Car insurance for Europe - beware of Foreign Use Extension charges by some providers

C0lin61

been looking to renew my car insurance and need Europe cover; the comparison sites don't seem to have a filter for this so you have to click though to each provider to check.

I settled on DirectLine and I was about to sign-up but then saw mention of a Foreign Use Extension (FUE). Essentially, you are able to take your car to Europe but need to ring up beforehand to arrange FUE … and pay the EXTRA premium. They cannot include this in the quote and cannot give an indication of how much it will be. This makes comparison between providers impossible.

I've now taken out a policy with Allianz who include 180 days of EU cover ( to the same standard as your UK cover)
I

Nebulous2

I'm in the same position. I've recently retired and don't need work use, so I've seen a substantial decrease in my premium.

My broker gave me a much better price, but I decided to try a quote engine anyway. I got a quote which beat my broker by over £50 and proudly declared "EU cover included."

I clicked through to the company website, added some extra details, still got a summary document saying it included EU cover, then downloaded the full policy document.

It stated that EU cover was at the legal minimum required in the EU, and I needed to provide dates I was travelling, a minimum of 14 days in advance, and pay an additional fee, to get the same cover in the EU as I would get at home.

The policy from my broker provides 50 days a year of the same cover as I have, without providing details of dates. So much less hassle, at a known price, which is what I went for.

So read everything folks, don't trust quote engines for anything other than bog-standard policies, and make sure you have the cover you actually need.