scrubbedexpat109

Hi,

I've heard that new immigrants have to start again with car insurance, can't transfer any no claims history, so car insurance going to be very expensive.

Can anyone recommend a car insurance company for new people to Ontario. Seems $250 a month for 2 cars is the norm?

Thanks,

Alister

JB0591

It seems to be hit and miss if companies will take your no claims, some are lucky and get it some are not.

We started at $220 per month for one car on 6 month policy then moved to TD at $120 pm. Remember you are insuring the car not the person. When you weigh up the no-MOTs and cheaper road tax it come out at a wash.

scrubbedexpat109

Thanks for the quick reply. Sounds like might be worth bring no claims history just incase. I had asked TD and they said no, didn't try to contact any more as led me to believe all would be the same.

Might have to try and get by with one car for first 6 months.

dbd33

Perhaps this is a message from a fortune cookie, perhaps it has some enigmatic meaning. In fact, car insurance premiums are primarily predicated upon the people driving the car; what driving record they have, what credit rating they have, how foreign they are. The car is a factor in that an old car of a common make will be cheaper than a new exotic but not a factor to the degree that it is in the UK.

Some companies will give credit for a foreign driving record. Johnsons are an example often mentioned here. Bring proof and try it on.

Novocastrian

It's the norm after many years of residence in Ontario. Double that for newcomers.

SambaDeAmigo

Johnson Insurance

priceycheese

OK, so accepting it's going to be horribly bad, what would be considered a low-risk car in Canada to help keep the cost to a minimum? Do they have the same kind of insurance groups we do in the UK?

dbd33

In contrast to the UK, it doesn't much matter. Older and cheaper is better, especially if you're willing to drop the collision cover or go for the maximum deductible, but for current models the variation in premium in the rate book before me is less than 10% from the lowest group to the highest. Postal code is massively more important. The good thing is that, once you get beyond the fact that insurance here is horrifically expensive, you don't have to feel constrained by the price of coverage in your choice of car; you may as well have the V8 as the econo-six.

Something to consider is that very many cars in Ontario are uninsured (well, of course, insurance often costs more than the car itself). The fine for operating a vehicle without insurance is neglible compared to the cost of a policy.

FlyingDutchman6666

True, a fine of $5000 is small compared to the yearly insurance premium of a new immigrant or 'bad insurance risk'. Unbelievable.

dbd33

You sure about that minimum fine? Last time I was in traffic court (less than a year ago) most people who were charged with something minor "leaving road not in safety" or speeding were also charged with no insurance. The fine for the latter was a couple of hundred bucks, same as not updating the address on your license. That description looks to me to be a "worst case" like the idea of cars being impounded for speeding; something the police could choose to do but you'd have to really piss them off before it happened.

FlyingDutchman6666

Yes, the minimum fine in Ontario is $5000. Fines may vary in other parts of the country...

http://www.fsco.gov.on.ca/en/auto/br...toins.aspx#one

dbd33

I think "minimum mandatory" is used there in the local, not very literal, sense.

Here, http://www.traffic-ticket-speeding-p..._insurance.php a firm offers to negotiate:

"The other method of reducing fines for driving without insurance in Ontario is hiring a professional to defend you. A professional paralegal can portray your financial and personal situation in a certain light in order to ask the Court for a reduction of the minimum mandatory fine."

Unless the amount was recently set, I know it's not rigidly applied. What I can't find is how much people have actually been fined over, say, the past couple of years. Anyway, a contingency fund of $5,000 to save maybe $7,000 a year would look like a sensible investment very quickly. (If one was a cynical scofflaw or a poor immigrant).

FlyingDutchman6666

Repeat offences may cause one to spend some time in the slammer. I wonder what it would take for Canada to start deportation proceedings after a custodial sentence, if not a Canadian Citizen?

dbd33

Ah, my child who's on one of those rotating training programs has just done her spell in the Department of Deportations, Prison and Police Brutality ("I can't wait to get back to Drugs", a department she previously thought to flogging a dead horse). She suggests that deportation is improbable for a Provincial offence, especially an administrative one.

Dashie

Definitely bring your NCD proof. It can be expensive yes, call lots of brokers where you move to (which area?) as we found only one out of 4 actually called back. I'm guessing the other 3 knew they couldn't do much for an expat.