The best insurance companies for younger drivers in Ontario in 2023

Wondering what the best auto insurance company for young drivers in Ontario is? Here’s the scoop: For women under the age of 25, Aviva has the lowest average premiums. For men in the same age group, it’s Intact. But because auto insurance rates are determined by so many different factors, these definitely aren’t one-size-fits-all answers. In fact, when we ran quotes for 14 young drivers using our online auto insurance quoter, six different insurers had the best price for at least one of them.

Insurance companies view young men and women very differently. To determine which insurers are the best for young drivers, we created 14 fictional driver profiles consisting of seven men and seven women, aged 25 or younger, and ran insurance quotes for all of them.

Key findings:

Before digging into the specifics of our study, it’s important to note that determining the best insurance companies involves much more than just who has the lowest price. We’re highlight premiums here as it’s the one factor that definitely varies by age. But there’s a lot more to examine. For a comprehensive look at other factors like service and claims experience along with Google and JD Power ratings, check out the best Ontario auto insurers of 2024.

When it comes to premiums for young drivers, this is how our top auto insurers stack up against one another:

To create a meaningful ranking, we generated separate lists for men and women, and for high-risk and regular market insurers.

Male and female drivers are examined separately because young men are much worse drivers statistically, and because of this are viewed differently by insurance companies. However, this difference disappears by age 25.

High-risk insurers are also ranked separately because the nature of the drivers they take on (people with a history of insurance non-payment, at-fault claims, multiple tickets, etc.) means that their premiums are higher than regular market insurers.

As mentioned above, there are several ways that you can evaluate insurers. In this instance, we’re comparing companies based on their offerings to a specific demographic, and because of that, the only reliable way to rank them is on price since it’s the only factor that differs significantly for young drivers.

To gauge how different insurers perform in terms of pricing, we created 14 fictional driver profiles – seven men and seven women – and obtained quotes for all of them. Although the drivers aren’t real, the rates reflect what someone with similar characteristics (age, gender, location, driving record) could realistically expect to pay for their auto insurance.

All of the quotes were based on the same coverages, policy limits, deductibles and discounts, as follows:

We ran quotes for the following drivers:

Here are the auto insurance quotes for the individuals above:

Intact is the winner for young male drivers in the regular market. They have the lowest average premiums by 6% over second place SGI, offer the best quote for two drivers, and they are no worse than fifth on any profile. But if you’re Jock, Intact will cost you 39% more than Commonwell.

We ran quotes for the following drivers:

Here are the auto insurance quotes for the individuals above.

For young females, Aviva is the winner with the lowest average quote by 7% over runner up Commonwell, and offering the best price for four out of the six regular market driver profiles. If you’re Karlee, you may not mind paying 1% more than the lowest price with Aviva, but if you’re Akilah, Aviva’s quote is 34% higher than the rate offered by Wawanesa.

The short answer is yes, they will. Rankings based on auto insurance rates are accurate at the time the quotes are run. While some insurers may remain competitive for years in certain market segments, exact rates usually vary every few months and will certainly change over the course of a year or more.

The rankings presented in this article are based on the rates that insurance companies file each quarter with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA). While not every company adjusts their rates quarterly, many do, and they are required to justify their rate changes by providing evidence of how much they’ve paid out in claims. When a company experiences a quarter with lower claims costs for a particular market segment – say young drivers, for example – they may reduce rates for that segment. On the flip side, if their claims shoot up, it becomes necessary to raise premiums to cover these expenses and rates will increase.

This means the auto insurance market is in a constant state of flux with some insurers reducing rates to attract a particular type of customer, and others raising rates for that same demographic to maintain profitability. It’s unlikely that one insurer will consistently be the cheapest option in a given segment for an extended period. Should they manage to achieve this while remaining profitable, eventually competitors will also lower their rates in an attempt to replicate their success.

All of the quotes in this article are for standalone policies with the person in question being the primary driver on the vehicle. But for young drivers, especially those under the age of 20, the most affordable way to gain experience is to be listed as an occasional driver on their parents’ policy.

Take Keegan, for example. He’s 20 years old, lives in Cornwall, and had a conviction for following too close in 2020. If he were to get coverage on his own, his best price would be $2,882 with Intact. But assuming he’s still living with his parents, he could be listed as an occasional driver on the same car for only $994 more than his parents are already paying with CAA (or only $402 if he was female). This can be an even more cost effective choice in the GTA, where insurance rates are considerably higher for young drivers.

Even if you’re a responsible, safety-oriented driver, you are paying for the mistakes made by all the other young drivers who came before you. This is because you haven’t had the opportunity to build a long history of clean driving. This may feel incredibly unfair, especially for young men – who even with a clean record, may sometimes pay insurance premiums that are three or four times higher than the provincial average.

The only way for young drivers to offset this is to opt for a telematics device that measures their driving behaviour. Doing this can lead to significant savings if you drive safely. For instance, consider our G2 driver, Riley, whose best rate would ordinarily be $4,328 with Aviva. If Riley decided to register for Aviva Journey (Aviva’s telematics program), he’d get a 10% discount just for signing up. This would lower his base rate to $3,903, and it could decrease to $3,470 (a 20% discount) by the end of the policy term if he consistently demonstrated excellent driving habits¹.

Please note: If you decide to participate in a telematics program, you’ll need to install a device in your vehicle, or download an app to your phone. It will measure things like how much you drive, when you drive, and how quickly you start and stop.

¹Most users save 10%. You’ll only get the maximum 20-25% discount by severely limiting your kilometres, avoiding rush hour driving, and making sure all your starts and stops are gradual.

If you’re 50 years old and have over three decades’ worth of driving experience, having a speeding ticket or even an at-fault accident on your record won’t necessarily affect your premium that much. But for young drivers, tickets and at-fault accidents will result in significant increases to your insurance costs.

For example, Wren’s best rate is $9,055 with Aviva. Without a speeding ticket on her record, Aviva would still be her best choice, but her premium would be lowered to $6,642. That’s an extra 36% she’s paying because of that one speeding ticket.

We want all drivers in Ontario to be able to find the insurance company that’s best suited to their individual needs. Depending on who you are, where you live, your age and your driving record, your best insurer could be any one of six or more companies.