Friday, March 1, 2013

Don't be content with insurance!

Recently, I received my renewal for my insurance company and noticed my rates went up from last year. I know we moved into a bigger house but car insurance went up also which doesn't add up for me. I am supposed to pay $3017/year for my auto insurance which includes a 2004 Saturn Ion, 2010 GMC Sierra, 2009 Polaris Sportsman 500 & Snow utility trailer to haul the ATV. I thought fuck this and considering I have been with the company for 7+ years, my rates should not be going up. No accidents, tickets or claims so why the increase? I am not going to ask....just cancel!

I started to do my research and found the best way is to do a quote on-line but to really push the quotes lower, you need to call and dedicate about 20 minutes to each call. The on-line quotes gives you a good starting point to see who is offering competitive rates with what you are currently paying. After doing the sites like insurance hunters, insurance hotline and others, it turns out the best rates I found by far are from Belair Direct. I will lay it all out for you in a minute. Basically, I have to use two insurance companies for insurance because Belair Direct doesn't insure ATV's. I do know an agent who does ATV's and his rates are rock bottom. So here is the break down and savings.

The Personal insurance company is offered at a "good" rate for Bell employees which is bullshit. I am scheduled to pay $3017/year for my vehicles which I mentioned above but here is what I am going to pay when I switch on my renewal for April 1st. Belair Direct offered the rate of $2040/year for the Ion, Sierra and trailer. I called the State Farm agent who put me at a rate of $275/year for the ATV only. So by having the two companies and switching I am now paying $2315/year which is a savings of $702/year. I also have Belair give me a quote for home insurance which comes to $52.20/month or $626.40/year. The Personal wants $676.80/year so I am saving $50.40/year.

So overall we will be saving $752.40/year and that makes me happy! Belair Direct is the only company that said they would "love to have me as a customer with my driving record and credit rating". They also did a credit check, which I said yes to, and it turns out on their credit ratings from A-Z this guy gets a B!! This helped to bring the rates down but I am happy with the savings up front and they are calling me back today to set the insurance up for April 1st.

Do yourself a favour and put the pressure on your insurance company so they don't think you aren't looking and comparing because when I saw the rates going up, that was my cue to move on!!

Cheers!!