prairiechicken

Just thought I'd post my experience today with buying a car and the necessary insurance for the first time in BC.

We spent a long time (having read the excellent advice on here) getting letters from all our past car insurance companies to show we had no at fault claims for the last 8 years. We had to go back and forth several times with some of them, getting the letters with the right wording or right format. But we got them in the end (most of them a couple of months before we flew out here).

It really paid off today, when we presented all our paperwork to the ICBC agent so we could get our insurance sorted, and she confirmed very quickly we would get the biggest discount possible (40%) for new residents of BC. Really quite simple and straightforward. When we still had to pay more than we have ever paid for insurance EVER ($1300 for the year to be precise), even with the discount, I was extremely grateful that we took the time to get things in the right format.

So it is worth it, and just follow the instructions given on the ICBC website for the format of the letter, and don't believe your insurance company if they tell you they can't do it - push, and you'll get what you need.

beckiwoo

It sounded like a mission.

Despite me sending my insurance company the template and informing them they are required to do it as it says on template. they haven't done it! I fly next in 10 days I've just given up and hope I get a little runaround which won't cost the earth to insure.

$1300 with the discount - wow!!

prairiechicken

Only one company I dealt with managed to get it right first time. All the others took 2-3 attempts. Keep at them. Seriously, it's worth it in the end. One company offered to email me the letter first so I could check it before they put it in the post (so ask if they can do that for you). And tell them how much insurance costs over here - that seemed to motivate the person at the other end of the phone more than anything, I think they felt some form of sympathy that pushed them into action.

Don't bank on insurance being loads cheaper for a runaround. I'm not sure it makes that much difference, from what I've heard. It's all expensive.

FlyingDutchman6666

Bargain ! My wife and I pay $2400/yr each. 40yo, clean record, full no-claims discount from UK. Without the UK history, quotes came in around the $3500 mark.

That's in the GTA.

prairiechicken

Ouch!

SchnookoLoly

Bargain indeed! I'd kill for $1300. Husband and I are paying $2000 per year in the GTA for just our one car so far... we are dreading what is going to happen when Husband gets his own car later this year.

Well done on getting it sorted, though - goes to show how much doing your homework pays off!

R I C H

I've owned small cheap cars, small expensive cars, an SUV and various new and used trucks here. The insurance premium has only changed by a couple of hundred dollars between them. $1300 with full no claims is about average in my experience.

prairiechicken

So I am interested as to what makes the difference for insurance costs - is the GTA just really expensive? Or is it big cities in general? Does it make much of a difference what car you drive?

rivingtonpike

I have a big (ish) car and my wife has a little car. Our respective insurance costs are pretty similar - even though mine is bigger than hers.

beckiwoo

Thanks i might try and give it one last push this week but if not I'll just have to accept the consequences

Yes that's why I said 'wow'!!

shazza69

how far in advance before you moved did you get the letter from your insurance? Just wondering about the date on it not being recent?

Tirytory

I think we were either really lucky or really lucky for the type of job my husband has...

Anyway to note if your respective job gets covered by a union or you have to license with someone then you can often get their group collective insurance rates which is what we appear to have lucked out with. £1500 for both of us, they accepted plain old no claims for the UK companies nothing special.

beckiwoo

Hypothetically if I can't get my proof of no claims to what ICBC want, how much should I budget for insurance around $4000? Can I pay this monthly? And how much with no accidents or incidents aft the first year could this go down to?

scrubbedexpat091

They will usually let you pay monthly, but they do add interest to it, but its not a huge amount.

This is a few years old but in 2008 I had no discount at all on a 2005 Sunfire, 9 year driving experience, no accidents or tickets, full coverage on the car since it was financed, and I paid 3,000 per year.

We now pay 1,500 per year with 40% discount (our insurance went down a good chunk this year at renewal, even though we had 40% last year as well.) so add 40% to that and gives you a rough estimate of what we would be paying without the 40%.

Nobody can give you an exact estimate except ICBC if you know what kind of car you will have and where you will be living.


Ontario just has high insurance rates to begin with, for whatever reason they charge an arm and a leg there for insurance.

Alberta tends to have some of the lowest insurance rates, BC kind of falls into the middle it seems.

But insurance in Canada is just high across the board compared to rest of North America, but whats new, we pay a premium to live in Canada..

tweed_wearer

I have only held UK licence for 2 yrs, 1 1/2 years of clean driving history, 30 yeas old, male. Any idea what I will have to fork out?