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Cheap car insurance in toronto for newcomers?

emamabd

emamabd

Champion Member
Jun 22, 2012
1,815
428
hi all,

any tips on which companies offer reasonable car insurance for newcomers with a G2 license and no driving history in Canada? i have tried getting some online quotes from www.kanetix.ca but those were ridiculously high figures.

please share your experiences, any info/tips would be useful
 
you're out of luck mate. There IS no such thing as 'cheap car insurance in toronto for newcomers'. Non-existent. Ditch the car and move to somewhere within the city with a walk score of 90+, or to another province if you want cheaper insurance. You can't both live in Toronto AND have cheaper insurance, both these things are mutually exclusive.

On the other hand, do you have any insurance history from other countries? You can try providing any such documents to lower your quote. Works in other provinces, should work in Ontario.
 
jazibkg said:
you're out of luck mate. There IS no such thing as 'cheap car insurance in toronto for newcomers'. Non-existent. Ditch the car and move to somewhere within the city with a walk score of 90+, or to another province if you want cheaper insurance. You can't both live in Toronto AND have cheaper insurance, both these things are mutually exclusive.

On the other hand, do you have any insurance history from other countries? You can try providing any such documents to lower your quote. Works in other provinces, should work in Ontario.
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thanks for your comment - i hear ya..but maybe i should clarify more, by cheap i mean "not $500+ per month" because that is just too expensive, but i can live with a monthly premium that lies between 250 and 280 for instance.

I live near the subway line and i don't really need the car to commute to work, been living without it for a while already.. but i would appreciate having a car in weekends.

i don't have an insurance history/record from my home country - but can work on getting that if it makes a difference (its a 3rd world country though...so they might not accept it).
 
Why dont you rent a car on weekends? It will be much cheaper
 
or sign up for Zipcar (or whatever toronto's version of that service is)?
 
rhcohen2014 said:
or sign up for Zipcar (or whatever toronto's version of that service is)?
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Zipcar, Modo, I think Toronto has a lot of car co-ops. You can also join loyalty programs of rental companies like Avis. However, these won't build your no-claims bonus or insurance history.

Yes, I know Toronto's version of expensive insurance means "$500+". For academic purposes, I checked out my quote for Toronto online and it too came to around $500+, in BC I pay $200/month for an '04 Acura (still expensive in my opinion) - but that's quite a difference of almost $300 per month. I was told the reason for this is the high insurance claim value in Ontario, and probably the higher number of road accidents?

@Emamabd - no claims insurance certificates from third world countries (do you mean Pakistan?) will count as well, as long as they can be verified back by the company.
 
jazibkg said:
@ Emamabd - no claims insurance certificates from third world countries (do you mean Pakistan?) will count as well, as long as they can be verified back by the company.
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thanks will give it a try, its not pakistan - its an african country but of a similiar profile
 
newtone said:
Why dont you rent a car on weekends? It will be much cheaper
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not a big fan of rentals ...i would like to own a car, but yea...that would be my last resort
 
jazibkg said:
Zipcar, Modo, I think Toronto has a lot of car co-ops. You can also join loyalty programs of rental companies like Avis. However, these won't build your no-claims bonus or insurance history.

Yes, I know Toronto's version of expensive insurance means "$500+". For academic purposes, I checked out my quote for Toronto online and it too came to around $500+, in BC I pay $200/month for an '04 Acura (still expensive in my opinion) - but that's quite a difference of almost $300 per month. I was told the reason for this is the high insurance claim value in Ontario, and probably the higher number of road accidents?
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$200 is really cool, you are lucky man :)!
 
emamabd said:
$200 is really cool, you are lucky man :)!
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Not lucky, just not living in Toronto. But lucky in the sense that we decided to fly to Vancouver instead of Toronto and settled here :)

Not wanting to start a BC vs ON debate here, just stating the fact that insurance in Toronto/ON is disproportionately extortionate.

On a Toyota Corolla 2005, you should be able to get insurance in BC for as low as $150 (the first time I checked up on a quote with a broker to find out if I could ever afford a car in Canada, they gave me this quote).

So my advice - if you want to own/maintain a car in Canada, move to BC ;D

In the meantime, you could do this on the weekends http://www.zipcar.ca/how

Sorry no solutions on the Ontario one. There's no input on how to lower insurance by the veterans of this forum here.
 
Dear Emamabd,

I am also passing through same agony, killer first insurance rates, no way they go less than 500. But I was told a solution by an insurance broker. He says if I bring him the following two, insurance rate can be considerably low.
1. An abstract or licence history fro MTO which shows how many years of my back home driving history have been recognized by MTO. In my case I had carried my back home driving history and was given exemption from G2, hence appeared directly for G. So if these years are more than 10, then proceed for the next step which is ..
2. ... Take a letter from your back home insurance company stating that in the most recent three years of your driving in your back home country,..you had no accidents, tickets or any other traffic violations. This letter should be in English.
I checked mine with MTO, they have only eight years recognition of my backhome driving history, thus i fall short of two years and can't claim the discounted insurance.
Good luck to you.
 
emamabd said:
hi all,

any tips on which companies offer reasonable car insurance for newcomers with a G2 license and no driving history in Canada? i have tried getting some online quotes from www.kanetix.ca but those were ridiculously high figures.

please share your experiences, any info/tips would be useful
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The best I have found was TD insurance. Try giving them a call and see if you could get something below 200. Mine was around $180 for mid-town.
 
Why is car insurance so fvcking expensive in Toronto? Gee whiz I thought 100 dollars a month was expensive :-\
 
ZingyDNA said:
Why is car insurance so fvcking expensive in Toronto? Gee whiz I thought 100 dollars a month was expensive :-\
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hahahahahahaha, welcome to Toronto. Sorry buddy in order to afford life in Toronto you need to make money, either hook or by crook.
 
ZingyDNA said:
Why is car insurance so fvcking expensive in Toronto? Gee whiz I thought 100 dollars a month was expensive :-\
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as a newcomer you are perceived to be an incompetent driver and maybe involved in accidents which would cause losses to the insurance company...
unless you can prove otherwise (by building a clean driving record).
 
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