Are you covered for car insurance in France? Think again!

[chasingracecars]

Once upon a time green cards were required to travel in Europe. It now seems insurance companies are doing the same again.

I have to let Adrian Flux know each time I am travelling otherwise my insurance is invalid!! I get 90 days cover overseas included but I must tell them when I am away.

Give AF a quick call if you are coming over.

[delta0]

Thanks. I wasn't aware of this. Just checked mine. I'm covered for 90 days third party in Europe. I don't need to notify them.

[Roundm]

I checked my insurance and the cover included is 3rd party only - the rest of my policy is fully comp so I was really surprised at this. I had to pay extra (at about 300% of the per day rate of my normal insurance) to get fully comprehensive cover.

So I'd suggest checking the cover level as well as the green card with your insurer

[The Leaper]

The above illustrates the negative issues with comparison websites. The sites major on cost and very little else. When buying products you need to know what you are getting for your money. Nearly all car insurance companies say they do cover you abroad but do not say they only give you the minimum legal cover for the country you will be driving in, which is worth not much more than sod all when compared to fully comp cover.

I travel to France 2-3 times a year including going to Le Mans, so I've always ensured that my UK comp cover is fully in place when abroad. It costs me maybe £60 a year for this for which I get peace of mind, the main reason for insurance in the fist place.

R.

[Oldwolf]

So much this!
I used a comparison website and then checked it out and some of the robbing so and so insurers would cover you 'at the lowest legal amount' in the country which can be lower than third party!!! Grrrr

[blueST]

chasingracecars said:

Once upon a time green cards were required to travel in Europe. It now seems insurance companies are doing the same again.

I have to let Adrian Flux know each time I am travelling otherwise my insurance is invalid!! I get 90 days cover overseas included but I must tell them when I am away.

Give AF a quick call if you are coming over.

I've just gone with Flux, one of the reasons was the 90 day fully comp cover. Despite discussing it on the phone they never mentioned I need to tell them every time I go. I only found that out the other day when I rung them about somethimg else and happened to mention I was travelling.

[delta0]

I've added a green card to mine to have exactly the same cover as I do here. Fully comp etc. They said they do 3 days for free. The 5 days I'm out it cost £29

[MikeyLCR]

Just checked mine (A-Plan) and I'm covered fully comp exactly as at home, I did notice though, in the part that says I can drive any other car with the owners permission with 3rd party cover, it's only applicable in the UK. I wasn't planning to share the driving on the continent anyway but Its worth checking if you are

[TooMany2cvs]

chasingracecars said:

Once upon a time green cards were required to travel in Europe. It now seems insurance companies are doing the same again.

I have to let Adrian Flux know each time I am travelling otherwise my insurance is invalid!! I get 90 days cover overseas included but I must tell them when I am away.

There's confusion between two different things.

The green card is not needed for France - you AUTOMATICALLY have full 365-day third party cover, anywhere in a long list of (47) countries, EU and wider, no different to what a green card gives you for other countries. The insurer CANNOT legally restrict that.

https://www.mib.org.uk/making-a-claim/accidents-in...
http://www.cobx.org/Content/Default.asp?PageID=7

What your insurer are talking about is an extension from third party only to your normal fully comp cover - a green card won't do that, since the green card is just for basic third party.

[markiep1]

I'm with RAC, gave them a call this morning and they have confirmed my cover is fully comp have never given it a thought until reading this thread, so thanks for the heads up

[markiep1]

I'm with RAC, gave them a call this morning and they have confirmed my cover is fully comp have never given it a thought until reading this thread, so thanks for the heads up

[surveyor]

I think this is probably more a AF tax....

Wise to check though.

[crossy67]

It's not just if you're FC or TP.

They can be very restrictive with how much they'll pay out under your cover too. I've had a customer insured with Admiral who was told they would only contribute something like £125 towards the cost of the replacement windscreen on his 997. Ouch. Had the same happen with other ins co's too, SAGA rings a bell.

Best check, Windscreens can be really expensive here, I'd say my average invoice value is iro 600€ for run of the mill cars but can be 2k€+ for more exotic things.

[adamstreeter]

markiep1 said:

I'm with RAC, gave them a call this morning and they have confirmed my cover is fully comp have never given it a thought until reading this thread, so thanks for the heads up

Also checked myself after seeing thread, with Hastings and fully comp also

[Rick101]

adamstreeter said:

Also checked myself after seeing thread, with Hastings and fully comp also

Saves me a phone call

[mickyblue]

This thread got me thinking - so I checked my policy too. I'm with Axa Insurance UK plc - through Adrian Flux - and I think I'm fine. My reading is that I automatically have comprehensive cover in France, and I don't have to tell them or get a green card. They weren't the cheapest - but it looks like the cover is pretty good in this respect. I might give them a call to double-check though!

'Your policy automatically extends the
cover shown in the schedule to the
countries described in 1 and 2 above for
up to 93 days in any one period of cover.'

Micky

[delta0]

My understanding of that is they provide the minimum legal cover for that country. That would be third party.

[The Leaper]

mickyblue,

I don't think the policy wording is clear where it refers to extending the schedule etc. If I were you I'd give the insurer a call to get precise clarification.

R.

[pete]

delta0 said:

My understanding of that is they provide the minimum legal cover for that country. That would be third party.

Not in this case, I think. The wording effectively says that it provides the minimum level of cover in Europe for the duration of the policy, then in addition provides the level of cover described in the schedule of insurance (the document that describes your cover in detail alongside your certificate) in Europe for up to 93 days. Provided that your schedule of insurance says you are comprehensively covered in the UK, then you're also comprehensively insured in Europe for those 93 days.

I'm with Elephant.co.uk and they provide fully comp insurance in Europe, with similar wording. Up to 90 days cover at the level described in my policy documents in Europe, then the statutory legal minimum cover in Europe for the full year.

Pete

[Caterbroon]

Thanks for highlighting this point. On the back of this I contacted our insurers and found out we only had minimum third party cover for abroad so we 'upgraded' to fully comp for the week. Total cost was £39 of which £25 was a bloody admin fee for changing it !! Lesson learned. At renewal I will be making sure we have foreign comprehensive cover at the time.