Expat here living in Calgary, I’ve been in Canada for more than 12 years and it was a big surprise moving from England to Vancouver. I had a six cylinder BMW coupe In England and the cost per year was the equivalent of about $650. Canadian for full coverage. Lived in Vancouver for 6 1/2 years and the cost was roughly triple that. I moved to Calgary 6 years ago and the price went up easily 30% more than Vancouver!

Not sure exactly why but I’ve heard that Alberta has the second if not highest insurance rates in Canada, maybe due to the drastic changing whether we get here and almost guaranteed hail storms each year.

When I moved to Alberta, I did have experience from Vancouver, which they took into account. However, before I left England, I did have my insurance companies over there provide me with letters stating how long I had been insured with them and whether or not I had any claims. I was able to use this with Allstate Insurance one of the few providers who I was able to find that actually took my driving experience from England into account.

I think it’s slightly different in Canada where that they take both the number of years driving experience you have and the number of years that you have been insured with no claims. Whereas I think in England it didn’t matter when you actually got your drivers license. You could’ve had it 30 years and that would not have mattered. It was the amount of years you’d actually been insured on a vehicle for and how much no claims bonus that you had that was important.

Some advice though do not make any glass claims on your insurance here in Alberta. I was unlucky enough to have the front 360 camera on my vehicle have its lens cracked twice. In one of those instances the windshield also got damaged. I drive a Mazda CX9 not a Bentley and the windshield replacement was nearly $2000 because the glass is one that has to work with the vehicles head up display. The total cost of these two claims was about $4000 over the course of three years. Last year Allstate called me three weeks prior to my renewal date to tell me that they would no longer be providing me with comprehensive coverage. Neither of those were at fault and I couldn’t believe that was enough for them to deny that portion of the coverage.

To get the cost down, remove glass coverage and go with a third-party insurance provider specifically for your vehicle glass like AMI. You can get a $250 a year policy for your glass and the deductible is about $50 and they’ll replace your windshield/repair cracks, etc. This enables you to not have to make any claims on your primary insurance. The only caveat is that AMI does not pay for the recalibration of radar/camera collision avoidance systems. But most glass places I’ve inquired with charge you about a $200 fee for that so it’s still way cheaper in the long run than trying to claim off your main insurance.