Compare car insurance quotes in Hamilton for free. Get the best rates.

Looking to find the average cost of car insurance in Hamilton? You shouldn't use the average rate to estimate your car insurance premium; it isn't an accurate gauge as to how much you’ll end up paying. Your personal details — your driving and insurance history, your age, the type of car you’re insuring, the amount of coverage you buy, the amount you drive each day, and even your gender — will factor into the quote you receive.

Many people end up on LowestRates.ca because they’re searching for an estimate for car insurance in Hamilton, or are looking for a calculator for Hamilton car insurance. The best way to get an accurate idea of how much you’ll pay is to apply for a quote. It’s free and no-obligation. Your quotes will reflect what car insurance companies are willing to charge you.

Shopping the insurance market before you lock in a policy can go a long way towards helping you find affordable car insurance in Hamilton.

The Hamilton postal code region with the highest average quotes for premiums is the L8N region. This region encompasses Hamilton’s Stinson neighbourhood.

The Hamilton postal code region with the lowest average quotes for premiums is the L8T region, located in eastern Hamilton.

We benchmarked Hamilton's rates to the average rates of its surrounding communities. Here's how they compare.

• Burlington (64% less)
• Milton (40% less)
• St. Catherine’s (28% less)
• Brantford (27% less)
• Cambridge (16% less)

The average Hamilton driver pays much more than their neighbours do. But don’t sweat these numbers. Where you live is only one variable among many others that car insurance companies consider.

Your personal driving habits factor into the equation in a major way.

There isn’t one car insurance company that offers cheap auto insurance quotes to all Hamilton drivers.

Car insurance is a highly customized product. Some factors that insurance companies consider are out of your control (such as the company’s loss ratios, which are influenced by the driving histories of their other customers as well as their underwriting standards).

There are, however, some factors you can control and using them to your advantage will help you find cheap car insurance in Hamilton.

Factors that are under your control include the type of car you drive, your driving record, the amount of kilometres you drive each year, your eligibility for discounts, and the amount of coverage you decide to buy.

In general, buying a utilitarian car that isn’t a target for thieves and has good safety ratings will bring down your rate, as will being a defensive driver, limiting your mileage, and opting for a basic car insurance policy.

You can drive down your rates a bit further by making yourself eligible for more discounts. For example, installing winter tires, or even maintaining a GPA above a certain level if you’re in school.

When comparing rates, we recommend focusing on the factors you can control, rather than what you can’t — but that’s only the first part of our strategy for finding the cheapest auto insurance quotes in Hamilton.

The next step involves comparing car insurance quotes in advance of your policy renewal date. Since every insurance company’s tolerance for risk is a bit different, it’s highly likely that one may favour you more than your current auto insurance company. Once you compare quotes, you may be Hamilton by the variation in prices. We can help you find a car insurance company serving Hamilton that can offer you a lower rate.

There are a number of factors that determine your car insurance rates in Hamilton. Here’s are some to consider:

Your mileage: How much you drive every day is another major contributor to what you’ll pay in auto insurance rates. Someone driving 30-45 minutes to and from work each day will pay more in car insurance than someone who only uses their car to run errands.

Your postal code: Insurance companies determine your rates partially based on the postal code you live in. If your area generally has a higher concentration of claims, you may find yourself paying higher rates than people living in the next postal code over.

Your driving record: Your driving history is another factor that will weigh heavily on how much you pay for car insurance. Someone with an accident or multiple tickets on their record will pay more for insurance than someone with a clean record because they’ll be deemed higher risk.

Your age: Like it or not, the younger you are, the more you’ll pay in car insurance (until you’re about 30). This is because you’re considered a high-risk driver until you’ve built up a driving history that demonstrates the opposite. There isn’t much you can do about it, but at least you’re not alone. Young people across Hamilton, and the rest of Canada, face higher auto insurance rates compared to the more experienced drivers they share the road with.

Your policy: How much you pay in auto insurance is impacted by how much auto insurance you buy. There are a number of different policies to choose from in Calgary, but everyone in Canada is required to have at least a basic level of car insurance. Keep reading to find out what your policy options are.

Car insurance for new drivers in Hamilton is costly. Young people pay, on average, the highest insurance premiums of any demographic (adults with driving convictions notwithstanding). For drivers who’ve been insured since the age of 16, rates start declining in the mid-twenties and typically persist until their thirtieth birthday.

Here are some ways you can trim the price of your car insurance rate in Hamilton:

• Avoid getting your own car, if you can. Instead, opt to get listed as the secondary driver of your parents’ car. Insurance for secondary drivers costs less than it does for the primary driver.
• If you’re in school (high school or post-secondary), insurance companies offer discounts to students who maintain a certain GPA.
• Take a driver’s education course and make sure you get a certificate of completion. Showing that to an insurance company will lower your rate.

It can be challenging for new drivers to find cheap insurance in Hamilton. However, we’ve found that the demographic that finds the largest savings on LowestRates.ca are young drivers — the more you’re expected to pay, the more dramatic the savings you find when you compare Hamilton car insurance quotes.

Adults between the ages of 50 and 70 get some of the lowest car insurance rates in Hamilton. If you belong to this demographic, you probably have a long history of being insured and you might even have bundled your home insurance policy with the same provider of your auto insurance. After age 70, though, you might see your rate begin to creep up because people in your age group are, statistically, more likely to need to file a claim and need longer to recover from an injury. If you do see your rates begin to climb, it may be time to shop around for new automobile insurance in Hamilton.

Having several traffic convictions will put you in the high-risk category with most insurance companies. If you’ve ever had your licence revoked, you are pushed further into the high-risk category. Being high-risk means that insurance companies think that the likelihood of you needing to file a claim. Since insurance companies are betting that they will need to provide you financial assistance, they will charge you more. It’s very hard to find cheap auto insurance rates in Hamilton as a high-risk driver.

There are insurance companies that cater to high-risk drivers, however. If you’ve been turned down by multiple insurance companies, you can purchase facility insurance, a pooled fund subsidized by Canadian insurance companies to provide coverage to high-risk drivers who have no other way of obtaining insurance. LowestRates.ca provides quotes from the Facility Association.

Regardless of your circumstances, LowestRates.ca can help you find a Hamilton auto insurance company that can provide you coverage.

If you’ve recently immigrated to Ontario, you cannot drive without proper licencing and insurance.

You must trade-in your licence from the country you’ve emigrated from within 60 days for an Ontario driver’s license. The provincial government recognizes licences from several countries as equivalent to an Ontario license, which makes your transition smoother and spares you from going through Ontario’s graduated licencing system. Ask your old insurance company to provide a reference to your new Ontario insurer. This will go a long way to nab you a lower car insurance rate and you’ll have a better chance at securing a lower car insurance rate because you have proof of your insurance and driving history.

​1. Keeping your driving record free of any traffic tickets (parking tickets don’t count) is essential to keeping your car insurance premiums down. Hamilton isn’t an easy city to navigate by car. Hamilton drivers frequently travel on the expressways or on the 403 highway, so they can avoid driving through the roads in town. Here are three things to watch out for when driving around town:

• Hamilton has 13 red light cameras that are used to improve road safety and increase driver awareness. 
• Hamilton is filled with busy two-way streets, whereas the lower city is dotted with many one-way streets.
• The downtown core near Jackson Square Mall at Gore Park is very pedestrian-friendly even though that area is an important driving route in the centre of town. 

2. Consider joining a telematics program, which is when you grant your car insurance company permission to monitor your driving (i.e., how fast you drive, how hard you brake, etc.). Good drivers can be rewarded with discounts of up to 25% at renewal. 

3. Install winter tires. Hamilton gets snowy. Not only will snow tires help keep you safe, most insurers will give you a discount of about 5% for taking precautions.