undefined | Better HN

0 pointsint_19h3y ago0 comments

I lived in BC 10 years ago, and the notion that ICBC is extremely overpriced for no good reason seemed to be the prevailing and rather strongly held belief cutting across the political spectrum there.

I'll grant you that this is anecdata, but if there are any public opinion polls demonstrating that ICBC is doing what it's doing with an actual consent of the governed, I'd love to see them.

(Elections don't satisfy this because people effectively vote on many different issues as a batch, so a few hot-button issues can dominate everything else in practice, making it impossible to interpret the outcome as a mandate for a particular policy unless it was one of those hot-button issues.)

0 comments

wirrbel3y ago

What is overpriced for an insurance? people pay their fees and get damage compensation in case of a successful claim. So an insurance can be overpriced if the compensation is way lower than the fees on average (administrative overhead or extracted profit from the insurance provider) and then of course you can hold the opinion that the insurance's coverage is too hight, which also leads to higher fees to begin with.

Anyway, you can pretty sure simply analyse this with the business data.

If you make a poll you'll just poll for the public sentiment. And frankly "the tax is too damn high" can be heard everywhere pretty much regardless of the taxes.

aceofspades193y ago

The issue with ICBC is that you are forced to do business with them no matter how you feel about their business practices or how much they are charging. ICBC can change their pricing completely from year to year and there is nothing you can do about it if you need to keep driving your car. This is not even an exaggeration, a few years ago ICBC did adjust their rates such that some people were suddenly paying thousands more per year despite having no claim history, They have since changed the fee structure since then but it is a bit scary when your premiums go from $2000 per year to $5000 or more.

goodcanadian3y ago

I have lived in BC a couple of times in my life. The popular perception that it is overpriced is definitely a thing. To add my anecdatum, ICBC was more expensive than other jurisdictions that I have lived in, but not outrageously so. Is it overpriced? Possibly. Is it extremely overpriced? I am inclined to think not.

mthoms3y ago

That’s similar to my experience. For the couple claims I’ve had, the process has been flawless with ICBC. Not so for my extended family in Ontario.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse