# cheap auto insurance



## daveking

I'm looking for the cheap Auto Insurance.

So far I did a few free online quotes and found BelairDirect  to be the chepest and TD Auto Insurance second.

Anybody uses either BelairDirect or TD? Any other cheap auto insurance?


----------



## moneygardener

I was surprised when I got a rate from Costco and it was much higher than my current broker who bundles my home and our vehicles.


----------



## Elbyron

Try going to kanetix.ca, they will search about 40 different insurance companies for you and show you the lowest quotes (approximate). If you choose to continue, they will ask more details and then phone you with a more accurate quote. For most of the companies returned you can go to their websites and either buy directly from them, or find a list of brokers and locate one in your area. The companies that I found to usually be cheapest are AXA, Economical, and Pembridge. Note that kanetix does not seem to give an accurate quote from TD, especially if you use TD's Meloche Monnex (requires membership through some sort of alumni or your employer). TD Canada Trust looks very similar but the rates are usually higher than MM.

If you want the best rate, you have to spend some time looking for it. My advice would be to call several local insurance brokers and give them your details. They will run your data through their computers and pull quotes from many insurance companies. The reason I say to call several brokers is because they all have different lists of insurance companies, and sometimes they are the exclusive broker for a particular company. I eventually ended up with a local branch of Morgex Insurance Group (in Alberta), who hooked me up with a pretty sweet deal with an insurance company called Unifund. Plus they faxed me a copy of the insurance certificate the same day I phoned them! 

When you combine home and auto insurance with Unifund, they only discount the home policy... the auto was still cheaper than other companies after multi-policy discount, but their home price was $200 higher than what TD MM quoted me. So, I went with Unifund for auto and TD MM for home.


----------



## rmwaterloo

I use belairdirect and have been happy so far. But, of course, the test is when you actually have to make a claim...and I haven't.


----------



## Financial Highway

I have been with TD's Meloche Monnex for about 8 years or so now, very happy. They provide me great service and cheap rates. I tried BelairDIrect but the price was not much lower so i stuck with TD MM, but I had an accident earlier this year, so i will have to look around again


----------



## cmfAdmin

I switched to TD Meloche Monnex last year and it has saved me a bundle.


----------



## Arcaneind

*The Co-operators*

I've got insurance through the Co-operators. I've had about a half dozen other quotes but nobody has come close. Weird.


----------



## Ben

I got through TD Meloche Monnex as well for car and home insurance (alumni and professional association membership discounts). I've never really shopped around too much on this one, partly because I know I'm getting a good rate, and partly because so many engineers seem to be with them - and I know engineers to be a thrifty and curious bunch....


----------



## moneymagnet

@Dave,
Been with BelairDirect for awhile. So far, the best quotes. When came up for renewal, did a search and TD Meloche was next best. As mentioned previously, Kanetix will do a search for you based on the info you supply and will spit out the best five or so rates - one stop shopping - but as per usual when you go ahead and call direct, the premiums tend to go up slightly when you are asked to provide more info.


----------



## UpNorth

We're with TD Meloche for the car and house. No complaints, great rates.


----------



## OnlineHarvest

Funny how many people here are with TD Meloche. So am I.

When I was shopping for insurance rates for my new SUV, I asked for rates from my broker and from TD (since I am an alumni). I was surprised that for identical policy coverage, TD was over $80 less per month! Not to mention the TD policy had some added bonuses like giving me the cash to buy a brand new SUV should it be stolen within 5 years, $5000 per occurance of roadside assistance (used towards car rental, towing, etc). All in all, I'm very pleased with TD.


----------



## Kathryn

We're with Pc Financial. When I compared it against our plan we were using, for home and auto it was a savings of over $300 a year.


----------



## Hazelnut

Recently I was shopping around for cheaper insurance and then my daughter was hit by a car in January when walking across the street. Then I was thankful I hadn't switched yet because dealing with ING Insurance was a great experience. I was able to get the best physio possible due to their status as a premier insurer - no questions asked (well, just a few), all expenses and income replacement was all done in no time flat. So now it's hard to think about switching because good service does count for something, right?


----------



## GregR

We're with PCFinacial for both auto, home, and toys at the moment but are looking into Meloche Monex after reading this post to see how thier rates are. 

Saving $700 + by switching to PC already, customer service is great but haven't had any claims yet...


https://www.networthiq.com/people/GregR


----------



## Rickson9

daveking said:


> I'm looking for the cheap Auto Insurance.
> 
> So far I did a few free online quotes and found BelairDirect  to be the chepest and TD Auto Insurance second.
> 
> Anybody uses either BelairDirect or TD? Any other cheap auto insurance?


I believe that Scottish and York and PC Financial are inexpensive.


----------



## canabiz

I am with BelAir Direct who was the cheapest when I decided to change my auto insurance.

They also let me put the whole annual amount on my credit card so it was nice to collect points and not having to worry about monthly premiums. I plan to do the same when it comes time for renewal.


----------



## Elbyron

canabiz said:


> They also let me put the whole annual amount on my credit card so it was nice to collect points and not having to worry about monthly premiums. I plan to do the same when it comes time for renewal.


I've never seen an insurance company that doesn't let you use a credit card to pay a year at a time. I'm sure there's a few companies out there, but it's a fairly standard practice to accept credit cards. I've been collecting cashback or points from my insurance charges ever since my first insurance policy. It's a great way to get 1 - 2% of your insurance fees back!
Not to go too far off topic here, but you can often charge your cell phone, cable, and other recurring bills to your credit card, collecting even more cashback/points.


----------



## canabiz

Elbyron said:


> I've never seen an insurance company that doesn't let you use a credit card to pay a year at a time. I'm sure there's a few companies out there, but it's a fairly standard practice to accept credit cards. I've been collecting cashback or points from my insurance charges ever since my first insurance policy. It's a great way to get 1 - 2% of your insurance fees back!
> Not to go too far off topic here, but you can often charge your cell phone, cable, and other recurring bills to your credit card, collecting even more cashback/points.


Elbyron, can you put your gas, hydro, water & sewage and property taxes on credit cards in Alberta ? 

What about life insurance premiums ?

It's not possible here in Ontario although it would be nice to do that.


----------



## blackjacques

*Aviva Elite rules*

I'm with Aviva Elite because of the Autograph program. If you don't mind having a gizmo tracking your driving habits, you can receive between 5 - 25% off every six months.

Rob


----------



## CanadianCapitalist

I've been with Co-operators for almost 10 years but Belair Direct came back with home + auto rates that were almost 20% cheaper this year.


----------



## lingon2

HI,


There are many cheap car insurance are available,if you own a car you need to have car insurance. And if you’re not careful, you can easily end up paying hundreds or thousands of dollars more than you should every single year. That’s why comparing rates from different insurance companies is not only a great idea, but an absolute must for car insurance shoppers.


Thank you...


----------



## Oldroe

Got a quote from Cumis thru my credit union it's $1000 cheaper for what appears to be same coverage. Will check some of those mentioned.


----------



## Oldroe

Cumis is still $200 cheaper than Belair.


----------



## Bailee

Hello everyone, is there any updates about the best and cheapest car insurance of 2015 or 2016, I notice that this thread is interesting but it's old and may be rates have changed since then


----------



## MrMatt

See if you qualify for group insurance.

My I'm trading a 2009 Malibu for a 2016 Golf, and my insurance is going down.


----------



## 97acuratl

TD meloche monnex has steadily increased over the past 4 years to just about double for house insurance! I am starting to look around but am not too ambitious about it.


----------



## agent99

97acuratl said:


> TD meloche monnex has steadily increased over the past 4 years to just about double for house insurance! I am starting to look around but am not too ambitious about it.


I had all kinds of trouble dealing with TD M/M. And that was just in renewing my insurance! Hate to think what a claim would have been like. Also had a bad claim experience with The Personal aka Desjardin. Many of these companies are owned by same larger company. It pays to check. For example Grey Power is now Belair and they are in turn owned by Intact. State Farm in Canada is now part of Desjardin. CAA are, as far as I know, still independent.

In checking insurance rates, I found they were all over the map. Lowest was less than 1/3 of highest. For us, Intact and CAA had best prices, I believe. Didn't check Belair. Home insurance did not vary that much, except for TD M/M who insisted our home would cost 50% more than the others to rebuild.

One thing to be aware of, is that cars over 10 yrs old will likely require a safety check when you switch to a new company. That costs just over $100 before any work is done. make sure your lights, wipers, seat belts, tires brakes etc are all good otherwise cost of switching can eliminate any savings. And this will be getting worse in July: http://www.autotrader.ca/newsfeatur...ougher-used-vehicle-safety-standards-in-july/. Once noted on a safety, you have to get things fixed. Shops may take advantage of owners, so go to someone you trust.


----------



## carverman

canabiz said:


> It's not possible here in Ontario although it would be nice to do that.


I believe you can, but the city charges more for a monthly payment as they have to pay a transaction fee to the CC bank. 
I looked into that a while ago, decided that I didn't want to pay more property tax than I have to, 
and continued with the checking account monthly withdrawal.


----------



## carverman

agent99 said:


> In checking insurance rates, I found they were all over the map. Lowest was less than 1/3 of highest. For us, Intact and CAA had best prices, I believe. Didn't check Belair. Home insurance did not vary that much, except for TD M/M who insisted our home would cost 50% more than the others to rebuild.


I just switched this year after 20 years with the same company/agent. They kept raising their premiums every year even though I have been claims free for the last 20 years and member of a college alumni.
Found another underwriter with the same coverage for $200 less for the total premium, everything else being equal.
The rebuild rates are just their estimate based on square footage, type of construction , and what kind of luxuries are inside..hardwood over carpet, premium kitchens, bathrooms with jacuzzi..etc.


----------



## dotnet_nerd

I used the site www.insurancehunter.ca

For our home/car the best rate was with Economical, so we're switching and saving about $250/yr over Belairdirect. Home insurance is slightly cheaper too for a bit better coverage.


----------



## sags

carverman said:


> I just switched this year after 20 years with the same company/agent. They kept raising their premiums every year even though I have been claims free for the last 20 years and member of a college alumni.
> Found another underwriter with the same coverage for $200 less for the total premium, everything else being equal.
> The rebuild rates are just their estimate based on square footage, type of construction , and what kind of luxuries are inside..hardwood over carpet, premium kitchens, bathrooms with jacuzzi..etc.


I hope you didn't switch from a "mutual" company after 20 years.


----------



## dotnet_nerd

sags said:


> I hope you didn't switch from a "mutual" company after 20 years.


Why not?


----------



## sags

Life insurance companies demutualized years ago, Manulife, Sun Life etc and most recently Economical Insurance decided to demutualize (convert to a public company with shares).

There was no regulation or legislation regarding federal property & casualty insurance companies, so the government adopted some last year to allow them to convert.

Part of the conversion process is to allocate the market value of the company to the policyholders, based on premiums, and duration of the policy held.

If someone owns a policy in a mutual company for a long time and changes companies or allows the policy to lapse, they would be no longer entitled to receive the payments if the company converts in the future. The date of eligibility is the date the company directors vote to demutualize, and policies must have been held for the 12 months previous to that date. In Economical's case it was November 3 2015, so if a 20 - 30 -50 year policy lapsed or expired before that date, the policy holder would not receive a payout.

_According to the Demutualization Regulations, in the case of the currently proposed demutualization of Economical:

an eligible mutual policyholder is a person who holds an Economical mutual policy if they held it on November 3, 2015
an eligible non-mutual policyholder is
a person who holds an Economical non-mutual policy and has done so for the 12 months ending on November 3, 2015; or
a person who the Board has stated in the Initiating Board Resolution is to qualify as eligible non-mutual policyholders, as described below._

The payouts depend on the market value of the company, number of policy holders, and the premium and duration of their policies in force.

(For Manulife, the payouts were a minimum of $4500........an average of $15,000........and some long term policy holders received $100,000 or more.)

*Other federal mutual companies will be watching as Economical progresses through their process. Some may decide to follow the same route in the future.

I am just warning people who hold long term policies with a mutual company, that they may want to research the likelihood the company will convert.*

Since the rash of life insurance conversions in the 1999 - 2000 era, there are tens of billions of dollars (estimated $70 Billion) unclaimed by policy holders still held in trust.

People just don't seem to be aware of it.

http://www.demutualization-claims.com/demutualization.htm


----------



## My Own Advisor

Been happy with Unifund.


----------

