Rocky View County couple slapped with massive bill over postal code change
A simple postal code change was supposed to be a positive thing for Jim and Dianne Novak but instead, the couple has been battling their insurance company — SGI Canada — over a premium charge on their bill.
Jim says after notifying their insurance broker of the change, they received a bill in the mail for $625.
“I explained to her that we’re not paying the extra premium just for a change of address,
he said. "We didn’t move.”
The Novaks have been in the same house for 30 years, using the same PO Box.
As part of the civic addressing program, Canada Post changed the Novak’s PO Box number to a physical address.
The company says the program has been implemented in many rural regions across the country to improve the delivery system and help 911 responders locate emergencies.
The Novaks were happy to see the switch.
“We were kind of excited because a lot of companies won’t deliver mail or parcels to a PO Box but they will to a street type of address,” said Jim.
But then the couple found themselves dealing with the unexpected expense. Dianne says their broker told them it’s because of their new address and postal code, despite not physically moving.
“We are lumped in with the City of Chestermere,” said Dianne.
“Now we are all lumped into a broad area that insurance companies will use to pull their statistics from to generate their premiums.”
The Novaks say their insurance broker told them their premium would be waived for this year but they’ll be expected to pay the higher fee moving forward.
After CTV News reached out to SGI Canada, a representative said they are working on the issue and admitted the extra charge should not have happened, saying, “If there were no changes to the underlying risk then an increase of this magnitude is not typical.”
In an email, the company said the first three digits of the Novak’s postal code is used in other, already existing postal codes and their system didn’t automatically flag it as a newly created postal code, which defaulted to a high rate.
Furthermore, the company said, “Our process is to implement a temporary fix to adjust the postal code back to the original one, so the customer will not have to pay a higher rate.”
Jim says they haven’t personally heard from the company yet about the fix but they are happy to hear something is being done.
"SGI has been really good with us overall over the years," he said
"Just this surprise bill is not sitting very well."
SGI Canada says it is working to identify other customers who may be impacted by a change to their postal codes.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Former Air Canada employees among suspects identified in gold heist at Pearson Airport: police
Nine people have been arrested in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year, Peel Regional Police said Wednesday.
MPs summon ArriveCan contractor to the House to be admonished in rare parliamentary display
Enacting an extraordinarily rarely used parliamentary power, MPs have summoned an ArriveCan contractor to appear before the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon to be admonished publicly for failing to answer their questions.
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
Gas prices across Ontario expected to climb to levels not seen since 2022, analyst says
Ontario is going to see a big jump at the pumps later this week as gas prices in the province hit levels not seen in nearly two years, according to one industry analyst.
Ancient skeletons unearthed in France reveal Mafia-style killings
More than 5,500 years ago, two women were tied up and probably buried alive in a ritual sacrifice, using a form of torture associated today with the Italian Mafia, according to an analysis of skeletons discovered at an archaeological site in southwest France.
10 years in U.S. prison for Canadian man who stole millions with fake psychic fraud
A former Montreal resident has been sentenced to 10 years in a United States federal prison for a multi-decade fraud that manipulated more than one million Americans into sending money to fake psychics.
'Enormous sum of money': Actor Hugh Grant settles privacy lawsuit against tabloid
British actor Hugh Grant has settled a lawsuit against the publisher of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspaper, The Sun, over claims journalists used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house, he said on Wednesday.
O.J. Simpson was chilling with a beer on a couch before Easter, lawyer says. 2 weeks later he was dead
O.J. Simpson's last robust discussion with his longtime lawyer was just before Easter, at the country club home Simpson leased southwest of the Las Vegas Strip. About a week later, on April 5, a doctor said Simpson was 'transitioning.'
Some of the winners and losers in the 2024 federal budget
With a variety of fiscal and policy measures announced in the federal budget, winners include small businesses and fintech companies while losers include the tobacco industry and Canadian pension funds.