Canadian Direct Insurance Auto Insurance Reviews

I recently received a notice in the mail that Canadian Direct is merging with Belair Insurance as of 2017 coverages. Doing a bit of research on Belair does NOT give me hope that this will be beneficial to customers. Belair seems to have a very spotty reputation when it comes to rate changes - as in 'increases'.

Canadian Direct was okay for rates until I needed them for a small collision repair. Then they took a back seat to any decision on fault for accident - and allowed ICBC to make the full decision even though ICBC didn't have photos of the damage - just 'he said she said' reports.

I'm seriously looking for an alternative optional coverage company since Belair is coming onto the scene.

I have used this insurance for past 10+ years in Alberta without too big an issue however for the recent two years their services have come down drastically, the agents' poor knowledge on their own rules are appalling. One of my four policies with them was screwed up so badly and they cancelled my policy by mistake and without informing me - we drove without a valid insurance. When I found out and challenged them, they simply stated it was an error, and reinstated my policy on the same day, then charged my credit card. The other times, one agent quoted me the premium and charged my credit card, but merely 20 days later another agent called me and said I needed to pay extra $1050 because they had calculation error. Now Belair Insurance has taken over this company, it is a total mess now during the transition - they could not even tell me what my policies are!

I called their customer services trying to complain, they put me on hold for 30 minutes. I hang up and came here to complain. If they don’t care about their own customers, perhaps it is time for customers to dump them.

I didn't have any problems with Canadian Direct Insurance until I tried to pay my premiums up for the whole year instead of monthly debit, I gave my payment details over the phone and they just never took the payment, so I followed it up and then took the wrong amount and cancelled one of our policies in the mean time. I had wrong information from almost every person I spoke to and the last time I spoke to them one lady said that they are going to start monthly debits again and she transferred me to another lady who said they wouldn't debit my account ?!?! They acknowledged fault the whole way and when I asked if there would be any recompense for all the mistakes or if this is just how they treat their customers they said they would get back to me and never did, SHOCKING customer service! Their cheaper premiums are not worth the hassle!!

The other insurance company said it was my fault, according to their client. An adjuster never looked at my car, my side of the event weren't taken seriously or checked in any way.
The repair shop was given a very limited time and funds to make the repairs (both driver and passenger doors had to be replaced).
Had a monumental struggle to get CDI to pay for a rental even though I had insurance to cover that.
Now I'm stuck because the accident was settled at 50/50, and my rates have nearly doubled - if I go to another insurance co. CDI maintained my rate, but I can't get that anywhere else due to this accident -which occurred because the other driver didn't check rear view mirror or shoulder check.

It is true when they say you get what you pay for. Canadian Direct Insurance cancelled my policy when I applied to add my son to my policy, as I was disabled by a fall off a roof, and had to be driven to physio a couple days a month.
They refused to add my son to my policy because of his driving record (he had made a claim with ICBC and had a speeding ticket) but also felt that they should also cancel my policy because my son has a drivers license and lives in the same household, basically accusing me of allowing him to drive even though he was refused coverage. If I would allow my son to drive without insurance I would not have bothered trying to get coverage. Canadian Direct is cheaper than ICBC but you better not have a claim.

I went with them because they were the cheapest, but not by much. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.

I got auto insurance from them a year ago, and made the unfortunate decision to pay by credit card. Apparently, if you elect to do this they will not renew your policy automatically the next year, even though the credit card is still good. I was unaware of this factoid, but more importantly I was not told this, and I know I wasn't because when I do renegotiate insurance of any kind I keep detailed notes in a word document. To be fair, I did receive an e-mail 2 days before my insurance was due to expire, but I didn't read it carefully assuming that it was the typical friendly notice that it's coming due, and that if I did nothing it would continue...like it has for the past 28 years I've been driving! I ignored it, which was my fault but...they CANCELLED my insurance without telling me! I was eventually informed 2 weeks later via a snail-mail letter that I've been without insurance for the entire time. No phone call, no further e-mail, and if I had been in an accident or even pulled over it would have been at least a 10K fine!

Some of the above is attributable to me in part, though I think it should be illegal to cancel auto insurance without telling a customer, given the legal ramifications in Alberta. However, trying to regain the insurance was a nightmare. I called 7 times, was place on hold repeatedly for unreasonably long periods of time, tried to use their callback feature twice and actually spoke to no less than 4 people, of which only one was helpful (he was awesome). All others passed the buck and stated that it wasn't their department, and couldn't (wouldn't) help. The bottom line is this: customer service is absolutely horrible for the most part. I feel they are understaffed and undertrained. God help you if you actually need some help with something more pressing, like an accident claim. After two days of trying, I gave up and went with a competing insurance provider...no wait time and much, much easier.

The adjuster tried to put me at 100% fault when the official police report stated clearly that it was not my fault at all. Once the police report came in, the adjuster tried to blame me for 50% at fault simply because I was driving. My lawyer said otherwise and they agreed that I was not at fault but I have to pay for deductible. After all that back and forth, they denied my claim because the time for claimed expired while I had told them I needed more time. They switched adjuster and proceed to ignore my request for extension until time ran out. And, that is 100% true.
I don't feel like this insurance company is working for the interest of their client. It's better to pay a bit more for the local insurance so you can talk to the adjuster in person. This is a most valuable aspect of buying insurance that we often ignore. Avoid, online and/or remote insurance companies like Canadian Direct Insurance.