Compare prices for home or auto insurance in Canada

If you just arrived in Canada, you are probably looking for housing and/or a car. Insurance is crucial for both of these! But among the sea of insurance providers, which one should you pick?

YouSet is an online insurance broker that allows you to find the ideal insurance with the best price in a matter of minutes by showing you a comparison of more than 10 insurance providers.

If you find the right insurance, you can complete the purchases 100% online with no additional fees. If you’d like, you can also then speak with an insurance broker to ask him or her questions or to communicate changes in your insurance needs. 

Buying home insurance

Many think that home insurance is optional. “I don’t have much to insure. I don’t have anything valuable. I only brought a couple of suitcases”. But we tend to underestimate the true value of the totality of our belongings (phone, computer, appliances, clothing etc). 

Furthermore, home insurance covers not just personal belongings, but also protects you against losses due to fire or water damage, for example. 

There is also the option for liability insurance, which protects you from material damage or bodily injuries sustained by others. For example, if you are staying in a hotel and you accidentally cause water damage, you are covered! 

Buying auto insurance

First things first: auto insurance is mandatory. 

There are two types: one-way and two-way auto insurance. What does that mean?

• One-way insurance protects you from damages that you cause to others in the context of a vehicular accident.
• Two-way insurance protects you from the above, and from damages caused by others to your vehicle. 

Buying home or auto insurance is important, even while abroad. Budgeting for a small monthly insurance premium could save you from losing magnitudes more in case of damage. 

Jérémie’s story: apartment consumed by fire

Jérémie arrived in Montreal on a WHV in 2018 and has been a permanent resident since May 2021. 

You were the victim of an apartment fire. Can you explain what happened? 

The fire happened on 11 October 2020, at 3 in the morning, in the apartment that I was renting with my partner in Montreal. 

The fire started in the garden shed of my upstairs neighbor. I was woken up by the footsteps of my neighbor who was running in the apartment upstairs. When I got up to see what was happening, I saw the fire through the kitchen window. It was destroying the balcony. 

I immediately woke up my partner. We got dressed and took our phones, just as the fire began to enter the apartment. By the time we had called the firefighters, we saw that the fire was already eating through the apartment’s front door. It happened very quickly. 

The apartment was declared a total loss, along with three adjacent buildings. We lost everything that night.  

Did your insurance cover the damages?

Thankfully we had home insurance and were covered for up to $30,000.

We met the insurance agent 48 hours after the fire. She authorized $5000 that same day so that we could at least buy clothes and food for the following days. 

Our insurance also included a $6000 credit for rehousing. We lived in an Airbnb in the meantime, and the insurance covered the difference between the cost of the Airbnb and our normal rent. 

After filling out an Excel sheet with all our lost belongings (material or food), the insurance company sent us the remaining $25,000. With the $5,000 advance, that came out to a total of $30,000 paid. 

We got the full coverage amount because the value of our goods lost exceeded the $30,000 limit in our contact. 

The insurance procedures happened quite fast. $5000 were authorized 48 hours after the incident, Airbnb was found less than two weeks later, and the balance of our full coverage amount was sent 3-4 weeks after the fire. 

For $35 a month, it’s really not expensive to protect oneself!