Home Insurance - any suggestions on who to use or who to stay far far far away from?

[Cappy]

Question to any insuro-philes out there.

I recently purchased a significant piece of art for my home. Should I add it as a rider, or advise of the piece and value, or is it fine to cover it under regular content insurance (so long as i have the receipts to back it up

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by Cappy

Question to any insuro-philes out there.

I recently purchased a significant piece of art for my home. Should I add it as a rider, or advise of the piece and value, or is it fine to cover it under regular content insurance (so long as i have the receipts to back it up

Only way is for you to provide your address and when you will next be out of town. An alarm can often result in a discount. Just provide the code to verify. A ... 'friend'... will be by to do a very professional appraisal.

[Huntingwhale]

Everytime this topic comes up, 99% of the time it's TD that is the culprit. Can't believe people still use them. I have been preaching about Intact recently. Last year switched over from Aviva to Intact with my broker and saved $600 combined. That is with 2 claims on my file since 2019. I just laugh when I hear people tell horror stories about TD. How anyone can stick with them blows my mind. They were my very first insurance company I ever used back in the early 00s and they were #### back then and are #### now.

[Titan2]

Did any of you use insurance quote sites or just contact each company individually?

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Titan2

Did any of you use insurance quote sites or just contact each company individually?

You end up having to phone and go over all the same stuff in way more detail and it’s different numbers than the website. I think they make it partially a pain in the arse to stop people from doing it all the time.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Everytime this topic comes up, 99% of the time it's TD that is the culprit. Can't believe people still use them. I have been preaching about Intact recently. Last year switched over from Aviva to Intact with my broker and saved $600 combined. That is with 2 claims on my file since 2019. I just laugh when I hear people tell horror stories about TD. How anyone can stick with them blows my mind. They were my very first insurance company I ever used back in the early 00s and they were #### back then and are #### now.

If you (or anyone) has a broker they'd recommend I'd love a PM with details. Got my TD renewal last week and its a BOHICA...

[Language]

Similar boat - with TD. Auto insurance for home and auto has been going up steadily each year, which isn’t surprising. For a while, TD was actually cheaper than others as I was getting a pretty good discount based on my professional association. This year, home renewal came in with a 52% increase.

I called and they said there was nothing they can do, so starting to shop around. BelAir was the cheapest I was able to find, so will likely move over to them. It is a pain in the arse though to be going through each provider and getting quotes, but the nature of the game I suppose.


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[DFO]

Anybody deal with AMA insurance? Currently with TD but looking to get quotes from some other providers.

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

If you (or anyone) has a broker they'd recommend I'd love a PM with details. Got my TD renewal last week and its a BOHICA...

I don't know what BOHICA is but suspect it's the same reaction I had to my TD renewal... hence why I restarted this thread.

I spend a couple hours going through a bunch of insurance websites trying to get an online idea and it was mostly a waste of time. Almost all of them came in HIGHER than TD using their online tool. Oddly enough TD had the best website for getting a detailed online number. Am combining house/vehicles.

As for why I stuck w/ TD for so long... other than laziness... they did quickly settle several good size claims quickly and relatively painlessly which included multiple vehicle stuffs and home stuff (hail).

SOOO... if anyone has an excellent person at Belair or Wawanesa or wherever you think it's awesome PM me.

[Dynamic]

Frustrating how insurance in general has just became a game of musical chairs. My parents were with the same provider for as long as I could remember. Rates were dirt cheap. Never any huge out of the blue increases.

Now it’s just a hellscape. You might get a couple years before your provider tries to bend you over. Then you got to shop around, get a lower rate, then just keep doing that for eternity.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by RichieRich

I don't know what BOHICA is but suspect it's the same reaction I had to my TD renewal... hence why I restarted this thread.

I spend a couple hours going through a bunch of insurance websites trying to get an online idea and it was mostly a waste of time. Almost all of them came in HIGHER than TD using their online tool. Oddly enough TD had the best website for getting a detailed online number. Am combining house/vehicles.

As for why I stuck w/ TD for so long... other than laziness... they did quickly settle several good size claims quickly and relatively painlessly which included multiple vehicle stuffs and home stuff (hail).

SOOO... if anyone has an excellent person at Belair or Wawanesa or wherever you think it's awesome PM me.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/BOHICA

[calgarygringo]

I was in insurance up to a few years ago though not a broker but on the training side and created a lot on things mentioned plus sat on many meetings and lunches and learned a lot. Here are a few tips.
Always talk to a live broker to get the best prices. Online only gets you started and to get your real price a human will call you back with real numbers. These online guys are just extensions of the large companies so be careful who you trash as it may actually be one you do not want.
They need to ask many questions for you to get correct coverages, pricing and "Discounts". There are screens full of questions they are "supposed" to ask. Some are cover or not related but many will get you extra discounts. 5% over several upgrades can save you a bunch of $$$ by the end. Even where you went to college can get a discount with many. Always ask in case your broker is lazy.
Bundling will always save as well.
For those that live in hail or flooding prone areas postal codes are flagged and you will pay higher rates on where you live. This applies to thefts, breakins, accidents etc too.
These are just a few things that come up quickly and apply to cars and property. And as always if you have a claims record you pay even more.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by WideReceiver

We moved home and auto to Bélair Direct. Saved $850 a year and customer service is better.

As with other TD insurance customers in this thread, my rates have risen considerably and I'm shopping around. Belair Direct quotes for auto and house are considerably lower but I'm pretty worried about the incredibly low ratings and horror stories for their Calgary claims center. Sounds like they may be understaffed as a lot of people say it's really difficult to get service from them when you have a claim.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Everytime this topic comes up, 99% of the time it's TD that is the culprit. Can't believe people still use them. I have been preaching about Intact recently. Last year switched over from Aviva to Intact with my broker and saved $600 combined. That is with 2 claims on my file since 2019. I just laugh when I hear people tell horror stories about TD. How anyone can stick with them blows my mind. They were my very first insurance company I ever used back in the early 00s and they were #### back then and are #### now.

We've been with TD Melloche for years. Every year it goes up, every year we call and have them remove some BS policy change that was added and the increase is much more manageable. We've shopped around (been a year or two now) and nobody else was any better so we stayed. The one thing I will say is they have been fantastic any time we have had a claim (vehicle or home). Never an issue with them while we hear horror stories from friends/coworkers/CP'ers who were with another provider.

[photon]

The past few claims we had with TD were terrible service so cost wasn't the only reason I switched away from them.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Lubicon

We've been with TD Melloche for years. Every year it goes up, every year we call and have them remove some BS policy change that was added and the increase is much more manageable. We've shopped around (been a year or two now) and nobody else was any better so we stayed. The one thing I will say is they have been fantastic any time we have had a claim (vehicle or home). Never an issue with them while we hear horror stories from friends/coworkers/CP'ers who were with another provider.

Literally identical experience for me as well.

I was even able to get them to pay out in under 6 weeks after the hailstorm last year so I could have my solar panels installed immediately after the new roof went in.

Auto claims have been great as well; when some ####### backed into me at a light (really) about 5 years ago, and then tried to claim I hit him, they happily brought my dashcam footage to the table and I didn't pay a cent.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by photon

The past few claims we had with TD were terrible service so cost wasn't the only reason I switched away from them.

Same here. Our house hail claim was an absolute nightmare. I got to the point of having PTSD when I would see their ID on my phone when they called.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by photon

The past few claims we had with TD were terrible service so cost wasn't the only reason I switched away from them.

I made one claim in the 9 years we've been with TD, and they declined it for an absolutely absurd reason. It was only $1500 after the deductible so it didn't seem worth suing them. I still think its likely that the person they sent screwed me. This was during the mask mandates for public spaces in the pandemic, and she asked if I minded if she didn't wear one. So I asked if she was vaccinated, and when the answer was no requested she wear one. Attitude got pretty frosty after that.

Anyway, my latest TD renewal was a combined $8500 for auto/home policies. Got a quote from The Personal today at $4100. I did remove collision and comprehensive from our older vehicle this year, so to make it apples-to-apples the TD quote would have been down to ~$8100 or so. Still about double.

[woob]

We've been with TD for quite awhile and always had great claim experiences. That being said, I still want to shop around. Any good brokers out there?

[Mathgod]

Got a call from our home insurance company saying that it is required that we replace our roof by next year. They didn't say anything other than that. This is very confusing, as our roof is just fine and has no problems. We have no plans of replacing our roof, as our current one is just fine, and it's expensive to replace it.

What should we do? We tried asking for more details, and they just said it's a message from the underwriter. Was hoping not to switch companies, but will do it if they keep insisting on this roof replacement thing.

Did anyone else get similar messages from their insurance company?