Insuring Your Car Whilst Driving In Europe

Posted on March 23, 2015 by WebTeam

With Easter approaching and an increasing number of people choosing to travel to places like France, Belgium and Italy by using their own car, we thought that it would be useful if we discussed what car insurance you will need.

make sure that your car has the most suitable level of car insurance if you are driving it in Europe on holiday

If you are going on holiday to Europe and taking your car on Eurotunnel or a ferry make sure that the car is suitably insured for the level of cover you require.

A lot of people seem to think that they are automatically covered to drive their car in Europe on their existing policy but this is not always the case. Yes, a number of car insurance providers here in the UK will provide you with cover whilst driving in Europe but this is often only for the basic level of cover applicable to the country in which they are travelling so it is often no more than third party cover. In which case, you would only be insured for damage to other vehicles, property and people.

You really need to read your car insurance policy document to find out what you may be covered for and for how long. Many people here in the UK have taken out fully comprehensive insurance on their cars whilst being driven in the UK and would want the same level of cover whilst driving in Europe.

Therefore, if this level of cover is not provided automatically and the insurer asks that you let them know of your intended overseas trip, you should get in touch with your insurance company to let them know that you will be going over to Europe on the ferry or with Eurotunnel and that you would like to extend your fully comprehensive cover to cover your trip to Europe. This may involve an additional premium but it is surely far better to have peace of mind.

Some European countries also still insist that you have a Green Card with you that can be issued by your car insurance provider.

Another thing to consider is breakdown cover. You may wish to consider arranging European breakdown cover or extending your existing UK breakdown cover to include cover for whilst travelling in Europe as you can imagine the cost of having to repair your car overseas or transport it back to the UK to be repaired.

We hope that the above has proved informative.