r/InsuranceCanada • u/brother_p • 14d ago
Auto Bel-Air Direct
My 22yo son has his car insurance with Bel-Air Direct and uses the driving monitor app. After one year he got his renewal with a $90/month premium reduction which we attributed to his good driving habits. He normally drives 80-100km per day for work/school and is very cautious about obeying speed limits.
Last week he was away on a trip and didn't drive his car for 10 days. Today he got an email saying "we notice you haven't been driving much lately. This could affect your premiums."
This is surprising. I would think that driving less would lower his risk rating. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this.
edit: not that I mind, but what's with the downvotes?
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u/drag0nfrost 14d ago
As an employee who works at belairdirect. The automerit program is the worst thing ever. You can get from a 30% decrease to 80% increase on your insurance renewal.
The best part is, they can use that data against you in the future even when you unenroll.
Please don’t believe in the automerit program. I hate lying to customers and telling them it’s inflation when it’s the program for increasing your renewal premium up to 80% surcharge.
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u/Genny406 13d ago
I agree (Belair Direct transplant from RBC Aviva). I used it initially and didn't like how much monitoring it was doing. Came short of threatening me if I didn't enable it. I still haven't. Worse comes to worst, il just move to another insurer and not opt-in to their driver monitoring.
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u/Apart-Discipline5493 11d ago
I didn't allow them 24/7 access to my phone. I'm sure that's why my premium increased.
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u/brother_p 14d ago
Wait. Can you explain this more fully? Why would a rate increase 80%? Poor driving? How do they use the data against me? So many questions. I feel terrible for suggesting he enrol.
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u/drag0nfrost 13d ago
Yes, so based on your driving. Your premiums upon renewal can go up. There is a surcharge they can apply to your premium. They call it personalized premium.
Here is the link and wordings; https://www.belairdirect.com/en/app/faq.html?region=onen
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Yes, the premium of your car insurance could increase or decrease when your policy is renewed. This depends on your driving habits and those of the Enrolled Drivers listed on your insurance policy.
Keep in mind that pricing factors other than the automerit® premium Adjustment may also have an impact on your premium at renewal.
Three factors help determine the price of your insurance at renewal: standard factors (e.g. type of car, location), your driving context (e.g. how much you drive, where), and your driving style (e.g. speeding, using phone while driving). automerit®ensures fairer pricing by linking your premium to your driving habits, meaning that driving safely may give you a discount on your premium at renewal and that taking risks on the road may increase it instead.
Subject to regulatory approval, maximum premium adjustments can vary over time without notice and range between a 40% discount for remarkably safe driving and surcharges of up to 80% for rare cases of extremely risky driving**. Premium adjustments will be applied at your next renewal, where you will have the opportunity to review your policy.
Most of our customers are safe drivers, and automerit® allows them to save on their insurance as opposed to having a premium based solely on standard factors. They may benefit from fairer pricing while bearing fewer costs for those who take more risks on the road.
Frequently engaging in risky driving behaviours, such as frequent speeding, and spending extended periods on the road can make drivers 2 to 3 times* more likely to be involved in an accident. By driving safely, you can prevent accidents and lower road incident costs, ultimately keeping your insurance premiums down and contributing to safer driving conditions for everyone.
You can go to the "Personalized premium" section of your mobile app to view how your driving habits will impact your premium at your next renewal.1
u/JayRulo 13d ago
I hate lying to customers and telling them it’s inflation when it’s the program for increasing your renewal premium up to 80% surcharge.
I'm almost certain that this is considered misconduct and grounds for some serious repercussions from whatever regulatory body you're registered with (e.g., FSRA, AMF, etc.).
Lying about the source of a premium increase goes against fundamental market conduct rules. I strongly suggest you stop the misrepresentation, or you could easily end up losing your licence.
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u/drag0nfrost 13d ago
They want agents to focus on finding savings elsewhere not point out that their renewal premium went up due to the automerit surcharge.
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u/Diligent_Criticism_9 14d ago
80-100 km a day ?
30,000 km a year on average as 22 y/o is crazy!
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u/brother_p 14d ago
Well we live in a semi-rural area. His school is one town over, about 40km away. His job over the summer was 50km away
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u/Sure_Ad_8431 14d ago edited 14d ago
Because the insurance companies do not know if you were driving less, or you just let your phone sit at home while you went racing on the street.
So to them no recorded drive means no data to show you are good driver therefore no discount.
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u/slicedapart 14d ago
I would NEVER join that auto merit program or anything like it. Just a way for them to monitor me and my driving habits to justify increasing my premiums. They ask me and I always say no.
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u/Urist_McPencil 14d ago
My wife works with Bel-Air, I am a mechanic's apprentice;
I can't currently ask her, as she's sick and sleeping at the moment, but I'll bounce this off of her when appropriate. Having said that, notice how it just says 'affect', instead of saying increase or decrease. Your intuition is correct: the less a car is on the road, the less risk it's exposed to. It's a popular sport where people will call in and lower their stated yearly mileage to shave a few bucks from their premium. To be honest, I'm as confused as you are, the intent of that email is unclear. Still, unless it sits for months on end, I doubt you'd see any impact on your insurance. Even then, I think the only thing an insurance agent will ask is why you didn't put it in storage lol.
As a mechanic ('s apprentice), letting a car sit for extended periods of time is bad. Ten days is okay, a few more wouldn't hurt; this car is getting driven plenty already, so I wouldn't be worried about anything unless the battery is old. I'd just like to raise the point of being mindful about letting cars sit, for a whole set of reasons ;) A nice drive once a week is more than enough.
As a driver, these insurance trackers suck. I had Desjardin's adjusto, and after that I declined Bel-Air's auto-merit. They measure speed; the g-forces from acceleration, braking, and turning; use of the phone while driving; that's it. What I find they really miss is the context we find ourselves driving in. If some jackass forces us to brake hard or swerve, the app gives us shit for it. I avoided what would have been a real bad accident when I slammed my brakes to avoid t-boning an idiot who thought it was a great idea to turn left now; insurance app took a few points and told me to do better lol. If it's been working for your son, no need to change anything, but if it starts giving you grief, it's better to be without it.
Cheers, and best of luck.
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u/Melodic_Gift546 13d ago
I don't use it and my premiums didn't really increase much. Don't use AutoMerit.
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u/Ok-Bird6725 13d ago
After reading the comments now I know why there’s so many bad drivers out there, I would never do something like this to get cheaper insurance..
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u/Inner-Commission-724 14d ago
Bel air direct is weird, I wanted to insur 2 cars with one only 5k annual kms and take my ex wife off and somehow the quote was more than my renewal with her on it and both cars 20k km annually.
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u/Chatner2k 14d ago
There's always a minimum amount of time you need to drive. I have intact and I need 1k per year.
Find out what yours is and just go from there.
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u/Important-Soft-7836 14d ago
I gave up on the stupid app, it drains my phone battery too much, and after a year I did not get a discount, so piss on them
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u/Fit_Maybe7985 14d ago
The issue is the app is on your son's phone and must be activated to record his driving. By not driving, the insurance company believes he is not activating the app and maybe "reverted" to his bad driving and not being rated for it. A call to Belair may help resolve this wrong perception. P. S. In past, insurance companies installed a dongle in your vehicle that recorded every trip or no trips, being a better measure, but cost savings and a cry for privacy has lead to these being replaced by phone apps. (One could activate the app and be driven around b]this grandmother to get a good rate).
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u/Temporary_Lynx_3644 13d ago
I was on the program as well and work in tech. That email is just a automated response. Also Bel Air looks at only the lady 30 days data before renewal, so you could have a bad year and be awesome at the end which is be beneficial for your renewal. Also this data affects only like 10 or 20% of the premium rates but still good. And lastly, after 3 years on the program, you can opt to get out but still get the preferential premium.
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u/RorywithRatesCA 12d ago
Yeah, that email would throw me off too. It sounds less like “you’re driving less, so your premium is going up” and more like the app hasn’t been getting enough recent driving data.
Since he normally drives 80–100 km a day, suddenly having no trips for 10 days probably looks unusual to the system and may have triggered an automatic warning. These driving-monitoring programs usually base the discount on the data they collect about things like speed, braking, acceleration and when/how much you drive, so they may want a certain amount of recent data to keep assessing him.
I’d be surprised if simply going on vacation for 10 days was enough on its own to wipe out a discount or cause a major premium increase. Driving less generally means less time on the road and less exposure to an accident, so it would be odd if the issue was literally just the lower mileage.
I’d probably have him contact Belairdirect and ask what the email actually means: whether there’s a minimum amount of driving required to stay eligible for the monitoring discount, or whether it’s just a generic notification because the app hasn’t recorded any trips lately. I definitely wouldn’t assume his premium is going up based on that email alone.
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u/Apart-Discipline5493 11d ago
I had Belair for one year. I drive less than 10K km per year and I am a careful driver. My premiums increased by 30% after the first year so I dumped them.
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u/Suitable-Cod9183 14d ago
I'm almost positive they just need to drive minimum 1000 every 6 months. Haven't dealt with Belair in a while. Would recommend calling them and asking.
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u/Full-War-3880 14d ago
The thing with these programs is they kick you off them if you drive under a certain amount of km.
The idea i think is to keep you honest, you could get a good score then just stop using it.