Canada’s home and auto insurance providers continue to move swiftly to provide their customers with COVID-19 relief programs.
Earlier, Wawanesa, RSA Canada, and The Co-operators unveiled their respective insurance premium relief measures. More recently, Echelon Insurance, Pafco, and Pembridge detailed the actions they are each taking to assist their policyholders.
Get the details on COVID-19 relief measures other Canadian auto and home insurers are providing their customers.
Echelon Insurance
Echelon Insurance is introducing new COVID-19 relief measures to assist its customers.
The measures include:
- Adjusting auto premiums by up to 15% for customers who are driving less
- Suspend all coverage on vehicles that are not in use except comprehensive coverage (protects you if your vehicle is damaged by fire, vandalism, or is stolen), resulting in a premium reduction of up to 80%
- All planned auto rate increases are suspended for the next three to six months, representing savings between 12% and 15%
- Flexible, online payment options, and automatic coverage for customers who volunteer to deliver food or supplies (excluding coverage for paid deliveries such as UberEats)
Echelon customers should contact their brokers to request these measures. The company says they will be applied to active auto policies retroactively for March 15, 2020, or the date of the most recent policy change.
Pafco
To ease the financial burden its auto insurance customers are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pafco is:
- Providing opportunities for deferring payments upon request
- Extending coverage for customers who use their vehicles to deliver food and medicine for commercial purposes. Standard personal auto insurance policies do not typically include this coverage
- Waiving non-sufficient fund (NSF) fees as of April 14
- Customers with an active auto policy as of April 8 will receive a one-time Stay-at-Home payment of approximately 25% of their monthly premium by cheque in May. The payment applies to all personal vehicles excluding recreational vehicles such as motorcycles and snowmobiles
Pafco customers should contact their brokers if they have questions about these measures. Pafco is one of Allstate Canada’s group of companies.
Pembridge
Pembridge is also one of Allstate Canada’s group of companies. It, too, is offering a series of relief measures similar to Pafco’s, including:
- Customers with an active Pembridge auto policy as of April 8 will receive a one-time Stay-at-Home payment of approximately 25% of their monthly premium by cheque in May. The payment applies to all personal vehicles except recreational vehicles like motorcycles and snowmobiles
- Providing opportunities for deferring payments at the customer’s request
- Extending personal auto insurance coverage for customers who use their vehicles to deliver food and medicine for commercial purposes during the crisis
- Waiving NSF fees for missed payments as of April 14
Pembridge customers are encouraged to contact their brokers for more information on the COVID-19 crisis insurance relief measures available to them.