There are numerous well-established ways to reduce these premiums with no catch.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Drive carefully and avoid both accidents and citations/tickets for poor driving. In this way, you will remain a low risk to your insurance company.
• Store your car in a safe place, always lock it and, if you can, install an alarm system or an immobilizer to protect it from theft. Depending on the nature of your policy, other safety gear like air bags and automatic seat belts might also drive the cost down.
• Drive less. The fewer kilometres you drive, the less your insurance will cost. Public transport and car pools might be handy here. Ask your insurer about its different mileage thresholds so your efforts at saving mileage will pay off.
• Pay attention to the type of vehicle you buy. You will pay a lot more on insurance if you give your teenager a huge 4×4 than if you buy him a smaller and cheaper model. Cars known to be popular with thieves or ones that are expensive to repair are typically more expensive to insure. The Insurance Bureau of Canada regularly releases information on the most frequently stolen vehicles and on safety records.
• Calculate your deductible carefully. The deductible is the amount you pay on a claim before your insurance company pays the remainder. The larger your deductible, the lower your insurance premiums. In other words, if you can save up $1,000 to be available in event of an accident or theft, you can specify this as your deductible and get away with lower premiums than you would have paid if your deductible had been, say $200.
• Get a new quote from your existing insurance company. If it becomes too expensive, investigate competing companies, while keeping in mind that the cheapest is not necessarily the best.
• Insure your vehicles with an insurance company that offers bundle policies. This can involve either insuring your house and vehicle together, or insuring all your vehicles together. If you bundle your insurable possessions into one policy, your premiums are typically lower.
• Examine your policy carefully, line-by-line, and remove the types of coverage you do not need. for example, roadside assistance is not essential, so it is worth dropping if you cannot afford it.
• Ask your insurance company whether it uses your credit score to help determine your premiums. If it does, improve your credit record by paying all your bills on time.

More than anything else, be proactive when selecting an insurance company and choosing a policy. Ask as many questions as possible and never assume that you have to pay the premiums on the first quote.