Belairdirect Auto Insurance Reviews

I have several cars insured with Belairdirect. I just received an email from them stating "After careful review of the policy mentioned above and based on new information, the following modifications will be made to the policy as of the effective date indicated above: Increasing your comprehensive deductible from $200 to $1000. Your revised policy will follow shortly." I've never had an issue Canadian Direct (their predecessor) for approx 30 years. With this particular vehicle we've had two claims in 10 years. The claims were 1 windshield replacement and last year the back window blew out when I was replacing a hatch strut. Needless to say with this type of customer service attitude they will be losing my business on all my vehicles. I'll also share this on social media.

We have been a Belair client for years and have never been in an accident. Unfortunately, about 6 weeks ago, we got into our first accident and have had the displeasure of having to go through the Belair claims process. The initial intake process was smooth and relatively painless and the customer service was friendly. That is when things took a terrible turn. After a week and a half, it was determined that the vehicle was a “total loss” meaning it was being written-off and it was determined (wrongfully) by our adjuster that we were “at-fault”, despite the police report stating the opposite (there was an officer on-scene who happened to witness the accident). This is when the nightmare began. First, they rushed to send us an email settlement offer (which we did not receive as it ended up in the junk folder) and terminated our rental vehicle coverage on the same day the settlement was “presented” without notifying us. We learned that the rental car coverage had been terminated 3 days afterwards, only because we called to follow-up on the status of our claim. It was on this call that we were advised that a settlement offer had been made, and had to search through our junk mail to find it. After reviewing the offer it took three emails and three phone calls to our adjuster to FINALLY get a call back on the issue of ‘fault’. Both the police that attended on the scene and at the collision reporting centre agreed that it was the other driver’s fault. However, Belair, when prompted for an explanation, simply said the other driver’s statement was the reason for their determination. Rather than choosing to follow the police report and represent our best interests as their client, they decided to take the other insurance company’s position. We have escalated this to a ‘manager’ and were supposed to get a call back in 24 to 48 hours. We are going on three days now and have yet to receive a call back on this point. With respect to the settlement, the offer was woefully below ‘fair market value’. We have been back and forth over twenty emails now, providing them with comparables for sale in addition to values calculated through both Kelley Blue Book and Canadian Black Book's total loss evaluation tool and have only managed to get them to go from about $2,600 to $3,600 (all comparables are in the $4800-5800 range). We are only asking for $4,600, but they are deciding to dig in their heels over less than $1,000. Finally, I asked them to provide their valuation methodology and comparables. They provided me with a list of 5 "comparables" all of which have between 55,000-65,000 kms more than my vehicle (not to mention one of the vehicles has a manual transmission where ours was an automatic). The moral of this story is that if you are looking for an insurance company that, in the rare instance of an accident which is an understandably very stressful time, will support you and help alleviate some of the stress, do NOT consider Belair as an option. They will add ten times more stress than the initial incident itself and drag out the process and do whatever it takes to pay out as little as possible, hoping that you just give up and accept their low-ball offer out of frustration. Save yourself the stress and aggravation and run as far away from this company as possible. The online reviews do not lie. You are better off paying higher premiums and actually having an insurance company that looks after you and offers superior customer service and a proper payout in the unlikely event of an accident.

I have been driving 30+ years and other than a windshield, I've never made a claim - ever. I have been with Belair for about 3 years. Walking back to my truck after my son's soccer game this week, I noticed someone had taken out my sideview mirror (2017 Toyota Tundra truck). On Monday I called Belair, they gave me a claim number, told me where to take my truck (they would forward my information) and away we go. The total estimate (after part and labour) was $290 and my deductible was $300 so I emailed the rep from Belair to say I would pay for it all myself. (Now it gets weird). 2 days later they phone me and tell me I have to get a claim number from ICBC and send them (Belair) a copy of a police report. They then say since I don't have extended coverage through ICBC the deductible is $750, but they are willing to pay their $300 deductible as part of that, so I would only have to pay $450. I asked the rep why I would go file a police report, get a new claim number from ICBC, scan it all and send it to them, then pay them $450? My quote (for everything) was $290) His answer was that he had begun to work on my file and that "the wheels were in motion" and that I should "follow through until the end." Otherwise, I'm not acting in good faith. What??? Also, I had to go through ICBC because they did not really cover the "hit and run" of a parked car in the traditional way - they work with ICBC. None and I mean none of what they were saying made sense! This was a 30-minute phone call that bordered on harassment! I will tell this story to everyone I know as this goes well beyond the lines of bizarre!

People, please shop for cheaper insurance quotes, Belair's commercials are a joke. I was a client for many years waiting for 2 at-fault accidents to drop off my record. I was so excited to renew my coverage then at renewal time I received a letter from Belair stating: congratulations, your insurance record is finally clear. But instead of lowering my very high $8000/yr coverage ... Belair was "kind" enough to inform me that they won't be raising my rates at this time. It was like a punch in the face. I immediately called to cancel Belair and got insurance quotes up to 60% cheaper from many other companies. Moral of the story...Please shop around and stay away from Belair Insurance.

First, they wanted to update our claims history (there were none) and our points (again none), then because we had a windshield claim, they downgraded our glass coverage. We had ONE glass claim and they downgraded our coverage because "there have been a lot of claims in your postal code". What tripe. Bye bye Belair, I hope you go broke!

So I'm going to be frank here, hoping someone would learn from my experience. I signed up after shopping around, and they offered the best price, so I'll give them that, they offered a great deal! Annually I got quoted for 1560, since I paid the entire amount, I actually paid 1540! GREAT! Now here is when the trouble starts. 1) the person who set me up made a mistake, apparently. He included a loyalty discount because I was with my previous company for 3 years. I informed him I was with RBC for 3 years, then moved to TD for the past year - he informed me, "No worries, I'll consider the higher years" - WOW, AWESOME, or so I thought. (April 10) 2) April 13, I get a call with the following: "Oh, so sorry, we can't include the discount since the more recent company is only 1 year" - I argue, well, your agent, he'll consider the 3 years. But meh, 5% increase, 100$, WHATEVER! 3) I get another call, "Oh, we discovered your mom is also a co-owner, we require to show her proof of insurance, and your letter of experience, if you can prove that your mom has her own insurance, it won't impact your rate". FANTASTIC! Both documents provided. 4) On April 17, I receive an email, "We made multiple attempts to contact you, please call Belair", on Apr 17, Belair successfully reached me, and requested a letter of experience to prove that the 2 claims are under my mom and not myself - that was provided. 5) On May 22, I receive a letter, "You owe us 755$ because we backdated your insurance to include your mom since she is a co-owner, and we felt that she is a high risk". I wasn't even aware that my policy was changed or updated. 6) Talked to a supervisor, who ensured that if I get my mom out of my ownership, then it'll be easier to start a new policy with only my name. So on May 27, went to service Ontario, got the ownership updated, had to replace my tires, do safety test, total of 600$ expense to get her out of my ownership. Jun 4 I get a new ownership, provide it to Belair, and started talking about new policy. The new policy was 300$ more expensive than the original policy, because the system generates new numbers and now I don't qualify for even 1 year loyalty, because my previous policy was only for 1 month... I decided to cancel. Only at that point did customer service decide to get everything resolved. I talked to her for good 3 hours, and I got nowhere! So, on April 17, they sent me "We were trying to reach you", and they reached me, but apparently it was a different department who reached me, customer service vs agent, and I was supposed to still call Belairdirect even though they were able to call me and request the letter of experience which was provided. They also sent me an email requesting to be contacted on Apr 17, and I responded to their agent. The agent failed to check and see that they need to inform me about the backdating. So from April 17 - May 22 there was no contact, and I was under the assumption that I'm paying 1540, and not aware they increased my policy because my mom (co-owner) was included in my policy, and they decided to increase the price without communication. Even though multiple agents confirmed "If mom has her own insurance, it will NOT impact yours". So let's do some math: I paid 1540/ 12 months= 128.33$ a month. New rate (wasn't aware of, nor approved, nor agreed too) was set up on April 13, and I communicated with Belair on Apr 17, and they "forgot" to mention the increase because it's a different department (advice: ask if the call comes, if the person is customer service, or agent, and continue calling to ensure that your policy hasn't changed, and they didn't backdate your policy and overwrote what YOU agreed too), back to math: (1540+755)/2 = 190, so when I canceled, they charged me the 190 + 5$ since the month is 31 day and not 30 days. So I paid them extra 70$ because they added 755 without my knowledge. On top of that, I paid 600$ to get mom out of my ownership, and they gave me a higher rate 1 month after. I should have stuck with 1540+755 with mom on policy, would have been cheaper. My experience with customer service was good - the people tried their best to resolve the issue, BUT the underwriting department doesn't know what the heck they are doing, each person makes their own rules, and each person gives you a different answer, you qualify for 5% royalty, no, you don't , your mom won't impact you if she has her own insurance, no, it will increase your rate by 755. We will communicate with you to inform you about any update, oops, the person forgot to mention this detail. Belair department don't communicate with each other, so if someone calls, you should call again and again and again to make sure all the departments are satisfied. Best part was when customer service agent asked me to log in to my customer service profile online, and I was never aware I had a profile to check. From my wonderful experience detailed above, I will NEVER ever recommend this company to my worst enemy, I swear I've had panic attacks just dealing with them, and update all the documentations that they requested.

1. Was told 3 different dates for adjuster to see my car 2. Was told 3 different dates for car rental coverage (which I paid for and am covered for) 3. Was hung up on 3 times 4. Asked to speak to my claim manager and was told she (Shauna) was in a meeting all day 5. Adjuster didn’t want to fix all damages and scratches 6. Adjuster wanted to cheaply fix damages. All of this is under premium insurance, mind you. They throw technicalities and formalities at you when you aren’t satisfied with the poor service and rude staff members. Every time I called to try to resolve a problem, they would issue a new problem. Nothing but headaches. And they do not hold themselves accountable for what comes out of their staff members mouths. Never ever get insurance from these bum crooks. Worst company ever!!!