Any suggestion of car insurance company in Ontario?

[annoying]

Hi all,

My husband tried to find car insurance company in Ontario for my US car so that my car get insured and can get registered in Ontario. The company he found requests a letter of experience from my current insurance company in MA, USA so that we can get a lower premium. However, my current insurance company replied that there is no such thing in MA. Does anyone have the same experience? Any suggestion of car insurance company in Ontario?

 

[rhcohen2014]

yes there is.

there are 2 things you need to get licensed and insured in Ontario:
1) letter of record from your insurance company (insurance history)
2) letter of experience from RMV (license history)

In my experience, you will have a difficult time getting insurance if you don't have BOTH the letter of record from the insurance company AND the letter of experience from RMV. You will not be able to get insurance without an Ontario license.

Insurance: your current insurance company should be able to provide a "letter of record" that confirms your history with that company. it is essentially a letter stating how long you were a customer for and what claims were made. ALL insurance companies can do this. if you dealt directly with an agent, you will need to go through them. For example, when i was insured in MA, I used Commerce Insurance. When I called the main commerce number, they could not help me. I had to go through the agent who handled my policy, which was Alden Goldsmith insurance. THEY were able to request this info and get a letter written.

License: you have to go to the RMV website and order one yourself. there are 2 - one that's unattested that you can download immediately (cost is $6), and there is an attested one that they send in the mail to the current address they have on file for you (cost is $20). I just did this, and used this to get my license and am working on my insurance. if you don't currently live in MA, what i did was change my address on the RMV site to a friend's and had the report mailed there. So far all i have is the unattested one, and it worked to get my license. they will be able to pull your info up in an IRE search, but they DO ask for a record upfront. i did send it for insurance, but haven't finalized it yet because you need to have an ontario licese in order to get insurance, which is required to register the car.



Most of the large insurance agencies are in ontario (statefarm, allstate, nationwide, etc). So far, I had the best luck with CAA (because of my history). most of the banks are brokers for car insurance, so you can use them to get a quote. (TD, president's choice financial, etc)

 

[annoying]

Hi rhcohen2014,

Thank you so much for your clear reply.
Now I am still using MA's insurance company for my car and my agent is asking me why I need this letter. I don't know how to explain. If I tell them the truth, they may not be willing to help me for this letter because it also means I will change the insurance company. Did you just tell your agent the truth ?

 

[rhcohen2014]

luckily, i had moved to CT, so i was not with them any more. to be honest, it's none of their business. you are entitled to this information for yourself. i would either tell them a)you want them for your own files because you don't have any info on it or b) you are IN The process of immigrating to canada, and you want to get everything in order before you move, which you still don't have an exact date/month for because you need to be approved by the canadian government. if you don't move out of MA, still intend to live there and use your car there, there's no reason they should "drop" you. i would imagine if they did that based on a conversation about "moving in the future, with no specific time stated", that would open that company to a lot of hassle and complaints, and possibly legal issues. unless there is something specific to not paying your bill or your driving record, I don't think it's legal for them to drop you. remember, MA has specific rules about car insurance. that is part of the reason the big guys are not allowed there (or used to not be anyway). you are PAYING your bill monthly. they owe you the insurance you've already paid for.