The ACTUAL problem is more and more people are switching their optional insurance to other providers who in most cases are way, way cheaper.
ICBC responds by punishing us with an increase to the fees we can’t avoid, all due to their lack of business savvy.
My optional insurance was over $400 less and was much better coverage…do you think ICBC has a problem??!!

Next announcement will be ICBC brass getting raises.

Hmmm,, so the fact that most long term accident injury’s, end up being covered by our welfare,(disability pension),, should that not lower our rates?? I smell another con job coming our way.

B.S lies. can I get car insurance from some other place?

ohhh like our rates aren’t high enough as it is.. They raised it eleven per cent last year.. Now five per cent??/ They think we get wage increases that high to cover them???

reality: “The ACTUAL problem is more and more people are switching their optional insurance to other providers who in most cases are way, way cheaper.”

Agreed. I switched years ago and haven’t looked back. I got sick of being overcharged by ICBC while having a perfect driving record. If I could move my mandatory insurance to a private carrier, I would do that too.

I think that ICBC needs to change their investigation procedure. My daughter and her friend were in a minor accident, they spun on the ice and landed in the ditch, single car accident, no one seriously hurt, both were checked out at the hospital and both were deemed to be fine, just a little sore for a few days. The week after the accident, the friend went back to figure skating and doing competitions. A month later when my daughter and the friend had a falling out, the friend went in and claimed injury over the accident, received a payment and we didn’t even find out until my daughter went to renew her insurance and was told her rate had gone up due to the payout. The friend used ICBC to get revenge on the daughter. I fought this with ICBC! We did not even receive a phone call let alone be asked any questions before the friend received money!

Agreed that ICBC needs to change their investigation procedure. I was involved in a very minor accident about 10 years ago with an out of province vehicle. Minimal damage to my vehicle, nothing more than a scrape on the other vehicle. This was before everyone had a camera on their phone. The other driver said no worries, he would just buff it out. I still reported to ICBC, decided to get it fixed privately because it was cheaper than my deductible at the time. Year and a half later went to renew insurance to find out my discount was gone because of a claim. Had to renew because it was due the next day. Went to ICBC a few days later on my next day off to straighten out only to find that an out of province claim for thousands of dollars of damage was filed against me with no pictures attached to the supposed damage. And since I renewed my insurance I was basically agreeing to the claim and had no recourse. ICBC paid out a claim without notifying me, and they approved an out of province claim with no pictures provided. The damage that was written in the report was not even close to the damage I saw to the other vehicle but they didn’t care.

So as we see from the above. ICBC seems to have a major problem in providing the services we pay for.

Seems to me that ICBC has billions of dollars in investments, however they never seem to want to talk about these investments, or to sell some of them to generate some revenue.

In addition our illustrious Liberal Government is skimming some$77 millions from ICBC in the next few years. No one seems to want to talk about this skimming either.

Where are our elected r representatives when it comes to these kinds of issues???? Seems all they are good for is ribbon cutting, photo ops. Lets see Bond and her sidekick go to bat for the people who pay their wages. Whats the chances of that happening???

nice colors, it makes it so pleasing.

JohnnyBelt,

“reality: “The ACTUAL problem is more and more people are switching their optional insurance to other providers who in most cases are way, way cheaper.”

Agreed. I switched years ago and haven’t looked back. I got sick of being overcharged by ICBC while having a perfect driving record. If I could move my mandatory insurance to a private carrier, I would do that too.”

How exactly does this work and what is defined as optional?

Just ask at any Autoplan dealer. I believe the company I use is called Family Insurance, but there’s more out there.
You can opt out of everthing from ICBC except basic coverage. Anything additional can be done through private companies (collision, windshield, replacement, roadside, etc..).
Why everyone doesn’t do it is beyond me.

People have to ask is the Government again increasing the amount they draw from ICBC for general revenue as with BC Hydro.Thats the real cost, another tax.

Hummer: “How exactly does this work and what is defined as optional?”

ICBC requires everyone to have a base level of insurance. The extra stuff (third party, comprehensive, collision, etc.) can be purchased through a private insurer and piggybacked onto ICBC basic coverage. As reality said, just talk to any Autoplan agent and get a rate comparison. You might be surprised, espeially if you have an excellent driving record.

The liberal gov needs more money…so they are using Icbc to gouge us more.

Why is ICBC paying out so much more for injuries in such a short time? Have injuries shot up? Medical costs?

I also agree about ICBC’s slack investigative procedures. They inquire about fault but not about the extent of damage, which leaves the way open for fraud. I once had a minor accident in which an acquaintance and I returned to a largely deserted parking lot and each got into our own vehicle. It turned that he had decided to ask me something and had pulled right behind me, so when I backed up into what a moment before had been an empty lane, I hit him, causing modest damage to the door. ICBC looked into fault (my fault, though I did think he shouldn’t have suddenly stopped right behind me), but they never asked me for information about the extent of the damage or told me what he claimed so that I could if necessary have disputed it. In this case as far as I know there was no fraud, but he could easily have inflated the damage attributed to this accident.

Increases are to cover govt employee wage increases from the past few years.

realitycheck – I agree that a big part of the problem for ICBC is because so many people go private for optional insurance. However the root cause of that problem is not a “lack of business savvy.” Rather, the bigger issue for ICBC is that the older, more desirable drivers, with better claims experience are the ones who are going with private insurers because they are the most profitable drivers to insure. ICBC doesn’t have that luxury because they have to insure everyone. They don’t get to pick and choose only “the cream.” Then you are right, they end up with poorer claims results and having to pass those costs to their customers in increased rate. Definitely one of the negatives of having a monopoly…

And actually they ARE using some business savvy. They increase the rate on the mandatory coverage, while lowering the rates on the optional, which keeps them more competitive with the private insurers on that part of it. Sneaky sneaky…

Also the Government is using ICBC to upgrade roads, etc.

“Meanwhile the provincial opposition NDP says ICBC should be lowering rates, not raising them. MLA Mable Elmore says while it may be true that injury claims are up, so are profits at the Crown corporation too.

“ICBC still has generated over the last three years $677 million in profit and is projected to contribute another $500 million…in profits over the next three years. So those should go back towards savings for motorists in B.C.” *cbcnews.ca

You tell them Mable, where does that profit go? Back into the government coffers I bet!

The greens encourage more use of bicycles and that is resulting in increased bicycle related accidents adding to ICBC costs. Since the various governments push user pay for about everything maybe bicycle commuters should be paying their share of insurance and road tax. Time to end the free ride.

Interesting thought seamutt. I’m one of those cyclists who sometimes rides to work. I also have two insured vehicles that I pay insurance costs whether I use them or my bike. They tell me because I’m physically fit I will be less of a burden on the healthcare system so I’m not quite sure how I’m freeloading. I will be glad to license and insure my bicycle when they start taxing fast food and raising medical premiums on overweight people because I have to pay for those people through msp and taxes. I’d probably come out ahead.

Just seamutt trying to change the subject on a government run organization digging deeper into our pockets while it makes millions of dollars in profit every year!

Kind of hard to justify or defend that!!!

Ha ha ha got ya

Actually ICBC mentioned bicycle issues one of the reasons for added costs.

ICBC should be returning the portion of profit it makes beyond what’s needed to maintain an adequate base against projected future claims to the people who pay the premiums ~ us.

Not paying a dividend to the government, which then tells us that without that dividend it can’t fund healthcare and education.

This is a very poor way for any government to manage. You can’t ever get an accurate picture of what the actual costs are of the services provided.

It distorts the whole picture, and makes it exceedingly difficult to make a meaningful comparison whether our healthcare set-up is more or less cost-effective relative to what we’re really paying for it, or whether some other methods might be better.

Same with BC Hydro. It’s first job should be to provide adequate lowest cost electric power to British Columbians. Not be run as a cash cow for the government, which perverts the whole original idea of “no taxation without representation”, the fundamental basis of what we call democracy.

Pay the dividends, whenever they are warranted, directly to British Columbians. In ICBC’s case to every insured motorist. In Hydro’s, to each and every BC customer that’s connected to its power grid. We certainly will never be able to fund the other services government provides us, nor ensure we’re getting the best value for our money having them provided that way, if we don’t first HAVE THE MONEY to pay for them.

Moving money around and getting it is a position that allows the Government to use it for their pet projects seems to be the name of the game.

The City of Prince George is quite good at moving money from fund to fund, when it serves their purpose.