The Best Car Insurance Companies in Canada

The flaws of car insurance reviews

Example #1

Intact Insurance, Canada’s largest auto insurer, has a 3.9-star rating on Google with 658 reviews but you don’t have to scroll far to find 1-star reviews declaring it to be the “the WORST insurance company.”

Critical reviews complain about being dropped for having 4 tickets in 3 years, repair shop delays, and being asked to pay a deductible for a claim. While all of these situations would be upsetting, they’re not unique to Intact or within their control; the reviewers are misplacing the blame for their negative experiences.

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Example #2

Another major car insurance provider, Aviva Canada, has also been called “THE WORST” buy its Google reviewers. Select vents include taking over a month to get a new car, a policy cancelled for missed payments, and dissatisfaction with a settlement offer for a total loss.

Once again these negative reviews represent customers’ frustration with situations that would likely have been the same had they used any other insurance company.

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How to define the best car insurance companies in Canada

While most reviews are unhelpful, we can look at third-party data to get a better sense of which car insurance companies are actually doing the best job of satisfying their customers.

The consumer insights company J.D. Power conducted its most recent Canadian Auto Insurance Satisfaction survey in 2019. The study gives more weight to product/policy offerings, price, billing, payment and non-claims interaction than it does the claims process, presumably to solve the problem of claims-related frustration.

The study found the insurers with the highest overall customer satisfaction to be The Co-Operators in Ontario and Atlantic Canada. The Co-Operators tied with the Alberta Motor Association in Alberta, and The Personal took the top spot in Quebec. 

British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have public car insurance systems and were excluded from the study.

Another way to determine the best car insurance companies in Canada is the cost of insurance. 

The best car insurance companies in Canada by price

• Aviva Canada
• Economical Insurance
• SGI Canada
• Pembridge Insurance
• Unica Insurance
• Onlia Insurance
• Intact Insurance
• CAA Insurance
• South Easthope Mutual
• Echelon Insurance

When you put in your driver and vehicle details and your insurance history, our car insurance calculator runs those details through an algorithm to see what each company would charge you. 

When we look at our internal data, we can see which companies are currently offering the lowest price by aggregate score. This doesn't mean the best car insurance companies will give you the best price, because it's an average among all the quotes. You may get a better price from a different company based on your unique details.

Customer service vs. price

But does better customer service always mean a higher premium? And in the cases where it does, how much does customer service actually improve the more you pay?

We compared the top-rated insurers for customer service against auto insurers who were rated slightly lower for customer satisfaction to find the best combination of price and customer service. 

Our final results show that in every region J.D. Power studied (except for Ontario), the second or third-placed company offered a significant discount on premiums compared with the highest rated insurer.

How we compared auto insurance costs to customer service

Ratehub.ca measured the difference in premiums between the top three highest-rated insurers in each of the four regions using a fictional driver named Jennifer.

Representing the average Canadian based on Stats Canada analysis, Jennifer is 41 years old. As the mother of two children, ages 10 and 13, she spends a lot of time driving to activities. Between this, her daily commute from her suburban home, and other travel, she logs 20,000 kilometres per year.

To do the job, she relies on her 2020 Toyota Rav4 XLE, a popular fuel-efficient two-row crossover with enough room for her family and their gear. 

Jennifer has never been convicted of a driving offence and has never made a claim for an at-fault collision. 

Let’s see how her car insurance quotes align with customer satisfaction scores. The price-satisfaction index represents the number of customer satisfaction points per dollar spent (Price-Satisfaction = Customer Satisfaction Rating / Quote * 100). Higher numbers equal better value.

The best car insurance company in Alberta

Analyzing Alberta car insurance quotes is where we found the smallest difference in cost and the smallest gap in customer satisfaction. A clear winner did emerge, however, as Johnson Insurance quoted Jennifer $34 per month less than The Co-Operators and Alberta Motor Association.

While the winner isn’t in question, Johnson’s margin of victory could be even wider than recorded because of a few quirks in the quotes. The Alberta Motor Association didn’t allow us to raise the comprehensive coverage deductible above $500, which may have lowered its premium. Meanwhile, a depreciation benefit couldn’t be removed from Johnson Insurance’s quote, nor added to the other two. 

Despite its performance in Alberta, the Johnson quote is higher than Jennifer’s best quotes in any other region. And outside of Alberta, she only received one other quote over $200.

The best car insurance company in Atlantic Canada

In Atlantic Canada, we chose to compare Halifax car insurance quotes for Jennifer. Her quote from Intact Insurance came in $42 per month lower than the top-ranked Co-Operators and $4.08 per month lower than TD Insurance.

In this comparison, Intact wouldn’t allow us to add an accident forgiveness endorsement to Jennifer’s quote, which would prevent her premiums from increasing due to her first at-fault accident. As such, we removed it from the other two quotes which saved about $7 per month each.

Our fictional driver was wise to comparison shop, as once again her best car insurance quote did not come from the top-rated insurer.

The best car insurance companies in Ontario

When we looked at the Ontario car insurance market, Jennifer’s best quote came from the second-ranked company for customer satisfaction, The Personal. It came in $45 per month lower than the top-ranked Co-Operators and earns the best price-satisfaction score in this article.

Despite its lower customer satisfaction rating, RBC Insurance provided Jennifer’s highest quote in Ontario, almost $72 per month higher than The Personal. 

READ MORE: The best car insurance companies in Ontario

The best car insurance companies in Quebec

*Since the survey, La Capitale and SSQ General have merged to form Beneva insurance. Their satisfaction scores of 832 and 834, respectively, have been averaged for the purpose of this article.

For Quebec car insurance, Jennifer’s quote from Beneva Insurance wasn’t even remotely competitive. At $360.25, this quote is the highest of any Jennifer received and comes in last place in this comparison of price and customer satisfaction. This anomaly reiterates the importance of comparing multiple car insurance quotes before making a decision.

The Personal, however, performed well in both categories. Not only does it have the best customer satisfaction score of the companies in this article, but it also provided Jennifer’s lowest quote in Quebec, beating Industrial Alliance by $40 per month.

The final cost of customer service and car insurance

So, what are you actually getting when you pay for better-rated customer service?

The 8,688 auto insurance policyholders who J.D. Power surveyed were more satisfied when they had a complete understanding of their policy, bill, and discount options. This was especially true among those who saw their rates increase in the prior year.

A personal touch was also an indicator of satisfaction. Customers who were contacted by their insurer in the past year were more likely to be satisfied than those who didn’t receive any communication.

The bottom line

If you can take away anything from this comparison, it’s that the most expensive insurance isn’t always the best. Customer service is important, but cost is also a factor.

To get the best value, remember to compare car insurance quotes with satisfaction ratings to find the best car insurance company in Canada for you.

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