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Is Your Insurance Company Ripping You Off

My auto and tenant insurance policy is coming due in February, so my current insurer sent me the renewal package. I just switched last year from my long-time insurer to this new one because they gave  me a better deal. I saved almost $200 a year PLUS another $100 or so with the affinity discount (the new company gives me a deal because I’m an alumni of Queen’s University). But I always like to shop around to make sure I’m getting a good deal. Living in Toronto means I get absolutely hosed on my auto insurance rate, so I’m quite aware of what I’m paying.

Another insurance company offers deals through my employer, so I thought I’d check them out to see if I could save any money there. And I discovered that they are total thieves! (hence the crowbar in the picture). They would charge me $1,000 more than I’m paying now. $1,000!! That’s an insane amount of money. I would have expected an increase of a couple of hundred bucks, sure, but a thousand? So I fired up State Farm’s Canadian website and thought I’d see what they would charge me. State Farm’s quote? $200 more than I’m paying now. So I’ve decided that this company is totally fleecing Acme Bank’s employees. That is just an insane amount of money to pay for insurance, for a woman who’s been licenced for almost 20 years, has never had an accident or a claim, and doesn’t drive her car to work! Sheesh.

Speaking of, I’m going to call up my insurance company to see if they can reduce my amount even further because I’m not driving the car to work at all any more.

Making Enough Money to Support Yourself

Working as a technical writer I am fortunate to make a good salary that allows me to live decently in a big urban city like Toronto. I always wonder when I hear stories of immigrants new to Canada who settle in Toronto. How are they able to survive on the low wages they must be earning? I remember when I first graduated from university and moved to Toronto, I was working a telemarketing job making $12 an hour. That’s more than minimum wage, but still, I found I was struggling. I had to live with a roommate, didn’t have a car, and couldn’t go out as much as I wanted to, forget about buying all the shiny things that were advertised to me on tv or in the magazines (don’t get all judgemental on me now, I’ve already spoken about how I’m one of those gullible people who get sucked in by ads).

But living in Toronto, one of the more expensive cities in the world and making minimum wage as your only source of income? That’s gotta be tough. I’m not sure I could do that, so I definitely give props to those who do. There have been a few rumblings of increasing the minimum wage here in Ontario, and in fact, I think it might have gone up a few more cents in the last couple of years, but it’s still not enough to live “comfortably”.  The UK is going to be increasing their minimum wage, which is nice to hear. Of course given that the amounts are in pounds, it sounds like a pittance, until I convert it to Canadian dollars, and then it sounds wonderful! haha. Hmm, and now that I look it up, it looks like both the UK and Ontario will have roughly the same minimum wage, around $10 an hour.  Not sure if that means that we’re progressive here in Ontario, or if the UK’s just finally catching up to us though.

Like I said, working as a technical writer I’m lucky to make enough money to support myself, and support myself well. I think I actually make more than my father did at his highest salary, and he supported a family of 4, a house and two cars! Granted that was in Small Town Ontario, so the cost of living was lower, but still, it’s impressive when I think about it. Of course I also suffer from the “I want it so I buy it” syndrome, which is why I’m in the mess that I’m in right now. But that’s another story…or rather another blog…oh wait, that’s the story on THIS blog!

Banks Are Pushy

I’ve blogged in the past about how banks are pushy, and today I saw another example. I noticed a pre-authorized transaction on my chequing account over the weekend, and I know that I definitely had NOT authorized any, so I was wondering WTF? I waited till this morning so that I could call the employee banking phone number instead of the ‘regular’ telephone banking one. (Remember, I work for a bank, and one of the perks is having our own dedicated employee banking phone number, where we get preferred service).

Thankfully it only took dude a minute to figure out what it was: the bank set up a pre-authorized payment for my line of credit, so that if I don’t pay my bill on time, they automatically transfer the money over from my chequing account. I have a vague memory of this being set up for me a few years ago, but since I have since changed the account number on the chequing account, I didn’t think it would work. (The account that was originally set up on was closed, and then I opened a new account this spring after I got the new job).

Anyways, that cleared up that mystery, when suddenly the previously ‘nice’ rep got pushy.

“I notice that you’re almost at the limit of your credit line,” he said.

“Yes I am, that’s because I’m using it to pay off other credit cards with higher interest rates,” I replied. (This isn’t entirely true, but it was Monday morning and I hadn’t yet finished my coffee.)

“Are you having trouble making the monthly payments? Because if you are, we can switch that over to a loan which would give you smaller payments,” he went on.

I suddenly got really pissed off. Who is this guy and why is he assuming that I can’t make the payment? When that automatic payment went through, it didn’t get rejected, did it? Stupid, son of a !@$%^^$#! Couldn’t he have just asked me if I wanted to lower my monthly payment? I realize he was trying to be “nice”, and maybe he just didn’t ask delicately enough, but still, the way he did ask got me quite mad. Argh. I told him thanks for asking, but I wasn’t interested and hung up. Sheesh. I think what also bugged me is that every interaction I have with banks these days is reduced to an offer for a loan. Giving me a loan isn’t necessarily the best way to help me out of my financial quandry, you know? <sigh>

Okay, I feel better now after that rant is done. 

A Major Sign of a Bad Economy

A mall absolutely jam-packed full of people actually buying stuff? I popped into my local Canadian Tire store today to take advantage of a sale on folding chairs, which I actually need as I’m having some friends over for lunch tomorrow and I don’t have enough seating. The parking lot was jammed, so I had to park out in the hinterlands. I wasn’t upset at that, as I don’t mind walking, but wow, I’ve never parked that far at this store before. Then I walked in, and it was a ZOO! I mean, people were wheeling around carts that were just stuffed with items, and I mean, like 5-8 different items, not just one big one that was too awkward to carry around. They were grabbing things off shelves like it was the end of the world. And the line-up at the cash was incredible! I managed to snag one of the self-serve scanners and was out in a jiffy, but wow, was that ever impressive.

Now I know that the economic situation isn’t as bad here in Canada as the US, but still, you’d think people would be a little more frugal given how tenuous things are, you know? A study done a few years ago (I forget exactly what year, so forgive me if this is old and out dated information) says that the average Canadian has around $8,000 worth of consumer debt each, not including any mortgages, loans, etc. So we should be trying to be as frugal as we possibly can all the time, not just now that the economy’s on a downturn. My friend M likes to call me Frugal J, because I’m all about cutting costs where I can. This is an attitude that we should all have all the time, not just when we’re trying to pay down debt or save money, you know? These last few years has really taught me that lesson, that it’s important to be frugal all the time, not just when times are tough. If you are, then you’ll be okay even when times to get tough. Take for example, my emergency fund. Working in the IT sector, I’m acutely aware of how things can change, so I want to be prepared if and when they do. Now it’s not at the level that I want it to be at, a level where I feel “comfortable” with it, but it’s a good start. Most people don’t have anything saved up at all. As I stated the other day in a previous post about my 2009 goals, I want to get that up to $5000. That’s lower than my initial goal of $7500, but I feel it’s an achievable goal in the short-term. If I can get it up higher, then that’s even better. But for starters, I need to add another $2000 next year.

So save your pennies, your loonies & toonies, and try to be more frugal this holiday season!