About Ooba
Ooba was founded in 1999, and was formerly known as MortgageSA. Originally, the company offered mortgage and loan solutions to homeowners, though Ooba now also offers insurance too. Technically, Ooba's insurance policies are offered by Property Protector Financial Services, a licensed financial services provider, but this company is wholly owned by Ooba itself. Saul Geffen, one of the founders of Ooba and the CEO stepped down in mid 2013, and was replaced by Rhys Dyer who had been Ooba's COO.
Where is Ooba Located?
The headquarters of Ooba can be found on the 8th Floor of Ooba House, 33 Bree Street, Cape Town 8001. There is also a mailing address for the company at: P.O. Box 1535, Cape Town 8000.
Which Services Do Ooba Provide?
Ooba offer two services: home loans and home insurance. On the insurance front they offer home loan insurance, buildings insurance and household insurance.
Home Contents Insurance with Ooba
Unfortunately, the Ooba website offers no details about their contents insurance policy. That makes it difficult for us to evaluate the policy. The website does state that policies are designed around an individual client's needs, which makes us assume that features of your policy will depend on your personal circumstances. The only details we can find are:
- The policy will cover both stolen and damaged items;
- The policy will cover both your possessions and your vehicles;
- The policy will cover items that you may not have considered insuring (though the Ooba website offers no examples of these).
Obviously, this is not a lot to go on, and we have no idea whether your Ooba policy will cover things such as burst geysers, for example. We can only assume that you will list your needs and an Ooba representative will make sure that you're covered for what is necessary.
How Are Customer Reviews for Ooba?
There are only 36 reports about Ooba listed on Hellopeter (the customer review website). This is low number compared to other insurance companies that we've reviewed. 23 of these reviews are complaints, giving Ooba a 64% negative rating. Complaints range from slow feedback times to poor customer service. However, we must remember two things. Firstly, these reviews are about all of Ooba's services, including home loans, not just about insurance. And secondly, there is a low number of reports and people are much more likely to complain than to compliment. This means that it's tough to judge Ooba based on these numbers alone.
How User Friendly is the Ooba Website?
Initially, the Ooba website is very user friendly. It's easy to navigate, and there are nice, simple overviews of each kind of policy with few technical household insurance terms and definitions. However, there is no detailed information available about Ooba's policies. We do understand that your policy features could depend on your personal needs. However, these days shoppers are used to being informed, so we think it would be a good idea for Ooba to at least give some examples of what kind of coverage you could expect to get. This would make insurance shopping easier for consumers.
Ooba in a Nutshell
Ooba do offer household insurance as well as home loans. However, it's difficult to evaluate the company due to a lack of detailed information about policies on their website and a low number of consumer reviews on Hellopeter. Once again though, Ooba do state that they design policies around customers, so policy features may vary widely. Of course, it's always important to get as many insurance quotes as possible when shopping. This will allow you to compare policy features to make sure that you're getting the coverage that you need, as well as making sure you get the best price!
Main subject: Ooba
