have the afternoon off, time for beer and.... insurance shopping

"gin-san - shitpost specialist" (gin-san-)
06/19/2020 at 16:50 • Filed to: INSURANCE

UPDATE: I’d say that was an hour wasted, but if anything I’ve got a decent buzz going since I realized I started my second beer without having eaten anything today. Basically, the great price I was seeing initially was great for my auto, but the same company offered a nearly 50% higher rate on my residential insurance which negated any savings. We checked the next best rate but they don’t have accident forgiveness - given the insurance fuckery that goes on in Ontario, I want accident forgiveness since the jump after a claim is far more than paying for many years of accident forgiveness in the first place. All that to say it looks like I’m probably sticking with my current company. Also, the other thing that doesn’t sit well with me is that the really low auto rate comes at the cost of installing one of those OBD2 devices that tracks mileage. Some love the discounts, I personally don’t want it unless it’s a significant discount.

Anyway, I’m gonna continue drinking since I got a good thing going now.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Insurance - everyone needs it, no one wants to pay for it.

I work in insurance so I understand why a lot of things work the way they do and why it’s frustrating for most people. Heck, it still frustrates me sometimes.

I’ve been with my company for several years now and my price has gone up despite a speeding ticket no longer being considered on my record. My condo insurance has gone up quite a bit as well since I’ve started, but typically in Ontario most people are going to be paying far more for auto than home insurance.

Like the job market, you kind of need to look around every once in a while to make sure you’re not being fleeced. Seeing as how jobs are not the greatest thing to look for now, might as well save on insurance.

I started off paying around $1100/yr for my Forte5 SX and that was including a depreciation waiver in case it was written off, but fast forward a few years and despite that waiver no longer being applied and a speeding ticket falling off my record, my price is now $1400/yr. Similarly, my condo was around $170/yr but now it’s $365.

So fuck that shit, found a nice quote online for nearly $300/yr less on auto even though I asked for $1M more in liability coverage than what I currently have.

I got the beer because you never know who you end up with in these call centre situations, some people are experts and some are noobs, but either way I have beer to tide me over.

DISCUSSION (10)

jeepoftheseus > gin-san - shitpost specialist
06/19/2020 at 15:48

Best of luck! What part of the insurance world do you work in? If I were you I would check the top three captive/direct- write/buy online insurance carriers and then sick an independent agency on the rest. That is, assuming that the industry is the same there as it is in the states.

TheRealBicycleBuck > gin-san - shitpost specialist
06/19/2020 at 16:18

I crashed my truck in a moment of stupidity when I was 16. The insurance payout from that accident was more than my premiums for the next 20 years or so. The same holds true for our health insurance coverage. I was nearly bankrupted when we had several health incidents in the family in one year while we were underinsured.

I don’t have a problem with paying for insurance.

gin-san - shitpost specialist > jeepoftheseus
06/19/2020 at 16:38

You know when you call a company and they say, “This call may be monitored and recorded...” I’m the one that’s monitoring or listening to calls to ensure adherence to our guidelines, provide new employee training as well as ongoing training for existing employees.

What you mentioned is basically what I’m doing right now; there is a website here in Canada where you enter your info once and it gets you quotes with many of the insurers in Ontario . Funny thing is, even with employee discounts my employer is nowhere near competitive in terms of pricing compared to what I’ve found online.

gin-san - shitpost specialist > TheRealBicycleBuck
06/19/2020 at 16:48

It’s great that you see the benefits - insurance isn’t great right up until you need it.

Even though I understand why insurance pricing works the way it does, as a consumer it’s still frustrating when I see my rates go up even though I personally didn’t do anything wrong.

TheRealBicycleBuck > gin-san - shitpost specialist
06/19/2020 at 17:07

I was licensed and worked as an agent for a short time. One of my uncles owns an agency and he was encouraging me to join him. Right after I was licensed, there were some big losses due to hail in one part of the state and flooding in another - two of the biggest markets I could reach. The end result was a moratorium on new homeowner’s policies. So, I wrote a few life policies and sold some auto policies, but it just wasn’t a career that I was interested in. If my uncle had brought me on as a new agent in his office and given me some of the business to service (splitting the residuals), I might have stayed. But having to drum up my own business with insurance being my second job... forget it.

The losses in the state led to a big shakeup in rates. Several companies threatened to leave the state if the rates weren’t allowed to go up enough to cover those kinds of widespread losses. The state insurance commission caved and rates went up.

CB > gin-san - shitpost specialist
06/19/2020 at 17:17

I’m thankful we have government insurance as a base here and we can get packages to upgrade our insurance from third parties.

gin-san - shitpost specialist > TheRealBicycleBuck
06/19/2020 at 17:21

It’s those catastrophic occurrences that really fuck things up for everyone. I think when I was first getting licensed an example was made of hurricane Katrina, I think it was State Farm that faces an absurdly high amount of loss from what was one incident.

All things considered, I’m happy with what I do mainly because my contact with clients is very limited, it’s more about what I can teach others about their interactions with clients. Back when I was interacting with clients 100% of the time, I’d say that 98% percent of those interactions were neutral to positive, and 2% were just fucking insane and/or stupid. Anyone who works customer service would probably agree that you’ll remember that 2% much better than you’ll remember the most pleasant of the 98%.

gin-san - shitpost specialist > CB
06/19/2020 at 17:30

Yeah I haven’t heard a much bad about MPI/SGI , but I think ICBC is all kinds of fucked up and BC uses the same (or similar) structure.

My friend who lives in BC says he wishes there was more competition, whereas some of my friends here wish that there was government-run insurance like Saskatchewan or BC. Of course Quebec does their own thing with some weird government/private hybrid.

I like having the choice but I can see how for many it’ll look like an illusion of choice, given what I just went through with my own shopping experience.

CB > gin-san - shitpost specialist
06/19/2020 at 17:33

Pretty much. There is no winning.

He says, having not paid a deductible or taken a hit on his safety rating after an animal strike.

jeepoftheseus > gin-san - shitpost specialist
06/19/2020 at 18:00

Ah I gotcha, I’m a commercial P&C agent myself. That’s gotta be a tough job training folks like that and having to essentially hear customer issues without being able to intervene in the moment. When I first started none of our carriers could compete with the mainstream captives on my truck alone but once I got married and owned more than a truck beds worth of stuff the carriers we rep became a screaming deal. It’s tricky though to have to make the call if it’s worth it or not to give your premium to the same folks that give you your paycheck. If Oppo has taught me anything, it’s that Canadian insurance is not cheap.