Car
Insurance
COVID-19 & Car Insurance – What you need to know
As a locally owned and operated Atlantic Canadian brokerage, Cheep Insurance is dedicated to helping our clients and local communities make the best decisions possible when it comes to their insurance.
Our goal is to provide clients with information and advice that will help them get the best coverage for their needs at the lowest price available based on their situations. That’s why we’ve been working hard over the past few weeks to determine what options are available to help our clients save money during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since we work with 15+ different insurance companies, all with different ideas for helping their clients, there is not one simple solution or answer. We can’t make a blanket statement like “All Cheep Insurance clients will receive a discount of __%”, because all the insurance companies our clients are insured through are handling the COVID-19 situation differently. Some are offering discounts that can be added by request, others are automatically applying discounts to all clients, and a few have not communicated any plans yet.
What we’ve done to help clients understand how they may be impacted or what discounts they may be eligible for is develop an FAQ section outlining common questions and answers regarding COVID-19 and car insurance.
FAQ #1: What if I’m working from home and no longer have a work commute?
If you’re working from home right now due to COVID-19 but used your vehicle to commute to and from work before this, you may be eligible for a discount on your car insurance. Whether or not you’re eligible will be based on your current vehicle usage and driving class, so a discount is not guaranteed – but it’s worth a shot!
Might as well try to save money wherever you can right now!
If you’re a Cheep Insurance client looking to see if you’re eligible for a discount, you can fill out our COVID-19 Vehicle Use Change Request form with your updated information and we’ll process the change with your insurance company for you to see if you’re eligible. Processing times might be a bit slower than normal due to the high volume of these requests coming in right now – this means that related discounts may not be applied before your next payment. You will receive an email notifying you of any payment changes once they’ve been processed.
If you do update your policy to reflect that you’re not currently commuting, it is extremely important that you let us know as soon as you’re using your vehicle to commute to and from work again. If you don’t do this and you get in an accident while commuting, there may not be coverage. It is your responsiblity to notify us when your vehicle usage changes again. We also want to make sure you’re aware that your price will increase again at that time. We anticipate that service volumes will be high at that time, so it may take a little while for the change to be processed, resulting in the price increase being spread over only a few payments, which could make those payments seem high.
FAQ #2: What if my family has multiple vehicles and we’ve parked one (or more) due to COVID-19?
If your family has multiple vehicles but only one needs to be on the road right now due to the COVID-19 situation, you may want to reduce coverages on the vehicles not being used to save some money. We recommend reducing coverage to comprehensive coverage only for parked vehicles – this will protect your vehicle against theft, fire or vandalism while it is parked. Reducing coverage would result in a lower insurance price for the vehicles being parked. Based on your payment set-up, this could mean lower monthly payments or a partial refund if you paid for your entire policy in full upfront.
To reduce coverages, you will need to call our support team at 1.866.922.4337 or email them at support@cheepinsurance.ca.
As mentioned above, processing times might be a bit slower than normal due to the high volume of these requests coming in right now. This means that changes may not be processed right away / payment reductions may not be applied before your next payment.
If you do reduce coverages on vehicle(s) on your policy, it is extremely important to let us know when you plan to start driving them again. While vehicle coverage is reduced, there is no coverage at all while the vehicle is being driven. It is your responsiblity to notify us before you plan to use parked vehicles again. If you don’t do this and you get in an accident while driving one of these vehicles, there will be no coverage. Note that your insurance price will increase again when coverage is added back on. We anticipate that service volumes will be high at that time, so it may take a little while for the change to be processed, resulting in the price increase being spread over only a few payments, which could make those payments seem high.
FAQ #3: What about the companies offering discounts / credits to all their clients?
Some companies have announced that they plan to offer price decreases or credits to all their clients.
We’re still working with our insurance company partners to figure out which companies will be offering discounts / credits to all clients and how they will be applied. As more information becomes available, we will communicate with clients who are impacted directly to let them know how any discounts / credits they may be eligible for will work.
Questions? We’re here for you!
We know this can be a lot to take in – if you have any questions about your policy specifically, our friendly support team is more than happy to help! You can reach them using the following contact information:
- Phone: 1-866-92-CHEEP (1-866-922-4337)
- Email: support@cheepinsurance.ca
You can also access your policy info and request policy changes by logging into our website or downloading our mobile app.
Looking for an insurance quote? We have you covered!
If you’re not a Cheep Insurance client right now but you’re interested in getting a quote and potentially becoming one, we’d love to have a chat! You can reach our amazing sales team during our regular business hours (Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:30pm) using the following contact information:
- Phone: 1-866-92-CHEEP (1-866-922-4337)
- Email: quotes@cheepinsurance.ca
You can also request a quote for any of our insurance products online:
From the Cheep Insurance team: stay safe and look after one another!! #FlattenTheCurve