Car Insurance Rates Drop in Ontario

January 18th, 2016  |  Canadian Business

The numbers are in. In the final quarter of 2015, car insurance rates in Ontario fell by 0.15% on average. Of course, that’s just an average. If you check out individual insurer rates, you’ll see that some providers actually dropped their rates by more than 8%.

In other words, now’s a good time to shop around for car insurance. The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) released its quarterly report on auto insurance rates and revealed Ontario’s 0.15% average rate decrease. The change is minimal. In the previous quarter, the rate reduction average was 0.50%.

However, consumers need to understand a couple major points about this rate update. Some companies cut their rates by as much as 8% while others increased their rates by more than 10%. Other companies didn’t issue any rate changes at all.

So Ontario drivers will find that rate changes vary wildly across providers. Additionally, an array of other variables (type of car, amount of coverage, driving record, etc.) still factor into a driver’s individual rate. Even with this rate drop, some drivers may not see their own car insurance get any cheaper.

FSCO has other regulatory changes, like reduced mandatory coverage, scheduled for 2016. FSCO expects these change to give Ontario drivers more options for securing affordable car insurance. The winter tire discount became a mandatory offering across Ontario in 2016, and this discount has already helped some drivers lower their costs.

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