Square One Insurance Home Insurance Reviews

Hi There, I wanted to reach you in regards to Square One Insurance. About a month ago I had something strange happen to me that never in my life thought an insurance company would do. My wife and I received an email from Square One with my policy number and account information to my gmail account, they notified my wife that her payment did not go through and that they would take the payment again on September 4th. We had no idea that the payment did not go through as we do not use email to discuss insurance matters, I have auto insurance with another provider and if a payment did not go through they would call and either leave a message or speak to someone. The issue I have with Square One is that they are sending an email about my insurance policy via unsecured email, which I never requested. After Square One sent this message to me instead of calling or leaving a message the very next day they tried to take payment again and then they sent me another email saying to me personally that your policy will be cancelled by September 4th for failed payment, and within this 2- week period they also sent my entire policy and personal information about my property through my annual renewal not once but twice to my wife and me to the same unsecured gmail account. So I decided to call them to better understand why they would send my information about my policy number and payment information via public email. The response I received from the billing support team is: "It is an internal policy and our system automatically sends out emails to notify customers". So, then I asked them about what the email stated that the payment failed and that they were going to take payment again September 4th, he told me that the message is just an automated message and we do not follow that information because we have our own internal policy. Finally, I spoke to them about the emails that they have been sending me on the renewal email and the fact that I did not sign up for auto-renew, he told me that their internal systems automatically renew and that they can only take it off manually and they would need to send another unsecured email with this confirmation. So then I asked him what happens if we do not respond to the renewal and let it go or pay for the renewal by the anniversary date. He then said that they would cancel the policy and then negatively impact my credit rating for nonpayment. Here is the list of concerns I have. The one that really angers me is the fact that Square One is creating their own internal policies on when they collect money and total disregard to their customer and then telling me that the information in the email is false because they do not follow it as a policy. So you are basically telling me that Square One is a gangster that threatens their customers by sending automated messages about their policy through unsecured email and we don't care because internally we decided that this is what we want to do. My next point around Privacy and Security of my personal information at no point did your team try to help me understand how they were going to address my issue with it, instead, they used their gangster policies that they created internally to tell me that it is their internal systems and basically telling me to myself. After I emailed the help team that we have moved our policy and to remove us from your email system and all files, I asked them not to contact us via email and we did not want any courteous call. Again the team lead in their customer service ignored the email that I sent her to stop all communication via email. Again they sent two more emails with my policy number telling me that my policy will be cancelled as per my request, and then they called us again and I told them we are not renewing our policy please do not call or email us again we have paid our invoice on September 4th as the emails have stated any future communications to be sent via registered mail like every insurance company in Canada does. The public needs to know and I am on Social media to warn other Canadians about choosing the right insurance company and demand that they explain how their customer privacy is being handled. I am posting online about how online companies like Square One are high risk to deal with as they do not handle your personal information with care or have respect for your privacy. I demanded a response from Square One on how they are going to correct this problem and the response I received from Ombudsmen from the Mutual Fire insurance the parent company of Square One was - "We take privacy very seriously", which is not the case and given the fact that I filed the complaint on September 6th, she responded a month later blowing me off on October 9th goes to show you that Insurance companies like this are really not serious about you as a customer.

I had insurance with them for a year with no problem. After the year they sent me a new policy, even though I had not requested it. I called Square One because it seemed strange to send me a complete policy and not just a notice of renewal, they told me to ignore the renewal if I didn't want to continue with the policy.

Of course 2 weeks later Square One illegally withdrew the funds from my bank account without notifying me. I found out when I bounced a cheque. They agreed they made a mistake, but have not issued me a refund. I called my bank and after 30 mins they said I would have to go to the branch to fill out some forms, which are not available online, then it could take weeks to investigate and get a refund.

Square One is using NEGATIVE OPTION BILLING PRACTICES that are illegal in BC. How do they get away with this?!

In this time of financial hardship for many during the global COVID-19 pandemic, isn't it nice to see so many company's showing genuine support and solidarity? Now I know it is often remarked that insurance companies have no moral compass, and Square One is no different. Changing my account from manageable monthly payments to suddenly taking my whole year's payment upfront. Thanks for helping screw up people's personal cashflow during this difficult time...

Credit card billed 425 for renewal I did not ask for. Will follow up with the Fraud department of my credit card company.

Beware of this insurance company, they will charge you 3 months premium, if you cancel the policy...

It may be easy to get a policy with Square One, however, do not expect to get good customer service. They only believe in taking your money and not giving you anything in return. God help you if you actually have to make a claim. I know people who had to battle, for excessively long periods of time, with them to get covered what was rightfully outlined in their policy. As fast as they will take your money and give you a policy they will take it away even if it is due to their error. They will argue with you on the phone, talk over you and will not even try to listen to you. This includes managers as well as customer service reps. This was my experience - they cancelled my policy due to their systems inability to process payment from my visa. They cancelled my policy immediately without any grace period. I even offered to provide proof from my bank that it was their error and they would not even listen. When I asked to speak to the manager and the manager kept talking over me, would not even listen and kept blaming me. When I asked how it is my fault if their system couldn't process my payment (one of their own employees admitted that their system has difficulties processing certain credit cards) they said it was my responsibility to ensure payment was made. If I gave the correct payment info and the funds were available, how am I responsible for their systems error??? If I could give them a negative rating I would. Stay away from this company!

Never had a claim. Had the unfortunate mishap of missing only one payment when my electricity went out for 7 plus days due to a severe Derecho storm in May 2022. No internet, no cell coverage, nothing was working and I couldn't do any banking or monitor anything. Once the power came back 7 days later, I caught up on my emails and noticed that the one payment bounced 4 days prior so I called right away to make the payment. The customer service agent would not take my payment because my policy was already sent for cancellation. She did however enter notes into my account saying that I could re-instate the policy at the same price once I was notified of the cancellation. Fast forward a couple of weeks, no notice came in by email which was my preferred method of communication with them so I called them back to take care of my account with them but the only thing they did was triple my monthly premium, require 2 months of payments in advance and would not budge. Pretty hard to come up with that sort of cash as a single dad with custody of my children. Despite me being proactive and calling right away and them putting notes in my account to protect my rate they would not budge and this even when I spoke to the VP of sales. Lesson learned... DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM.

I had one year of insurance with this company. They automatically renewed my insurance without my permission and somehow charged my credit card when it had expired. Spoke to Igor who was extremely unhelpful and the customer service is awful.