Never again
by HM on Nov 8, 2019
1 out of 5 stars
I have had a horrible time with Aviva home and auto insurance.
They didn't explain about policy cancellations fee the kept hidden and the charges me unfairly. I wouldn't recommend this service to anyone.
When RBC Insurance (Aviva General Insurance) sent a general notice that they were raising rates in the area by 14%, my wife and I said fine. We would take it in stride and deal with it, we'd been with them for quite a while, after all. What they didn't bother to tell us was that our credit card on file had expired. Fast forward a month and a half or so (Aug 27th), my wife contacts them to confirm the new rate and finds out the issue. No problem, we update them with a new card, the new payment will be taken, and things will be fine. She gets assurance from the agent on the phone that no NSF fees would be charged, and everything will be fine. Today at 4 pm on Friday, we get a buzz from the mail person saying he has a registered letter that needs signing. Huh? Wasn't expecting anything today... Well, you guessed it, it's from Aviva/RBC insurance, and it's a notice dated Aug 29th that our insurance has been cancelled due to non-payment, and we only have coverage until Sep 16. We now owe an additional $127 and have to pay a $25 NSF Charge. Perplexed, I call the number printed on the top of the letter: 1-800-769-2526, and I get an automated voice offering me a chance for a free cruise for doing a questionaire. I promptly hang up and get the correct number off their website: 1-800-387-4518. Anyway, the agent does the standard security questions, everything is fine, and then informs me that because they had two failed payments, one in July and one in August, our policy automatically moved into cancellation and we have to pay for the remaining two weeks up to Sep 16 and the NSF charge. I ask how to fix the problem, and the only solution is to get reassessed and start a new policy, but we may not get the same rate anymore... I asked why we hadn't been informed sooner and she had no answer. At that point I'd had enough. I'm left to concluded they wanted the payments to fail on purpose so they could reassess us at another rate entirely, not just the 14% increase. They had our contact information all along as evidenced by the rate increase notice, but instead opted to lie by ommission. Really, I think we have to take some responsiblity for dealing with them over the phone, rather than by email where we could have a written record of everything, but no one really expects this kind of behaviour until it happens to them. Do not trust RBC Insurance/Aviva. This is a very greasy company. There are plenty of stories online of their practices against their clients and even their own employees. I guess I should count ourselves lucky we're out of it before something bad acutally happened. RBC Bank proper needs to step in and do something since it's their name getting dragged through the mud.
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We have had a horrible time with Aviva home and auto insurance. We had a leaky room and wanted them to check things out. They did send someone and then we next get a letter in registered mail that we are no longer a client because we opened more than one claim in 5 years. There was no warning or anything. It has been impossible to connect with a representative or agent over the phone (90 min wait times) or in person (at the Young and Bloor branch) to discuss this. The branch had no one actually manning the desk during business hours and when someone showed up, he said that he was short staffed and that he only gets complains all day long. He also said that Aviva does not care about RBC customers. Now leaving Aviva with all of our insurance needs!
Currently on hold for 29 minutes, trying to cancel house insurance after rate more than doubled (and was withdrawn from my account without my approval 3 times). Haven't heard a human voice yet, just suggestions for how I can go online for a quote. The onboarding experience a few years ago was terrible, but I didn't want to go through it again with another. Treated badly enough now to try someone else.
We bought a new home in 2013 and insurance did not come to the new house. We were still paying insurance on the property we no longer own. Worse yet, we did not have insurance on our new home! We only happened to realize this in an unrelated call, their response: 1)my fault for not notifying RBC of the property change (with a mortgage at RBC on both properties) 2)not giving you any of your money back on 5 years of charges to insure a house you don't own (zero responsibility of RBC) 3)we cannot insure your new home because you haven't been insured on it in 5 years months of back and forth, hours on hold and when we finally decide to cancel the kicker 4)your car insurance rate will be going up because you are cancelling your home insurance! I guess my only move is to point this out before I move all of my business away from RBC.
I have to call multiple times with each time at least 45 minutes to get hold of a customer service representative. Why multiple times? Because the first time after waiting 45 mins and managed to get a customer service representative, he directed me to another person and the call ended! So I have to call again and waited another 1 hour. My purpose is to cancel the policy and due to joint names, my husband wasn't beside me, and I have to get him to call again! I strongly think that thing can be improved if you have a dedicated email address to handle for cancellation. This can save both of our time.
WORSE OF THE WORSE! They kept charging us even we sold the property a year ago. When I called to cancel the policy on may 07 2019 they put me on hold for more than 3 hours, worse of the worse!
I had a quote for house insurance. I made it clear that there is knob and tube wiring in the house on the initial call ( which I understand was recorded). Had the insurance for a few months. RBC sent a house inspector to look at the house due to its age. Was surprised to receive a call saying that I had lied to RBC and I was committing fraud. I told them to listen to the original recording but was told he did not have access to it. Was then told that I should cancel the insurance myself rather than have it cancelled for me because it would make me look like a liar and I will find it difficult to get insurance in the future. I did this because I didn't really want further trouble. I also made a complaint about the attitude of this worker. The 'complaints department' also said that they 'do not record all calls' and will not be able to verify my statement. I can understand if they admit that they have made a mistake and say that they will no longer provide coverage for the house. What I cannot accept is being called a liar and a fraud for their mistake. I will never have anything to do with RBC again for anything. They have the worst customer service amongst big banks.
They will decide to terminate your insurance halfway through the year for a bogus reason the underwriter decides to pick in December. They will give you time until the beginning of January to find new insurance. They do not care that it’s Xmas and New Years, they have deemed they have given you enough time to get new insurance. This company has made a brand new homeowner know what to not look for in a home insurance company! They will not work with you at every chance they get.
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I switched to RBC a few years back thinking to save money (at the time I was saving $1,000 per year) but what a mistake... 1-st issue: I had water in my basement, they looked into it and determined it was not covered - I had to pay $25k to fix at my own expense. 2-nd issue: I made a modification to the house and wanted to update my info so I called them and after having wait over 30 min (to talk to their risk manager) she mentioned they are cancelling my policy! Based on the fact that an egress window was not big enough. After arguing that it met the code requirement, she changed her reason to you have a month to month renter in your house. I told her they are willing to sign for 1 year. Then she changed her reason to we actually don't want to insure the house!!! What?! 3-rd issue: She offered me to cancel on my own accord and save the bad record of having an insurance cancel my policy so I did but she needed my wife's consent (joint ownership) so I asked her to wait 10-15 min before calling my wife as I wanted to explain her the situation. Well, immediately after the phone call she phoned my wife, I could not even get through, she was faster than me with speed dial! Will I ever be a customer of RBC insurance? NEVER!