Insurance with European cover

[Morhydro]

I got my M3 exactly 5 days before lockdown in March last year. I usually make two trips to Europe in the car each year, typically for 3 weeks at a time although the longest was 5 weeks. In fact one of the reasons I bought the M3 was a trip at the end of January 2020 in our 24kWh Nissan Leaf from Scotland to Belguim - whilst all was fine I was jealous of the Tesla's wizzing past on the motorway!

Anyway I saw lockdown coming so took out the cheapest insurance I could find (Direct Line) who have been brilliant but do not cover the car outside the UK. They do offer a policy extension at a cost.

Maybe, just maybe, I will be able to make some trips this year. Since the insurance is up in a few weeks does anyone have any advice for good policies with European cover?

Thanks

 

[Arran]

I believe* that they have to provide at least 3rd Party Cover for Europe. I know that Churchill does, and you can pay extra for fully comp when you go to Europe.

 

[KennethS]

I'm with LV, and they include European cover in my standard policy.

 

[Medved_77]

I've got full breakdown cover for Europe with my bank account benefits.

Think it's £10 per month but also includes Travel Insurance, a phone insurance and lost keys. I've definitely had my monies worth from it.

It's Nationwide Flex Plus.

 

[Jason71]

I've got full breakdown cover for Europe with my bank account benefits.

Think it's £10 per month but also includes Travel Insurance, a phone insurance and lost keys. I've definitely had my monies worth from it.

It's Nationwide Flex Plus.

I have the same and yes its good but I don't think it was European BREAKDOWN cover the op was interested. I have teenage daughters so I have had my moneys worth just out of the mobile phone insurance!

 

[Medved_77]

I have the same and yes its good but I don't think it was European BREAKDOWN cover the op was interested. I have teenage daughters so I have had my moneys worth just out of the mobile phone insurance!

This is the cover I have from Nationwide:

Breakdown and recovery assistance with FlexPlus | Nationwide

It covers recovery of the car in Europe to nearby garage, repatriation of car if can't be fixed (within limits) and allowances for onward travel.

EDIT: Realised I misread the majority of this post.

 

[Morhydro]

Thanks for the replies - Yes i have breakdown cover under the extras with my bank - it was really the Car insurance which would have to be fully comprehensive that I was asking about. I wanted to go with LV initially but they were more than twice the cost with Direct Line. To be honest I could not believe how cheap DL were. Mind you the last insurance claim I made was in 1985!

 

[Mr H]

Thanks for the replies - Yes i have breakdown cover under the extras with my bank - it was really the Car insurance which would have to be fully comprehensive that I was asking about. I wanted to go with LV initially but they were more than twice the cost with Direct Line. To be honest I could not believe how cheap DL were. Mind you the last insurance claim I made was in 1985!

You can pay extra with DL to get the same cover in EU as you do here. Don’t forget to ask them for a green card before you go as we need one now. I’m hopefully going over in the summer

 

[ACarneiro]

I think we’re all missing something huge here....

You went all the way from Scotland to Belgium in a 24kWh Nissan Leaf???
Unless there was a door to door ferry, I admire your sense of adventure!

 

[Morhydro]

I think we’re all missing something huge here....

You went all the way from Scotland to Belgium in a 24kWh Nissan Leaf???
Unless there was a door to door ferry, I admire your sense of adventure!

We took the Newcastle - Amsterdam ferry which cuts out a lot of road miles. It really was not that hard, plenty of charging but very expensive compared to the UK.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I'm with LV and they do, or did pre brexit. I think you definitely need a green card now or whatever its called. The DL cover is dangerous, someone on the owners group thought he was covered until he wrote off his car to find out it was 3rd party only so its worth checking (which is of course what your doing). LV also gave good prices when I last renewed.

You're asking about insurance but it is worth touching on breakdown (I went with green flag). The Tesla breakdown recovers you to the nearest service centre and doesn't repatriate you. Given some repairs can take weeks it can be an absolute nightmare if you end up on the wrong side of things. Its been a while since i heard a horror story but there was a chap who's car was stuck in Paris for quite some time and he had to fly home and back to pick it up.

 

[Medved_77]

Thanks for the replies - Yes i have breakdown cover under the extras with my bank - it was really the Car insurance which would have to be fully comprehensive that I was asking about. I wanted to go with LV initially but they were more than twice the cost with Direct Line. To be honest I could not believe how cheap DL were. Mind you the last insurance claim I made was in 1985!

Not sure if you've made your decision yet but was just shopping for insurance and noted that Privilege offer 90 day per EU trip fully comprehensive insurance on their 'Privilege Plus' product. Looks like it only covers the Policy Holder though, not additional drivers.

Will probably go with them as in my case they're around 2/3 of the price of DL, although DL haven't offered their renewal price yet.

Novo offer 60 days per trip fully comp in EU as well, annoyingly you can't get a quote on line so have to request they contact you and do the old fashioned speak to a real person thing.

 

[john19951]

Privilege quote on an M3LR for me is £716 or £766 (Plus version)

About £250/£300 higher than Churchill for me.

 

[Morhydro]

My DL premium last year was £436 for an M3LR estimated at 20K miles (I have done less) and business use. Not bad I thought. But as stated did not include European cover. I will shop around a bittowards the end of this month.

 

[Peter 224]

I've been looking around for cover, we had a 3 car policy with NFU, but they really don't want to insure EVs, I was quoted £1250 + £1000 excess.
For the same level of cover LV quoted £348, but they will not offer cover on the Morgan Plus 8.
Adrian Flux were uncompetitive, partly because the value of the Morgan is so high, and going up.
So it looks as though I'm going to gave to split up the insurance, which is annoying.

Any suggestions, anyone? I've got a month to sort this out, so no yet urgent!