Hello. Am in the process of buying a car and need insurance. Can anyone tell me if a letter from your previous insurer in the UK has any bearing on the premium quoted? I was told from the agent at AMA (Calgary) that there was a law passed in 2004 that doesn't recognise any previous insurance other than in North America. If anyone can share their knowledge it would be much appreciated, also any companies they can recommend. Thank you.

I had a similar letter from my long term UK insurers when I moved here a few years ago. I was 58 then with a full no claims. In short, it did not matter a jot to any of the insurers I approached. They were only interested in Canadian driving experience....all else seemed irrelevant. Their may be an insurer out there who will take your UK record into account but I was unable to find one.

Bite the bullet I think...cars/fuel may be cheaper than the UK but insurance costs (in general terms) soon wipe out the savings unless you do lots of miles per annum.

Best of luck

My local insurance broker was able to leverage three years driving recognition from my UK insurance driving record. Better than a poke in the eye.

Might be worth phoning around, some brokers are more sensitive to the idea that flexibility on there behalf might lead to long term business with a new client.

We made sure we had letters from our UK insurers before we left the UK (we asked for them when we cancelled the policies), and they made a huge difference to our insurance here. We found a great broker who accepted the letters and equated it to several years no claims here. (Worth ringing around though, as some of the brokers would not accept them).

A couple of weeks or so ago, I asked my broker if he could help someone coming from the UK with car insurance who will be living in Edmonton (Broker is based in Calgary); he said "No problem, I can serve all of Alberta. By the way, tell them to bring a letter from their insurance company in the UK (NOT agent/broker) so I can get full recognistion of their no-claims!"

try Meloche Monnex they quoted me $600 fully comp compaired with eveyone else that quoted me $3000 for third party. House insurance was cheap too (until I installed a wood burning stove, oh well at least the gas bill is $50 cheaper a month!)

We had letters going back about 8 years - our insurer only wanted to see the previous 3 years and gave us the insurance at a good price!

I landed in 2005, I am in BC.
My insurance company recognised my no claims bonus , I do recall though, they were really particular about the format, you had to provide it the way they asked, Direct Line were great about it back home, so no problems.
It gave me a great saving, so definetly worth doing.

Same here I had to get my driving record though from swansea .

Our insurance company gave us full no claims based on a letter from our insurance company. I don't know whether they are nationwide but they are Co-operators. They also do a good deal on a house insurance (if you have everything from the same place, you get discounts for each insurance).

ICBC accepted letters of proof of NCB from our UK insurers and we were granted full no claims discount in BC. The format and wording of the letters is VERY important - it took us numerous conversations with UK insurers to stop them from just churning out standard responses, which ICBC wouldn't accept.

Most importantly specific dates indicating the commencement and the end date of the insurance must be gained in writing. It's no good just having a letter that states 'Mr X was entitled to 4yrs NCB whilst insured with Company Y'