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If you are a university (or perhaps college) grad, you might want to look into the affinity insurer offered by your alumni department.

I have never actually gotten around to doing this, so can't comment on how it works out but maybe worth a look. Perhaps someone else has experience with this.

Other affinity groups and associations also offer these kinds of programmes but I have no details.

The idea behind it is that people who fit into certain categories tend to have fewer claims, so the insurance is a bit cheaper.

I knew an elderly lady who hit someone with her car and was sued for $1.5 million. Her insurance company, Co-operators, told her not to worry another minute and handled everything until a few years later when the suit was eventually dropped.

That's what I have insurance for, something big happens, couldn't care less about the small stuff, and thus I'm very hesitant to deal with these newer, online-only outfits, not so sure how they'd be if the ess really hit the fan. Maybe I'm biased because I'm older, I just don't have the same level of trust re their service.

BlueSky said
Having said that, they are fully accessible on the phone and on the web as well. I had no issues with them over the years.  

I'll disagree, regarding their accessibility. It was the reason I left Belair. I couldn't reach them by phone in a reasonable time or manner. I left multiple messages and requests. Eventually, I had to just suck it up and wait on hold forever, just to tell them to cancel my policy.

We've used SGI Canada for all of our home insurance needs so far. Have always been the most competitive for us on pricing, available coverage, add-ons, and coverage limits. We're out here in SK, but they do provide home policies from BC to ON.

We had a claim once (knock on wood), and it was pretty smooth dealing with our adjuster. We had one little issue during our claim (which was open for roughly 18 months because it occurred in winter and couldn't be repaired until the weather changed...you get the idea), but we had great communication with her and had it resolved to our satisfaction.

I've had Wawanesa for tenant insurance and have had family who have used Wawanesa for home insurance as well. They're no longer competitive in our area on pricing or offered coverage.

My 2-cents.

That's a common tactic among insurers to discourage rate-shopping. I suspect first-year commissions to brokers are involved. They all co-operate to offer a renewal discount.

Look into whether you can qualify for any specialized discounts such as auto clubs, supermarket memberships, professional associations or the like.

Dean said

Bin There ⬆ ... Dun That ⬆.

But in spite of my present insurer offering the best deal I could find, my renewal premium still went Up ~30% from last year ... even with No Claims (Ever), and a spotless insurance record otherwise.

Dean

  

I live in a small town in Southwestern Ontario and have been with Intact for 17 years without a claim. My renewal was in April and I was surprised that my premium increased by 15% but I guess I should be thankful it wasn’t 30%. (The previous increases were 9% from 2021 to 2022 and 11% from 2022 to 2023.)

I've been with Belair for nearly 2 decades. On 2 occasions I've moved to another company and then they've bought them. I was thinking of moving away from them again as they raised our car and house insurance by 19 and 13% respectively even though we've never made any claims and are located in low risk areas with a low risk car for thieves.

Then the first company I was looking to get a quote from was purchased by Belair. It's nearly impossible to escape the gouge monopolies in this country.

I would like to consider getting the discount by using their app, but we don't drive enough to qualify or have a smartphone and data plan, yet we qualify for a nearly 20% increase in premiums.

Cars are more expensive, parts are more expensive, more and more complicated stuff has to be at expensive dealers, and the like. Here in B.C., the lawyers are cut out of it and we're protected - only by the elimination of pain, suffering and diminished life payouts.

Thanks. Would this a "no go" for not using SquareOne?