Hurlabrick

Oh that is VERY interesting! And did they accept this output from the MIB (in place of letters from each and every insurer)???

Shakyuk

Agreed that is good to know!

ScotinCanada

Welcome to BE and great choice of name!

Verdant

We're moving to Vancouver Island, BC in the New Year. Car insurance does seem rather eye-watering - what sort of costs we can anticipate in the province? My partner has only had a licence for 7 years here in the UK - will that be sufficient? Thanks.

OtherDave

Here is the page you need to head to for the form and address for your full history:

https://www.mib.org.uk/check-insuran...tion-from-mib/

Dave_Pardew

Big respect and thank you to all contributors to this thread - among the hundred million other items on my to-do list, I hadn't even considered the car insurance minefield to come <takes a deep breath and dives into the murky depths of no claims...>

Hurlabrick

I would also recommend that you get the full UK DVLA 'driving experience' print. In case it is needed for UK to Canadian Province licence exchange. See here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...driving-record

Piece of cake to get and it's free.

Dave_Pardew

Thank you Hurlabrick, will do

Aviator

License exchange can be done with 2 or more years of holding a full UK license.

Claims a discount for no previous claims is allowable if you can bring letters from previous insurers showing you have made no claims. Any break in insurance history is where they stop, insurance letters must show the person claiming the discount as the policy holder. Letters must be in the format required by ICBC.
http://www.icbc.com/autoplan/moving-...residents.aspx

We have the full 43% discount with 20 years, paying around $1600 a year for a truck, $2000 for an SUV and $3000 for M/C

http://www.icbc.com/autoplan/moving-...residents.aspx

llysmabley

We live in Ottawa and got fully comp for both of us with Cooperators for under $1000.

No fuss and our UK history accepted without question.

New KIA Rio

Try them.

Photoplex

Apologies if I've missed it, but it never seems to be mentioned when discussions about UK vs Canadian insurance rates comes up.

In the UK, you insure a named specific driver, to a specific vehicle. Thus, in most cases, only 1 person is legally allowed to drive that vehicle under that policy coverage. You can name extra specific people, but then your rates go up.

In Canada, you insure the vehicle, period. As the vehicle owner I can let my friend, neighbour, or stranger off the street borrow my car, and they are covered under my insurance policy. This obviously carries a greater risk for the insurer, and thus the premiums are higher.

I've always assumed Canadian insurers do this because of the vast distances we drive here, which require sharing the driving on long road trips.

dbd33

This isn't quite how it works in Canada or, always, in the UK. In the UK my cars were always insured for "any driver" which made sense because I had the highest rating anyone could so the marginal cost for adding randomers was minimal.

In Canada you are asked to provide details of all cars and drivers in the household and the company then rates as if someone is the primary operator of each vehicle (even if you are not insuring all the vehicles and drivers). Companies often exclude specific drivers from some or all of the vehicles e.g. "the 18 year old can't operate the Ferrari", "the frequent drunk driver can't operate any of the vehicles". Note that, excepting exotics, the car doesn't matter in Canada the way it does in the UK, if you're only concerned with insurance costs you may as well have the 550hp as the 300hp model.

The reason for covering "any driver" here (ON) is just that the company insuring the car (or the last insurer if there's none at the time of an accident) is on the hook for the liability risk associated with that car regardless of who's operating it. I don't know if this law was the deliberate policy of some government or happenstance but it means that offering "any driver" is not the company doing the policyholder a great favour.

In exciting news, my policy is just renewing and it's under $4000 for the year; we'll be able to dine out again!

dbd33

Is that a telemetric policy? One with a thingy in the car to track your driving style.

llysmabley

No, just a standard policy.
We are both in our late 70's and the new car was $22'000.
Last month a woman ran into us on a roundabout ( drivers haven't got used to them yet )
Completely her fault and no contest.
Our claim was processed smoothly and the repairs were first class at Assured
I can recommend Cooperators for insurance.

dbd33

Cooperators sell policies based on their claims service rather than on price so I would expect them to look after their customers. I'm surprised at the premium though, good for you.