Home Insurance Premiums

[albertGQ]

So I just got my home insurance renewal notice from TD Meloche Monnex.

It went up a whopping 40% (from $545 to $763). Not only that but my deductible went up 100% (from $500 to $1000).

The lady told me it went up due to the hail claims in 2012. So you know next year will probably see higher increases due to the flood.

Anyone else face similar increases? I already bundle with my car insurance and I'm a UofC Alumni.

I even increased my deductible to $1500 to save myself about $30/a

[Ducay]

Ya, mine jumped a decent amount with TD MM as well. Not quite 40%, but wasn't forced to increase my deductible. (If thats the case with you).

Is the $30 annual savings worth the $1500 deductible? You've got to not make a claim in 16 years for that to pay off.

[keratosis]

State Farm tried to raise our deductable to $10,000 a couple
of years ago. Said we filed 4 claims over the past 6 years, even
though only 1 resulted in a payout.
Needless to say we took our business elsewhere.

[albertGQ]

Yeah, my deductible automatically jumped to $1,000.

I'll re-evaluate my deductible next year. But I seem to never make any car or home insurance claims so I don't really mind the deductible.

[FlamesKickAss]

I am leaving TD because of this. Can get cheaper at Ama and Wawanesa

Make sure you check what they did to sewer backup coverage too. Ours got limited to $15,000

Ours went up $30 a month!

[MotoRacer]

Anyone else get huge increases this year?

[lazypucker]

I am using TD as well and my condo insurance went up about 30%. I am NOT on ground level and I wonder why it increases this much! 5 to 10% I can understand due to inflation....

[Bill Bumface]

I was forced to leave TD because I called them 3 times in 5 years, and even as a now "high risk" client, my home insurance barely went up elsewhere (will be lower after I am enough years claim free) and my car insurance went down big time. This was with the APEGA discount too, which I used to think was awesome, but it turns out that only applies if you are a 21 year old not wanting to get bent over for car insurance.

[Kerplunk]

If I remember correctly, my premium increased around 70% with TD, with no claims and a home nowhere near a flood area. Switched to AMA pretty damn fast after I got that letter.

[Minnie]

Ours increased by about $40, a month ago. We're with Dominion which was acquired by Travelers in the past year. I've talked to several people who are with TD, who've had massive increases and who are all looking elsewhere now.

[GoinAllTheWay]

I'd say 80% of my time these days is spent re-marketing home policies.

On top of premium increases you can also expect a higher deductible as mentioned.

Something else to look out for with your respective policies is limitations on sewer backup limits as well as scaling roof depreciations. IE, full value up to 5 yrs on a new roof, a -5% reduction in coverage each year after that.

Look at your policies closely!

[#-3]

I moved to a place that was worth about 40% more, and my premiums went up 200%. So I called the broker told her she was fired, and she came back with a cheaper rate than my old house.

So I guess I was getting ripped off on my old place.

[Hugh Jahrmes]

Im with a local company through portage la prairie and my auto and home both took large jumps with no claims. Auto went from 1600 (12 Jetta tdi highline, 09 ram sport full coverage on both) to 1800 and home insurance from 825ish to 1150. Great part is this happens right after I convince my girlfriend to move both of her vehicles there because they promised her low rates.

Probably switching everything to AMA soon, anyone here have any good/bad experiences with them?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

I'd say 80% of my time these days is spent re-marketing home policies.

On top of premium increases you can also expect a higher deductible as mentioned.

Something else to look out for with your respective policies is limitations on sewer backup limits as well as scaling roof depreciations. IE, full value up to 5 yrs on a new roof, a -5% reduction in coverage each year after that.

Look at your policies closely!

Is this what you do for a living? My premiums went through the roof and I can't say I'm particularly thrilled with that. How likely is it that there are premium reductions from one insurer to another at this point?

My deductible doubled and I think my premium did as well...

[Calgary14]

My home insurance policy is up 30% this year. I think everyone's policies went up. All due to the flooding last year. I'd shop around but there's really no point as they are all more expensive than last year

[Derek Sutton]

Mine is up July 15 and it went up $400, to almost $1700 after making a hail claim last year, first one ever. AMA who we are with also upped the deductible fro 500 to 1000 and is going with the pro rated roof pay out. We switched to AMA from Wawaneesa two years ago because it went up $100 a year for six straight years. Going to shop around again before renewing.

Not to derail the thread but our trailer (r/v) was written off in the hail claim as part of our house insurance. We bought it back from salvage but do we nee to continue to have insurance on it? As I understand it we cannot make another claim on it, I will have to ask insurance companies about this.

[Minnie]

Originally Posted by Calgary14

My home insurance policy is up 30% this year. I think everyone's policies went up. All due to the flooding last year. I'd shop around but there's really no point as they are all more expensive than last year

We knew the increase was coming - our insurance company mailed out letters a few months ago. They indicated that the increase this year is not due to the flooding but the hail storm the year prior. They also indicated we'll see further increases in the next year and those increases will be because of the flooding.

[Mr.Coffee]

I despise insurance companies. They don't really take their fair share of the battle. They are in the business of risk management yet when something doesn't go their way they just turn around and rape the consumers.

Such BS. I'm ok with rates tied to inflation or higher rates for higher quality coverage but these days it's all about less coverage, more loopholes, higher rates. It doesn't make any sense.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

I despise insurance companies. They don't really take their fair share of the battle. They are in the business of risk management yet when something doesn't go their way they just turn around and rape the consumers.

Such BS. I'm ok with rates tied to inflation or higher rates for higher quality coverage but these days it's all about less coverage, more loopholes, higher rates. It doesn't make any sense.

Insurers are in the business of making money, you know like most companies. They are not in the business of risk management.

During the floods, there were numerous examples of insurers covering damages that were not covered under the policy. A large majority of my in-laws neighbours in High River were covered to some extent for losses that resulted from events that were specifically denied under the policy.

I have no love nor concern for insurers (I actually can't remember the last one that went bankrupt), but to say "they don't take their fair share of the battle.............turn around and rape consumers" is also unfair and appears to be uneducated.

[kevman]

I find the best way to come to peace with insurance companies is realize they're not there to protect you but rather to protect the banks. The banks mandate you get insurance on the property they mortgaged so that in the event of a total loss their asset is protected. Once you realize insurance is nothing more than a monthly fee and you give up all expectation that they'll be of any help when something goes wrong it's easier to make the payment and move on.

Yes I'm cynical...

On a side note, it'd be great if you could opt out of hail damage protection. This new roof every 5 years gig is costing us a fortune!