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cheap auto insurance

34K views 33 replies 28 participants last post by  My Own Advisor 
#1 ·
I'm looking for the cheap Auto Insurance.

So far I did a few free online quotes and found BelairDirect to be the chepest and TD Auto Insurance second.

Anybody uses either BelairDirect or TD? Any other cheap auto insurance?
 
#3 ·
Try going to kanetix.ca, they will search about 40 different insurance companies for you and show you the lowest quotes (approximate). If you choose to continue, they will ask more details and then phone you with a more accurate quote. For most of the companies returned you can go to their websites and either buy directly from them, or find a list of brokers and locate one in your area. The companies that I found to usually be cheapest are AXA, Economical, and Pembridge. Note that kanetix does not seem to give an accurate quote from TD, especially if you use TD's Meloche Monnex (requires membership through some sort of alumni or your employer). TD Canada Trust looks very similar but the rates are usually higher than MM.

If you want the best rate, you have to spend some time looking for it. My advice would be to call several local insurance brokers and give them your details. They will run your data through their computers and pull quotes from many insurance companies. The reason I say to call several brokers is because they all have different lists of insurance companies, and sometimes they are the exclusive broker for a particular company. I eventually ended up with a local branch of Morgex Insurance Group (in Alberta), who hooked me up with a pretty sweet deal with an insurance company called Unifund. Plus they faxed me a copy of the insurance certificate the same day I phoned them!

When you combine home and auto insurance with Unifund, they only discount the home policy... the auto was still cheaper than other companies after multi-policy discount, but their home price was $200 higher than what TD MM quoted me. So, I went with Unifund for auto and TD MM for home.
 
#8 ·
I got through TD Meloche Monnex as well for car and home insurance (alumni and professional association membership discounts). I've never really shopped around too much on this one, partly because I know I'm getting a good rate, and partly because so many engineers seem to be with them - and I know engineers to be a thrifty and curious bunch....
 
#9 ·
@Dave,
Been with BelairDirect for awhile. So far, the best quotes. When came up for renewal, did a search and TD Meloche was next best. As mentioned previously, Kanetix will do a search for you based on the info you supply and will spit out the best five or so rates - one stop shopping - but as per usual when you go ahead and call direct, the premiums tend to go up slightly when you are asked to provide more info.
 
#11 ·
Funny how many people here are with TD Meloche. So am I.

When I was shopping for insurance rates for my new SUV, I asked for rates from my broker and from TD (since I am an alumni). I was surprised that for identical policy coverage, TD was over $80 less per month! Not to mention the TD policy had some added bonuses like giving me the cash to buy a brand new SUV should it be stolen within 5 years, $5000 per occurance of roadside assistance (used towards car rental, towing, etc). All in all, I'm very pleased with TD.
 
#13 ·
Recently I was shopping around for cheaper insurance and then my daughter was hit by a car in January when walking across the street. Then I was thankful I hadn't switched yet because dealing with ING Insurance was a great experience. I was able to get the best physio possible due to their status as a premier insurer - no questions asked (well, just a few), all expenses and income replacement was all done in no time flat. So now it's hard to think about switching because good service does count for something, right?
 
#16 ·
I am with BelAir Direct who was the cheapest when I decided to change my auto insurance.

They also let me put the whole annual amount on my credit card so it was nice to collect points and not having to worry about monthly premiums. I plan to do the same when it comes time for renewal.
 
#17 ·
They also let me put the whole annual amount on my credit card so it was nice to collect points and not having to worry about monthly premiums. I plan to do the same when it comes time for renewal.
I've never seen an insurance company that doesn't let you use a credit card to pay a year at a time. I'm sure there's a few companies out there, but it's a fairly standard practice to accept credit cards. I've been collecting cashback or points from my insurance charges ever since my first insurance policy. It's a great way to get 1 - 2% of your insurance fees back!
Not to go too far off topic here, but you can often charge your cell phone, cable, and other recurring bills to your credit card, collecting even more cashback/points.
 
#21 ·
HI,


There are many cheap car insurance are available,if you own a car you need to have car insurance. And if you’re not careful, you can easily end up paying hundreds or thousands of dollars more than you should every single year. That’s why comparing rates from different insurance companies is not only a great idea, but an absolute must for car insurance shoppers.


Thank you...
 
#27 · (Edited)
I had all kinds of trouble dealing with TD M/M. And that was just in renewing my insurance! Hate to think what a claim would have been like. Also had a bad claim experience with The Personal aka Desjardin. Many of these companies are owned by same larger company. It pays to check. For example Grey Power is now Belair and they are in turn owned by Intact. State Farm in Canada is now part of Desjardin. CAA are, as far as I know, still independent.

In checking insurance rates, I found they were all over the map. Lowest was less than 1/3 of highest. For us, Intact and CAA had best prices, I believe. Didn't check Belair. Home insurance did not vary that much, except for TD M/M who insisted our home would cost 50% more than the others to rebuild.

One thing to be aware of, is that cars over 10 yrs old will likely require a safety check when you switch to a new company. That costs just over $100 before any work is done. make sure your lights, wipers, seat belts, tires brakes etc are all good otherwise cost of switching can eliminate any savings. And this will be getting worse in July: http://www.autotrader.ca/newsfeatur...ougher-used-vehicle-safety-standards-in-july/. Once noted on a safety, you have to get things fixed. Shops may take advantage of owners, so go to someone you trust.
 
#33 · (Edited)
Life insurance companies demutualized years ago, Manulife, Sun Life etc and most recently Economical Insurance decided to demutualize (convert to a public company with shares).

There was no regulation or legislation regarding federal property & casualty insurance companies, so the government adopted some last year to allow them to convert.

Part of the conversion process is to allocate the market value of the company to the policyholders, based on premiums, and duration of the policy held.

If someone owns a policy in a mutual company for a long time and changes companies or allows the policy to lapse, they would be no longer entitled to receive the payments if the company converts in the future. The date of eligibility is the date the company directors vote to demutualize, and policies must have been held for the 12 months previous to that date. In Economical's case it was November 3 2015, so if a 20 - 30 -50 year policy lapsed or expired before that date, the policy holder would not receive a payout.

According to the Demutualization Regulations, in the case of the currently proposed demutualization of Economical:

an eligible mutual policyholder is a person who holds an Economical mutual policy if they held it on November 3, 2015
an eligible non-mutual policyholder is
a person who holds an Economical non-mutual policy and has done so for the 12 months ending on November 3, 2015; or
a person who the Board has stated in the Initiating Board Resolution is to qualify as eligible non-mutual policyholders, as described below.


The payouts depend on the market value of the company, number of policy holders, and the premium and duration of their policies in force.

(For Manulife, the payouts were a minimum of $4500........an average of $15,000........and some long term policy holders received $100,000 or more.)

Other federal mutual companies will be watching as Economical progresses through their process. Some may decide to follow the same route in the future.

I am just warning people who hold long term policies with a mutual company, that they may want to research the likelihood the company will convert.


Since the rash of life insurance conversions in the 1999 - 2000 era, there are tens of billions of dollars (estimated $70 Billion) unclaimed by policy holders still held in trust.

People just don't seem to be aware of it.

http://www.demutualization-claims.com/demutualization.htm
 
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