How I Saved on my Comprehensive Car Insurance with Coles Insurance

November last year, I started shopping around for a comprehensive car insurance even before I bought my first brand new car. My car by the way is a Honda Jazz Vibe-S (Japan-made) - the top-of-the-range. I started with the insurance companies where my employer has some ongoing discounts such as Allianz, and QBE. Both offer 15% discount that time thru my employer. I was amazed that getting quotation from them was so quick thru their websites. However, the premiums seem still high to me. The premiums averaged from $700-900 annually.


I saw a TV commercial from Coles insurance that they offer low comprehensive car insurance. However, getting a car insurance quotation from Coles insurance website still reflect high premium.

How then I got a low premium for my car insurance?

Coles insurance have an on-going promo of "Price Beat Guarantee" wherein Coles insurance guarantee to beat your current price if you’re 30 or over and switch your comprehensive policy to Coles Insurance. My challenge that time was to find the lowest quotation so I can then ring back Coles insurance for them to beat it.


I asked around from some of my colleagues in the office as well as some of my friends. From them I found out other low-cost car insurance such as REAL and Bingle. I went to their websites and produce a quotation for my car. To my surprise, Bingle produced a $505.xx quote. I saved every screen-shots of the quotation in a word document and I forwarded it via email to Coles insurance. On that same day, due to their "Price Beat Guarantee", Coles rang me and explained that they will beat Bingle's quotation by a dollar plus a one-year roadside assistance.


Having both Bingle's and Coles insurance quotation on-hand, I tried to review closer the their PDS (product disclosure statement). The following clause from Bingle convinced me more to go with Coles:

The parts we use
When your car is within the first twelve months of its manufacturer’s standard new car warranty period, new OEM (original equipment manufacture) parts will be used except for the replacement of windscreens and window glass for which Australian Design Rule compliant parts may be used. When your car is outside the first 12 months of its manufacturer’s standard new car warranty period, parts that are consistent with its age and condition will be used. This may include new, non-OEM, OEM-equivalent and/or recycled parts. 

Even though I'm decided already to go with Coles, in order to get an even cheaper quote from Bingle, I tried to manipulate the infos that I am entering in their website. With this act, I later found out which entries can make a quotation even cheaper.

The following factors can lower your premium:

1. If you have your own garage and/or park your car in a secured parking space most of the time
2. Low mileage in a year
3. The age of the driver which is 30 years and above
4. # of registered driver; an additional driver means additional premium
5. The current market value of your car - the lower it is, the lower your premium will be
6. The excess amount - the higher it is, the lower your premium will be

There may be some other factors.

Eventually, I went to get the comprehensive insurance from Coles and paid a premium of $504 for one year + one year roadside assistance and the excess is $600. My only comment on Coles insurance was that they have the "Inexperience Driver" clause. This clause is applicable for any driver with less than two (2) years of driving experience in Australia which has a cost implication of an additional $400 to the current excess amount should you make a claim. Other insurance companies, like Allianz, do not have this.

So try to read the fine-print of the product disclosure statement. You may have some specific needs that other insurance companies can offer.