Hi there. My wife and I are new to the site. Lots of good advice and info and hoping someone can help please. I have have looked for threads so apologies in advance if there are previous discussion topics. We're Brit expats, 50, living in Sydney for 11 years, but planning to spend a year in Europe, commencing with 4 months in France.
We will need to buy a car (not sure LHD v RHD yet), and will most likely buy in the UK in Dec '15.
What I'm struggling with is car insurance - I thought this would be quick to source options but we don't easily fall into insurer search engine criteria, and most UK insurers only cover ie 90 days. We obviously haven't invented extended driving tour / travel, and we aren't the first to do this - so wasn't expecting it to be so hard! Can anyone suggest an insurer(s) please?
FYI we will have a UK base address (parents), also without overly complicating, travel insurance is similar.
Thanks very much in advance for any help and or suggestions.
No problem. We’re not trying to cut corners and we do have some understanding of resident, tax resident, citizen etc. There are also good options outside of UK too which I think will be a better solution.
Hi there. many thanks. I've just clicked through and emailed them. I've relied on Google Translate...my achilles heel is I only have very basic school French. Thanks for your help.
Thanks - it seems obvious now, but stupidly i was looking at it from the other end. David and Malcolm have given some really good links and they have Aus and UK offices, and would appear to be perfect for what we need. many thanks.
Thanks, and comments helpful. I should clarify we are UK citizens, we still own a property in the UK which is rented, and we also pay tax and NI. However, we're very mindful of compliance. There are definately other options, and this discussion thread has identified some really good ones.
Are you asking the same question on Australian web sites? You might get more relevant information from others in a similar position. I worked with Australian’s who were spending an extended period in Europe and they certainly had no trouble buying, registering or insuring cars while they were living and working in the UK.
Emmmm both Green Card Motor and SAGA (haven’t checked the others suggested) require you to be UK resident in order to take out one of their policies - using someone else’s UK address (parents) is not at all the same thing. Heck only knows what would happen if you had to make a claim and then prove your residency. It’s incredibly risky not to mention illegal - essentially your policy would be void.
Maybe consider a long term rental which includes Europe wide insurance.