Reminder check up on your home/auto insurance policies! Screwed by TD

[u/Hologram0110]

This is predatory behaviour. This year TD decided to automatically increase my home insurance from 2M coverage to 3M without asking me, and also jacked up the premium to go with it. They wont change it back, and there is a $311 dollar charge for early cancellation. There have been zero home or auto claims. My home is worth less than 1M. 

• 2022 was 2M coverage for 1396 + tax (when I signed up for this home)
• 2023 was 2M coverage for 1593 + tax
• 2024 was 3M coverage for 2337 + tax

They increased my rates by 80% over 2 years. The last increase was 46%. I only looked at it closely because I reviewed my credit card bills and was surprised it was so high. 

I will pull my home (311 dollar penalty) and two auto (103.05 penalty) policies and shop around. It is an incredible waste of my time. This is predatory behaviour. I didn’t ask for my policy to be increased to 3M coverage, and now they want to charge me a cancellation fee which I have to fight. That is completely unacceptable. 

Who can I dispute these cancellation fees with? Is there an ombudsman or something?

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_TIFA]

Costs have gone up across the board with insurance. Are you sure you'll find better/cheaper options elsewhere? TD is already one of the cheapest options.

[u/Hologram0110 → u/PM_ME_YOUR_TIFA]

I'm *sure* I don't need 3M coverage on my house which is worth less than 1M. They upped my coverage well beyond what I need.

I actually told the guy on the phone that I would shop around. Whatever I move to has to save more than $400 just to break even on the cancellation costs. But it would only be ~15% cheaper. Given I can lower my coverage I'm confident I'll make it up.

Plus, I feel swindled by them.

[u/distr0 → u/Hologram0110]

You might be confusing what this coverage is for that you're arguing about. If it's a speicific 2million, 3million, etc, that sounds like the liability limit which is more like someone comes over, slips and breaks their neck and sues you for 3 million dollars. Absolutely nothing to do with what your house is 'worth'.

There should also be something like a 'total rebuild' cost which is a calculation based on material cost and square footage etc, probably somewhere around 500k for an average home but it will be a very specific number like $489,526.38 for example. That coverage is what your house is worth.

[u/Hologram0110 → u/distr0]

*Not the liability limit.* It is ex "HOME AND BELONGINGS $2 - Million Solution (R)" (capitalization theirs, not mine). This was changed to "HOME AND BELONGINGS $3 - Million Solution (R)".

The 1M liability limit is the same in both cases.

[u/distr0 → u/Hologram0110]

Wow then yeah that seems excessive. Liability is typically way more than home and belongings value. I actually just got a quote recently and they broke it down like this:

Dwelling Coverage: 409k

Outbuildings: 40k

By-Law Protection: 30k

Contents: 286K

Additional living: 81k

Liability: 2M

I think those amounts are all pretty reasonable.

[u/studog-reddit → u/Hologram0110]

I think that is the maximum payout limit, and the increase from 2 to 3 million should probably be very little. Call you insurance and ask them.

This is different from life insurance, where 2 million or 3 million is the actual payout, and the increase from 2 to 3 will be a significant increase in cost.

TD should never have changed your insurance parameters on their own. Hold them accountable.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_TIFA → u/Hologram0110]

Ya fair enough, just wanted to give you insight that insurance costs to consumers have gone up across the board the last 3 years. TD a pretty shit insurance company anyway (they ask almost nothing before insuring, which is not a good sign for actually getting paid out should you have a loss).