Re: To sell or not

From: Jason Bleazard (dml@bleazard.net)
Date: Tue Apr 11 2006 - 11:42:26 EDT


On Tue, April 11, 2006 6:52 am, Andy Levy said:
>
>> Since I'm fussing about it, I might as well give some numbers.
>>
>> 23 y.o. single male, renting.
>> 100/300/100, 10, 100/300
>> 500/1000 comp/col with glass on '02 Jetta TDI 5sp and '98 Dakota CC
>> 318 auto 4x4
>> liability only on '84 RamCharger 360 auto 4x4.
>>
>> $665/6 months with Geico.
>
> We have pretty much the same coverage, except 1000 deductible all
> around and married/not renting, on our 2 cars, plus the 10% multi-line
> discount (homeowner's insurance), for just under $1000/year. It was
> close to $1100/year till we moved out to the sticks. Geico was about
> $1600/year, and last time I shopped pre-wedding, the cheapest I could
> find was over $2000/year.

And since I'm the one who brought up insurance, I might as well add our data
point. I'll convert to US$ for comparison purposes. We have liability,
collision and comprehensive on both trucks. I don't remember the exact
breakdown, but the comprehensive is a pretty small percentage of the total, so
I figure I might as well keep it. I also don't remember the exact coverage
levels we have, although I could look it up if anyone is interested.

According to my checkbook, our monthly insurance bill includes $99.29 for the
1995, and $64.97 for the 2001. That seems backward to me now that I look at
it, I wonder if I didn't get those numbers reversed when I was entering them.
It might also be because it's my name on the '95, and I'm the idiot who got a
speeding ticket, and backed in to a parked van a couple of years ago. Those
would be the only things still active (Norah's accident and my vandalism claim
rolled off some time ago).

In case you're keeping score, for two vehicles that's $164.26 per month,
$985.56 for six months, or $1971.12 for a year. I'll say that again, because
I know long paragraphs are hard to read.

$1971.12 per year.

And that's not only the cheapest I could find, it's the *ONLY* company I could
find that would even touch us. That's actually pretty reasonable, when we
moved from Scarborough to Burlington our rates dropped by at least a third,
and that was after the fubar I'll complain about below.

If you recall when I was considering taking a friend's '98 Breeze, I called,
and they told me it would be an *extra* $961.46 for the 11 month period until
our next renewal with the additional car (with basic liability only, after the
mult-vehicle discount), or $87.41 a month. I figured it would have saved me
about $60 a month on gas, so it was clearly a no-go.

I think a big part of our problem is that we had our insurance cancelled on us
when we moved in 2003 for having an "unfixed address". Yeah, moving tends to
do that to you. I think I bitched about it loudly at the time, and it doesn't
bear repetition. Bottom line, we got red flagged in the computer, and every
company we called except one just hung up on us.

For anyone in Canada: do not, under any circumstances, do business with Belair
Direct Insurance. They are thieves of the highest order who will bleed you
dry, and then throw you out with the trash at the earliest opportunity. I'm
posting this to the archives in the hopes that it might save someone the same
pain we experienced. If you're Googling for information about Belair Direct
Insurance and you find this post, run, do not walk away from these people.
Try RBC Direct or President's Choice Financial instead.

That incident should be rolling off our record at some point, I hope. I
suppose I should find out how long something like that lingers. It's not a
traffic violation or claim, so I'm not sure if the same rules apply or not.

-- 
Jason Bleazard  http://drazaelb.blogspot.com  Burlington, Ontario
his:  '95 Dakota Sport 4x4, 3.9 V6, 5spd, Reg. Cab, white
hers: '01 Dakota Sport 4x4, 4.7 V8, Auto, Quad Cab, black

. . .------------------------------------------------------------------. | Make your plans NOW to attend the National DML Meet in Colorado! | | Date: July 15-23, 2006 - More info: http://meet.dakota-truck.net | `------------------------------------------------------------------'



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