Cassie 10000

Hi

My other half has been phoning around for car insurance. He phoned a company that one of his work mates is with, but, they are saying that they won't give any quotes over the phone and they have to mail out a document to us.

Is this the norm with all car insurance? If anyone has any reccomendations please PM.

I'm a little worried now to say the least as we are surposed to pick up a car tomorrow and without insurance, we can't get the plate, hense no car.

Please help me fellow expats.

FlirtyKnickers

Hi Cassie, sorry i can't help hun but i'm sure someone will

iaink

Every insurer I've ever called has been happy to quote over the phone.

I use www.belairdirect.com ...you can do it online I think, although dealing with UK no claims etc will complicate things.

Another online option is www.kanetix.ca

When I first arrived I dealt with a local brokerage, they got me the best deal for my UK experience.

Goos Luck

geo4

Aviva

Cassie 10000

I started to do one of them on line quotes and to be honest I feel a little worried and sick now.

The quotes are saying $3,503 and $3,774 if these prices are true then it would be cheaper for us to loose or $1,000 deposit and hire a car. We only have a Toyota Matrix its a little bigger than a Yaris.

That quote is just for Neil, not even both of us.

I have no idea what to do its the first time I've felt so down here. I really feel like crying.

G77

I wouldn't wait for the paper quote - only reason I can think of that they would make you wait is because it's not good!

I don't know if Johnson's cover AB, but they got my quote here down from $3k-5k to $1.5k.....

iaink

I can believe thats what its churning out if you have no canadian record, as its just an dumb online utitlity and only as good as the info entered. BUT, it seems on the high side in the real world.

Get the phone book, call around all the local brokers, someone must want the business enough to give you credit for your UK driving record. and they should be able to get back to you without resorting to writing. Baring a bad UK record I would guess closer to $2000 for both of you is a more realisitic ballpark guess...but it is just a guess.


Do you have all the necessary documentation and letter from your old insurer? Without it I cant see you picking up your car tomorrow anyway as the local agent will want confirmation of your UK record to give you credit for it.

G77

Johnson's do cover AB :-

Edmonton, AB
Johnson Inc.
West Chambers Building
Suite 301
12220 Stony Plain Road
Edmonton, AB
T5N 3Y4

Tel: (780) 483-0408
Toll Free: 1-800-483-0456
Fax: 780-489-6623
E-Mail Contact: [email protected]

Give them a call - don't email them, they'll likely not reply.....

Cassie 10000

Thanks to all of you.

This is our problem we have no home phone yet and Neil is having to do it all at work when he gets a spare moment. We didn't think it was going to be this hard, I'm feeling now that we should have waited.

We have no yellow pages so checking out the internet for numbers.

Back in the UK Neil had eight years no claims and I have five. I knew there might be trouble with converting them over but I was only expecting between $1,500 and $2,000 to be the most we would expect to pay.

iaink

Get a bunch of quarters and find a pay phone somewhere nice and warm. Or ask a neighbour as its local calls.

Good Luck!

G77

If that's a documented eight years to what they expect (as discussed on here many times before), then you should be able to get it down to that no problem....

If you have no phone, but internet, then use a VOIP service? Skype?

MR MOM

Hi I know lots of people recommend companies but we used an agent in calgary who went through ING insurance. We supplied him with letters from our UK insurance companies showing all our no claims,similar to yours, and a DVLA driving extract. We were given excellent quotes and the same status as a Canadian after a couple of weeks in Canada.

Canada2006

We arranged our insurance through an agent and got a really excellent deal - about $800 for both of us and I've had a recent accident. This is in Québec though so won't hep too much and the insurance company is only operating in QC. The second cheapest quote we had was through the Québec arm of Johnsons - around $900.

Flossie and Jim

We got insured with The Personal - they are an Ontario company and accepted our no claims ok. We also got a little bit of a discount with them as they had a discount deal with the Union where the OH works.

A close second were the Co-operators - they seem to have lots of branches over Calgary so may be up in Edmonton too - if you have one nearby you could walk in, otherwise just give them a call.

The AMA were just ridiculously expensive - something like $4,000 even with our full no claims!!!

You can often get a little more discount if you do car and home insurance with the same company.

Also employers and unions often have a 10% discount deal with certain insurers - worth asking the OH to check at work if this is the case.

Best of luck
Flossie

Cassie 10000

Thanks everyone for your help this is what BE is all about.

I have e-mailed Neil with some other numbers from you folks.

Just to let everyone know that it was TD Insurance that hubby tried to call yesterday and they told him he would have to fill out a form and they wouldn't give him a quote over the phone. Do you think his person knew what they were talking about and can you imagine how long it would take for them to reply to a postal form! I told him to try them again and hope he gets a different person.

I don't understand why we are having this problem when others have said they have had quotes off TD Insurance, most of Edmonton seem to be insured with them.