Farmboy1892

Hi Guys,

I am sure this has been asked a trillion times!!!

However I am going to ask it anyways;

We moved over to Ontario in January and are now in the position to lease a vehicle. My wife and I have both been driving since 1996 with full clean driving records and I have brought with me a letter from my insurance company show 11 years previous full no claims bonus.

Any hints or tips as I have been getting some horrible quotes

Thanks

Farmboy

geoff52

The car insurance rates will vary with where you live in Ontario.
Winter driving conditions in Ontario is different from the UK.
If you package your car insurance together with your building insurance with the same company, this may provide a discount.

Siouxie

TD Canada and Johnsons have been recommended over the years as companies who will take no claims into consideration.

.You can find other threads in this google search (sorry, there's a fair few!) or on this thread http://britishexpats.com/forum/canad...urance-855796/

Do make sure you get a copy of your drivers record (you can get it online).

Jukeboxwidow

Intact insurance took our clean driving records and no claims from the UK into account when we moved over over 7 years ago.

Piff Poff

It's expensive, my daughter moved to Ontario from Alberta last year and it paying 3x as much for car insurance now.

Farmboy1892

Thanks Guys!

Kind of hard to take being treated like a 16 yr old on R plates when you have been behind the wheel for over 20 years!!
Just another way to scam money out of ya!!

geoff52

Welcome to Ontario Canada!
One thing about property insurance is that your content insurance and building insurance are combined unlike the UK and in Canada you cannot separate the two.
Even my Canadian insurance broker agreed that was stupid and the insurance companies were just price gouging.

Dorothy

You have been behind the wheel in another country. In the UK you drive on the left where in Canada you drive on the right. There are different road rules and very different traffic patterns in Ontario than the UK. Maybe it's a matter of the insurance company wanting to be sure you have adapted to Canadian driving before discounting your rates and not some conspiracy to rip you off.

Gozit

Then how do you explain Piff's daughters triple fold increase moving from AB to ON?

Dorothy

Same thing. Driving in Lethbridge is a whole lot different to driving in the GTA. Besides, I believe AB has government run insurance

not2old

I've been with most insurance companies. Done it directly or through a broker.

I found going direct was the best

On my recent vehicle renewal I was told that Desjardins was the lowest, as was TD & PC insurance.

Apples for apples coverage on the quotes, as it turned out none of those came within $100/yr to what I am currently paying with CAA. In fact Desjardins was $250/yr more than CAA

Maybe my/our age (retired), driving record, location in the GTA, I don't know what factors got me my annual renewal of $49.21/mth on a 15 year old Ford Escape 3rd party liability only.

Piff Poff

She's only driven to Lethebridge once from Red Deer - three and a half hours each way.

Driving in Edmonton and Calgary is not that different to the GTA (and yes we have experienced that).

No Alberta does not have government run insurance.

Dorothy

I only pulled Lethbridge out of my hat as a smallish city compared with Toronto or Mississauga for example.

So Edmonton and Calgary now have highways as busy as the 400 series? Wow! Things have changed since I was there last.

I thought Alberta was one of the provinces with government insurance. My mistake.

However, I still stand by my original point that driving in the GTA is very different to driving in other areas of the country and insurers in Ontario charge according to the conditions.

evets

Driving here is somewhat similar to SE Asian countries --- free for all. Considering the structure of the driving test and how long it takes to get a full license, I expected more. But I have to say I have seen more accidents in 4 months, than 3 years driving in Melbourne, Australia. Even driving in London and the M25 which is aggressive, Toronto/GTA drivers you really need to keep yourself switched on to deal with it.

If you are not tailgating, someone will cut in front of you, then decide to indicate to let you know they want to pull in. Cars weaving between lanes to think they can beat the traffic, until you get to the next traffic light and they have not made any progress.
Cars pulling from the left hand lane approaching traffic lights, swerving to make that right turn and cutting everyone up.

People running red lights to make that left turn.

One evening driving home from work, it felt like I was on a F1 race track watching the way everyone was driving and driving to get in front on the car in front of them.

Then you have Brampton(which has the highest car insurance in the GTA)... colleagues have warned me about driving there as people will try to setup accidents which happens on a regular basis. And we have this, which does not bode well to these claims:

https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2...ance-scam.html

Sorry I have to disagree with this, insurers charge more as so many accidents and litigation claims. And if you have an accident and not your fault you will be penalised.

When you have a 20 year driving history, driving on the other side of the road only takes a few weeks to get used to. You use your own common sense and experience to not take any risks until you feel comfortable in your new environment. A check on the Ontario driving handbook website to brush up on some of the things that are in place here and good to go.

Dorothy

I know! We live in Perth (WA) and people here moan all the time about the driving. When we were in Canada last year my partner basically sat in the passenger seat with his eyes closed and let me drive. I don't think people can really fathom the driving in the GTA unless they've actually done it regularly. It used to be Quebec that was notorious for aggressive driving, but I really think the built up areas of Ontario are much worse.
Yes, insurers charge more because there are more accidents and claims.

A 20 year history of driving on the left takes more than a few weeks to get used to. I've been in Australia for 11 years and I still occasionally go to get in the wrong side of the car if I'm tired or preoccupied. And how many people do you know who read the Ontario driving handbook before going to exchange their license?

I am certainly not defending how expensive insurance is in Ontario. However I am saying that there is a reason why insurers charge more for someone who is inexperienced with the driving conditions in a particular area. Someone who has moved from another country will in essence be a new driver when they land. Same as if I move to the UK I would expect that my insurance will cost more initially until I have built up some experience. Do people bitch that they don't have a credit score in a new country? Of course not! It's the same thing IMO - build up some experience and prove you are a good risk and that will change.