Who is Old Mutual?
Beginning over a century and a half ago, Old Mutual (also know under their iWYZE brand) is one of the largest and most established providers of financial services in South Africa and is a well known factor among the various insurance companies in South Africa. Partnering with two sister companies, Nedbank and Mutual & Federal (M&F), Old Mutual has been able to offer a wider range of financial services, as well as cater to a broader and more varied client base. The company has grown considerably and now has operations in Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. Back in February, 2012, Ralph Mupita was named the CEO of Old Mutual in South Africa.
In the social aspect, the Old Mutual Foundation was established to help boost the South African economy. As such, they are involved in a number of initiatives with the goal of creating opportunities for the underprivileged in South Africa.
Where is Old Mutual located?
Old Mutual’s head office is located in Johannesburg at: 93 Grayston Drive, Cnr of West Road South, Sandton, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.
Their Cape Town office is located at: Mutualpark, Jan Smuts Drive, Pinelands, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
What Services Does Old Mutual Offer?
As a company, Old Mutual provides many financial services, including investments, savings, insurance, asset management and retirement products. However, one of their main services is their car insurance which has been branded under the iWYZE brand. This service includes three main options: comprehensive coverage, third party, fire and theft, and third party only. Let’s look at these in detail.
Comprehensive car insurance: This option covers your car in the event of a car accident, fire and theft, as well as covers you in situations where you are liable for damages to a third party. With this policy, should your car be damaged for one of the reasons listed, Old Mutual will repair it, replace it or pay you the amount of damage.
Third Party, Fire and Theft: If you chose this option, your car will be covered if it is damaged due to fire or theft. It will also protect you against third party claims, but will not provide any coverage for damages caused by accidents.
Third Party Only Insurance: This option only covers you when you are liable for the cost of damage or injury to others, but not for accidents, fire or theft to your car. Should you be involved in an accident, this will allow the other party to be compensated for any damages you caused to them for which you are legally responsible. This does include legal costs if a third party makes such a claim against you.
What additional benefits are available through Old Mutual?
- Car Hire Benefit – If your car is unable to be driven while being repaired, Old Mutual will pay for your actual car hire charges with unlimited kilometers.
- Credit Shortfall Benefit – Should your car be damaged and you have a claim filed under your car insurance policy, Old Mutual will pay the finance company any difference between the insured value of the car and the amount still owed on your credit agreement.
- Specified (Named) Driver Benefit – If you are interested in reducing your premium, you can limit the number of those allowed to drive your car to two drivers (they must be named in your policy). This means that if anyone other than those specified drivers is driving your car, there will be no coverage for loss or damages. On the other hand, if only those two people drive it, you can reduce your premium.
Additionally there is a package of benefits offered for a small additional premium. These include:
- Medical Expenses Benefit – If passengers in your car are injured as a result of an accident, you can get compensation if you had to pay for emergency medical expenses for any of those injured passengers.
- Trauma Benefit – Old Mutual will pay for trauma counseling if you or a family member is a victim of violent theft, attempted theft, armed robbery or hijacking.
- Keys and Locks Benefit – You can get compensation to replace keys, remotes, keycards or locks for your car if they are lost or damaged.
- Emergency Hotel Expenses Benefit – Should you be involved in an accident more than 250 km away from home, you can get compensation for emergency hotel expenses for you and one passenger for up to 2 days.
How to File a Claim with Old Mutual?
There are three choices for filing a claim. You can call, e-mail or use SMS. In the last two options, a representative will call you back to walk you through the process. Click here to file a claim with Old Mutual.
How User Friendly is the Old Mutual Website
Old Mutual has an extensive website that covers the span of their services. The Old Mutual website itself is not so “user friendly” what with all the drop downs on the main menu, but luckily the part that has to do with car insurance (iwyze) is clean, fresh, easy to navigate and easy to understand. The website also provides detailed descriptions of coverage and benefits. While they do provide multiple ways of reaching out to a representative, it is unclear if you can actually file a claim online.
Old Mutual Reviews
When reviewing hello peter, Old Mutual received almost 4 times more complaints than compliments over the past 12 months. In terms of the complaints, the largest categories were billing/accounts and feedback/response. From looking at the nature of the complaints, customer service related complaints were common. An Old Mutual representative did respond to some of the complaints, and in some cases, they even provided updated responses which is not something that all companies do and therefore worth mentioning.
Summary
Old Mutual is one of the largest financial service companies in South Africa, and one the oldest companies to provide such services. They offer the basic car insurance policies as many other companies, but have quite a lot of added benefits that are somewhat unique. Working with such a large company has its pros and cons – for example, they should be able to cover costs even after large scale countrywide disasters, and they should be able to offer fairly low prices (due to the quantity of their clients). On the other hand, sometimes when companies get big, they lose sight of the little guy and pay less attention to their customer service. As always, we advise that you get at least 2-3 online car insurance quotes before you decide which company to use, read reviews (we have lots of them on carinfo.co.za) and speak to friends.
If you know something interesting about Old Mutual, or have experienced their service, please share your thoughts with other readers by commenting here below.
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