| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/5/2006 11:23:25 AM | Interesting experience with auto insurance today - I'm suspecting that the great 'reforms' that took place in NB were a mere smokescreen to something nefarious. Check this out:
In 23 years of driving, I managed to get by with one accident (2005) and one speeding ticket (2004). This caused my insurance rate to go up a bit. Apparently, weather conditions that actually caused the accident were my fault. Fine.
After politely telling my insurance carrier to get lost, I applied for coverage with another company who took the business and then informed me after I'd paid them that they couldn't take my business because I was too big a risk. (BTW-the accident claim was $1051; big risk indeed!). Conveniently, they could offer me coverage for $3800 a year with another insurance company. Naturally, I flipped.
I then got quotes that ranged from $2000 to $5000 per year from a few different companies. Settling on the $2000 offer, I then found out that a past insurer had failed to update my records so my insurance report showed a 7 year gap. I am now losing my marbles.
I proceed to the agency and was fully prepared to lose it completely when my former agent solved the problem for me, then proceeded to ask me a few questions. He explained a lot, made one phone call and I now have a rate of $1400 for auto AND home with a well-respected company.
I thought regulation reform in the province was going to prevent such scenarios from ever occuring but apparently we are still on our own. Makes me really wonder about my provincial tax dollars and the integrity of insurance companies. The bottom line is find an agent who will not only answer your questions, but will tell you the things you don't know enough to ask.
Anyone else have such fun with these guys? | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/5/2006 12:07:51 PM | Insurance companies are becoming public enemy #1, right next to oil companies.
I can understand with all the insurance fraud and insane law suit settlements that they must find ways to recover their losses, but its still way out of control. Since the ridiculous amounts of money won by litigations have sprung up a decade or so ago, we've been feeling the punishment. I don't know if insurance companies are public on the stock market, but if they are then their second objective is to raise profit in order to raise the price of shares, to attract more shareholders, to generate more money.
What bugs me about inusrance companies is that customer service is not important, as you MUST have insurance. They may****r a little to keep you from going to another insurance company, but overall they won't budge. They'll play on people's desperacy for insurance.
Yeah, it sure looks like the province's muscle flexing on insurance was just for show and that we just got fed election promises instead of a solution. Nothing new in a democracy run but capitalism (private sector). Money is power. We, the public, is as powerless as the government and will remain that way.
In your case, you had a few bits of bad luck and errors that added to your whole experience. I'm glad you got something semi decent for a rate. The insurance system needs to be redesigned, and the goverment laws need to back the people up, not the insurers, baring in mind that insurers do need to profit and survive as well. As for our tax dollars, its really sickning that the goverment couldn't properly spend their way out of a wet paper bag.
Its just not gonna happen, and things are progressively getting worse.
Good post and well written too. Keep posting in these forums. | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/5/2006 12:09:05 PM | Wow Patch...I am glad you got it straitened out...big drop in price. You will have to send your agent an appreciation letter ;)
I did not have any problem with the insurance when I got my car. But I was worried before I got it how much it would be. | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/5/2006 12:39:18 PM | I get great rates through the group plan at my work..so I really haven't had a problem with insurance companies.
Glad to hear you got it all worked out tho! | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/5/2006 1:02:18 PM | Don't even get me started on insurance companies.
This past June I was in a car accident which resulted in a complete write off of a brand new car without even one payment on it. I got broadsided by a guy who ran a red light. The police were called as well as the fire department and an ambulance. When they arrived they kept asking me if I needed to go to the hospitol as they feared I hurt my head. The police at that point took it upon them selves to take a statement. My words for my statement was I don't know what happened ( I was in severe shock.) The gentleman, who hit me over heard this an said that I had ran the red light, which I hadn't. There were 3 other people in my car to verify this but were considered biast and could not be considered reliable witnesses. So long story short I was given a ticket, and it was thrown out of court.
Instead of the insurance companies fighting to find who was at fault they declared it 50/50. My insurance has gone from 1200 a year to almost 4800. | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/6/2006 2:31:22 AM | Man, I almost feel sorry for you guys. But then I remember how much I have to pay.:P
My last car I had bought for $900.
Insurance at 19 with driver's ed, 3 full years licensed and insured without so much as a PARKING ticket.
$5100
With these great new reforms and all at the age of 21 i now pay 3200 for the same vehicle, approximate value of which is now likely $300.
They aren't losing money even with all the fraud and scams. They released a financial study a couple years back proving that it was still a billion dollar industry in atlantic canada.
I don't blame the companies, that's what they're out for; money.
I blame the government for not having the balls to call them on it, like every other section of Canada has | |
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cjwc
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Joined: 12/26/2003
Msg: 8 | |
| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/6/2006 5:13:15 PM | What's even more insane is my ex paying 180 a month for a car with a high crash safety rating when she's 32 and driving for 3 years but a friend of mine who's 25 has been driving for maybe 8 months and pays 110 to insure a car that would crumble up like paper mache in a fender bender.
Insurance companies are out to **** us all. Plain and simple. | |
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cjwc
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Joined: 12/26/2003
Msg: 9 | |
| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/6/2006 5:14:36 PM |
Don't even get me started on insurance companies.
This past June I was in a car accident which resulted in a complete write off of a brand new car without even one payment on it. I got broadsided by a guy who ran a red light. The police were called as well as the fire department and an ambulance. When they arrived they kept asking me if I needed to go to the hospitol as they feared I hurt my head. The police at that point took it upon them selves to take a statement. My words for my statement was I don't know what happened ( I was in severe shock.) The gentleman, who hit me over heard this an said that I had ran the red light, which I hadn't. There were 3 other people in my car to verify this but were considered biast and could not be considered reliable witnesses. So long story short I was given a ticket, and it was thrown out of court.
Instead of the insurance companies fighting to find who was at fault they declared it 50/50. My insurance has gone from 1200 a year to almost 4800.
Sue. make a stink, media, everything.
That's not right at all. | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/8/2006 3:39:52 PM | | I have a company truck that i have free use of i sold my car 5 years ago and was in no hurry to replace it i year later i decided to buy another truck to haul my boat with and i called to put insurance on it with the company i had been with for 16 years and had allways been good to deal with i made the mistake of not asking for a qoute just put it on so i could go get the truck. Three days later he called and told me that it would be 4600 for a year because i had not had insurance in the past 6 months and had to start off as a new driver again.After several heated telephone calls i cancelled the policy and was informed that i owed 1100 for the 3 days coverage i told him that he could have it if he would come get it at my home. about i week later he came to the door asking for the money i told him to wait at the door and went to the back door and let my 130 pound rottwieller off his chain and waited for the girl like scream when i went back to the front door he was inside with the door shut.I told him i would give him 200 for payment in full or 1100 if he made it to his car he took the 200 and i put kelso (my dog) away and never herd from him again . I got my insurance in Mcadam for 1200 a year well worth the drive to have an agent that will fight for you not with you | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/10/2006 8:26:40 PM | My investment and insurance accounts are all T****** ********.
I just had to compare $2000+ to $650 and the math was easy.
I blanked that out myself too :) | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/10/2006 8:32:02 PM | Where was that from, I currently pay 123 just for full total coverage on my truck, 500 detectable. Plus I have another 19 dollars a month for apartment coverage. So it works out to 142 dollars a month. I would like to knock my insurance down to around a hundred or so, defiantly make a difference in the bank account.
SilentD
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 4/13/2006 7:26:52 PM | Without a doubt the biggest scam ever invented!
I couldn't believe the prices I was being quoted when I moved back to NB 3 years ago. I moved here from just outside of Toronto where I was paying $1200 a year. I moved here and I was being quoted anywhere between $2000-$2800 for car insurance alone. (I did have one speeding ticket)
$1200 to insure me in ONT and drive 40km on the 401 everyday vs $2800 to drive the 8km to work here!
Luckily my company gets a group rate with the Personal or I'd be screwed.
Paying around $140/mo for car and house...and I still think that's too high!
Laughed after 911 happened my insurance company sent me a notice stating that in the event of a terrorist attack that hit my neighbors, if my place caught on fire - I wasn't covered......if they attacked me directly that's ok I'm covered! Whew! That was close! | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 2/28/2008 6:06:43 AM | I've just been reading a book (written by an American, a professor at MIT) which, in part, described how Canada, led in this fight by Tommy Douglas, broke the stranglehold the insurance companies had on the health industry, thus creating a medical system that's concerned with health care instead of profits. He wrote about how American insurance companies still prevent any similar system rising up in the US. The main way they do it, of course, is with money.
What was done here with health insurance would work with auto insurance, too. So far, though, no province has been willing to be first in line on that fight, as Saskatchewan was before. In this one - and all other forms of insurance, for that matter - corporate profits still have a higher priority for our governments than public service. | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 2/29/2008 11:21:40 PM | sorry but i like them
when i was 16 i had a nice car stero worth around $3000 got broke into and stolen, replaced everything at full value. same thing when i was 17.
i like knowing that if i were to crash into a enzo i dont have to spend the rest of my life trying to pay that guy back.
its pretty simple dont claim if its just $1000 not that much money why jack up your rates? they have to jack them up 2 cause ho wmany people cant drive? | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 3/1/2008 5:08:13 AM | as you say , smakem.. that was when you were 16-17. Your profile says you are 23..
There have been some serious changes in how insurance companies work in the last several years.
Not claiming isn't always the answer either. Some companies count all accidents even if there is no claim filed. If there was a police report, some insurance companies receive notice on a daily basis and even if you don't file a claim, they charge an accident to your driving record. They have been known to increase rates mid-policy term, or cancel outright, even if there was no claim made.
My sister-in-law is an Underwriter with a major National Insurance Carrier, and she checks the police reports every day to see if any of their "Insureds" have been involved in any accidents,whether reported to them or not and claimed or unclaimed. That is part of her job. According to her, that is standard policy at most National companies.
In 32 years of driving I had 1 "at fault accident". When I became separated, my "ex" took the car and my name was removed from the insurance policy for my protection. He has a history of DUI offenses and if my name was on the policy, I could be held liable should he injure anyone and they chose to sue for an amount above the policy coverage.
Long story short...
Now that I have not been listed on a policy for over 6 months it will cost me $4800 for insurance.....and that is not even considering a new car. Even with 32 years driving experience, I am considered to be a higher risk than a new driver, 16 years old, because I had 1 accident in my driving history and no recent policy.
What are the chances that I will ever own a car again in New Brunswick?...slim to none... unless I buy one I can live in because the insurance payments will be more than my mortgage payments. | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 3/1/2008 8:19:30 AM | We should keep in mind that smakemhard's experience is only one isolated incident. The issue I was raising wasn't whether the current system occasionally works for a few people, it was whether shutting out the private companies and switching to a public system can provide better service at lower cost. Medicare proves that it can - and the only doubts cast on this are raised by the private companies' advertising. That's hardly an unbiased source. Their goal is their own profits; no insurance company cares about you, ever did or ever will.
with 32 years driving experience, I am considered to be a higher risk than a new driver
As usual, Willow raises a great point. There is no possible justification for this; it is one more example (of many) of the insurance industry "fixing" the rules to increase their own profits by screwing their customers.
The entire system is so blatantly unfair.... it makes you so mad, you could almost vote NDP. | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 3/2/2008 3:03:10 PM | im just saying it works both ways......of course your going to hate them its money from your wallet that they are taking.....but on the other hand how nice is it to know that in the event you wreck your car and write off someone else car your not going to have to pay for that out of your wallet.
you have no idea how much cheaper it is here in new brunswick then in alberta (where i am from). | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 3/2/2008 3:49:43 PM |
im just saying it works both ways......
Sure it does... on occasion, for a few people. For most (for everybody, most of the time), it's a one-way expense, and for the companies, it's like a license to print money.
I'm not saying that insurance isn't a good thing; it is. What I'm saying is that the elimination of private insurance companies would benefit all of us. | |
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| Insurance companies - The Root of All Evil
Posted: 3/2/2008 4:52:43 PM |
you have no idea how much cheaper it is here in new brunswick then in alberta (where i am from).
Try comparing the insurance rates for Alberta and New Brunswick taking into consideration the difference is standard and cost of living. I have to laugh at those who keep spouting off about how much things cost in Alberta.... well duh... when starting wages at places like Tim Horton's and Wendy's are in excess of $15 per hour you need to expect to pay more for things.
Welcome to the real world....and as an example of why insurance rates are high... who in their right mind puts a $3000 stereo in a car.... and when it is stolen.. replaces it.. only to have it stolen again....Insurance isn't meant to cover stupid....but it has for years....jmho | |
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