Driving abroad and UK insurance

[LRDefender]

I thought I’d share my experiences of driving across European borders and the relevance of UK insurance.

I carefully chose my insurance based on a number of factors, one being the European wide cover offered by some insurance providers. Once I’d found a suitable insurer I contacted them to confirm their coverage did actually include all the countries they claimed and they confirmed

But hey, guess what…..

Both North Macedonia and Turkey rejected my UK insurance and would only let me enter the country once I had purchased their insurance. So if you’re travelling across Europe, please be prepared to buy additional insurance at a random border crossing.

[IJWS15]

Reading the back of my insurance certificate neither are in the EU (yet) nor are they listed separately (Andorra, Iceland Liechtenstein, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland are) so they were right and your preparation for the trip was wrong.

Read the small print next time?

I do remember having to tax a South African registered car as I drove into Swaziland many years ago but it only cost 50 Cents (Half a Lilangeni which was tied to the Rand at the time)

Edited by IJWS15 on Friday 8th September 17:45

[LRDefender]

IJWS15 said:

Reading the back of my insurance certificate neither are in the EU (yet) nor are they listed separately (Andorra, Iceland Liechtenstein, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland are) so they were right and your preparation for the trip was wrong.

Read the small print next time?

Thanks for your contribution.

Funnily enough I read the small print and as I wrote above, verbally confirmed with the insurance company these countries are covered. I even showed the relevant border authorities where their country’s names were printed on my insurance documents.

But hey, maybe I should read the small print or something……

[Snow and Rocks]

Interesting - we had no issues crossing into Turkey with a UK policy a few years back, and then further east we had the opposite problem - the border guards in Iraq and Iran thought we were crazy for trying to find somewhere that actually sold insurance.

I wonder if there was some kind of deal/scam going on between the guy selling the insurance and the guy checking the paperwork. Which border was it? We crossed through a small border post in the mountains of Bulgaria which might have explained a more lax attitude.

[LRDefender]

The first refusal was a small crossing between Albania & North Macedonia, just outside a small town called Perrenjas. I thought it might be a scam as the Albanian border guards said the documents seemed fine. I spoke to some local lads in Perrenjas and they too thought it might be a scam.

However, the Turkish border crossing was on the main motorway east from Thessaloniki. The Turkish border guards were absolutely adamant that my insurance didn’t cover Turkey, as did the insurance office officials at the border.

I’ve contacted my insurance company and hopefully they’ll look into it.