Belairdirect Auto Insurance Reviews

I too had been with Belair for several years and was shocked when I received my renewal which was more than $200 a year more than what I had paid the previous year, in spite of having had no accidents and no claims. The agent explained that this had nothing to do with the calculation of my new premium. I found this absurd and was told that the price hike was due to increased costs and inflation, blah blah blah. I decided to go with a group insurer here in Québec that offered me a similar plan at a much lower price with warm, intelligent people providing the service. The sleaziest bit was a month after I cancelled, 122$ was debited out of my account because of the ''valeur à neuf'' insurance I had agreed to when getting my plan. The agent told me I could cancel it at any time. He didn't tell me that by cancelling early I would be forced to pay the remaining amount on the contract. I had no idea it was a contract. I thought it was just part of my insurance policy. I am a very understanding person, but this company pissed me off.

Beware, rates went up 40% on most vehicles, even with a very limited accident history (fleet). They said they increased 40% overnight one day. BEWARE!!!

After 15 years with the same insurance company, Belair sends me out an application form, says I did not fill it out properly with all the information they have on file (to determine my coverage/deductible/rates) and terminates my vehicle insurance. No, they did not phone me when they received my application to discuss anything, they just sent a termination letter! This has to go on record as the worst customer experience department service ever.

I have had good experiences with BelairDirect in the past when I got into my first accident. Recently, however, my opinion of them changed drastically. I had changed bank accounts where payments were coming out of & let them know of it. For some reason, they could not take the $ out of the new account. After talking to an agent at BelairDirect & trying to figure out if it was something on their end, I had to call my bank. The bank had stated there were no blocks etc on my account. Funny enough I have other pre-authorized payments come out of the same account. I call Belair Direct back to confirm that the bank found nothing wrong with my account. In the end, BelairDirect decided to cancel my policy even though I had updated my information with them. After paying BelairDirect x amount of $ to bring my balance to zero, I had to then look for another insurance company. Here is where it gets stranger. With the crash proof policy, I was under the assumption that it would not affect my insurance in any way. Was so very wrong. Between that, a silly winter ticket ($85 fine) & their inability to take $ out of the new account I had to be classified as a "high risk" driver & find a policy which reflects that. I was screwed over at least twice. Even though I had facts on my side, no one wanted to listen. Avoid BelairDirect like the plague.

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.

I spent 45 minutes on the phone with an agent with what seemed like a very competitive quote. In the end, when we were about to proceed with payment, he said the quote went up from $1200/year to $2700/year!!!! This was because I moved abroad for two years and so was not insured, and they told me I had to start over as a new driver. I have a perfectly clean record for over 10 years with no claims whatsoever. I can't believe they penalize people for having a life. Outrageous. I found another great company that stuck to the $1200 a year and even they couldn't believe it when I told them!

I was just trying to renew my car insurance with this company, last year was $257.00, they just quoted me for the coming year $868.00, same coverage, no accidents !!!! Increase of over 300percent! Why would anyone want to deal with this company?

Very expensive!! Not at all worth it. Auto merit is a joke. So much for grey power.

Anyone thinking of obtaining their policies from this company should really shop around. I use Clicassure on line. They operate with multiple insurance companies. Once you filled out your online forms, you will receive a minimum of three quotes.
I did this and discovered that for exactly the same coverage for my car and house, I was saving 1 000$ a year. I was with Belair Direct for 25 years. That means that I gave them 25,000$ of my hard earned money.
Plus when I told them that I was cancelling my policies with them, they told me that there was a service charge for doing this.
NEVER AGAIN. I told my wife that there was reason for their constant TV advertising. If a company does good business, their advertising is done by word of mouth.....

They make it seem like the Automerit program is a technological breakthrough but it's just a dumb device that records your speed. The software that analyzes the data determines if your speed increased or decreased quickly within 1 second and penalizes you accordingly. It's such a methodotical approach with absolutely no customization. It's not enough that they treat their customers like numbers... They should open their eyes and realize that drivers brake and accelerate on a daily basis without any risks. The Automerit program is like having a driving instructor looking at a spreadsheet at home and criticizing your driving.