On 20th Septembe 2007, Malaysia's first no-frills, one-stop financial services company Tune Money Sdn Bhd launched its online insurance service under the Tune Money banner(http://www.tunemoney.com/) which is aimed at offering affordable services for the under-served market.
Offering insurance at the lowest possible premiums of up to 30% lower than the market, TuneMoney's key selling point is clear. Moreover, TuneMoney is targetting 'the little guy', the customer who doesn't earn enough to qualify for a credit card, buy insurance or even invest. With almost entirely all blue collar workers, teenagers and fresh graduates in this category, the market to be captured by TuneMoney is both large and ready.
TuneMoney currently offers insurance policies for personal accident, motorcyclist personal accident and home insurance. The policies will be underwritten by CIMB Aviva.
The company expects to add hospital and surgical and motor covers by the year-end.
TuneMoney will also be launching its payment card (ie. a prepaid credit card) very soon. This promises to be an exciting product as there are many people who need a credit card, but do not qualify to get one. But take note, this is not technically a 'credit card' as no credit is given to the customer. It is a prepaid payment card ie. you first need to deposit money into the card (via eg. online banking, POS Malaysia and other payment methods to be revealed) before you can use it. But it is a 'credit card' in the sense that you can use it just like any terminals or websites that accepts MasterCard of Visa. There will definitely be a demand for this card by teenagers who will use it to purchase products and services online (eg. books, online games, (pornography?) etc). To date, teenagers have had to rely on older friends with credit cards, or made use of other payment methods such as MOL e-Points. But MOL e-Points is not as widespread accepted as a credit card.
It will be interesting to see how TuneMoney develops. It has the potential to be Asia's largest no-frills insurance company. And if anybody can, you can expect the team at TuneMoney headed by CEO Tengku Zafrul Aziz and backed by shareholders like Datuk Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kalimullah Hassan to succeed. But it's still early days and we need more time to see how things develop.
Some key challenges, in my opinion are:
1) Payment methods. TuneMoney's key market group are people who currently do not have a credit card and/or and online banking account. So, to sell these group of people insurance, prepaid credit cards and other products, TuneMoney will need to beef up and make widespread its offline payment methods (eg. POS Malaysia etc).
2) Most people use a credit card for its credit. Yes, some people use it for convenience. But the majority of people use it for the credit (if not, banks won't be earning the huge amounts they are earning now from credit cards interest charged). The prepaid credit card does not provide credit. So, this means that the main purpose of a prepaid credit card is convenience. Or perhaps partially for image and 'glamour' of owning a plastic card. So it's hard to say how popular a prepaid credit card will be.
3) Momentum. TuneMoney will need to generate lots of momentum to make this business successful. This business is without doubt a business numbers. Large numbers need to be achieved, and soon.
On the plus side, TuneMoney has the highly successful Tune brand that has successful franchises like AirAsia and TuneMoney. It is managed by professionals who know what they are doing, and have solid shareholder backing.
Check out TuneMoney today, but some insurance, and comment here on what you think!
4 comments:
I’m experiencing the worst customer service from a financial service institution in the form of tunemoney. The system works fine, really. There is basically no hidden cost whatsoever for your transactions. And you can easily reload your money using FPX which only charges you 50sen. Im actually a very satisfied Tunemoney customer.
BUT!
When there is a problem, the customer service sucks BIG TIME. Let me explain. I’ve got a problem with my FPX transaction when i tried to reload my Tunecard. My bank account has been deducted, but my tunecard has not been topped up yet. I immediately sent an email to them regarding the matter. I thought it would take 2 working days to reply (as stated in the automated responce mail). Then after 3 days, i sent another email to assist@tunemoney.com since my account have still not been topped up. Still no response.
Then I call my bank about the transaction. They’ve checked and confirmed that the transaction was successful. Even CIMB (the one handles tunemoney’s money) have confirmed to received the transaction. Only tunemoney have not been reporting the transaction. Again, tried to send another email. Failed. Something about a full inbox. Got fed up and called the 600-83-7999 no. Maybe this time we can settle this once and for all.
I called and the operator takes his/her own sweet time (he/she sounds like a fag) asking about my details, while being fully aware that I’m being charged 78sen/min for the call. Ask me to spell my name, taking down numbers slowwly, etc. After that, i got down to business and tell him/her about the problem. I thought right there and then this could be settled. I mean, just check about the money and topped up my account already! He/she/it said that someone from the card dept will call me within 7 working days. 7!! What in the world??? Why dont it just direct me to someone in the card department in the first place??!
Really got pissed off. Tunemoney is really a great service which everyone should enjoy but they REALLY REALLY NEED TO IMPROVE THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE.. I guess that’s how they make money, which is from premium customer call charges. At least please make the customer service worth the money spent on the charges.
hi bro,
I use tune card for internet transaction and for cash out my paypal money.
No problem using it
i had same problem like Ewan, 1 had call 3 times, the first call customer service said will be topup in 15minute, but nothing happen after 15minute.
on the next day i made 2nd call, and they said your reload will be avaiable on the next day after 4PM.
On that day after 4PM nothing happen, i call again on that night, they ask for email the transaction slip and will response from email.
after i email, no response at all.
they hold my money, wednesday(3Sept2008) till now Monday(8sept2008)
Really stupid services.
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