First Time Car Buyers: Car Insurance Options For Canadian Drivers

First Time Car Buyers: Car Insurance Options For Canadian Drivers

Before you get behind the wheel of a car in Canada, you had better make sure that you are insured. Every province and territory in the country requires drivers to have insurance, and driving without it is a costly risk, because you could lose your license as a result. Before you buy insurance, however, you need to take the time to do some research to ensure that you get the right type.

The Basic Requirements

The first thing you need to know is what you are required to have. All of the provinces and states require basic liability coverage for their drivers. This is coverage that will pay for damage you cause to someone else or his or her property. For instance, if you are involved in a car accident where you are the at-fault driver, your liability coverage would pay the medical bills and car repair bills for the other people involved in the accident. This is a common requirement in other countries.

Canadian drivers must carry an addition coverage option, because when it comes to car insurance, Canada requires Accident Benefits/Bodily Injury coverage. This coverage will take care of your medical care and any loss of income you experience after a crash, even if you are the one at fault for the injuries. In other words, if you are involved in a motor vehicle accident and no one else is liable for your injuries, this coverage will cover them.

Other Options to Consider

While you are required to have Liability and Accident Benefits/Bodily Injury coverage to drive in Canada, you may wish to have additional coverage. Neither of these Canada insurance options covers damage to your vehicle that is not caused by another vehicle or driver. They also do not cover damage to your vehicle that you caused. Natural causes are also not covered. If a tree branch fell on your car and smashed in the roof, you would be stuck paying for the repair or buying a new car without any car insurance coverage.

If you have a loan on your car, the bank will not be willing to take this risk. You will probably be forced to purchase additional car insurance for as long as you have the loan. The two additional policies that you may have to purchase if you have a loan are Collision and Comprehensive.

Damage to your car in a motor vehicle accident, even if you are completely at fault, would be covered in a Collision policy. In fact, even if you drive the vehicle into something that is not a vehicle, you would be covered with a Collision policy.

Comprehensive insurance covers non-motor-vehicle damage to your car. If your car were stolen, vandalized, or harmed by a natural disaster, this coverage would pay for the damages. That tree branch that fell on your car and smashed the roof would be an event covered by comprehensive coverage.

Considerations When Buying Coverage

When buying insurance coverage, you have to strike a delicate balance between affordable premiums and proper coverage. Some people buy too much insurance, and they end up paying more for their insurance coverage than is worthwhile when compared to the value of their car. Others buy too little insurance and end up with huge bills when they are in an accident.

How can you best determine this balance? You need to know what your car is worth. Check the Blue Book value of the car, and then compare it to the amount you are paying in premiums. If you find that you are paying close to the value in premiums over two or three years, you may wish to drop a coverage option. Put the additional money aside into a savings account, and use that money towards repairs if you end up having an accident. If you do not have an accident, use that money as a down payment on your next car purchase, rather spending thousands on auto insurance that will only provide a few hundred dollars for your vehicle.

Watch the video related to car insurance

Help answer the question about car insurance

What insurance agency has the cheapest rates for full coverage car insurance?
I need some cheap full coverage car insurance if you know a company that has cheap rates let me know please!

About Author

Recommended Products

Tags: , , , ,

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Car Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “First Time Car Buyers: Car Insurance Options For Canadian Drivers”

  1. kelly says:

    How much it costs is going to vary, based on a bunch of your personal information.

    Start with http://www.progressive.com, for insurance. You can get a quote on the internet – you fill out the very personal information, they will email a quote back to you.

    It will be easier if you have a US license, but if you don't, as long as your license is written in English, it's not a problem. Otherwise, you'll need an international license.

  2. Steven A says:

    wait, if u sold the car to someone else, it's their responsibility to insure it. in fact, YOU can't insure a car that's registered to someone else. so i'm a little confused…

  3. Steven says:

    If you park your car on your parent's property, and never drive it anywhere, you might not need to have any insurance.

    But if you are going to take that car out on the public highways, you need all sorts of different types of insurance to pay for medical expenses if anyone hurt in an accident, pay for repairs if any damage from accident, get another car if it is stolen, protect your assets (house, car bank accounts) from beign drained by law suits, and also keep you out of jail.

    While you are living under your parent's roof, they can add you to their insurance policy … this will be expensive, but not as expensive as a policy in your own name.

    Once you go to college, and live wherever the college is, no longer under your parent's roof, then you do need to have policy in your own name.

  4. jenny says:

    They will have to complete their investigation before they consider paying out. How long the investigation takes depends on what has to be done. Since we don't know the details of your claim and have not spoken to your adjuster — we can't tell you. However, since the car was found burned out – they will take a very close look at this claim. Try this site to find the best car insurance

    http://car-insurance-quotes-usa.blogspot.com/

    Here you can get quotes from different car insurance companies in your area, its the best way to find an affordable car insurance with a reliable company.

  5. hedonist says:

    Every card is different, and the card companies can change their insurance carriers without notice. Most of them give collision damage waiver only. If you have an accident, they will cover repairs over and above the rental company insurance, but they do not cover the cost of a replacement rental for you to drive. Very few of them cover liability. The most complete coverage may be offered by your insurance company, for a lower fee than the waivers offered by the rental companies. In Manitoba, for instance, we sell (to Manitobans) a rental car policy that gives $50 deductible for damage, loss of use coverage, and 5 million dollars liability coverage, and this package can be bought to cover a rented car anywhere in Canada or the US. So, before you rely on your credit card, read the wordings booklet, then talk to you auto insurance agent.

  6. mom2omar says:

    If you have an insurance company that is refusing to allow you to remove an authorized driver from your policy unless you PROVE the authorized driver has insurance elsewhere, it's time to get a new policy in place at another company and then drop your current insurance. That is ridiculous.

    If you want to stay with that company for some reason (although I couldn't think of any) you might call your agent and ask why you need to do that, and tell him you will switch if you can't, and see what happens.

  7. True2it says:

    Was a citation issued at the time of the accident? If not, it won't show up in the MVD. The insurance industry also has something similar to a credit report, called the CLUE report that lists past property and casualty claims made by you. That is used as well in determining your insurability.

  8. Amanda says:

    You should qualify for liablity insurance instead of full coverage. The actaul amount of insurance depends on what your car is worth right now, how old it is, your past driving record and your "hi risk" lable will definately have an effect. You'll have to get quoted at a few different places to be sure what company has the lowest rate for you.

  9. css says:

    When you rent a car, you have to have full coverage on the care that you own (your personal vehicle) and then that will automatically carry over to the rental. If you do not have full coverage you can add it to your existing policy for the amount of time you'll be renting the car OR just buy the insurance from the rental place. And to answer your other question, no your policy will not cover somebody else's car just because you're driving it. Insurance covers vehicles, NOT people, even if you were in an at fault accident, your friend/relative's insurance would have to cover that loss.

Leave a Reply

About | Contact | Privacy Policy
Themes by WP Blog Shop | Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS) | Alliance Auto Insurance Store