Car insurance for drving abroad.

thisisjimmi

Hi
My wife pays £250 for her fully comprehensive car insurance with sth like £250 voluntary excess (6 years old Peugeot 406). Now we want to go for 2weeks holiday to Europe by car so called the insurer (Sheilas Wheels) to check if we are covered. Hey said that we would need to pay £45 to be covered. I think it’s a bit steep. We did some research and found that by law the insurer covers you throughout the UE without additional charge and that the green card is not mandatory – it only is a proof for the insurance you’ve got not a separate product.
I am guessing that you get your third party cover automatically but the extra charge is if you want to have your fully comprehensive. Is it not that if you have fully comp in the UK you get fully comp in the UE as well?
Can please you let me know what is the best and cheapest way of getting the cover your car for going to UE?
Cheers
Jimmi

p.s. also what is the cheapest breakdown cover for a 2 week UE trip?

adecor

I always pay the extra as it's definitely only 3rd party cover if you're fully comp.

adecor

Not sure what the cheapest breakdown is, but we're with ADAC which is annual European so includes covering you at home. It's the German version of the AA
http://www.adac.de/mitgliedschaft_leistungen/mitgliedschaftstarife/membership/default.asp?ComponentID=30621&SourcePageID=180753&teaserTitle=ADAC+membership&teaserURL=%2Fmitgliedschaft%5Fleistungen%2Fdefault%2Easp&location=teaser&referer=%2Fmitgliedschaft%5Fleistungen%2Fdefault%2Easp

vikingaero

The reason the cover was cheap in the first place was because extras such as overseas cover was stripped out.

You get standard 3rd party cover if you drive abroad but need to pay £45 for fully comp. For a 6 year old car I would also factor in the cost of European Breakdown Cover.

Inactive

I never buy car insurance if it does not include EU Comprehensive cover as standard.

It is a cheek to charge extra for this cover IMO.

thisisjimmi

Many thanks for all your replays.

Does that statutory (non comprehensive) UE cover include fire and theft?

Cheers

vikingaero

thisisjimmi wrote: »

Many thanks for all your replays.

Does that statutory (non comprehensive) UE cover include fire and theft?

Cheers

The statutory EU cover is generally Third Party Only - no fire and theft.

Unfortunately Jimmi, the cheapest way to go would be to pay £45 to Sheilas Wheels. It would cost you more to cancel the policy mid-term and lose 1 years no-claims than to move to another insurer.

If you plan to go to Europe in the future then look to insure at renewal with a general insurer who normally include up to 90 days of EU cover as standard. Most of the dotcom insurers are pretty useless in this respect.

vaio

thisisjimmi wrote: »

Many thanks for all your replays.

Does that statutory (non comprehensive) UE cover include fire and theft?

Cheers

Maybe not, the cover you get is the legal minimum in which ever country you are in

aloiseb

I spoke with my insurers, Direct Line today and I think they said 3rd party, fire and theft if I didn't take out the extra comprehensive cover (it was £16 odd for a 6 day trip)
I think it's worth it anyway.....such peculiar things always seem to happen to me on holiday. also going to pay nearly £40 for AA European breakdown cover cos I can't face risking a French breakdown or accident without them.......