Driving on holiday in Europe, what about your car insurance?
Published: 11 May 2009
By Diane Ray Leave a Comment
Updated: 11 May 2009
If you are planning some holiday driving in Europe, have you thought about your car insurance and whether you are covered?
According to moneysupermarket.com, almost half of motorists don’t know what their car insurance covers them for when driving in Europe.
Amazingly some 30% of motorists think that their fully comprehensive car insurance will give them the same level of cover in Europe as in the UK.
About 20% believe they will be downgraded to third party cover whilst driving in Europe.
In reality, the level of car insurance cover you will enjoy when driving in Europe depends on your insurance provider.
Of 20 main brand car insurance providers, moneysupermarket found that half do provide the same level of cover in Europe as in the UK.
The insurance cover though will usually be provided for a stated number of days. Be careful to check this as you could easily get caught out.
Car insurance providers that offer the same level of cover in Europe include
- 3 days – Virgin
- 30 days – Co-op bank and Admiral
- 60 days – Barclays, Post Office and insure.co.uk
- 90 days – Endsleigh, Marks and Spencer, The AA, Lloyds TSB and HSBC
The majority of the other providers downgrade a fully comprehensive car insurance policy to the minimum required for the country in which in you are driving.
Those offering minimum cover required for the country include
- Churchill
- Esure
- Direct Line
- Swiftcover
- Halifax
- More Th>n
- LV=
- Norwich Union
Steve Sweeney, head of motor insurance at moneysupermarket.com, commented ‘ If your motor insurance policy does automatically downgrade you, it’s worth speaking to your insurer ahead of your trip so you can make amendments to your policy if needs be – most providers allow policy holders to upgrade their cover.’
This upgrade is usually only a small fee, for example £20 based on a 2 week trip to France in a Ford Fiesta 1.2.
Clearly it’s worth doing some work before your holiday, the last thing you want is to find you are involved in a crash without the right level of car insurance to protect you.
