Auto theft is on the rise. We’re seeing it everywhere in Canada and there’s no shortage of news coverage on the topic. There have been 93 carjacking incidents that have occurred in Toronto so far this year compared to just 21 at this time in 2021. Almost a 400% increase year over year. In the last 30 days, a whopping 404 cars were stolen in Brampton and Mississauga – that’s approximately 13 vehicles stolen per day.
Does Car Theft Affect Auto Insurance Rates?
Insurance companies look at a variety of different factors when determining your rates including, driving history, age, location, and risk of car theft is among those factors. According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), a car is stolen every six minutes in Canada and this translates into large insurance payout claims. For example, if there’s more theft claims associated with a particular model, or location in this case, insurance companies may decide to charge more for that model to offset claims.
At MyChoice we strive to arm our users with as much information as possible before matching them with brokers and insurers. That’s why we pulled internal data from some of the most expensive cities that we quoted for car insurance and matched those up to car theft rates in those cities using research from municipal police. We found that Vaughan, Ajax, Brampton, Mississauga, Toronto and Hamilton are not only in the top 10 most expensive cities for car insurance, but they are actually all well above the provincial average for car jacking rates.
Ways To Protect Against Theft
Choosing the right type of insurance will help replace parts that are stolen, repair damages to your automobile resulting from a break-in and, of course, replace a stolen vehicle.
- Comprehensive: Will pay for the cost to repair or replace your automobile due to unforeseen situations.
- Specified Perils: If you don’t want to add comprehensive but still want theft protection, you can add a specified peril (i.e. catalytic converter theft, attempted theft).
- All Perils: A very extensive type of coverage that comes with a larger price tag, but you’ll have peace of mind in knowing you have protection for almost all types of damage to your vehicle and theft to your vehicle.