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The Personal Insurance Auto Insurance Reviews

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(191 reviews)
The Personal Insurance
1.6 out of 5 stars:
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Hopeless Insurer

by alanm on Aug 28, 2016
1 out of 5 stars

I was returning a leased car after 3 years on July 25th 2016. On July 10th I emailed The Personal to let them know. They replied telling me I had to phone them with this information!!! I phoned them and was asked what I would be replacing the vehicle with. I said I didn't know yet. That was an issue. The girl told me that once they cancelled the policy all of my good driving record would be eliminated and when I wanted a policy again (even in a week or two) I would have to be insured as a new driver, losing my excellent driving record of no accidents and no tickets in over a million km. I suggested therefore they could stick there Insurance company where the sun doesn't shine. A week later I received a call from the same agent who told me they had reviewed my policy and would like to offer insurance on my replacement vehicle after all, with my good driving benefits in place. I told her I had looked at a vehicle and would advise in a week or so when I had decided to purchase. On July 19 I purchased a minivan in London and arranged to have it certified etc. and pick it up in London when I returned my Smart Car and on the 20th I called The Personal and let them have some details of my change. On the 25th after dropping off the Smart Car I picked up the minivan and called the agent with the specifics. By email I received confirmation of insurance and subsequently a policy in the mail. A month later I received another policy from The Personal for the Smart Car which I no longer had, together with a list of the payments they planned to charge my bank for this policy.
By the way, don't waste your time putting one of those Ajusto devices in your car to save on insurance. They don't work. My Smart car was garaged each winter and when I checked on line it was driving erratically all over Ontario, then when I was advised I had saved 15 or 20% for my safe driving, there were zero savings. When I asked where the savings were I was told they were absorbed into the total price and in fact every year with these 15 or 20% savings my insurance went up by 15 or 20%. Just a bunch of swindlers encouraged by our Ontario Government to cheat the taxpayers. Sadly I have absolutely nothing to say "good" about The Personal.

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I hit a deer.

by Eagle on Mar 24, 2016
1 out of 5 stars

DO NOT GO WITH THIS INSURANCE.
This insurance company is the worst of okay ones.
A deer crossed me December 01, totaled the car. It took them over two weeks to tell me that it was a write off. Initially they only wanted to cover two weeks worth of rental but I spoke to some lady after trying to reach my agent enough times without success and it got extended by one week, I returned the car December 21ish and that's when the policy should have ended according to what they said December 1st.
Then they only offered me about 90% of the market value of the car, I wrote a proper letter with a regression line graph to show what it should be worth, still I didn't even heard if someone read it. Then someone said if I hire my own appraiser I could get a better offer, I looked into it and it wasn't worth it as the cost and risk didn't make it worthwhile, 90% only left me about $700 to pay for the appraiser, and if they said yes I would only regain some $200 after the cost of the appraiser… they play around too. So after I had enough I accepted their offer, now keep in mind during this period of time I tried reaching my agent between 5 and 10 times, only one was successful and only once he called back and i left a message every time with the proper information.
So I got a check around February the 22nd about a week after I accepted their offer.
Now more trouble with these guys as they were committing INSURANCE FRAUD, they were charging me since December 30th every month for a car that was written off, they automatically renewed my policy without asking me and to make it better they jacked it up by $20/month. I’m a pretty busy person so I was hopping they would fix it on their own but after they didn't it took me three calls. The first the agent pointed out there was some “confusion” and that I would be getting back some $3xx.xx dollars to my back account, however their charges up to that point were in excess of $500. So I called the next day and they "couldn't find" my file but I stayed on the line until they did and as turned out, they "couldn't transfer" me to their accounts department. So I called a third time directly to their accounts department. This time they said that I was supposed to call them and cancel because they had no knowledge that I had written off the car... NO KNOWLEDGE!!!
In the end they kept saying that it was my fault for not letting them know the car was written off, and that they had no knowledge in accounting. So in the end they didn't admit to insurance fraud but accepted to deposit the money in whole in two payments, this is what you should expect from these guys, they can't even give you back the money they wrongfully took from your bank account in one payment.
My new insurance offered me $20 off, these guys would have jacked it up $20 - because a deer crossed me.
You might get $5 off/month but the headache is not worth it. I can only image if I had been at fault in a collision with a car. DO NOT GO WITH THIS INSURANCE!!!

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Irresponsible Company

by Dragongrave on Dec 17, 2014
1 out of 5 stars

This is one of the worst companies in existence. When I screw up I pay, when they screw up I still ended up paying.

I had home and auto insurance with them, but somehow the addresses for the two were different and I never got my insurance card. They were sending it next door constantly and I kept calling and saying "I don't have it, I don't have it". None of them looked at THEIR FILES to see that the two unit numbers were different. I got ticketed 2 times for not having my insurance card, but when I confronted them they blamed me for it. How is it MY FAULT that THEIR FILES are incorrect? I guess I should have gone by and inputted my own information. As well someone put a false claim through after they tried to scam money from me for an "accident" and they wanted $2000 out of my pocket, when I told them to drop dead, they filed a claim, when I told the insurance what happened, they put an at fault accident on my record for something where there was NO PAYOUT AND NO DAMAGE. Amazing how I am now treated by the insurance industry like a criminal when I have paid my insurance for 12 years and have never had a pay out against me.

Never use this horrible company, they are rotten. I would give them negative stars if I could. They are one of the most unreliable people and you will be sorry for using their services because they will screw you on purpose.

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Poor service

by Awful on Dec 10, 2019
1 out of 5 stars

I have been with them for years for home and auto, always paid in full and no claims. I called for a quote to add another driver/vehicle. I was on/off hold for more than an hour and finally bluntly told my policy would be cancelled because the driver I was getting the quote on had a previous cancellation for non-payment with another company. I was stunned. What started out as me looking for a simple quote ended in someone with no empathetically telling me my policy was going to be cancelled because of something someone else did. Asked for a manager, was put on hold for another 20 minutes and told no one available. I refused to hang up without speaking to a manager and finally got someone who apologized and offered a solution. However, by then I was enraged. I promptly phoned Allstate and moved my home and auto AND saved $500. Good riddance!

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Frustrating Experience

by cabisset on Aug 25, 2019
1 out of 5 stars

Recently, I moved to a different "zone" that was apparently at a higher risk than what they were willing to insure. I figured that was what insurance was for... but I guess not. When I attempted to make the adjustment to update my address I was contacted by a representative who explained this to me. So despite I have been paying their company for 5 years, I was informed they would no longer insure me. I was also informed I had 10 days to get insurance before they would end my coverage. I was able to get coverage through a different agency for a significant amount less than what I had been paying. It has been 2 cycles now where they have billed me despite my coverage having been cancelled... by them. I contacted them the first time to get a letter indicating their mistake in case my bank required it. They sent this to me, which shows their mistake. Now I have to phone back a second time to correct their error, despite all of this being an issue that they created. Additionally, my payments continued to increase over time, despite I haven't been in any accidents. Needless to say, not overly impressed.

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Rude and Expensive

by KB on Feb 20, 2019
1 out of 5 stars

I have been with The Personal since 2008, (for my 2001 used Cav I was paying $190) I had purchased a new vehicle in 2014 and because I was financing I needed full coverage and replacement coverage. I was paying $200 a month. I thought that was pretty standard, however over this year my insurance went up to $224, which I didn't think anything of because it just came out, but I had to call them in regards to them lowering my insurance. They told me they could go as low as $210 if I got rid of the replacement coverage, so I asked why I got a quote online they were saying much less (I know it is just a quote, however, they were quoting $117 with no discounts). I have never had a claim or accident since I got my licence in 2008, nor have I had any tickets in the last 5 years to warrant my increase in the insurance. The woman on the phone was very rude as I tried to have her explain to me why she can't lower my insurance rate, even with lower coverage. She told me $210 is as low as it'll get for my insurance and good luck finding somewhere else that is lower, and that it wouldn't be smart to cancel. I cancelled my insurance policy with her right then, effective March 1st and she tells me on top of the cancellation charge I will have to pay for March... um, no, I do not. I understand that $210 might be low for some people but I am now with a company who gives me the coverage I need for $90 a month. I would have responded better had the woman on the phone tried to help me and offer me a reason for my payments being so high and why they had increased my payments over the last year for no reason, and if she was willing to work with me for a policy that fit my budget or at least tried to offer me some help. Overall so rude and unhelpful, especially as I have never had to make a claim for anything since I've been with them, you would think having a clean driving record since 2008 when I was 16 my payments could be lowered, and if I was missing something in regards to my driving record, I would have appreciated a reason as to why they couldn't lower it.

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Bad driving record? Your insurance rates can be double the standard insurance rate. Let us help you get the better auto insurance rate without breaking the bank.

The Personal

by The Personal on Feb 16, 2019
1 out of 5 stars

I have been a customer at The Personal insurance company for 4 years. I never had an accident or any kind of tickets and never claimed for anything regarding my vehicle. According to other insurance companies, I am a 6 start driver with 15 years of driving experience. I just noticed that The Personal company decided to increase my monthly payment by 30$ a month for no reason. Signing the renewal is now paperless and I didn't check the email that they sent me last month for renewal or I would never renewed my contact with this company again.

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Suddenly 10% increase...

by Paulgh on Nov 10, 2018
1 out of 5 stars

I've been with the Personal for the last 11 years. No changes in address, no claims, nothing...and suddenly this year JUST a 10% increase in my premium ...of course with some lame reasons...they have to pay claims because there are a lot of distracted drivers on the roads ...and so on...I don't remember me as being a part of the сompany profit and loss sharing... This has to STOP... One star rating is a little too much ..but I cannot put 0 or go in minus...

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Premium jump for no reason

by Schmoze on Sep 6, 2018
2 out of 5 stars

I've had my cars (truck and wife's car), a motorcycle, and my home with them for the past 6 years. Every year you kind of expect a small increase, and they were never more than 1%. However, this year on the renewal, it jumped 11%. No claims and no change to driving records. I ditched for Johnson's insurance. Auto was the same but house ins. was $400 cheaper with better flood coverage even.

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If you have a good driving record in AB, you should pay around $110/month (women - $105/month and men - $113/month). Do you overpay? Get an Alberta car insurance quote to start saving.

Yet another unhappy customer

by Jeff in Calgary on Feb 27, 2018
1 out of 5 stars

I had a Ford F-350 dually truck insured that belonged to my late father and when I purchased a RAM 3500 dually with a box on the back to perform renovations on my new home I decided that switching my insurance to the new truck was the best idea as I really have not driven dads truck a handful of times since insuring it. FIRST they couldn’t “find” the VIN that I provided to them even though it was read directly from the previous owners insurance card and valid Alberta registration (the registry found it in seconds) and now they refuse to insure it as it is “too big” for me and want to pull claim history etc on me to prove that I can drive such a big truck (they still can’t “find“ the VIN) I am a grown man with a clean record and the truck that I pulled insurance from was BIGGER! These guys are ridiculous and truthfully my broker is not much help either, now they have left me high and dry with no insurance and I need this truck on the road. Tomorrow I will be searching for a new broker and insurance company and will take all of my business elsewhere, I will keep one of my 3 vehicles with them so they don’t charge me their extortion tax and come renewal time they can stick their policy where the sun doesn’t shine. Keep up the “good work” and congratulations on having a 1.8 review hopefully with enough real reviews from actual customers it will go down further to offset the 5 stars that I am sure are FAKE

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