OT: Best way to research house and car insurance rates?

[TimNDansMom]

Our house insurance is coming up at the end of the month and there was a message left on my answering machine from our broker to call her so she can go over the renewal because there was a "dramatic" increase. Two years ago she switched us over to ING and their rates dropped from what we had been paying at the time. Our car insurance renews next month but the insurance company is The Guarantee Co of North America.

We've been with this broker for 20 years and I've always felt she's got us good rates but due to the huge increases I've been reading about, I want to look around and be prepared.

How have you all been finding the best rates and can you get quotes right away?

 

[Ted in Halifax]

No idea ... but I was thinking the same think .... same broker since 85

 

[drag n' fly]

http://www.kanetix.ca/

 

[JumpinJ]

Check out RBC insurance..... depending on where you are in the country the rates can be very good. I switched my car insurance over a couple years ago, ended up switching everything else after seeing the fantastic customer service they give.

Added bonus, if you go online and get a quote you end up saving 5%. And depending on who you work for you might be entitled to different discounts. My friend works for Rogers, she ended up saving 5% for the online quote, 12% for multiline and then I think it was an additional 10% because Rogers was a 'partner' or something like that....

Brokers normally only deal with a couple different companies, sometimes they can get you good rates, other times not so much.

J

 

[TimNDansMom]

Thanks for the Kanetix link, drag n' fly. They gave me two online quotes, Greypower and RBC. RBC was quite a bit higher.

The Greypower quote is about $52 incl tax higher than my present insurance renewal but I would have to call them to be sure because there's a note that water damage coverage may not be included in their quote (even though I ticked that off).

Has anyone here used Greypower? I see them advertise on the TV all the time.

 

[ferris198]

My mother had both home and auto with Greypower, and had no issues with them. I had to deal with them after her death, and found them fine too.
With respect to your current policy, is there a reason why home and auto are with different carriers ? If they are together, you can usually get a multi line discount.
Check your renewal to make sure you are getting all eligible discounts, eg claims free, alarm.
Also depending what your deductible is you should see what kind of savings would be gained by increasing it.

 

[TimNDansMom]

My mother had both home and auto with Greypower, and had no issues with them. I had to deal with them after her death, and found them fine too.
With respect to your current policy, is there a reason why home and auto are with different carriers ? If they are together, you can usually get a multi line discount.
Check your renewal to make sure you are getting all eligible discounts, eg claims free, alarm.
Also depending what your deductible is you should see what kind of savings would be gained by increasing it.

Thanks for the reply regarding Greypower.

Our Home and Auto coverage is with different carriers because of having our boys on our car insurance. It was the better deal. I am planning on revisiting that issue when our car insurance is renewed, though.

We do have all eligible discounts and I also asked with regards to raising the deductible which is currently $500, to $1000, which was about a 10% different in premium. Haven't decided about that yet.

 

[ferris198]

If the renewal of the auto is close to the renewal of the homeowners, I would ask for quotes at the same time to see if the multi line discount makes a difference, don't cancel current auto policy just get a quote.
Also too, if you or your husband belong to an alum group you mau be entitled to discounts.