I'm relocating to Canada within the next few months for work. My company is based in Markham, however, I'm initially planning to live in Waterloo, Ontario, where my brother lives. For my line of work, I've some flexibility in the place where I work, so I don't necessarily have to live somewhere close to the office.
To cut to the chase, I don't have a Canadian driver's license, but rather a foreign nonreciprocal one, i.e. it's not possible to directly exchange it to a Canadian one, but rather I have to do theory/practical tests to get the Canadian license. Since having a car is almost a must, I'm intending to buy a car as soon as I arrive in Canda. For that, I've been doing some research and found out about the high rates of car insurance newcomers normally are faced with. Therefore, I'm trying to figure out all the options I have to get the best and cheapest rate and hoping to get some helpful insights from people who were in a similar situation:
So far, let me put all the options I'm thinking of on the table:
1- Buy a car and register it with my name, and insure it also with my name. The problem here is that since I have got a foreign driver's license "with no proven history of record", the insurance rate will be most likely astronomical, from what I've read, at least 2-3x more than normal. Although I've been driving for almost 10 years, I can't provide a history of record from the insurance company in which I have no record, since I've been always driving either my dad's or sister's cars. Nevertheless, assuming that I've managed to exchange my driver's license to a Canadian one, will this help reduce the rate to normal? Any experiences?
2- Buy a car and register it with my name, and let my brother insure it with his name and add me a second driver (if possible). My brother has been living in Canada for many years, and already possesses a Canadian driver's license and two insured cars. Assuming that my brother accepts and is willing to take this risk, I'm not sure whether it's even possible to insure a car by a different person than the registered owner. Any thoughts? And if it's a valid option, will this help get me a normal car insurance rate.
3- Ask my brother to buy the car, register, and insure it with his name and add me as a second driver. This is similar to option no. 2 except that my brother will also own the car. Although I believe this might be a valid option and can pretty much reduce the rate to normal, I'm not sure whether this will allow me to build a driving record for the future in case I decided to buy an additional car.
Looking forward to your feedback.
To cut to the chase, I don't have a Canadian driver's license, but rather a foreign nonreciprocal one, i.e. it's not possible to directly exchange it to a Canadian one, but rather I have to do theory/practical tests to get the Canadian license. Since having a car is almost a must, I'm intending to buy a car as soon as I arrive in Canda. For that, I've been doing some research and found out about the high rates of car insurance newcomers normally are faced with. Therefore, I'm trying to figure out all the options I have to get the best and cheapest rate and hoping to get some helpful insights from people who were in a similar situation:
So far, let me put all the options I'm thinking of on the table:
1- Buy a car and register it with my name, and insure it also with my name. The problem here is that since I have got a foreign driver's license "with no proven history of record", the insurance rate will be most likely astronomical, from what I've read, at least 2-3x more than normal. Although I've been driving for almost 10 years, I can't provide a history of record from the insurance company in which I have no record, since I've been always driving either my dad's or sister's cars. Nevertheless, assuming that I've managed to exchange my driver's license to a Canadian one, will this help reduce the rate to normal? Any experiences?
2- Buy a car and register it with my name, and let my brother insure it with his name and add me a second driver (if possible). My brother has been living in Canada for many years, and already possesses a Canadian driver's license and two insured cars. Assuming that my brother accepts and is willing to take this risk, I'm not sure whether it's even possible to insure a car by a different person than the registered owner. Any thoughts? And if it's a valid option, will this help get me a normal car insurance rate.
3- Ask my brother to buy the car, register, and insure it with his name and add me as a second driver. This is similar to option no. 2 except that my brother will also own the car. Although I believe this might be a valid option and can pretty much reduce the rate to normal, I'm not sure whether this will allow me to build a driving record for the future in case I decided to buy an additional car.
Looking forward to your feedback.
