Who is Woolworths Car Insurance?
Woolworths Car Insurance is a short term insurance option that is offered through their partnership with the Auto and General insurance company. In other words, Woolworths Car Insurance policy is actually covered by Auto and General. Woolworths, as a company, began back in the early 1930s in South Africa and has expanded to over 400 stores within South Africa, Africa and the Middle East. In addition to their typical products, Woolworths offers a variety of financial services and short term insurance options.
What Services does Woolworths Insurance offer?
Woolworths Insurance offers several insurance options, including cellphone insurance, personal accident insurance, car insurance and home insurance.
Woolworths Car Insurance
Woolworths Car Insurance provides three basic coverage options: comprehensive car insurance, third party car insurance, fire and theft car insurance and third party only.
Comprehensive car insurance: The widest coverage, this option provides just that, comprehensive coverage for your vehicle in the case of an accident, fire or theft. This will also cover you for damages to a third party or their property. So if you bash into someone else’s car, or they bash into yours, or your car gets stolen, these are all covered.
Third party, fire and theft car insurance: With this choice, coverage includes damages caused to your car as a result of fire or natural disasters, as well as theft. You are similarly covered for damages you cause to a third party and/or its property. You are NOT covered for an accident and its associated damage to your vehicle.
Third party only: You may only claim for damages that you caused to a third party and/or their property. Your vehicle is NOT covered against accident, fire or theft.
Woolworths Car Insurance offers the following benefits, some of which require an additional cost or premium:
- Towing and storage – assistance with storage/towing of your vehicle to the closest repairer, subject to you using the Woolworths Towline;
- Sound system – coverage for the sound system of your vehicle should it be damaged as a result of fire or attempted theft, or if it gets stolen;
- Hail damage – coverage for damages caused by hail;
- Canopy – coverage for damages caused to the canopy of your pick-up;
- Car hire – assistance with a hired car through Woolworths preferred supplier while your vehicle is being repaired or if it’s been stolen;
- Medical costs – Payment of up to R500 towards medical costs for each injured person should they be in an accident in your vehicle. Personally, we don’t remember ever having to pay as little as R500 for medical expenses, especially after an accident, so not sure how this helps as this is a drop in the sea.
Woolworths Insurance also offers a “Touch Up Policy”, which is designed for new car owners and covers small, minor dents and scratches. This type of policy is also known as Scratch and Dent coverage.
How user-friendly is the Woolworths Car Insurance website?
We found it difficult to find information on the Woolworths website due to the poorly and not very friendly user interface. The history of the company was brief, and we struggled to find details about the history and background of Woolworths financial services. In terms of their car insurance policies, the information was there, but was written in a way that was hard to follow and was redundant at times. We found key information missing, such as the address of their main office (despite repeated searches on their website and in the usual search engines). Our overall impression of their website was not very positive and we felt that their approach to their car insurance services, at least in regards to their website, was as if this was just another product on their shelf that requires minimal attention. In all fairness though, their level of customer service does not necessary reflect the same (see here below). It would be wise if Woolworths would consider creating a website focused mainly on their financial services or even only on their car insurance services.
Filing a claim with Woolworths Car Insurance
After much searching, we found this link where you can login to your account and then submit a claim: Submit a car insurance claim with Woolworths.
What are the customer reviews of Woolworths Insurance and Woolworths Car Insurance?
Over the past 12 months, Woolworths Insurance received 127 feedback reports from customers on hellopeter.com (the review website). Of those reports, 69% were compliments, while 31% were complaints. That’s double the number of compliments than complaints. Having reviewed many insurance companies, finding a higher percentage of compliments is not as common as we would have hoped and therefore this is definitely a positive point worth mentioning. Of the complaints, the “feedback/response” category had the most number of reports, indicating that for those who had negative experiences, many of them experienced frustration due to not getting an adequate response.
So, what’s the bottom line for Woolworths’ car insurance services?
Woolworths Car Insurance, covered through the Auto and General insurance company, is part of the general financial services that Woolworths offers. Although the company dates back a number of decades, we were unable to determine the age of its financial service component and how long they have been offering car insurance. While the website itself was not impressive in terms of information and user-friendliness, the customer reviews paint a different picture and indicate that Woolworths offers quality customer service.
Final Tip: Before renewing or getting car insurance, we suggest following these 3 steps:
1. Read our post on “how to save on car insurance”;
2. Read 2-3 reviews about other insurance companies that you are considering OR read our survey on “which is the best insurance company in SA?”;
3. Then, get a few Free online car insurance quotes before making your final decision.
Click here to get One quote from King Price insurance which offers decreasing premiums every month, or:
Click here for up to 9 quotes from various other companies.
Main subject: Woolworths Car Insurance
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