I’m confused. Do French insurers issue a green card as a separate document?
I’ve been stop checked in France, Germany and Italy and my UK insurance certificate, which refers to cover in the EU/EEA**, has never been queried. I have not a had a separate green card document for more than forty years.
** Driving abroad. If driving in any EU member country, Austria, Bosnia, Gibraltar ,Iceland, Liechtenstein ,Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland or the Vatican State you will have the same cover as shown in the policy details.
Are we getting mixed up between a “Green Card” (somewhat old fashioned thing you used to get from your insurer when driving abroad, I guess at some point it was a literal green card - or bit of paper) and the green card issued by French insurers to stick on your windscreen to show you are insured (sort of like a tax disc in the UK which shows you have paid road tax and, indirectly, have insurance - or did when you paid for the tax disc).
my insurance document happens to be green… and there used to be a small, square… green… to tear off and stick on the windscreen…
we haven’t had anything more impressive since we left UK… and we’ve driven abroad quite a lot… and met foreign guardians of the Law… with no hassle.
As you say in the “old” days UK insurers gave you an insurance certificate with vehicle and driver details which you could produce (within 10 days wasn’t it?) if stopped at home. However you needed a green card (bit of paper) which cost a few bob and was of limited duration to motor on the Continent.
My insurance documents here have always been green cards, there’s no insurance cert. or rather they are the insurance cert. I just keep them in the gloveboxes of the cars with a photocopy of the CG. . They are green and about a third of a A4 sheet. It’s been that way for the last twenty plus years and with three different insurers, MAAF, AXA and some other crowd. The little green (unsticky) sticker just came with the green card, you detach it and pop it onto the windscreen. Making sure you do not obscure you Crit’Air sticker
So, I guess the new non sticker requirement means I’ll just get my green cards with no detachable bit from now on. So I can still flash them at Polizie, Polizia, Policia and Dixon of Dock Green if required,
ha ha… OH has chuckled at this conversation going back and forth…
as he says… when we were living in UK… the “continental travel insurance” document was called “the green card”… effectively a translation of one’s vehicle Insurance… one applied for it and you only asked your insurer for this “green card” if you intended to drive abroad.
Now living in France… it just happens that the standard vehicle insurance document is green…
One can apply for the “foreign travel” card… for the few countries which wont accept the standard insurance doc… no idea what colour that will be…
To be more accurate Stella, the standard insurance document here is a green card (at least for any insurance company I’ve been insured with), hence the colour. Just like the green cards we used to get from UK insurers in the old days (or maybe they still do, I don’t know anymore). Which makes everything much more handy IMO I suppose next year there just won’t be a vignette attached that you have to tear off and put in the windscreen.
He’s one of ours… (with details removed to protect the guilty). This is all I receive every year for each of our vehicles I just pop it in the glovebox and off I go.
Well done. I’ve just gone over my doc with a microscope…
In large letters is “Attestation d’Assurance Automobile”… top of the page…
5 miles down below, . we get the details…
1.International Motor Insurance Card
Carte International 'Assurance Automobile
2. blah blah
…
10. (in really tiny letters) Cette Carte Verte a ete delivre etc etc
My assurance is Allianz and I’m glad we’ve rumbled through this as I’ve just realised OH has been driving my Mercedes without a current green sticker as it’s still attached to the document I’m scrutinizing…
Be careful John, unless you lease hire cars you should have the original not a photo copy to present to the plod, all the company cars I’ve had have had a photocopy with a ministerial decret attached
You are right Wozza, I knew it should be the original but, as with my misplaced Crit’Air stickers, I like living on the edge Born to wild and all that… I do occasionally photocopy both sides so it looks original but the recto verso can go wrong and who wants to waste paper. I also think I should have the original of the CG in the car
Though I can’t ever remember (not that that’s proof of anything these days) being stopped at a control, must be my honest visage.
perhaps it’s just local to me at this time of day… 'cos it hangs… and hangs … now… aargh
EDIT: the Eplaque link through is now working again… so I’m not going mad… it was tech hiccup.
Today, in French Press… they’re saying that Town Police might have difficulty checking the Insurance details of a vehicle… as they won’t have access to the App/Site which will be holding the Insurance information for all French vehicles…
Yes, they can “phone a friend” who does have the Access but, depending on pressure of work etc that “friend” might not answer the phone/whatever…
sounds a bit like something out of Dad’s Army to me…
but, of course, we Forumites will carry the Memo document with us… won’t we…
and met foreign guardians of the Law… with no hassle.
Born to wild and all that… I do occasionally photocopy both sides so it looks original but the recto verso can go wrong and who wants to waste paper. I also think I should have the original of the CG in the car 