About Insure Online

How we do it

At Insure Online we like to do things the modern way, an easier and faster way that suits small business owners across New Zealand. Because our business insurance products are only available online you are able to obtain insurance quotes, purchase business insurance and update your details 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, when it suits you and and where it suits you.

We’re not into wasting your time like asking you to complete multiple confusing paper insurance forms. Our online business insurance screens screens are simple to follow and easy to understand. We only ask for your information once and there are no messy paper forms involved. We give you control over your business insurance by allowing you to choose which insurance cover you want to buy and how much insurance you need. This includes our business insurance package, business liability insurance, employers liability insurance, statutory liability insurance and business interruption insurance for businesses based in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton and anywhere else across New Zealand.

Other insurance brokers and agents take a week or more to provide you with a quote. We provide you with an insurance quote instantly online and you can buy immediately. We don’t take days to provide you with all of your business insurance contract details. We send them to you within a few hours of payment being made to us.

We make a difference through our small business insurance products, making it easier for you to get a quote and buy. We want to go the extra mile, every time. If you feel we could do better, please let us know.

Our credentials

Insure Online Limited is a New Zealand registered company. Our registration details can be viewed on the companies office website. Our company number is 5745548 and our New Zealand Business Number is 94 29 041 846 636. We trade as Insure Online.

Our office address is at Suite 2, Level 2, 93 Dominion Road, Mt Eden, Auckland 1024 and we trade through this website. We do not trade through any other website.

We are an insurance broker who are licenced to deal in general insurance products. We act on behalf of insurance companies who are licenced to operate in New Zealand. Insure Online is registered with the Financial Services Provider and our insurance broker registration number is FSP456566. Our registration details are available to view on the Financial Services Provider register.

Providing good service and honest insurance is important to us, but sometimes things can go wrong. We aim to resolve insurance claims and disputes when they occur. Where a dispute cannot be resolved we do offer an external dispute resolution service, which is free of charge to our customers. That external dispute resolution service is provided by Financial Services Complaints Limited, who are based in Wellington. Our membership number is 6037 and you can view our details on the Financial Services Complaints Limited website.

Insure Online Limited also has a professional indemnity insurance policy in place. It covers us for claims made against us and our staff by clients as a result of our conduct and the conduct of our employees and representatives in the provision of general insurance.

We are truly independent so that we can focus on putting you first. We do not own shares in any insurance company and no insurance company holds any shares in Insure Online Limited. Unlike many other insurance brokers in New Zealand, we are not owned or part-owned by, and we are not a member of, any insurance broker group. We're here for you.

Our people

Brendan Tobin is the CEO of Insure Online Limited. He has over 30 years of insurance and technology experience, having worked in various senior roles at Allianz, Westpac’s general insurance arm and Telstra eBusiness. His experience covers the full spectrum of insurance, having run several licenced insurance companies, an insurance agency and a large regional insurance branch.

Brendan is a Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

How we are rewarded for the work we do for you

We are remunerated in two ways only:

• Through basic commission paid by the insurance company whenever you enter into an insurance policy arranged through them, including when you renew your insurance policy or when a change to your insurance policy increases the premium payable. We are paid insurance commission of 6% for any natural disaster insurance cover that we arrange for you. For other insurance, the commission paid to us is up to 20% of the base premium (base premium is the total insurance premium charged less fire and emergency levy and less goods and services tax). Other insurance brokers and agents collect up to 30% commission on the same insurance policy.
• We charge a transaction fee of $39.95 to cover payment transaction fees charged by banks and information technology charges. Insurance policy fees charged by other insurance brokers and agents can be well over $100 per transaction.

Other insurance brokers and agents collect extra insurance commission, paid for by you, but we don't:

• We do not accept any additional insurance commissions, such as profit share and head-office commissions, which are often paid by an insurance company to an insurance broker or agent and these typically amount to 2.5% additional commission. By not accepting these, we are able to pass on more savings to you.
• We do not accept soft rewards, which typically consist of entertainment, invitations to sports events, conferences, gifts, travel and accommodation, paid for by an insurance company from the insurance premiums you pay. We do not accept any of these because they create a conflict for us and add to the cost of your insurance.

How we process monies you pay to us

Insure Online Limited processes and manages all insurance premiums received from you or refunds from an insurance company in accordance with the Insurance Intermediaries Act 1994. This Act requires all insurance premiums and refunds to be paid into a insurance broking trust account and to be paid to insurance companies or refunded to customers across New Zealand within a specified time. The length of time we must pay any premiums to an insurance company can vary according to the arrangements we have with each insurance company. We must pay refunds to customers within seven days. We bank with the ANZ Bank at 205 Queen Street, Auckland.

When you purchase insurance online, we will ask you to provide details so that we can collect payment for your premium and our policy transaction fee through an industry standard and securely hosted payment gateway. In the interests of data security, we do not store any bank account or credit card numbers. Upon payment of insurance premiums by you, we display confirmation that payment has been received and we provide you with a receipt number. We email a tax invoice to you immediately as proof of payment.

Any payments made by you to Insure Online or refunds made by Insure Online to you will appear on your bank statements as "Insure Online Limited" in order to identify and associate transactions processed by our payment gateway. All amounts billed and refunded are made in New Zealand Dollars.

Information we retain about you

We collect personal information, including sensitive information. How we collect, disclose and handle your personal information is described in our privacy policy.