Home Insurance Jump

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

I've been with Lane's for 15+ years. Every single person I recommend to switch off from TD via Lane's has saved a ton of money.

Is Lane's truly independent?

Brokerlink is owned by Intact.

[Bankai]

Currently with TD. Been with them since 2010.

Raised the rates on my new vehicle so much I was shocked. Had a '24 hyundai santa cruz and changed to a '25 bmw x3. Rates went from $1800/year to nearly $3k/year.

No accidents or claims or tickets within the last 10 years.

Shopped around and found everyone else was even higher than that. Am I doing something wrong???

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Bankai

Shopped around and found everyone else was even higher than that. Am I doing something wrong???

I'm sorry to tell you that you're now gonna drive like a BMW driver...and they all think the same with the rates.

[calf]

I'm with TD and the renewal should be coming any day now - have been bracing myself.

My home was built in the late 90s, so still has Poly B plumbing...found out when I was shopping around that there aren't many companies that will insure us as a result other than TD and AMA, whose pricing isn't overly different. Getting that fixed up in the fall (to avoid the headache if a leak happens, mainly) but looking forward to opening up options to save, hopefully!

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Is Lane's truly independent?

Brokerlink is owned by Intact.

Yes I believe so. 2 years ago they moved me from Aviva to Intact. I had 2 claims in the same year on my account from 2 separate collisions (including a write-off). They suggested I move over to Intact and my premium actually went down, even with those 2 claims on my account.

Earlier this year during renewal Intact wanted to raise my premium so I called Lane's and told them I didn't want to pay the new premium and to shop around. They got back to me the next day with the same premium with Intact for $400 less. Simply by calling and saying I didn't like the price.

I've recommended them to every person I know who is under TD. Many have changed and all have saved money.

[chedder]

Originally Posted by Qwerty

My insurance doubled this year with TD. I called Inova (Costco Broker) and they got me insurance for $300 less then I paid the year before. Almost a $1500 savings.



Call around. It took me an hour on the phone to get it all sorted out. Unless you make 1500/hr it's definitely worth your time to make a couple calls.



TD sucks. 19 years Auto with them and 8 years house without a claim and they wouldn't budget at all.

Just be warned, I switched part of my insurance to Inova. They have the worst customer service I've ever experienced. Takes 45 minutes on hold to get through to an agent. Their self serve is almost non existent. They barely give you any information on their online portal. To me, it's not worth the small savings when you can't get hold of anyone when you need. I just tried to add a vehicle and it's been a week and no return call or pink card in the portal.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

I signed on to TD Meloche Monnex a billion years ago when they were still the APEGGA group insurance provider. The Personal took over that status a few years back, but I have not switched as two different quotes showed barely any difference.

That said, my renewal for 2026 came and the premium moved from $402.23 to $770.17 for a single-family home and an attached townhome rental property this month.

Zero claim history on both properties, and slightly more than the 5.28% average increase the media was warning everyone about earlier this year.

This also included some other lovely details such as accelerated roof depreciation and a doubling of our deductible from $2,500 to $5,000.

Just a peach of a product, and so many competing options. LOVE IT.

I guess I'll go back to The Personal one more time but expect similar results and suspect this is just what it costs to insure property now.

Opening thread as a heads up to others and to provide a place for venting rage.

Is that premium per month or per year? If it's year, that's crazy cheap, and I'm super jealous. I pay $2,800 a year for a detatched home and a downtown condo.

Mine doesn't renew until this fall, but I'm expecting it to go up. Prior to the hailstorm last year, I've had zero insurance claims in 15 years.

[flamesrule_kipper34]

I've been with TD Meloche on an alumni deal but even with basically no claims rates are crazy.

Any recommendations on brokers or services? Need to be able to work with someone that can also serve/be licensed for both AB and BC.

Recommendations would be appreciated

[Superflyer]

Jeez, I am with AMA and I am trying to call them to discuss my policy, I called them 30 minutes after they opened and have been on hold for an hour and a half so far because they are experiencing more calls then normal.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by flamesrule_kipper34

I've been with TD Meloche on an alumni deal but even with basically no claims rates are crazy.

Any recommendations on brokers or services? Need to be able to work with someone that can also serve/be licensed for both AB and BC.

Recommendations would be appreciated

The Personal.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

They were awful. They completely boned me. I had them out to look at some hail damage, and decided not to make a claim as the payout was going to be meagre, and I already had recent claims.

It turns out because they payed for someone to come look and quote the damage, that was a "claim" anyway. They never warned me about this, and sent me a letter saying they were dropping me as I had 3 claims within 2 years or whatever the threshold was.

THEN when I went to get new insurance, I had to answer "yes" to the have you ever been dropped by an insurer question, and my rates were thus awful for a few years.

The only good thing is I dropped them for auto insurance out of rage at the same time, and found out the "APEGA discount" was several hundred dollars more per year than anyone else I got quotes from. Good riddance.

Meloche Monnex was horrendous.

How long ago was that? I think Meloche went over to TD in 2005.

Eff TD Insurance.

[Brupal]

I use RBC Private Insurance, and on the rare occasion when my agent doesn’t pick up I can leave a message and get a call back very quickly. Sure there’s probably a premium associated with that, but I definitely don’t experience being on hold for hours waiting for service. Feel free to include them if you’re searching for a new provider anyway.

[LeftWing]

Was with TD on the Alumni deal since ~2005, but after they wanted to raise my house insurance by $2,000 this year (after raising it the last 5 years straight - w/ zero claims) while simultaneously doubling my deductibles, I started asking around about alternatives.

Everyone on my neighbourhood community group was saying that Allstate was the best move so I priced them out. We have 3 drivers (incl. my teenaged son) on two vehicles, a residence, and a rental property (half a duplex). Allstate ended up saving us just shy of $6,000 year over year, for the same or better coverage/deductible (waaaay better on water coverage), except for being $200 deductible higher on auto theft/fire.

So after 20 years we made the switch. I called TD to cancel and told them why we were switching, but the guy barely cared - just told us he was sending a cheque in the mail for the early exit on auto and that I should have a nice day. I don't get TD's model at all right now ("We don't want you, f- off and go somewhere else! Why do people stay here?").

[GGG]

Originally Posted by LeftWing

Was with TD on the Alumni deal since ~2005, but after they wanted to raise my house insurance by $2,000 this year (after raising it the last 5 years straight - w/ zero claims) while simultaneously doubling my deductibles, I started asking around about alternatives.

Everyone on my neighbourhood community group was saying that Allstate was the best move so I priced them out. We have 3 drivers (incl. my teenaged son) on two vehicles, a residence, and a rental property (half a duplex). Allstate ended up saving us just shy of $6,000 year over year, for the same or better coverage/deductible (waaaay better on water coverage), except for being $200 deductible higher on auto theft/fire.

So after 20 years we made the switch. I called TD to cancel and told them why we were switching, but the guy barely cared - just told us he was sending a cheque in the mail for the early exit on auto and that I should have a nice day. I don't get TD's model at all right now ("We don't want you, f- off and go somewhere else! Why do people stay here?").

I suspect they have done the math and have found inertia and high increases and paying to acquire customers is cheaper than keeping existing customers.

APEGA left TD/Meloche in 2019 yet you can see that it’s taken some people 6 years before reaching the pain point where they were convinced to shop around. So by increasing profit per customer you probably are improving your risk vs profit while deferring future customer acquisition cost so the metrics look good.

Over your 20 years how many times did you shop around. For me it’s was once when I got sick of being on hold with TD to discuss an increase so I called the personal and before I was off hold with TD I had signed up for new insurance. So a model of not being competitive to retain existing customers appears to be working.

[Lubicon]

With all this talk of TD Insurance it might be time to look around again, as painful as that is. I too have been with them forever due to the APEGA thing (despite being out of APEGA for many years). We've always been able to combat price increases with adjustments to our coverage, will have to see what this year brings. Two things that have kept us from changing so far. First is the horror stories from others who are with others when making claims. We've had a handful of claims over the hears and they have all been taken care of promptly and flawlessly. The second is on the rare occasions we have shopped around we have found it no better to switch, prices were all comparable.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by LeftWing

Was with TD on the Alumni deal since ~2005, but after they wanted to raise my house insurance by $2,000 this year (after raising it the last 5 years straight - w/ zero claims) while simultaneously doubling my deductibles, I started asking around about alternatives.

Everyone on my neighbourhood community group was saying that Allstate was the best move so I priced them out. We have 3 drivers (incl. my teenaged son) on two vehicles, a residence, and a rental property (half a duplex). Allstate ended up saving us just shy of $6,000 year over year, for the same or better coverage/deductible (waaaay better on water coverage), except for being $200 deductible higher on auto theft/fire.

So after 20 years we made the switch. I called TD to cancel and told them why we were switching, but the guy barely cared - just told us he was sending a cheque in the mail for the early exit on auto and that I should have a nice day. I don't get TD's model at all right now ("We don't want you, f- off and go somewhere else! Why do people stay here?").

They want less exposure to the Alberta market. Jack rates and hope people leave or stay and pay inflated rates.

In a couple years they hope to build up their cash enough to be competitive, but if not I don’t think they will lose sleep.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Weitz

They want less exposure to the Alberta market. Jack rates and hope people leave or stay and pay inflated rates.

In a couple years they hope to build up their cash enough to be competitive, but if not I don’t think they will lose sleep.

I suspect they’re also going to cease covering hail and also stop funding the hail seeders.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I suspect they’re also going to cease covering hail and also stop funding the hail seeders.

TD isn't ceasing hail coverage.

But from what i read on my MIL's renewal, everything on the exterior damaged by hail will now be deprecated.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by LeftWing

So after 20 years we made the switch. I called TD to cancel and told them why we were switching, but the guy barely cared - just told us he was sending a cheque in the mail for the early exit on auto and that I should have a nice day. I don't get TD's model at all right now ("We don't want you, f- off and go somewhere else! Why do people stay here?").

hahahahahahha

glad your experience was the same as mine. Was with them from our first condo purchase, no claims.

[TorqueDog]

My TD Meloche premiums went up on both vehicles for no good reason, but no increase on my tenant insurance (which is already cheap as hell).

Shopping around is commencing.