# finally got around to shopping car and home insurance- saved $1100/yr



## hystat (Jun 18, 2010)

wow our old broker/insurer was ripping us. I kinda knew it but didn't realize how bad. I kept procrastinating on shopping it. 
Partner did the leg work....we went with CAA for car and CIBC for home. 
We ended up with better coverage including adding collision on her car and saved over $1100 annually without having to resort to black boxes in cars or any other modern nonsense.


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## none (Jan 15, 2013)

I like the idea of black boxes so the costs of insurance isn't as disproportionately carried by good drivers.


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## hystat (Jun 18, 2010)

I prefer the Highway Traffic Act instead of some insurance clerk deciding if I accelerated the correct way.


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## NorthKC (Apr 1, 2013)

Wow! That's impressive. I don't like the idea of black boxes although I could see how much they could come in handy in accident prone cities.


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## Ponderling (Mar 1, 2013)

I am on a group plan, and yes, the black box too, on the two cars new enough to talk to them. Wife works for an auto insurer, and their in house coverage does not come close to being a bland (from a risk perspective) engineer. Home insurance is with the same - Personal/DGI. Black box is meant to feed data to your smart phone or check on the web. I check my stats about every 6 months, so obviously the feedback loop is not my strength.

Driving a v8 truck in the city you learn that a virtual egg between the accelerator and your right foot means more to your gas bill than the discount potential the black box discount might be to your insurance premium.


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## AirPro (Mar 31, 2014)

As you've found out, insurance is a business where they prey on procrastinators and the longer you stay the more you pay. Many companies offer you a (dis)loyalty discount for leaving a provider you have been with for a few years. Over subsequent renewals your rates will rise as this bonus is removed until you reach a point in 3-4 years where they are screwing you over and you need to shop around again. I usually blindly renew once if the rates haven't gone up significantly and then start shopping around again the following year.

Good to see you've not fallen into the multi-product discount scam. In ~30 years of purchasing insurance I've only been able to get a better deal a couple of times by bundling home and auto products from a single provider. They seem to have it structured in such a way that you're usually better shopping around for home and auto separately.

I had the black box with Belair for a while. They recalled it after 6 months saying that I'd had it long enough to establish the discount and they didn't need to monitor me any more. I suspect that they're capping the discount below the maximum 25% by recalling the devices. How nice of them.


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