Loooking for insurance co ok if Ont car in US for 1 yr

Help!

Does anyone know of an insurance company ok with insuring an just-purchased Ontario car that I plan to use in the US for the better part of a year?

I was just about to buy a car to drive myself and a bit of stuff to Fort Wayne Indiana where I'll be on a TN visa for a 10 month temporary University teaching contract if do not intend to extend beyond a year. Research told me that Indiana did not require me to register the car in Indiana (just to get an Indiana driver's license after 60 days) -- Ontario plates ok. My old insurer refusing to insure the car if it I plan to use it in the States for the better part of the year.

I understand I should be ok to cross the border without importing the car, provided car returns to Canada within the year (correct me if wrong). But how to insure it before I leave (in 10 days time)?

I was under the impression almost any insurance company was okay with you driving your car in the US for up to a year on your Canadian insurance. I'd check with your insurance agent, I wouldn't have thought it would be that hard to find a company willing to do it.

I didn't have problem either driving under Cdn insurance. I've heard of a company using a Toronto rating for premium calculation, though.

My Canadian insurance company (The Personal) told me that it wasn't an insurance policy, but an Ontario policy. They said that Ontario doesn't allow you to have your vehicle outside of the province for more than 6 months and still have it registered in Ontario. I never bothered to look up if that was actually true or not, but it's what the insurance agent told me.

Your principal residence is still Ontario and you still have an address there (I assume) so I can't see what they can do about it frankly. I've noticed Ontario has a raft of silly policies like this, e.g. with OHIP.

If your principal residence is in Ontario and you pay taxes there, you live in Ontario and as such you can register a vehicle there.

And to answer your next question, read this: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/p151/README.html

What may be possible and legal in theory, I am discovering is difficult in practice. Most of the insurance companies I've tried have a blanket policy of not insuring cars that will be mostly driven and parked in the U.S., irrespective of the fact that the address of my principle residence is in Toronto. After much pleading and some near crying the insurer of my previous car said ok, but only for the first 3 months.

Found a couple though: Greypower (an agent specializing in the 55+ set) was ok with the car being in the U.S., but are now giving me a runaround about some cosmetic damage (that I stupidly was honest about), and have yet to confirm they'll cover me at all.

CAA is ok to cover, provided the car comes back into Canda for a period (eg a day) within 6 months, but will charge me a bomb (3 times what I'm used to paying) because of a gap in insurance (when I didn't own a car).

So... any other names out there? I'm getting desperate.

m

I'm in California for a 1 year internship. My Ontario insurance company would not let me drive my car in the U.S. for more than a 30 day "grace period" in order to allow me to obtain American car insurance. My car still has a Canadian registration, and I am still driving with my Canadian drivers license but I obtained an insurance policy Farmer's Insurance (in Modesto, CA) with a comparable rate, no sweat! All I had to do was get a letter from my current insurance policy stating I am in good standing and giving them a recent history of claims. I suggest do that and giving Farmer's a call!

The best thing to do to insure a car that you will be using in the US for a year is to formally import it into US, plate/register it where you will live and insure it there on that basis.

To drive around US with a a Cdn-plated car (other than purely on vacation) or Cdn-insured car is frought with scenarios under which the insurer (be it CDN or US) will deny any claim: the Cdn plate may be invalid (as was mentionned above), and the instant that is determined, the clause 'while driving illegally' kicks in.