Ontario woman dropped by insurance company after making two claims within five years
https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/consumer-alert/article/ontario-woman-dropped-by-insurance-company-after-making-two-claims-within-five-years/
Ontario woman dropped by insurance company after making two claims within five years
https://www.ctvnews.ca/toronto/consumer-alert/article/ontario-woman-dropped-by-insurance-company-after-making-two-claims-within-five-years/
40 Comments
Only way to fix this is increased regulation, which seems unlikely.
I’m not particularly surprised by this. She’s only been with the insurance company for five years and she’s already submitted at least $22,000 in claims. Given the picture of the downed tree, it’s not really “two claims” in substance, it’s three: the lost hearing aid, the sewer backup, and the downed tree.
That’s a medium non-urban property so she’s probably paying around or slightly less than $2k a year for the policy. Once you start costing an insurance company more than double what you’ve paid in premiums over some rolling period, they’re going to consider not renewing or they’re going to jack your rates. It’s not rocket science.
She still comes out ahead here, she got more in return from the policy than she paid in and the claims weren’t denied, so the insurance fulfilled its financial risk management function. Frustrating to have to find another insurer though, obviously.
Wow are we really pretending this is a special circumstance?
In summary:
Woman properly pays for insurance.
Woman properly uses the insurance.
Insurance company cancels Woman.
Why is this even a news article??
This happened to my neighbor. Two storms caused damage to his house that was obviously storm related. Then his insurance cancelled him.
Years ago I made 3 claims within one year in a rental I owned. I’ve was denied and two approved.
Then TD insurance called and said if I have another claim they’ll cancel my policy.
Yeah house insurance is bit different as there no at fault or not at fault.
So if any claim they pay
For car insurance if u not at fault they get all the money from the other person’s insurance and dont really care as much
You have to have insurance.
But if you use insurance, you will be penalized.
If you use it too much, we’ll refuse to insure you.
Also, if you use insurance, we will try everything we can to not pay out.
Fucking scam artists.
Insurance is just a big transfer of wealth to shareholders.
This shouldn’t be legal. What’s the point in paying for insurance if they’ll drop you for using it? The whole point of insurance is that it’s there when you need it.
Happened to my boss as well after 2 flood claims.
What sucks is you have to have insurance. it’s mandatory to have but you get punished for using it.
I’m not going to say insurance is a scam, but it’s on my list of evil industries. They are a VERY profitable industry and they don’t get those profits by paying out.
It’s kind of like a lottery ticket, some will cash out, but most won’t. I typically carry only the bare minimum required.
Insurance companies are dumb. If they truly want to fuck over the person, they could have charged them more at renewal cause of the number of claims. Instead they cancel them and they get nothing.
Years ago my car insurance got cancelled because I move to the wrong neighborhood. I was a student and it was the only place I could afford. I sold my car to my mom and she insured(I paid) it with me as the primary driver. Now I live in a nice neighborhood and pay way more for insurance and it rises every year.
Also if your insurance cancels you, it is much more expensive when you insure with the next company.
Healthcare, essential medications, and basic insurance should NOT be profit-driven industries. They should be treated as essential services and regulated accordingly.
Especially auto insurance. If the government requires you to have insurance just to legally drive, insurers shouldn’t be able to treat you like a profitable customer until you actually need them, then drop you or jack up your rates because you became expensive.
Let them make money on extras: premium coverage, cosmetic stuff, vehicle-value protection, etc. But mandatory basic coverage should be regulated like an essential service.
Same with healthcare and essential medications. Make money on the luxuries, not on people’s basic needs.
Wishful thinking.
Insurance is the biggest scam.
This happens all the time. This is ‘news’ to who? Insurance companies are snakes and they pull this stuff all the time.
It’s absolutely criminal that something we must have by law in order to get a mortgage, in order to drive, is subject to the slightest whims of the companies that are supposed to protect us in exchange for paying our premiums. So this poor woman gets blacklisted for needing the insurance that she has had to get and has been paying for. Fucking criminal. And they will continue to get away with it.
God damn I love my SGI.
It is truly horrible but most of if not all insurance companies will drop you if you have multiple home claims in 5-7 years. When this happens it also makes it incredibly difficult to get a new insurance company to take you on due to being dropped for too many claims. This customer will be considered high risk and when she does find a company to take her in she will have much higher premiums. Insurance companies suck!
Name the insurer. Thieves do not deserve anonymity.
Insurance is a scam.
If it’s required by law to have insurance then they should have a nonprofit govt agency offering coverage. I think BC does that?
Insurance in Canada is nothing but a scam and govt isn’t interested because they’re just as crooked.
Its-a-me ~~mario~~ the other one!
We should ask MPP to introduce bill to not drop from insurance.
Why is everyone so angry at this? There’s other insurers she can go to who will insure her and will do so at a higher rate. I don’t get the problem here. If all insurers were forced to keep everyone all of our premiums would increase. There are some people who are more risky and some who are not, and there are insurance companies who charge appropriate premiums for each category of risk. Honestly can’t tell if this is a bot brigade or a bunch of non home owners or non drivers.
Insurance is one thing that should definitely remain public.
You can’t have a profit margin on tragedy, it makes no sense. It’s on par with usury.
Making things whole must be done at cost, so it gets done properly.
Try to have auto body work done, no shops want to take your money because they make so much more bilking insurance companies, or deeming it a total loss when it’s actually work so they only get the easier jobs. It’s corrupted the entire industry.
Remember that this is how insurance works when Conservatives come for public healthcare and want to introduce more private care.
When we use EU insurance system?
Insurance like this works in aggregate. Everyone (practically) needs home insurance. They calculate their risk in aggregate. A single claim changes nothing. If insurance companies were this sensitive to a few claims by an individual there wouldn’t be much of a business in insurance. Every individual policy isn’t going to be profitable. This woman might not make another claim for 30 years. They already calculate this risk. There in an entire field that studies this.
I hate that insurance is one of the bigger contributors to GDP you’re not actually producing anything you’re just moving money from people to financial institution
I’m having trouble finding insurances with one accident 7 years ago. My husband also has one accident from 4 years ago and we share a car. I’ve tried to get a quote with a few insurance providers a few times and they won’t take us because it’s two accidents on one policy. Really frustrating, I guess if we got a second car they would insure us.
Currently with TD and they keep increasing our premium every 6 months
This happened to me for my house insurance, a flood and two years later a break and enter. They didn’t even accept the flood claim….
Bv
Biggest crooks
I’ve worked in the field doing marketing for a while now, and there are two things I know to be true based on personal and professional experience.
1. Never get insurance with a bank.
2. Overpay for insurance. If you’re a rate shopper, you get what you pay for. Cheap insurance will try not to pay and delay if they have to. That is why it’s cheap.
It happened to us as well. Two flood claims, neither our fault. Our insurance company of over 20 years dropped us. We had to search for any company who would take us on. We found a bottom of the barrel company and our premium was 3x what it was with our old insurer.
Funny thing was that I always felt guilty when I’d think about looking for a new insurer when I was with my old one, yet they sure didn’t give a second thought about dropping us.