Jul 05, 2011
Mexican insurance makes me $$$
It’s true. Here in British Columbia ( Ontario also does refunds ) we are able to apply for a refund to our Canadian vehicle insurance for the portion of time that the same vehicles were insured by Mexican insurance. In our case we always make money on the refund but this year we hit the jackpot!! Lets me start at the beginning.
Our tow vehicle, a 2006 HHR Chevy cost us $275.84USD for 6 months of Mexican insurance.
Our Canadian refund for the actual 150 nights we spent in Mexico was $519.00CAD. A profit of $243.00CAD.
Our motorhome, to be insured to the maximum amount cost us $752.03USD for 6 months of Mexican insurance.
Our Canadian refund for the actual 150 nights we spent in Mexico was $896.00CAD. A profit of $143.97CAD.
A total profit of $386.97CAD. We came out way ahead.
So I took it one step further. I subtracted our toll road expenses coming and going, –$294.00CAD.
We still have a profit of $92.97CAD, which covers our electric for several weeks. It pays to travel to Mexico.
The USD vs the CAD dollar is so close that it is negligent. I know what the next question will be so here is the answer. We use Bob Acosta from San Xavier Mexico Insurance.
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Almost paid for your trip into town spoiling yourself, that is a good return on insurance will check to see what we are getting back..Our dollar was up $1.04 !! Hey time to go shopping in the U.S.A.
I don’t think there’s anything like that in the US. I need to find a new country……
To bad we can’t get that on our insurance, we pay $1,800. a year for rv and car and then $800.00 for three months in Mexico, no refunds.. make no money but have fun!
George, it is my understanding that Ontario does do Mexican insurance refunds. You might want to look into it further.
Kevin said that he has tried twice to get a refund in Ontario for our time in Mexico and both times they wouldn’t give us one. Glad you were able to come out ahead on the refund.
Kevin and Ruth
Neat how that works out, isn’t it? We have gotten a refund every time but once got a letter telling us we would need more documentation in the future. They gave it to us anyway and we have not had a problem since.
First let me say you got a refund on your BC auto insurance ( got back the money you paid) – not a profit! In Ontario there are many Auto Insurers. Some give refunds others dont. We have our policy with the Cooperators – when we arrive in Mazatlan Mexico from the US (2 day drive) – we call the Co-operators and place our vehicle policies on suspension – keep fire, theft to keep the policy open. Prior to leavig Mazatlan we reinstate our policies – thus we save most of the cost while in Mexico. We do this over the Phone and no paperwork necessary. Also when we get home and put or MH in our Parks compound (storage) we do the same thing – another saving. The first year we did what you did – continued to pay the Co-operators and got a refund when we returned (for that we needed to provde proof etc) Cheers Warren
Thanks Warren….hopefully this will help some of the Ontario people re Mexican insurance. Many don’t and won’t do what you do re placing part of the policy in suspension. We keep our RV fully insured at all times plus if you are travelling around you need to keep it insured. I do consider it as a profit because, simply put, we are making money. Obviously the Canadian insurance is higher so the portion we get back is profit. If we stayed in Canada or the US all year we would not have that extra cash in hand.
Croft, we got the same letter. I think it was referring in part to no longer in the future being using your passport as proof of crossing into Mexico.
Kevin & Ruth….in order to get the refund we need to show proof of entry & exit into Mexico (I generally use the vehicle import/export documentation), also some toll booth receipts dated the crossing into and out of the country as well we try and spend the first & last night in a Mexican RV park and get a receipt. You could probably get around this by buying something in a store and having a date on the receipt or even fuel at Pemex but get the receipt. In order to prove we are in the USA we also stay at an RV park on the last night or first night and get the receipt or buy something & get the dated receipt. It is a bit of a pain getting all the documentation but well worth the effort financially.
[…] past April we put in a refund request from both ICBC and Aviva, our two vehicle insurers. If you check out my July 5th post, you will see how we came out ahead. We made a profit of $386.97 once the refunds less the costs […]