Find Cheap Auto Insurance
in Calgary

Yes, it is. Car insurance is mandatory throughout Canada and Calgary is no exception.

The province of Alberta requires that auto insurance policies include two specific components:

• Personal liability and property coverage (PLPD). Also called third-party liability.
• Accident benefits. This covers medical costs in the event you or a passenger are hurt in an accident.

To help keep costs down, Alberta uses a grid system, which outlines the maximum cost for minimum coverages. Depending on your driving history, you may move up or down on this grid, but your insurance premium cannot exceed the price outlined for a driver with your record.

See your grid premium by using the grid rate calculator on the Alberta Automobile Insurance Rate Board website.

While Alberta’s auto insurance grid regulates the price of basic coverage, the vast majority of Calgary’s drivers opt for additional coverage, primarily to insure the vehicle itself.

For more information on mandatory and optional coverages, as well as Alberta’s grid system, check out our Alberta car insurance page.

As you may have noticed, the mandatory minimum coverage in Alberta does not actually provide any insurance for your vehicle. In a busy city like Calgary, the risk of getting into an auto collision is a lot higher than in rural areas. If you only have basic coverage, you will have to pay for repairs to your car yourself.

With this in mind, popular insurance add-ons include:

• Collision coverage. This helps pay for repairs if you collide with another vehicle or crash into a stationary object.
• Comprehensive coverage. This helps pay for repairs if your car is damaged in an event other than a collision (e.g. vandalism or adverse weather).
• Named perils. This is a cheaper option than comprehensive. It only protects against perils specifically listed in your policy.

Calgary lies within Alberta’s Hailstorm Alley and is prone to severe hailstorms every few years. These storms cause millions of dollars in damage to vehicles, so “hail” damage is a good example of something that would be covered under the comprehensive portion of your plan.

According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, Albertans face the third highest premiums in Canada, an average of $1,316 per year, or $109.67 per month. To make matters worse, Calgary is the second most expensive city (behind Edmonton) for car insurance in the whole province.

As with most large cities, busy roads, distracted driving and crime are responsible for high car insurance rates.

Busy roads

Calgary’s population has increased by over 100% since the early 1990s, swelling to more than 1.5 million residents. Calgary is very much a driving city, so this population boom has translated into a dramatic increase in cars on the road. As all insurance enthusiasts know, more cars on the road means more collisions which leads to higher auto insurance premiums.

Distracted driving

Along with the rest of Canada, Alberta has a distracted driving problem. Convictions started spiking in 2012 (24,428 convictions vs. 7,829 the year before). This increase coincided with a boom in smart phone sales, and the vast majority of these convictions are indeed for people using cell phones while driving.

While the number of convictions has gone down in Calgary since peaking in 2015, the city still had 4,395 distracted driving convictions in 2019, equivalent to 45.3 per 10,000 licenced drivers. From an insurance perspective, cell phone use behind the wheel remains a serious problem, and until the data shows a significant improvement, Calgarians will continue to pay the price via elevated premiums.

Vehicle theft

The Calgary Police Commission claims that Calgary has the highest vehicle theft rate in the country, and the statistics are alarming.

In 2018, nearly 7,000 passenger vehicles were either stolen or attempted to be stolen in Calgary, which is equivalent to over 19 per day. One particularly bad period saw $1.1 million worth of cars stolen in just three months.

A significant portion of Calgary’s vehicular theft is a result of drivers leaving their unattended vehicles running in the winter months. Opportunistic criminals simply hop in and drive away. Even residents of Calgary’s safest neighbourhoods fall victim to this type of crime, and Alberta’s insurance companies respond with high premiums.

No two drivers are the same and the quotes you receive will be equally unique. As a result, it is impossible to say which company offers the cheapest rate, which is why we recommend trying our free quoting tool.

What we can tell you is that last year, Calgary drivers who used Rates.ca saved an average of $407.42.*

When insurers calculate Calgary auto premiums, they consider multiple factors including your age, your driving history, your annual mileage, the car you drive, and your postal code.

Your postal code is important because if you live in a very populated area like downtown Calgary, the chance of a collision (and ensuing insurance claim) is higher than it is in quieter neighbourhoods like Hamptons or Edgemont. Insurance companies consider neighbourhood crime and collision statistics before writing premiums.

While you are unable to influence many of the factors that make up your insurance rate, the best way to save is to practice defensive driving, maintain a clean driving record, and compare quotes regularly on Rates.ca. If you do this, it might be possible to enjoy living in Calgary while paying small town prices for car insurance.

Uber has had a topsy turvy ride in Calgary; it initially launched in 2015, before facing a court injunction and suspending operations, and was relaunched more successfully in 2016. Shortly afterwards, the Superintendent of Insurance of Alberta approved a new ridesharing insurance policy which came into effect on July 1, 2016.

If you are planning on driving for a ridesharing platform in Calgary, you must inform your insurance provider to modify your coverage.