One of the worst Insurance companies I dealt with
by Kev on Aug 18, 2024
1 out of 5 stars
Insurance policy was cancelled without warning and with no attempt to contact me due to “non-payment”. The company has my address, email, and phone number, and yet I did not receive any communication of an issue with the payment at any point. I only found out when I was required to renew my license plate the following year - and Belair expected me to pay an extra $2000 each year because of their screw-up. Save yourself the hassle and go somewhere else.
Rates went up immediately upon renewal. While I love their commercials, they only seem interested in gaining new clients and not retaining old ones. Because rent and groceries are insane - every penny helps these days so I'm not just going to pay an extra $400 a year just "because rates went up" I had no tickets or claims. They would be a great company if they cared about existing customers.
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I was in an accident and they said I would go to a zero star rating and the toral cost to insure would be $285. Then when I went to cancel they told me I would be at a 5 star rating and I have built in accedent forgiveness. They told me the cost of my new car would be about $170. Now that the year is up they said they would charge me $285 to insure my car and that was a 5 star rating. Clearly they are charging a zero star rating price. When I check other car insurance quotes. Someone with a 5 star rating would pay about $158.
I would never recommend belairdirect to anyone looking for insurance. I wanted to cancel my auto renewal which went from $1400 to $2400 a year. But 12:01 on the renewal date was early this morning so they want to charge me $256.00 to cancel a policy I did not renew. Hard to believe that an insurance company we have had for years, no moving violations and no accidents could actually almost double our insurance renewal and then without our consent [or payment] renew it and then have the audacity to change us for a cancellation roughly 12 hours after the effective date. We will be changing our home insurance a week before our due date to ensure we have nothing more to do with them.
I've had auto insurance since 2015. Almost every auto insurer in Canada has contacted me. Unfortunately, I have contacted Belairdirect this year for renewal. I wasted my time thinking Belairdirect was cheap. Belairdirect appears to have no regard for its customers. I believe that these strategies are employed with clients who fail to conduct adequate research and follow-up. I've only had stress since working with them for the reasons listed below.
1. The auto premium was raised by $330 (18.21%): When I spoke with Certified Insurance Agent, I forgot to mention that I had a one-month auto insurance gap; later, they discovered it and raised the premium by $330 (18.21%) from the finalized premium amount with Certified Insurance Agent, which is unjustifiable.
2. Policy coverage and premium details were NOT provided in writing via email: Belair is aware that oral testimony about policy coverage and premiums is inadmissible. As a result, Belair dislikes providing detailed policy coverage and premium information by email in written format, as other insurance agents and brokers do, so that customers have written proof for future reference.
3. Different Premium Amount: After receiving an online auto quote, I spoke with three different Certified Insurance Agents. However, they provided me with a different premium for the same coverages and deductions. I believe that regardless of the number of certified insurance agents involved in the quote, the premium amount for the same coverage and deductions should be the same.
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Was charged extra for insurance. $315 instead of $265. No big deal, called in, and the answer was that I stopped using the driving app... I haven't used the driving app in 10 months. I proceeded to explain that I haven't used the app in 10 months or so and so the $265 rate is the rate without the discount. Nope. Eventually gave up and told them either I'm getting my old rate back plus a credit for the difference or else I'm switching providers. Let's see what happens.
They keep raising their prices each year with no claim on file, even if we lowered our coverage year after year. Less km, cars of lesser value and higher deductibles.
Their Android app is always down, the customer portal has also plenty of technical issues also down from time to time. It took them more than 2 weeks to provide a renewal offer for our house insurance while keeping the access to our file down the whole time.
Made one claim a while back, got refused for small details saying it wasn't covered (while friends with the same issue had it covered with other insurance companies and the same coverage options).
Premiums not up to par anymore, shop elsewhere.
I have been with Belair for 7 years. The first 2 years, my rates were decent and it has continued to increase since that time. No accidents nor tickets. I got my renewal documents and guess what?! My rates were increased despite people driving less because of COVID. I got coverage elsewhere and they are charging me $100/ month less than what Belair was going to charge me. Recommend people to shop elsewhere!
They always put you on hold to find out answers.
Fail to inform you about 'claims free' issues till after you make a claim.
The increase - they told me it would be way less than what they ended up charging me!
Shopped around and they were 45% more than others would charge!
Poor customer service so I am changing insurers!
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Driving in Canada for almost 17 yrs and never met with an accident or had a ticket in all these years. Bel direct asked me to download their App to monitor my driving and close to completion period their mobile app suddenly does not work.
I re-installed and call their technical services but still did not get restored.
For renewal, as expected, they blamed me for not using the app for 3 months and increased my insurance by $33.