Advice needed car insurance while visiting UK

flyingbug

My son in law ,daughter and grandchildren have arrived from USA

My son in law wanted to use our car to visit friends etc while they are here for a couple of weeks

He has been driving24 years with out any accidents etc plus he drives a bus in the USA

He has an international driving licence and a full usa licence,

he had lived in the UK 14 years before he went back to USA to live,while he was living here he drove for 14 years in UK

My husband telephone his insurance company the POST OFFICE to add him on our insurance

We were told as he is not from the EU country he can not be covered to drive our car

Any advice as if he came from theEU he could drive our car on our insurance but not from USA :(even though in EU most countries drive on the RIGHT

TiTheRev

It works the same both ways. I had to take out an extra policy to drive in the US 12 years ago, so it's not anything new or discriminatory. Tell them to hire a car if they really need to travel when here and the hire company will cover him with their policy, or use our wonderful rail/bus networks?!

maninthestreet

flyingbug wrote: »

My son in law ,daughter and grandchildren have arrived from USA

My son in law wanted to use our car to visit friends etc while they are here for a couple of weeks

He has been driving24 years with out any accidents etc plus he drives a bus in the USA

He has an international driving licence and a full usa licence,
he had lived in the uk 14 years before he went back to USA to live,while he was here he drove for 14 years in uk

My husband telephone his insurance company the POST OFFICE to add him on our insurance

We were told as he is not from the EU country he can not be covered to drive our car

Any advice as it isDISCRIMINATION that if he came from europe he could drive our car but not from USA

I suggets he hires a car, just like many other visitors from the US to the UK do every year.

tersus_slate

discrimination????

Gloomendoom

Have a look at this old thread. It may help... Linky

It's a fairly common problem.

Hammyman

Discrimination my backside.

dzug1

flyingbug wrote: »

Any advice as it isDISCRIMINATION that if he came from europe he could drive our car but not from USA

Yep it's discrimination - perfectly legitimate discrimination.

rev_henry

dzug1 wrote: »

Yep it's discrimination - perfectly legitimate discrimination.

Yup, just as its discrimination to charge more for women's insurance than men's. I'm sure there must be some way of doing it, as he has an international licence but I'm not sure exactly how. I would say try tempcover and the like, but just looking myself the first 2 I came to wanted either a UK, NI, or EU licence.

flyingbug

They have now hired a car,They would to have liked to have used buses/trains as suggested but with 3 children ,it would have been costly to get about

raskazz

flyingbug wrote: »

My son in law ,daughter and grandchildren have arrived from USA

My son in law wanted to use our car to visit friends etc while they are here for a couple of weeks

He has been driving24 years with out any accidents etc plus he drives a bus in the USA

He has an international driving licence and a full usa licence,
he had lived in the uk 14 years before he went back to USA to live,while he was here he drove for 14 years in uk

My husband telephone his insurance company the POST OFFICE to add him on our insurance

We were told as he is not from the EU country he can not be covered to drive our car

Any advice as it isDISCRIMINATION that if he came from europe he could drive our car but not from USA

It is discrimination in the purest sense of the word. The insurer is discriminating between good and bad risks.

Quite apart from the relative unfamiliarity the drivers would have with UK roads and right-hand drive cars, the main problem is that if they were involved in an accident, they are not going to stay in the UK to assist the insurer with any claim process. Not many insurers will want to get involved.

forgotmyname

Hope they have very good health insurance, They might die of shock when
they see our fuel prices.