Does anyone have experience with The Economical Insurance Group Waterloo?

[Mikel]

I just got a quote from them and it was really good! I am currently with statefarm, and by switching to the Economical Waterloo I will save over $1000 on car insurance alone. My only concern is how reliable of a company they are for making claims and emergency cases.

I have:

2006 Audi A4 2.0 quattro
2009 Toyota Corolla XRS

Statefarm charges approx $1200 for the audi / year, and $2100 for the Corolla. With the new company they are charging approx $1100 for each car, so $2200 approx in total, its actually a bit less than that.

I just want to know if anyone else here is using them and if they've ever had to make a claim?

[LittleSaki]

Used to work for them - they're pretty good. Just like dealing with any-other insurance company when submitting a claim.

[ABadjusterrider_5]

Used to work for them - they're pretty good. Just like dealing with any-other insurance company when submitting a claim.

Didn't they get bought by someone?

[VifferFun]

Didn't they get bought by someone?

I think they are going through a de-mutualization right now. From what I've heard, it's kind of messy :P People an still be confident that their claims will be paid though . . . I wouldn't be concerned.

OP, I presume that the Corolla was being operated by a more risky driver than the A4? That's a big premium difference between the two cars.

[Mikel]

It is a big premium difference. Both cars are in my name and just myself and my wife drive them. We both have immaculate driving records. At first I thought it was high because its the sport version of the corolla with the bigger engine in it. The one thing I don't like about state farm is that you have to assign mileage to each vehicle. In my case that's hard because we have a 2 car single lane driveway. So it's a 50/50 chance which vehicle I'll be driving to work and all depends on which one was last in the driveway. The audi is setup to be driven like 15km daily while the corolla is much higher (apparantly that didn't affect the premium that much). In reality I probably put much more mileage on the audi, when I asked my agent about this they told that we should just leave the cars the way they are because if we start changing things, auditors could start looking into my coverage.

[VifferFun]

It is a big premium difference. Both cars are in my name and just myself and my wife drive them. We both have immaculate driving records. At first I thought it was high because its the sport version of the corolla with the bigger engine in it. The one thing I don't like about state farm is that you have to assign mileage to each vehicle. In my case that's hard because we have a 2 car single lane driveway. So it's a 50/50 chance which vehicle I'll be driving to work and all depends on which one was last in the driveway. The audi is setup to be driven like 15km daily while the corolla is much higher (apparantly that didn't affect the premium that much). In reality I probably put much more mileage on the audi, when I asked my agent about this they told that we should just leave the cars the way they are because if we start changing things, auditors could start looking into my coverage.

The Audi is a more expensive vehicle to insure, so you are paying much more on the Corolla due to other rating characteristics (such as the assigned driver or the stated use). If you have a high commute and/or a high annual mileage on the Corolla compared to the Audi, that could cause some of the difference. Perhaps the operator of the Audi is over 25yo and the operator of the Corolla is under 25yo?

[Corey McNeely]

Wouldn't the Audi be a cheaper car to insure. The VRG for AB must be lower than a Corolla which is 5. True the Collision Comprehensive and DCPD ratings would be higher on the Audi but AB ratings I find tend to drive the rate more than the others do.

[Aleks Hara]

I've had some interesting experiences with StateFarm clients - my recent one was a mature couple, no at fault accidents ever, 15yrs+ insurance with StateFarm, everything as spotless as it could be, AND YET when I ran their Autoplus (insurance history) I noticed StateFarm was rating one of the vehicles as a 1star - meaning there was an at-fault or something along those lines recently. So I called StateFarm and verified that there was no issue whatsoever on the record, and they couldn't explain the 1star rating. Clients were paying $2000 on one car, and $4000 on the 1star car!! Same usage and experience on both vehicles. No clue what's going on! Clients are just as confused and I am trying now to get an explaination from head office. Either way, they are no longer with StateFarm but still - very odd...

[Corey McNeely]

I'm surprised you were able to get any information from them in the first place. They treat Exprience Letters as if they were top secret government files. I have had client that have had to go all the way to the ombudsman to finally get their claim history confirmed.

[VifferFun]

Wouldn't the Audi be a cheaper car to insure. The VRG for AB must be lower than a Corolla which is 5. True the Collision Comprehensive and DCPD ratings would be higher on the Audi but AB ratings I find tend to drive the rate more than the others do.

Perhaps -- it would depend on the company's AB relativities and rates. I didn't look up the VRGs but I'm pretty certain that the premium difference on the OP's two policies are due to something more than just the cars.

[Mikel]

Both cars are in my name. Both my wife and I have never been in any accidents or received any tickets. I have 500 deductible on both cars, 1 mill liability on both. Audi is for 15km one way to work, and the corolla is 25km. I just phoned my Statefarm representitive to cancel. They told me that the audi was as cheap as they could make it. They could make the corolla slightly cheaper if it was driven less, but that wouldn't make enough of a difference. The audi is 643 / 6 months, the corolla is 1,113 / 6 months. With the new company the audi is 1,083 / year and the corolla is 1,113 / year. My only guess is that state farm considers a corolla xrs (2.4 litre engine 160hp) a more sportier car than the basic corolla (1.8 litre engine 140hp). Either way I kept my motorcycle insurance with statefarm for now. It's a 2008 Honda Varadero, a 1 litre bike. No deductible it's about 1,100 a year. The lady said that come renewal the motorcycle insurance could go up to approximately 1,800 a year because I don't have any insurance with statefarm.

[VifferFun]

Both cars are in my name. Both my wife and I have never been in any accidents or received any tickets. I have 500 deductible on both cars, 1 mill liability on both. Audi is for 15km one way to work, and the corolla is 25km. I just phoned my Statefarm representitive to cancel. They told me that the audi was as cheap as they could make it. They could make the corolla slightly cheaper if it was driven less, but that wouldn't make enough of a difference. The audi is 643 / 6 months, the corolla is 1,113 / 6 months. With the new company the audi is 1,083 / year and the corolla is 1,113 / year. My only guess is that state farm considers a corolla xrs (2.4 litre engine 160hp) a more sportier car than the basic corolla (1.8 litre engine 140hp). Either way I kept my motorcycle insurance with statefarm for now. It's a 2008 Honda Varadero, a 1 litre bike. No deductible it's about 1,100 a year. The lady said that come renewal the motorcycle insurance could go up to approximately 1,800 a year because I don't have any insurance with statefarm.

The insurance companies really don't care about how "sporty" a car is -- they only care about how many claims are made with a specific make/model of care, and the severity of those claims (excluding the effects of the driver). Generally, if the car is safe then people shouldn't be hurt very bad in accidents, thus leading to a cheaper Accident Benefits premium. If parts are expensive, then the claims for Collision and Comprehensive will likely be high (leading to pricer Collision and Comprehensive coverage).

The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) uses industry claims data to determine the relative riskiness of each make/model for Accident Benefits, Collision, and Comprehensive. They actually post a nice explanation as well as a simplified version of the table here:
http://www.ibc.ca/en/Car_Insurance/B...w_Car/HCMU.asp

Here is the table:
http://www.ibc.ca/en/Car_Insurance/d...CMU_E_2011.pdf

I really doubt that the claims on a "Sport" model of a Corolla are much different than any other Corolla. Seriously, "Corolla Sport" is a bit of an oxymoron I didn't look up your cars, but I'm guessing the Audi will have a better Accident Benefits rating, but the Corolla will have a better Collision and Comprehensive rating.

[Mikel]

Well that makes sense, it's possible that there isn't very much data on a corolla xrs, like you said at 160hp it's not very sporty. It does have the silly spoiler and skirts on it which would make it more expensive to replace / repair. Another point of the car is that it's a bit of a rarity, certainly not collectible or anything like that but when I bought the car a year ago there were only 2 xrs's on all of auto trader in gta possibly ontario. So maybe the data on that paticular make and model of car is very limited thus resulting in the higher rate. I had a friend who had a mid 90's chrylser / dodge daytona that got t boned at a intersection, and after some fighting with his insurance company got $7 grand for the car because his car was some sort of special edition and like no other one existed in ontario. The car itself wouldn't of resaled for that much, but before the accident he spent some coin on a paint job and the car was mint so it was good that he got a nice pay out.

[VifferFun]

Well that makes sense, it's possible that there isn't very much data on a corolla xrs, like you said at 160hp it's not very sporty. It does have the silly spoiler and skirts on it which would make it more expensive to replace / repair. Another point of the car is that it's a bit of a rarity, certainly not collectible or anything like that but when I bought the car a year ago there were only 2 xrs's on all of auto trader in gta possibly ontario. So maybe the data on that paticular make and model of car is very limited thus resulting in the higher rate. I had a friend who had a mid 90's chrylser / dodge daytona that got t boned at a intersection, and after some fighting with his insurance company got $7 grand for the car because his car was some sort of special edition and like no other one existed in ontario. The car itself wouldn't of resaled for that much, but before the accident he spent some coin on a paint job and the car was mint so it was good that he got a nice pay out.

If there is very little data on the specific model (XRS), then it would be complimented with data from similar models of Corolla.