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North of London | this will probably end up being long if I describe everything correctly.
Started in August with a bill from my auto insurance for $9
Not much and renewal date was in November
Not much info with statement so contacted agent
Now I should explain about 10 years ago my agent retired and since then I have had a different agent almost every year.
Reason for increased billing was because they took my wife's name off the insurance since she died in March
??? 2 vehicles with 2 drivers cost less than 2 vehicles with 1 driver, explain that to me
Well agent said it was because my wife was listed as main driver and she had a license longer than me???????
More questions since I was 2 years older than her and got my license days after turning 16 PLUS I knew that she did not get her license until she was 18
This is going on through email so dragged on for a few days but agent finally phoned me and explained it is the way the insurance works even though the paper says discounts applied for length of being licensed until 30 years of licensing.
The date they had for me still gave me 40 years driving experience.
Much discussion and several more messages and phone calls and they apparently could check provincial records which say my license happened first 25 some years after I got one.
Eventually they agreed there must be a mistake and gave me credit for having a license at the correct date
Oh you still need to pay the $9 because insurance costs more with only 1 driver instead of 2????????
After a couple more discussions where I tried to get them to explain that rule and I was getting rather frustrated I suggested they put my wife's name back on the policy and I could guarantee she would never have an accident.
By this time I had asked for quotes from a couple other agents/companies
Suddenly my original company came up with a new quote since they had my correct date of being licensed.
This was a couple hundred $$ less
1 agent with another company was very good at answering my questions including confirming that rates go up when 1 driver instead of 2, she could not explain it but the programs that calculate rates charge more for 1 than for 2 drivers even with 2 vehicles. She said it happens when a divorce happens too.
Her quote came in $5-6 less than original company with a discount for having my fire/wind etc insurance
During discussions with original company someone above my agent had been included in the ongoing email questions and answers and when I question how long I had been paying too much because they had incorrect info in their files the upper level guy sent me a message that they were processing a refund for me for last year so it did not leave a 'bad taste' since by this time they knew I was leaving their company for the other one.
Expect they know my fire insurance will switch when it is due next year too.
So my suggestion is to ask questions and be sure they have correct info in their files and take the time to get another quote every few years at least.
BTW I expect they will take the $9 off my refund if/when they send it to me but as i said when this started that $9 was going to cost them a lot more than that by the time I got answers. | |
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Vehicle insurance
