7-Eleven to Offer Auto Coverage Through Kiosks

Dallas-based convenience retailer 7-Eleven Inc. announced a five-year strategic alliance with Public Access Insurance for Public Access to offer a variety of automobile-related insurance services via 7-Eleven stores’ Vcom(TM) electronic kiosks.

Under the agreement, Public Access will be the exclusive retailer of Instant Auto Agency automobile insurance-related products and services to be offered at Vcom kiosks. Instant Auto Agency and Public Access are subsidiaries of Instant Insurance Holdings Inc. At the kiosks, 7-Eleven customers will have direct access to Public’s centralized service center, where they can obtain automobile quotes, purchase their policy, pay their monthly bill and talk to a customer service representative.

Vcom is 7-Eleven(R) stores’ integrated financial kiosk that merges ATM capabilities with other services and provides the flexibility of 24-hour, touch-screen convenience and a variety of payment methods on a single device.

Currently, customers can conduct American Express ATM transactions, purchase Western Union money orders and money transfers, pay bills through Western Union’s Quick Collect(TM) payment service and cash checks through Certegy Check Services(SM), a division of Certegy Inc.

Les Schlesinger, president of Public Accesssaid that 50 percent of his company’s monthly clientele pay their auto insurance bills by cash or money order, making Vcom a convenient conduit for their payments because the kiosk accepts cash—up to 30 bills of different denominations at one time—through the machine’s bunch-note acceptor.

Currently, Vcom is operating in approximately 185 7-Eleven stores in Texas, Florida, Colorado and Virginia. The auto insurance service is expected to be available on 7-Eleven’s Vcom machines in the second quarter of 2003.

Topics Auto