Monday, June 01, 2009

Insurance aggravation

So last week, C and I finally got our Canadian driver's licenses. We had been putting it off for a variety of reasons, but finally, we (or I) determined we just had to do it. Getting our driver's licenses was the easy part. It literally took under a half an hour, which we both found really surprising. Getting Canadian car insurance is proving to be a bit more difficult, however.

First of all, car insurance is much more expensive here--as, it seems to us, is everything else. Second, it honestly never occurred to either C or me to keep a copy of our Southwestern State driver's licenses, which is proving to be a problem as we don't have driver's license numbers. Third, it seems that the Canadian system and the American system don't "speak" to one another, so all the paper work that the Canadian insurance company needs I'm having to find and locate on my own. That said, the insurance agent I've been working with regarding forms and the like since March has neglected to tell me what all I need to get the best rate possible. The entire process is getting a bit frustrating--and that frustration is only complicated by the fact that C has absolutely no patience for anything like this at all.

So after 4 phone calls to various companies and various states I think I finally have all the forms that I need so we can get Canadian car insurance. But something tells me I'm probably wrong.

2 comments:

Lilian said...

HOW ANNOYING! Let us know if it worked out, finally.

My BIL and SIL immigrated to Quebec and they just applied for a license, but they tell us that it'll be many months before they can have one. Meantime, they can't drive! How difficult!

M said...

Getting the licenses was the easy part it seems. We had copies of our American driver's records, our passports, and our work permits. We were in and out in about 25 minutes, which really surprised both of us. We anticipate that registering the car will be a bit trickier, but we can't even begin that process until we have car insurance.