Shari O’Neill is questioning why she received a car insurance rebate cheque from ICBC for $1 this week.
The cheque is one of the first batches of being mailed out by the Insurance Corporation of B.C. after a cyberattack hampered a third-party vendor.
“Based on what I pay, I expected way more than a dollar,” the Coquitlam resident told Black Press Media.
The business owner had two cars insured during the qualifying period and paid upwards of $200 a month for discounted insurance on a 1994 Toyota Tacoma and 2017 GMC Yukon.
After posting the amount to Twitter, ICBC responded: “We’re committed to ensuring customers receive all the savings owed to them.”
“As part of this commitment, we will be issuing refund cheques for any amount of $1 or more. This approach is a change from our historical practice of not issuing cheques for $5 or less.”
WOW!! What a colossal waste of money! It literally cost more to send out this rebate from @icbc than the amt it was for. No wonder they are in the hole. $1.00, what should I spend it on? #Stupidity pic.twitter.com/YS38ipxyev
— Shari O'Neill🇨🇦🍀🇮🇪 😷 (@ShariONeill12) March 29, 2021
RELATED: ICBC paying out COVID-19 rebates in March, averaging $190
The B.C. government said customers are to receive a one-time rebate averaging $190 after ICBC saved $600 million from a decrease in crash claims due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
O’Neill is concerned the Crown corporation is utilizing resources to send out cheques that will ultimately go uncashed.
“It’s the dollar amount. How much did it cost to send those sorts of cheques out? I’m not going to be the only one who gets that $1 or $5.”
“It’s just silly. I’m not gonna cash it.”
If she did, O’Neill worries her bank’s deposit fee might leave her with a rebate of just cents.
She said ICBC should have credited rebates of $5 or less to customer accounts, to be used the following year.
If not, “all that money is going to sit in stale cheques. What a colossal waste.”
READ MORE: ICBC COVID rebate cheques may be delayed weeks due to cyberattack
RELATED: ICBC distributes 1st batch of 30,000 COVID rebate cheques after cyberattack delays
sarah.grochowski@bpdigital.ca
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