Car Insurance heads-up

[littleredrooster]

I stumbled across this yesterday when renewing my car insurance.

It seems to be becoming more widespread amongst insurers to exclude European coverage from their policies, but don't always make it obvious before the point of sale.

Using the excellent MSE aggregator tool to get quotes, the first six in my list did not have Euro coverage, and of those that did, several did not cover non-EU countries either. As we intend to pass throught Switzerland and Andorra on various jaunts, this is a bit of a problem.

It took quite a bit of digging to find an insurer that would cover something which I took for granted pre-Brexit.

[andyjo1982]

Doesn't surprise me now, with the increase in 'no frills' 'comprehensive' policies. Seems insurers are beginning to reduce cover, to reduce prices, so I'd imagine you'd find an 'essentials' product, which will be missing things like EU cover, or courtesy car, or glass cover, legal cover, audio cover etc.

Its just a way to offer a cheap price, and appear high on the comparison sites. Ours is due early in March, so ran a few quotes through, and sure enough, second quote is an essentials policy with no legal, and no windscreen cover, 3rd and 4th are a bronze scheme, with same things missing.

Basically, check everything carefully if there's something specifically you want/need covering, as insurers seem happy to offer inferior products to try and show a cheaper price, which many are falling for considering the increases to car insurance over the last 12 months or so.

[littleredrooster]

andyjo1982 said:

Its just a way to offer a cheap price, and appear high on the comparison sites. Ours is due early in March, so ran a few quotes through, and sure enough, second quote is an essentials policy with no legal, and no windscreen cover, 3rd and 4th are a bronze scheme, with same things missing...

But there's the rub - it's very transparent (and always has been) that Legal/Glass/Courtesy/Breakdown may or may not be covered; there's usually a heading for each and lots of ticks and crosses.

Now try to find out which ones still offer cover for the EU, Andorra and Switzerland. as they all did in the past.

[Jamescrs]

Just to add to the conversation I previously had a policy for my 2nd car which appeared to include European cover but when I read the detail it was 3rd party only cover.

As I drive into the EU once or twice a year I am now very conscious to check I have full EU cover

[QJumper]

I use Direct Line, and their comprehensive plus policy provides the same level of cover in the following countries:

Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia andHerzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus,Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary,Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania,Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands,Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.