I was wondering if anyone has had difficulty in obtaining car insurance once they landed as PR?
I did a quick online quote and was astounded as the price of insurance was nearly as much as the car itself?
Aplologies if this thread is already out there i did a search but didnt see anything?!?!?!
Many thanks

Anyone can get insurance, whether as a visitor, on a TWP, or as a PR. The premium's going to shock you whatever status you have. Proof of a claims free history from the UK can make a big difference (proof of a no claims discount is meaningless, BTW).

I'm not sure what people consider a lot for insurance. Mine's about $3,000/vehicle/year, nowhere near as much as the cost of the vehicles themselves.

We have paid for our first year premium $900 for fully comp equivalent on a $9000 vehicle value, this was still more than double what we were paying in the UK

Unfortunately, expensive insurance is something you have to accept, dont even start me on house insurance/contents, this was nearer 3x the amount it used to cost in the UK.

One thing in respect of car insurance though that I have learnt through work is the no fault benefits that apply,(think this is only in certain provinces), but if you are injured in an accident and require medical treatment or $ for lost income there is a provision under your auto policy to claim for this regardless of whether or not you are liable for an accident. This does not exist in the UK, so this would be an added benefit of an auto policy here in NS, this also applies if you were a pedestrian or a cyclist and were hit by a car, you would be able to claim these benefits under your own policy.

anyway, still bloody expensive , even with the extra perks

We landed 2 months ago and managed to get a good quote from Johnson Insurance. $2,000 on a $27,000 SUV. All other quotes were between $4,000-$5500!

You have to provide copy of the green document part of your UK licence and a letter from your last UK insurer confirming no claims. We had 6 years plus 3 speeding convictions fyi.

I guess it depends what you were used to in the UK.

I had a Subaru Impreza there that cost 300GBP p/yr to insure (full no claims). I've an Impreza here that costs $1,200 p/yr (full no claims discount), which therefore feels proportionally expensive (both rural locations, car garaged, and used just for domestic/peasure). The savings made on not requiring an MOT and no road fund licence mitigate it somewhat though.

Many thanks for the replies i will begin the search & get onto our insurance company here for additional info, as they have sent us proof of no claims!!!

We're insured with Desjardines and also found the auto insurance expensive, 3 times what we paid in Australia. We just visited State Farm yesterday who gave us a much cheaper quote, now that we want to buy a second vehicle. Also the more insurance policies you have with the one company, the cheaper the premiums. YOu just have to remember the criteria may be different here, for example the safer the car rating the lower the premium, in Oz it's different. When we arrived we paid $1800 for a chevy so insurance on that so far has been astronomical.

So if you haven't bought a car yet, best to approach some insurance companies and ask them their rates for different types of cars you're interested in. We're off to RBC this afternoon for comparison. But we're going to change to State Farm if RBC aren't any better.

The model of the car doesn't much matter in Canada. I went from a Mustang with a supercharged V8 to a Beetle and the premium went up because the Mustang was three years old and the Beetle new.

Online quotes seldom work as there is seldom the flexibility to take any foreign experience into account. Not that you get much credit anyway, but a broker is usually the best bet for a new immigrant (with the associated paperwork proof in hand)


It will cost a lot more than you are used to, and there is no good reason for it that we can figure out, it just is.

This has come up COUNTLESS times before, so not sure why a search didnt work... There is probably a wiki article or two as well.

The insurance company can tell you the premiums of the different car makes ie Honda, Toyota, Ford etc before you buy. The rate is based on the safety rating of the car ie the safer the car rating the lower the premium, nothing to do with the age of the vehicle. This way you know before you buy what you'll be up for in insurance, which in our case is beneficial since we haven't bought our second vehicle yet and and that $amount could influence what we buy. This is what State Farm told us anyway, perhaps other insurance companies quote differently.

Ack. There are several components to automotive insurance premiums in any country. The type of vehicle is a factor, the type of driver (tricky in Canada since age and sex discrimination is outlawed in many provinces), the location of the vehicle, the amount and nature of use, the age and value of the vehicle. Government regulation as in BC and AB.

In the UK the type of vehicle is a major factor in the determination of premium, in Canada it's not, the liability and litigation provisions of the policy are what makes up most of the cost. I'm not saying that the type of vehicle makes no difference but even an extreme change in vehicle, Mustang to Beetle, doesn't make the kind of difference it would in the UK. The $15 a year saved by switching brand of car is neither here not there relative to the cost of the car or that of the insurance.