Driving to Europe after Brexit? Here's when you'll need to ask your insurer for a green card

peterbaker

waamo wrote: »

Jeez you make a simple holiday abroad sound like something from CERN.

You are, frankly, being utterly ridiculous.

No you are - you voted for Brexit without understanding the consequences, right? And you buy insurance but can't say how it will work.

waamo

AdrianC wrote: »

It's very simple

Not according to peterbaker it isn't but I agree it is simple all you have to do extra is make sure you have a green card.

You currently have to have Hi Vis jackets, beam deflectors, possibly snow chains, passport, driving licence, V5c, alcohol meters, bulbs (depending on country) and tickets.

Given the level of organisation you need one more thing isn't the end of the world.

waamo

peterbaker wrote: »

No you are - you voted for Brexit without understanding the consequences, right? And you buy insurance but can't say how it will work.

Who said I voted for Brexit? I don't recall posting on here which way I voted.

peterbaker

waamo wrote: »

Not according to peterbaker it isn't but I agree it is simple all you have to do extra is make sure you have a green card.

You currently have to have Hi Vis jackets, beam deflectors, possibly snow chains, passport, driving licence, V5c, alcohol meters, bulbs (depending on country) and tickets.

Given the level of organisation you need one more thing isn't the end of the world.

Did you not read AdrianC's post in full? It isn't just one more thing if there is No Deal. What about your IDP? Or two different IDPs if you are driving to Spain? And no one has spoken yet about the fact that the Green Card is just a document to keep you legal with police. What about own damage cover i.e. "Foreign Use Endorsement" extending all your normal cover? Does your policy cover that? Now? After 29 March? After next renewal when insurers can do pretty much what they like if we are out of EU with No Deal. Will you need to buy both a Green Card and a Foreign Use Endorsement? Also does your Green Card legitimise the driver, or the vehicle, or both? What's the position regarding named drivers - you surely will share the driving if you are making a decent tour of it after all your lengthy organisation?

waamo wrote: »

Who said I voted for Brexit? I don't recall posting on here which way I voted.

No you didn't have to, but I do not understand your stance if you value being part of EU.

waamo

peterbaker wrote: »

No you didn't have to, but I do not understand your stance if you value being part of EU.

My stance is simple but has several strands. Firstly we are where we are. Secondly getting a green card and an IDP (or 3 if you want to cover all bases) whilst inconvenient isn't beyond the wit of most people.

There are many things to have real and genuine concern about but picking on this one I think is not the greatest target and just spreads the notion of "project fear".

peterbaker

waamo wrote: »

My stance is simple but has several strands. Firstly we are where we are. Secondly getting a green card and an IDP (or 3 if you want to cover all bases) whilst inconvenient isn't beyond the wit of most people.

Says you again. Are you going to volunteer to jump in after 29 March and indemnify all the mistakes the other "people" whose wit or fortune proves not quite as smart your own rose-tinted wit asserts now? When a big sea-change like the No Deal one we seem to be sailing inexorably towards occurs, all hands need to know what to do, especially as the captain and officers aren't sharing or really don't have a clue and have already got themselves and us well up an unexplored creek with no paddles.

What they do know is that we are all going to get tossed out of the boat the moment we meet the big wave on 29 March. I am sure they have their lifeboats and escapes planned, but the rest of us will be left in the drink to swim or not and to make friends with the sharks or not.

A Hard Brexit won't be Soft will it?

There are many things to have real and genuine concern about but picking on this one I think is not the greatest target and just spreads the notion of "project fear".

Well you picked this thread to argue just the one but have just admitted to now being up to three. How many before your hands are full and you start dropping stuff? The Green Card is a good example to start a discussion and Moneysavingexpert wrote an article specifically about it so maybe they thought so too. They might even start one about Buff-coloured Ration Books and coupons in a couple of months time if we have to go back to those old ways too when the tomatoes oranges and bananas start rotting in the customs queues! I am sure the Captain Mainwarings amongst us will rise to the fore again to sort us out though :rotfl:

Several other questions I posed as examples of matters to consider when buying travel insurance are unacknowledged and waved aside.

I guess that's because you've never before considered them as possibly overlooked factors that could come back to bite you when you had simply considered them as normal holiday exposure - at least not in any of your holidays?

Now listen men, if the common activities I mentioned aren't your thing, don't remain quiet, just say so and you can apply for a special pass - alright Godfrey?

I get it, no-one wants to admit any risks until they are confirmed as the bleedin' obvious and appear in yet another late-revised note on GOV.UK. But HMG are playing serious catch-up on No Deal, and we can see they are now embarrassing themselves with such SNAFUs and FUBARs as Seaborne because they are running out of time, aren't they?

Please remember we were only discussing here the risks to consider with personal motoring trips into EU after No Deal. Just imagine how many other risks remain not thought through with regard to business and even Freedom of Movement? Whichever way you look at it, Brexit preparation is an unholy mess.

You call discussion of possible problems "project fear"? I call it the sharing of calculable foresight, and someone has to do it .

I have long thought that the only people who spread the mantra "project fear" are those who can't be bothered to think but open their mouths to express the fact they can't abide those who do! That's not really you, is it?

Using words like "adequate insurance" and "appropriate" is almost as bad as using the word "whatever" on its own in a discussion if you do not care to elaborate.

Then exaggerating further by comparing a holiday checklist to something from CERN (which I presume is your way of saying you'll never understand the subject and aren't even curious - fair enough - even I have drawn the line so far with the Higgs boson!) is deflection. I could have said it is actually deliberately insulting (but this is DT so you are forgiven!), if not an inadvertent admission that buying insurance or planning a European motoring trip may not be as simple as you asserted afterall

I often do think that the style of ridiculing perceived complexity when seeing others tackle it probably reflects that awful period in our UK education system perhaps twenty or twenty-five years ago when it was ok to be good at tackling football, but to stand out as academically smart was asking to get bullied and shunned by the majority of the class. Thank God my own schooling preceded that and that of my kids came after the worst of it had been eradicated.

It does make it bloody hard for elected leaders to lead those who still practice the behaviour in their adult lives however.

Car_54

I've just checked my own policy, with one of the largest UK insurers (LV=).


First, it says "Except where we say otherwise your insurance applies in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands." So travel to the ROI will be unaffected by Brexit, should it happen.


Second, "We’ll provide the same level of cover you have in the territorial limits, while you are travelling in EU countries and any other country that follows EU directives." Note that this is not conditional on the UK being an EU member, so again Brexit should have no effect, at least until my present policy expires.

peterbaker

Car_54 wrote: »

I've just checked my own policy, with one of the largest UK insurers (LV=).


First, it says "Except where we say otherwise your insurance applies in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands." So travel to the ROI will be unaffected by Brexit, should it happen.

Your words are slightly wrong in event of a No Deal Brexit as we have discussed. The hoops to jump through to legally travel to ROI and drive in your UK car will be affected because as of 29 March 11pm I think you will need a Green Card. I have certainly not seen anything that makes ROI any different to any other EU country in that regard. A Green Card is not the same as the built in full cover extension provided by the wide territorial limit.

You can be happy perhaps that you do not need to arrange a "Foreign Use Extension endorsement" to get full cover for ROI, but you will still need a Green Card to prove to the Gardai that within your policy you do have minimum legal cover - unless ROI have already confirmed they will accept British insurance Certificates irrespective of a deal after we leave EU?

Second, "We’ll provide the same level of cover you have in the territorial limits, while you are travelling in EU countries and any other country that follows EU directives." Note that this is not conditional on the UK being an EU member, so again Brexit should have no effect, at least until my present policy expires.

The bolded bits might be a clue to a future where we have no obligation to EU. You cannot expect to wave a non-EU piece of paper after no deal and expect police in EU countries to read it and wave you happily on your way. That would be rather like the sad British habit abroad of speaking more and more loudly in English to try to make non-English speakers understand, but I guess even if the Gardai do understand you, they won't make it easy unless Leo tells them to go easy

Currently, I don't think UK based insurance companies are allowed to discriminate between or against EU countries in terms of whether they will provide minimum statutory motor insurance cover for one EU country versus another, but as soon as we are out, then what?