In 2014, the Ontario government promised a 15 per cent reduction on auto insurance.
But for motorcycle enthusiast Andre Seiffert, rates have gone nowhere but up.
Every time Seiffert renews his policy, he says he gets hit with increases between two and 10 per cent.
“(Rates) just continue to go up, you get less insurance for the same amount of money and I don’t know when it’s going to stop,” he said.
In 2015, Seiffert’s premium was $1,126. This year, he was shocked to find out his rate had jumped to more than $2,000 -- an increase of almost 80 per cent.
“I have no accidents. I have no tickets. I have no claims whatsoever,” Seiffert said, adding his insurance broker told him he could expect the same increase on his second motorcycle.
Seiffert’s policy is with State Farm Insurance, which was recently purchased by Desjardins. Since Seiffert renewed his policy, the insurance company has said the spike was caused by a glitch in the system and would be fixed as soon as possible.
“We recently made systems updates that affected a small portion of our insurance policies,” State Farm spokesperson John Bordignon said in a statement. “We have discovered some discrepancies and will be contacting customers to rectify any errors that have occurred.”
The company did contact Seiffert and told him his premium was only supposed to go up by 15 per cent.
Seiffert said that, while 15 per cent is still a big increase, he’s glad he won’t have to pay as much as he thought.
“I’m glad I didn’t just pay it,” he said.
Anyone who sees a dramatic spike in their insurance premium should contact the company to ask about the rate.
