Paying the bill

Disclaimer:  What you read here are my recollections and opinions of events that I experienced with Allstate - and should not be considered statements of fact. 

After exhausting every possible avenue to address the issue of being overcharged with an unreasonably high premium, I found myself at a crossroads.  Were it solely up to me, I would have cancelled the policy without hesitation. I’ve always been a risk-taker, confident in the slim odds of anything happening to our home. But my 75-year-old mother is the opposite— averse to both risk and change. For her, the thought of a "lapse in insurance" and the potential impact on her future premiums was overwhelming. Her peace of mind is something I couldn’t bear to disrupt.

Yes, we were "protected" when the insurance covered losses from a burglary, but when I look at the bigger picture, the math is discouraging. Over the years, we’ve paid far more to Allstate in premiums than we ever claimed back. I can’t help but feel that we’d have been better off creating our own “insurance fund” for unforeseen events—a strategy that, by my calculation, would have left us in a much better financial position.

On November 28, to maintain the property insurance solely to avoid a black mark on her insurance score, I visited the Mississauga office and met with Jay Patel, the agency manager for Mississauga North. He was the only person at Allstate who treated me with a modicum of understanding and respect. Though he sympathized with our situation, he couldn’t explain the sky-high premium nor offer a meaningful solution.  He too seemed to be a slave to the hidden algorithm that sees us only as a data point and not a human being with a unique situation. 

The only way to reduce our costs, the only option I could think of was to strip the policy down to bare bones—raising the deductible to $10,000 and removing all water damage coverage. These drastic changes dropped the annual premium from $2,859 to $1,826.

In an effort to minimize the upfront cost and ensure flexibility, I also switched to monthly payments, even though Mr Patel warned that monthly payments would increase the overall cost by 4%.  To add insult to injury, Mr. Patel informed me that there would be a penalty if we decided to cancel the policy altogether.  It was hard not to feel despair —being penalized for leaving what feels like an abusive relationship in which we are treated with heartless disrespect and inconsideration.

Walking out of that office, I was disheartened. Even after reducing our coverage to the bare minimum, Allstate’s premium remained hundreds of dollars higher than the estimates we’ve received from competitors. Thoughts raced.  Why should we stay? Why continue to reward such disrespectful and dismissive behaviour?  For now, we’ll likely remain with Allstate until my mother gets a credit card and builds up her credit history—an unnecessarily complex endeavour for someone turning 75. 

But this chapter ends with lingering questions: Why was our original premium $2,859?  What are our credit scores?  Why does Allstate refuse to provide transparency about their pricing - even though they claim we have a right to know?  These are answers we’ll never get, and it’s left us deeply disillusioned.