Is it possible for backpackers to insure a car in Canada? Or the US for that matter?
We just bought a cheap car in Quebec, but by law it has to be insured. And it turns out that getting insurance is proving to be next to impossible as we have international driver's licenses.
We bought the car with a big road trip through the States or Canada in mind, but this seems to be another issue as the only company we've found to insure us won't cover us outside of Quebec!
Any backpackers out there with Canuk car experience? Maybe it's only a problem in Quebec? We were hoping to drive to NY for the holidays, but if we can't get insurance we're stuck!
Do travel insurances offer 3rd party liability?
Reply to this Unsure of where to get good Canadian insurance, but I can answer your question about the U.S
As long as the insurance you do obtain legally covers you in the place where you car is licensed (so if the car is licensed in Quebec and you have whatever insurance Quebec says you need to have, for instance) you won't need to get additional insurance for the U.S. to drive legally. That is NOT to say that your coverage plan will pay for any accidents or mishaps that occur in the U.S, it only means that if you get stopped by the police or need to show proof of insurance for whatever reason, the coverage you have will suffice -- some plans might also cover damages obtained while driving in the other country, it depends.
At least that's how it works for a U.S citizen driving in Canada. I am 99.99% sure it is a reciprocal agreement. Canadian driving laws tend to be stricter.
Reply to this We finally found one to insure us, covering us for North America for a year. Finally! :D
The car was bought and registered in Quebec, has Quebec plates, but the final step of getting the actual insurance was our issue. I'm not sure about all of Canada, but third-party liability insurance is legally required by Quebec law to drive a vehicle. So we had our awesome vehicle without the right to drive it.
Our problem was that most companies told us we needed to have Quebec driver's licenses in order to be insured, so the question was more about how do travelers get around this problem. But today we found a company that was willing to insure international drivers, so yay!
Reply to this That's fantastic! Glad to hear. We've done road trips throughout the US and Canada and they have always been a joy so you're in for a real treat.
Would you mind posting the name of the company you found? Questions about US/Canadian car insurance come up fairly routinely on the forums here and it would be nice to have a place to direct future queries.
Happy travels!
Reply to this We found 2 companies, La Capitale and Desjardins. The first offered us insurance for Quebec and Ontario as well as the US, while the latter offered us for all of Canada and the US, which is what we were looking for.
Many of the others we called suggested to contact insurance brokers rather than the companies directly, as brokers can save you time by doing the searching for you. The other common suggestion was to flip through the yellow pages (phone book), which was the method that worked for us.
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