a year, strings attached, at Coles Express service stations.

Coles allows a choice of repairers at the forfeit of the lifetime guarantee on repairs, whereas some honour this guarantee.

Bingle.com.au and Just Car Insurance are the only insurers that do not offer a hire car, even as an option. All others offer optional car hire if your car is involved in an accident and most offer free car hire if your car is stolen for up to 14 days or until your car is recovered, whichever is less. RACV and NRMA offer up to 21 days, whereas car hire is an extra with Coles, The Buzz and Real Insurance. AAMI offers various levels of extended coverage at additional costs.

[j*oono]

There is a lot to think about isn't there.

I suppose I am a little biased.  I started work with Wesfarmers when I was only16 or 17 and worked with them for about 9 years.  Not insurance dept though. They were a good company and hopefully still are.

[amber-eyed-girl]

We could choose our own repairer. To assess any damage to the undercarriage, it had to go to a body shop. We were fine with that, I didn't have a body shop repairer just a mechanic.

the way it worked was they were happy with it going for a quote to our own guys if they were able to properly assess the damage.

get a quote. If reasonable, go ahead with the work.

wasn't any stalling, it all started rolling next business day.

As the claim did not proceed (no damage) I don't know if there would have been paperwork to do. We had a claims number though, it had started in the claims department and no paperwork, just one phone call.

After we said no damage, they still followed up a week later to see if we were happy.

The body shop they recommended was five minutes away and had some decent cars there that day, and were working on a Ferrari at the time and appeared to be doing a careful job.

so, can't answer on the paperwork, but they were good to us, we could choose own repairer and their recommended repairer was reputable...I asked our mechanic what he thought of them and he recommended them too if we needed anything done.

but yes, check all the fineprint. I read everything on the two policies as I was interested in the big pricing gap. It is possible it was cheaper to get new customers to Coles, and could go up next year. Guess we'll see.

this was comparing Wesfarmers to Wesfarmers Coles only at that stage.

with the lifetime guarantee on the work, it is standard that insurance will cover their own network, but not unknown repairers. After all, they don't know anything about the quality of John Doe Auto...kind of makes sense to me.

individual repairers eill offer their own guarantee if reputable.

[amber-eyed-girl]

Whichever company you go with, hopefully you never need it 🙂

[cherry*135]

with the lifetime guarantee on the work, it is standard that insurance will cover their own network, but not unknown repairers

As it says in the Drive article: Coles allows a choice of repairers at the forfeit of the lifetime guarantee on repairs, whereas some honour this guarantee.

There is no distinction between repairer chosen by insurer or customer, as far as lifetime guarantee goes for repairs in my policy.

My policy states:

Repairing your vehicle

Choosing a repairer

If we agree to repair your vehicle, you can let us find a repairer or you can nominate your own repairer

If you choose your to nominate your own repairer

you must:

> choose a repairer that has all necessary licences and authorisations required by law

> obtain our authorisation for the repairs and quoted cost before those repairs are commenced.

we will

> choose the most suitable repair method for the type of damage to your vehicle and

 - decide whether to authorise and pay for the fair and reasonable costs of repairs

or 

 - decide to pay you the fair and reasonable cost to repair your vehicle.

Lifetime guarantee of repairs

If we authorise repairs to your vehicle, we will guarantee the workmanship on the repairs authorised by us for the life of your vehicle.

amber - Individual repairers will offer their own guarantee if reputable.

Really, for an insurcance claim, for the lifetime of the car? or a specified amount of time e.g. 3 months, 6 months, 1 year?

Best the guarantee for repairs comes via the car insurance company.

[cherry*135]

joono- I read what you said about Wesfarmers. Wesfarmers have sold their underwriting business to IAG. I am not sure what the 10 year disrtibution agreement with Coles means.

@lyndal1838 wrote:

Wesfarmers underwriting business has been bought by IAG (NRMA) but they have a 10 year agreement with Coles apparently.  I have a feeling you will soon find your premiums being bought into line with the IAG companies....and they ain't cheap.

---

[punch*drunk]

When I had my car repaired a couple of months ago the repairer offered a 12 month warranty and then after the 12 months the insurance's lifetime warranty kicked in.

They were supposed to allow me to choose my own repairer but apparently the insurance company have to send the repairer and invitation to quote, without the invitation the quote wont even be looked at. After about 6 phone calls to my insurer stating I wanted my own repairer and asking them to send the invitation to quote I discovered they completely ignored my requests and sent it to their own repairer who ended up doing a pretty ordinary job. I havent bothered taking it back because they are over an hour away from me so its incredibly inconvenient to even take it that far and then I have to be without it for god knows how long until they get it right.

I really object to insurance companies giving all their work to a selected few panel beaters, makes it hard for the rest to compete. I live in a small town and the local guy here is excellent but he's not big enough to get contracts with the insurance companies.