Belairdirect Auto Insurance Reviews

Unhappy with the news today. Got an email this morning about an "updated policy". Because my app on the phone to monitor my driving habits was not used in over 30 days, my account was cancelled, and all the discount associated with it. 6 months of good driving data, disappeared.
Had a discount of $~45 per month after I've been using this Automerit App, and now the monthly has increased by $90.

Talking to them over the phone, they say that the premium is something about making up the difference since I have pre-payments going on for the term. I thought this discount would be permanent, but no luck. Now I have to be monitored for another 6 months.

My family has been with BelairDirect, also under Intact Insurance for many years. I was involved in a hit and run accident in 2018 at 0645 am and filed a collision report and report it to insurance. Because there were no witnesses or dash cams, the company was unable to determine which driver was at fault even if the person who caused the crash failed to stop after an accident. With the license plate number and the description of the car in hand, I was still unable to prove that I was not at fault. The police investigation was poorly done where a call was made to the driver's company (the vehicle was part of a company fleet insurance policy) and the driver had denied the hit, claimed that I had hit him. Intact was only able to offer me a 50/50 claim, my car wasn't worth fixing as it is an older model, it would not have benefitted me to claim anything to fix the vehicle at that point. The rep who handled my claim was unwilling to help me investigate further and come to terms with the other party's insurance policy. Simply told me there is no way around it. The claims representative failed to document the many phone calls exchanged between the times I had called in to inquire, and also left me voicemails to say that I had not been able to be reached within 2 months when I have called to their company during working hours to no response. Then the case was closed because "they were unable to contact me". Fast forward 1 year later, I had switched insurance companies and am with a new policy. The new company was able to offer me a competitive rate since the claim on my file was at 0% fault. I was just notified by my new company that BelairDirect had gone back, a year later and made changes to my claim, making it my fault for what had previously happened. Now the new company needs to increase my rate to +$130 a month because of this. I had called back to Belair to inquire about this new "change" and they claimed nothing was changed. Beware of this company, they are not looking to help you with your claim. The reps are misleading and want you to take the route that will benefit the company. On top of that, after I had sent my vehicle to Assured Collision for a quote on the repair, the rep had gone MIA and pretended that she has not received the report.

I received two letters dated the same day from Belairdirect. One letter informed me that "given the age of the vehicle, we would like".. "you send us photos of your vehicle, taken from all sides, within 30 days." The other letter informed me that "after careful review of the policy", which I have been holding for more than 20 years, "and based on new information"..." your collision and comprehensive deductibles have been increased to $1000". That means more than double. The agent on the phone was not able to clarify what "new information" it was referring to. Is it common to have the deductible raised abruptly once the car is 20 years old? There was no inquiry about any technical or mechanical data or maintenance etc. It seems to me that this company is making decisions arbitrarily trying to appear as objective and reasonable as possible. As numerous posts mentioned already, this is not a reliable alternative to the only (mandatory) ICBC. Drivers in BC have little freedom of choice.

My car insurance rates virtually doubled in the two years I have had my current car. No claims, no accidents, no changes to my policy. Phoned to discuss and they admitted that they had gone up a lot but hoped they would level off in the next few years. Unbelievable!!

Been with Belair for 5 years. This past summer 2018 I had a comprehensive claim as I was hit by a flying tire from another driver, who got charged $5000 in damage to my new 2017 Ram truck. The insurance was handled by Intact, who is the underwriter for Belairdirect. Firstly, they tried delaying the process because of a $5 per day difference in towing company charges for storage. Finally, I intervened and got that settled because they wanted to sue the towing company while my truck was in their compound and not at the dealer getting fixed, which could take weeks in the court system. After that, they were great (Intact Adjuster) and fixed my vehicle, no problems. Come Renewal of all things, they hiked my rates up by 30% and even though I still had a 22% discount using their automerit program, it was a huge increase. I called with my concerns of the rate hike even though I wasn't at fault but still had a claim. They offered a further 5% for my wife if she used automerit. I said ok, no problem. The guy on the phone was courteous and helpful and said he would get that done. A week later I get a letter telling me my wife doesn't qualify for the automerit program and rates won't change. I then called Cooperators Group and was offered a rate 35% less than Belair, and I told them I had the claim etc, they did a background check to verify and still honoured the rate $600 less than Belairdirect. Suffice to say, I cancelled my renewal with Belairdirect. Any claim and they hike the rates up on you. And I should say they didn't hike the rate up on my Ram truck that had the claim, they just applied it to my older 2012 Camry! Trying to say the claim wasn't due to the truck.

I too had been with Belair for several years and was shocked when I received my renewal which was more than $200 a year more than what I had paid the previous year, in spite of having had no accidents and no claims. The agent explained that this had nothing to do with the calculation of my new premium. I found this absurd and was told that the price hike was due to increased costs and inflation, blah blah blah. I decided to go with a group insurer here in Québec that offered me a similar plan at a much lower price with warm, intelligent people providing the service. The sleaziest bit was a month after I cancelled, 122$ was debited out of my account because of the ''valeur à neuf'' insurance I had agreed to when getting my plan. The agent told me I could cancel it at any time. He didn't tell me that by cancelling early I would be forced to pay the remaining amount on the contract. I had no idea it was a contract. I thought it was just part of my insurance policy. I am a very understanding person, but this company pissed me off.

Beware, rates went up 40% on most vehicles, even with a very limited accident history (fleet). They said they increased 40% overnight one day. BEWARE!!!

So I'm going to be frank here, hoping someone would learn from my experience. I signed up after shopping around, and they offered the best price, so I'll give them that, they offered a great deal! Annually I got quoted for 1560, since I paid the entire amount, I actually paid 1540! GREAT! Now here is when the trouble starts. 1) the person who set me up made a mistake, apparently. He included a loyalty discount because I was with my previous company for 3 years. I informed him I was with RBC for 3 years, then moved to TD for the past year - he informed me, "No worries, I'll consider the higher years" - WOW, AWESOME, or so I thought. (April 10) 2) April 13, I get a call with the following: "Oh, so sorry, we can't include the discount since the more recent company is only 1 year" - I argue, well, your agent, he'll consider the 3 years. But meh, 5% increase, 100$, WHATEVER! 3) I get another call, "Oh, we discovered your mom is also a co-owner, we require to show her proof of insurance, and your letter of experience, if you can prove that your mom has her own insurance, it won't impact your rate". FANTASTIC! Both documents provided. 4) On April 17, I receive an email, "We made multiple attempts to contact you, please call Belair", on Apr 17, Belair successfully reached me, and requested a letter of experience to prove that the 2 claims are under my mom and not myself - that was provided. 5) On May 22, I receive a letter, "You owe us 755$ because we backdated your insurance to include your mom since she is a co-owner, and we felt that she is a high risk". I wasn't even aware that my policy was changed or updated. 6) Talked to a supervisor, who ensured that if I get my mom out of my ownership, then it'll be easier to start a new policy with only my name. So on May 27, went to service Ontario, got the ownership updated, had to replace my tires, do safety test, total of 600$ expense to get her out of my ownership. Jun 4 I get a new ownership, provide it to Belair, and started talking about new policy. The new policy was 300$ more expensive than the original policy, because the system generates new numbers and now I don't qualify for even 1 year loyalty, because my previous policy was only for 1 month... I decided to cancel. Only at that point did customer service decide to get everything resolved. I talked to her for good 3 hours, and I got nowhere! So, on April 17, they sent me "We were trying to reach you", and they reached me, but apparently it was a different department who reached me, customer service vs agent, and I was supposed to still call Belairdirect even though they were able to call me and request the letter of experience which was provided. They also sent me an email requesting to be contacted on Apr 17, and I responded to their agent. The agent failed to check and see that they need to inform me about the backdating. So from April 17 - May 22 there was no contact, and I was under the assumption that I'm paying 1540, and not aware they increased my policy because my mom (co-owner) was included in my policy, and they decided to increase the price without communication. Even though multiple agents confirmed "If mom has her own insurance, it will NOT impact yours". So let's do some math: I paid 1540/ 12 months= 128.33$ a month. New rate (wasn't aware of, nor approved, nor agreed too) was set up on April 13, and I communicated with Belair on Apr 17, and they "forgot" to mention the increase because it's a different department (advice: ask if the call comes, if the person is customer service, or agent, and continue calling to ensure that your policy hasn't changed, and they didn't backdate your policy and overwrote what YOU agreed too), back to math: (1540+755)/2 = 190, so when I canceled, they charged me the 190 + 5$ since the month is 31 day and not 30 days. So I paid them extra 70$ because they added 755 without my knowledge. On top of that, I paid 600$ to get mom out of my ownership, and they gave me a higher rate 1 month after. I should have stuck with 1540+755 with mom on policy, would have been cheaper. My experience with customer service was good - the people tried their best to resolve the issue, BUT the underwriting department doesn't know what the heck they are doing, each person makes their own rules, and each person gives you a different answer, you qualify for 5% royalty, no, you don't , your mom won't impact you if she has her own insurance, no, it will increase your rate by 755. We will communicate with you to inform you about any update, oops, the person forgot to mention this detail. Belair department don't communicate with each other, so if someone calls, you should call again and again and again to make sure all the departments are satisfied. Best part was when customer service agent asked me to log in to my customer service profile online, and I was never aware I had a profile to check. From my wonderful experience detailed above, I will NEVER ever recommend this company to my worst enemy, I swear I've had panic attacks just dealing with them, and update all the documentations that they requested.

I was just trying to renew my car insurance with this company, last year was $257.00, they just quoted me for the coming year $868.00, same coverage, no accidents !!!! Increase of over 300percent! Why would anyone want to deal with this company?

I was a car owner 4 years ago. I chose Belair because I knew their rates were supposed to be reasonable. I spoke to the sales staff at that time and they explained I could save money on my policy if I didn't take collision. The way they explained that to me was done so in such a way that I wouldn't have thought to take the collision option. I told them this was the first time I was getting insurance and that I needed help understanding. They just kept telling me it was cheaper and better to go without it. So fast forward to the present. Yesterday I got into an accident due to weather. My car hit ice and spun out of control. I rolled my car and landed upside down. I then find out I am not covered for ANYTHING by my insurance except for injury. I walked away totally fine physically, but my car was totalled. So after paying these people thousands for 4 years, and thinking I was covered for something like that, and then to find out that you aren't? It's deplorable. Help new car owners understand what these terms mean!