INSANE insurance prices in Ontario…. i pay … (no joke) $33 a YEAR in Poland :D | GTAMotorcycle.com

INSANE insurance prices in Ontario…. i pay … (no joke) $33 a YEAR in Poland :D

R

Rascal

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I just arrived back to Canada from half a year Poland…. talk about shock when I got my motorbike insurance quote… (mid 30s driver, crystal clean record, 13 years Motorbike experience..

it is highway robbery here !!! wow. and I've heard what younger drivers / people with a few speeding tickets pay.

Anyhow just thought I would share for fun what I pay for my 2003 BMW r1100s (which is sleeping in my garage back in Poland now)

no joke I pay about 100 Polish zlotych a year for liability which works out to about $33 CAD depending on fluxations in exchange rate. That's for an 1100cc bike...

Not trying to make you guys jealous just thought it would be fun to say how things work in other parts of the world. I can only hope Canadian insurance becomes slightly cheaper in the future….

well back to getting quotes for my spring 'beater' (a much smaller displacement bike) here… :/
 
But what does that include for coverage? Liability amounts, uninsured driver benefits, etc?

All these "but insurance is so cheap in xxxx state/province/country" are kind of apples and oranges when you discover that our insurance here requires a minimum of 1M$ in liability, but the others include some ridiculously low amount like some US States that have only laughable $25,000 liability minimums...which many people carry "because my insurance is cheap!".

Not much good having cheap insurance that doesn't cover you for hardly anything when you actually need it.
 
PrivatePilot said:
But what does that include for coverage? Liability amounts, uninsured driver benefits, etc?

All these "but insurance is so cheap in xxxx state/province/country" are kind of apples and oranges when you discover that our insurance here requires a minimum of 1M$ in liability, but the others include some ridiculously low amount like some US States that have only laughable $25,000 liability minimums...which many people carry "because my insurance is cheap!".

Not much good having cheap insurance that doesn't cover you for hardly anything when you actually need it.
Click to expand...
thread on reddit yesterday about OP's dad in an car accident. dad hurt bad, car totaled. other driver had no insurance, dad only had $25k coverage and no uninsured motorist coverage.....

i bet he had a great rate though!

edit-yep, USA
 
kellen said:
thread on reddit yesterday about OP's dad in an car accident. dad hurt bad, car totaled. other driver had no insurance, dad only had $25k coverage and no uninsured motorist coverage.....

i bet he had a great rate though!
Click to expand...

My point exactly...and if there was another car involved and that driver decides to sue him...that $25K in liability isn't going to go very far, so this entire family will quickly lose everything they own and still be in debt for the rest of their lives, all while trying to actually live on the next to nothing they got out of the insurance policy on their side of things as well.

But yep, it was cheap, and fit the mandatory government minimums that were legally required, regardless of the fact they made little sense.
 
I was told that you used to be able to get something here long ago, that basically said you would self insure.

They'd pay up front, but you were on the hook for the full amount if you had a collision.

Needless to say, it was very inexpensive.
 
Back in Venezuela I didn't have to pay for insurance, it was really cheap. I just had to make sure I didn't have an accident
 
On the other hand, I have a buddy in Indiana that I was discussing insurance policies with -- of course we were on the road so we could not compare policies line by line -- but he paid a fraction of what we do and has $2 million in coverage on a barn full of cars and bikes. He stated that adding a bike to his policy is next to nothing... which is why he has 12 bikes.

Of course, his rates likely have something to do with living in a rural part of the country and some differences in his policy may or may not be worse than what we have here.

When I lived in Indonesia, insurance policies were dirt cheap and they paid for everything. My brother paid $150/year for full coverage insurance in Jakarta on a Honda City (same as a Civic). He even had a couple at-fault collision repairs done to it and his rates didn't increase -- however the labour rates to fix a car there are also a fraction of what they are here, and there may not be the same level of insurance fraud when it comes to repairs there (i.e. $x if you pay cash, $xxx if it goes through insurance).
 
Here is a news flash. The whole "insurance" system is scam. And the fact that we are forced into it by law makes it a Racket.
 
I don't know much about bike rates in Poland but I can tell you about differences between US and Canada. A buddy of mine who lives in Arizona just bought a brand new Yamaha R6. For insurance coverage with all bells and whistles (no deductibles, 1M liability and some driver benefits) he's paying $39 a month. He's licenced for about 3 years & 36 year old. Another one ... my friend's son who lives in Atlanta, Georgia (22 years old) is paying $43 per month for a similar coverage on his 2015 Yamaha FZ-09.
 
kellen said:
thread on reddit yesterday about OP's dad in an car accident. dad hurt bad, car totaled. other driver had no insurance, dad only had $25k coverage and no uninsured motorist coverage.....

i bet he had a great rate though!

edit-yep, USA
Click to expand...

Link to said thread
 
Baggsy said:
I was told that you used to be able to get something here long ago, that basically said you would self insure.

They'd pay up front, but you were on the hook for the full amount if you had a collision.

Needless to say, it was very inexpensive.
Click to expand...

ended back in the 70s. used to be 100 bux
 
Yes comparing our coverage, (albeit becoming less and less each time the gov't |prominses us lower premiums", by allowing the insurer to reduce coverages), against those VERY low limits in the US is apples to oranges. Many here don't even understand the limits we have. Most will look at their policy and determine because it says we have a $50,000 limit on rehab for injuries means if your hurt the insurer will automatically payout up to $50,000. But as I now know they automatically place you in the MIG, (Minor Injury Guidleines), which means your eligible for a max of $3500, (ALL in including assessments etc). Then if you require ongoing treatment you need a lawyer to fight and go to mediation to get the FSCO to order the insurer to pay for treatment, (up to the $50,000 max, anything above $50,000 you have to sue the other party for). Yes under "no fault" your insurer pays to repair your vehicle then if your 100% not at fault under the FDR, then they go after the other insurance company to compensate them for the damages.

If you are at fault, and the other party sues you then your insurer will defend that law suit as they are required to payout up to the limit, of liability in your policy. As my lawyer has said "most people" caryy $1 million liability so in severe cases they start the lawsuit at $750,000 and negoitate down from there as insurers are "less likely to fight" at "lesser amounts". Now if you have $1 million liability and the other party has VERY severe injuries and sues your for say $10 million and wins the lawsuit, then your insurer pays the limit $1 million and your on the hook for the other $9 million. Which is why it is almost un heard of, (unlike the US where we see damage awards of $5 million much more frequently), to see huge awards here in Canada. They know the "average Joe" is never going to satisfy a $9 million award.
 
Here's my 2c, because it's mandatory there is no business competition & they can rape you up the ass
 
RockerGuy said:
Here's my 2c, because it's mandatory there is no business competition & they can rape you up the ***
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I believe the "thinking" of the day in making automobile insurance mandatory was due to our universal health care system.

I would prefer to see a "hybrid" system in that if you choose NOT to purchase insurance, then are involved in a collision our health system, (because we are a compassionate society), would fix you up. IE we would dress wounds do surgery to fix things up, ensure infections are dealt with etc. BUT when it comes to rehab, Physio, Chiropractors, massage, psycho, etc you are on your own. If that means you can't return to work tough crap for you. You get NO EI, NO welfare. NO social assistance of any tyoe.

Those of us who choose to purchase insurance get treatments paid out by insurer. If we are hit by an unisured driver it is the insurer who pays then goes after the other party.
 
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PrivatePilot said:
But what does that include for coverage? Liability amounts, uninsured driver benefits, etc?

All these "but insurance is so cheap in xxxx state/province/country" are kind of apples and oranges when you discover that our insurance here requires a minimum of 1M$ in liability, but the others include some ridiculously low amount like some US States that have only laughable $25,000 liability minimums...which many people carry "because my insurance is cheap!".

Not much good having cheap insurance that doesn't cover you for hardly anything when you actually need it.
Click to expand...

But you need to compare Apples to Apples though.

I'm insuring the same bike (exactly the same bike) in the US as I did in Canada. I have 4 million liability and 4 million accident benefits compared with 1 million liability and $3,500 MIG coverage in Ontario. The premium is just around 2/5 of what it is in Ontario.

If anything Insurance should be more expensive. Motorcycle ownership is around 1.8% in CA compared to 1.6% in Ontario so there is not a huge % change in the population base that's paying premiums - i.e. Premiums are not being spread across a much smaller % of the population in Ontario.

The season is also 12 months compared with 6 months so it stands to reason that there must me more accidents in California. In 0.013% of the Ontario population had a motorcycle accident in 2013 while 0.029% of the CA population had one in CA so its really double the amount per head of population (Ontario 1,725, CA 11,780 in 2013). Therefore all things being equal with comparative healthcare costs and settlements my insurance should be twice the price.

In California people are so litigious and the biggest law firms are ambulance chasers, settlements are much higher.

In the US healthcare costs are out of control (a co-worker was charged $75 for 1 Tylenol-3 after an emergency room visit)

I find it hard to explain why the Ontario system is so much less "efficient" than the US one.

I could get insurance a lot cheaper if I were to reduce the coverage (e.g. $70 a year to keep me legal) but you need to look at the benefits. It won't be the same.
 
Our system is beyond broken, and it keeps getting worse... Insurance is a scam in Ontario. There is no way we should be made to pay these rates.
 
Delboy said:
But you need to compare Apples to Apples though.

I'm insuring the same bike (exactly the same bike) in the US as I did in Canada. I have 4 million liability and 4 million accident benefits compared with 1 million liability and $3,500 MIG coverage in Ontario. The premium is just around 2/5 of what it is in Ontario.
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Thanks, a great case study, and some well laid out facts!! I see you're now living in SF. Are you living in the city itself or in a suburb?

Also, if you don't mind my asking, what age bracket are you in and what kind of bike to you ride?
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