I'm with More Than, who still ask you to pay a significant amount extra for European cover for anything over 3 days.
Next week I am away for 14 nights, driving my old Focus around Germany and might venture into Poland and Czech just for the craic.
I'm not really sure I feel the need to have a Green Card equivalent. The car is pretty much disposable now, value is way under £1k, so anything serious mechanical or accident wise and it just gets taken to the local scrappy.
The More Than page says
"This will extend the cover you have under section 2, loss and damage to your car and section 3, fire and theft to your car in the British Isles, to those countries covered by the foreign use extension."
I still cover it fully comp cos if I went TPFT I think it might affect NCD. And due to some cock-up a few years back I seem to have been on a really good renewal cost with them, a long way below any other online quotes.
Am I being reckless, what will I be missing? Seems not much...
Last edited by: smokie on Tue 27 Jun 17 at 13:27
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>> what will I be missing? Seems not much...
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I don't know though I would check out liability insurances, what if you run up the back of a Lada in Lodz or an Octavia in Ostrava, or even worse run over a Pole in Poznan ...
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The other bit of the More Than page which I didn't quote earlier said
"We will provide the minimum cover required by law in the following countries:
"Any country which is a member of the European Union ...
"We will not be able to provide a temporary hire car if you are involved in an incident while abroad.""
I've only quoted the relevant bits but not missed anything of significance.
I'm only going to EU countries. So as far as I can see this always covers third party. I guess I'd have some sort of costs associated with an accident in my car, like recovery, but that's a risk I think I'd take. Maybe there is a medical side to it too, but I have travel insurance already.
Last edited by: smokie on Tue 27 Jun 17 at 14:21
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If you're only in the EU then the liability aspects shouldn't concern you. Since you're wandering and considering countries just for the craic, which I think is an excellent approach by the way, just be sure that you might not want to step outside the EU.
There is one thing to consider though; imagine you have an accident which is your fault, and your car is trashed, and is in the middle of a freeway blocking everything.
Who is going to pay for it to be recovered and disposed of? That might be more than a few quid. That'll be under section 2 I imagine.
EDIT: Ah, you edited to include recovery. Nonetheless, imagine what it would cost to have a car pulled 30 miles off a motorway in the UK - a b***** lot.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Tue 27 Jun 17 at 14:27
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My last car to Euro trip I took out the Eurotunnel insurance. Ok the car (The Lancer) was only worth 700 quid, so was disposable, but the trip was all the way on Autoroutes, through France, Belgium, Holland and up to the German Border, two of us and coming back with a puppy.
Would hate to think of the agro and expense had that been a problem .
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Last few times the 1.9D Berlingo went over to France/Germany/Spain it was well depreciated. Still maintained full comprehensive cover (a menu add on at renewal with LV). Britannia Rescue cover also extends to EU.
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MoreThan wanted £60.01 for a fortnight. Decision made, risks to be taken... :-) I also don't have breakdown cover, and am not planning to get it.
Also decision made to change insurance company at next renewal. More than have been OK but they are hard work sometimes. It's just taken me over 20 minutes to get the price. That was after getting through to the agent, not including the waiting for the call to be picked up.
I also can't change stuff online like I should be able to. Something went wrong with my "portal" a few years back and it's never been the same since, though it seems to have kept my premiums low.
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So I asked the foreign travel bloke if he could quote me for a Nissan Leaf. He couldn't but transferred me to a charming young lady, with hardly any wait. Well, 4 minutes...
She started out by asking if I was calling to buy the green card. I told her that I'd been transferred by the green card department so I could get an indicative quote for a new car.
After some faffing around getting the right policy, I gave her the reg, and she told me it's come up as 10000 cc car. Is it electric she asked? When I confirmed that it is, she said they don't cover electric or hybrid cars at all. She explained, WRT a Nissan Leaf all-electric, that if the cambelt or anything else in the engine goes the parts cost a lot.
She then changed the subject back to the green card. She said Europe is like London transport, there are zones, and France, Belgium and Holland are in Zone 2 but the farther out you go the higher the zone goes. She then went back to her analogy of London transport but realised she didn't know anywhere in London!! We had a laugh together... She then started digging again, telling me that insurance costs more the further away you go as their requirements get more onerous. I pointed out to her that the !"requirements" were already covered without a green card.
Anyway Zone 2 only (which includes my France, Belgium, Holland and Germany) comes in at £29 which is more like it. I was only visiting Poland and Czech cos I can, a quick drive-by to make my holiday sound interesting. I can still do that, just without green card.
I was polite. She was trying hard... :-) That's best part of an hour I won't get back though...
Last edited by: smokie on Tue 27 Jun 17 at 17:10
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Oh, and in case it isn't sounding interesting, the trip includes a day at the VW facility at Wolfsburg- -tinyurl.com/ya7kg29v - where I am booked to get a demo of an assisted car and go up the towers where the new cars are delivered ( - the factory is closed for annual hols so no tour unfortunately) . Also a trip to the roof of the Reichstag in Berlin, and towards the end I have a few nights camping at the Nurburgring for a 6 h endurance race.
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So it's £29 or £60, I'd pay the £60 and be reassured.
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Reassured of what though, this is back to where I started :-)
I do like to think I'm getting value for money... and not just blindly pay up for something.
EDIT: I probably will get the £29 but thanks to the state of sterling the trip costs are already quite a bit higher than I was expecting, and I haven't had anything to eat or drink over there yet!! :-)
Last edited by: smokie on Tue 27 Jun 17 at 18:28
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With Aviva I pay £27.50 for annual fully comp foreign use (up to 180 days a year) and £37.00 for annual european breakdown cover. I don't bother with their UK breakdown cover (through RAC as it happens) because that's £70+ and AutoAid is a better deal.
As you'd be a new customer you'll probably get £50 cash back with Quidco too. Quidco cashback for AutoAid too.
OK, this is no good for you now, but worth considering for next time.
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate II on Tue 27 Jun 17 at 18:46
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Would there be a problem if your car was written off while away with import duty, or some such levy.
IIRC that's some considerable fee, unless it's changed within the EU.
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Back safely and I could have saved the £29 as I managed to not have an accident in 2500 miles.
I said elsewhere that my car was towed away in Leipzig and of course my immediate thought was it's been nicked.
Which made me wonder whether the "Green Card" would have paid for 1) possessions in the card (but probably covered on house ins anyway, and I think car ins is limited even in the UK to a fairly low amount, 2) whether they'd pay the costs for me and my gear to get home, with all related travel costs (I had quite a bit of gear including a bootful of camping gear). I'm not even sure whether that's in your car ins or your breakdown cover over here, but having the Green Card did seem to give me some peace of mind. And the cost paled into insignificance against the coat of the tow-away.
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>> I'm not even sure whether that's in your car ins or your breakdown cover over here
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Would have thought holiday stuff like that should be included on the holiday insurance, assuming you had that as well.
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"Green cards" - Hard Cheese
