It is certainly advantageous to combine your car and home insurance with the same insurer.
• Also read: The lesser known impact of renovations on your insurance
• Also read: Why are car insurance premiums rising?
When purchasing property insurance (home, car, SUV, boat, snowmobile, etc.) it is in your best interest to centralize your coverage.
Insurers therefore often grant significant discounts: between 5% and 15% per contract, depending on the insurer and your personal situation.
Simplified procedures
On the other hand, a consumer undoubtedly has certain advantages in dealing with a single insurer.
It takes less time to gather information because the insurer already knows you.
In addition, your compensation procedures in the event of a claim are simplified. All you have to do is call a customer service department and speak to a claims adjuster.
Gifts…
In some situations, a disaster affects both the home and the car.
For example an ice storm that destroys part of the roof and also damages the vehicle, or a fire that affects the house and the car because it is parked in the garage.
In this case, some insurers apply a single deductible, often the highest, instead of two when indemnifying their customer, resulting in reduced expenses for the insured.
Others grant free additional insurance, especially in the car.
When the loved one moves in…
If a couple decides to move in together, each has an interest in combining their insurance policies. It takes some thinking.
If your significant other moves in with you, it’s a good idea to contact your insurer. Especially if that person is teleworking or owns valuable goods (jewelry, electronics, outdoor gear, tools, computers, electronics) or some of their goods are used in their work.
In the end, combining your insurances will certainly cost less than insuring each one separately…unless your new flame poses high insurance risk (she has multiple claims or a bad credit history, for example).
Advice
- Take the time to clearly identify your needs before purchasing insurance. You have to compare apples to apples: request a quote with similar deductibles, provide each insurer with the same description of the condition of your home or car, multiply the questions, take lots of notes.
- It is important to take care of your insurance. If you spend two or three hours choosing your insurer and save $300, remember you were “paid” $100 an hour!
- Do business with an insurance broker. Since he works with several insurers, he will find it easier to manage your file. Negotiating multiple coverages at once is more complex than just buying auto insurance.
- Take inventory of your possessions. Insurance Bureau of Canada information and free charts: https://infoassurance.ca/understand-home-insurance/insure-your-home/property-inventory/
Who do you complain to if your car is stolen?
Classic shot: you are leaving a store and your car is no longer there. How react?
Know that you have many companions in misfortune, because according to HelloSafe, 14 cars are stolen in Quebec every day. Auto theft costs Canadian citizens and insurers $1 billion a year.
The first thing to do when our car is stolen is to call the police. After interviewing her, you found the famous “incident number” (or file number) associated with your mishap.
This number is important as it is at the heart of your relationship with the police and the insurer. As a result, sometimes multiple people will collect your vehicle and the police will always ask for this number when they need to deal with your case.
The second thing to do is call your insurer. The latter will ask you questions and give you many answers depending on the type of insurance contract you have: how much compensation do you get, what replacement vehicle are you entitled to, for how long, what are the other steps, etc. The insurer will of course ask you for the event number .
The following
Some of my relatives recently had their vehicles stolen. One of them had clothes, tools, personal belongings of all kinds in the trunk. This is the third thing you need to do: you need to list all the items that were in the car at the time of the theft.
If you have valuables, try to find their receipt if possible. Or a picture.
For what ? Because every item that is connected to the car (trailer hitch or hitch, bike rack or GPS) is covered by your car insurance. But all other items are also covered by your household contents insurance.
Your home insurer will surely ask you for this famous list. Write it down asap and give yourself 48 hours to polish it before giving it to him.
Of course, you’ll benefit if your insurer covers both your car and your home since the procedures are less complicated.
Do you have any information about this story that you would like to share with us?
Do you have a scoop that might be of interest to our readers?
Write to us or call us directly at 1-800-63SCOOP.