Australian Comprehensive bike insurance valid in Europe?
 

Just starting to get organised for a 6 month trip to UK and Mediterranean Europe next year.
One, of many, things I'm finding tricky to find out is which companies will insure our bike (not the Green Card insurance, the actual bike) while it is overseas. Does anyone know of any Australian or OS companies that deal with such insurance? Would appreciate a point in the right direction, particularly from anyone else from Oz who did this. Thanks!

I am sure there is a guy from OZ on a ST1300 that travelled Europe a few years ago

He did a large blog so it might be on google somewhere or he can be found on ST-owners.com

I shall have a search and see if I can find him.

Peter


Sent by Peter from His IThingy.

I am pretty confident that this is the guy


http://ozstoc.com/index.php?topic=1681.0

Peter.


Sent by Peter from His IThingy.

Thanks Peter! I'll give this person a shot.

Try https://www.hertsinsurance.com/walkabout.php

Thanks Roger. I had a look at their site. Seems they specialise in insuring vans but I have emailed them my query, so we'll see what they have to say. Starting to think this is mission impossible. Might be easier to 'insure' our bike with a Doberman!
Melanie

Generally speaking, insurance companies only insure for areas they are in operation ... for that's where they can chase people up who are at fault and sue them if need be.

If you are trying to insure a bike for when it is in Europe, you basically have to do it in Europe, or contact a European insurer. Australian companies are generally unlikely to have specialist lawyers who know European insurance law, and can draft up policies to cover issues occurring in Europe. If they do have some, then its likely to be very expensive as all the documentation will have to customised and double checked by lawyers, just for you.

Whereas European insurers have standard form European insurance law compliant documentation.

If there is a claim, the insurance company has to spend a lot of time and do a lot of paperwork to chase it up. To do that from Australia, when there will be no specialist knowledge of the legal processes, is going to be a massive pain the A (and risk) for any Australian business to underwrite. It can always be done of course, but its unlikely to be economically viable unless they have very good partners or affiliates in Europe.

Your best bet is to contact European insurers directly. Uk insurers dont seem to have a problem insuring foreign registered vehicles, or even unregistered vehicles. Most give quotes online. And any European issued insurance is valid for the entire EU.

If you struggle to find cover with a regular UK / EU vehicle insurance company you could try Campbell Irvine - they do an overlander policy that covers you anywhere in the world.

CAMPBELL IRVINE (IB) LTD
48 Earls Court Road
Kensington
London
W8 6EJ
Registration number 4237888

Tel: 020 7937 6981
Fax: 020 7938 2250
www.campbellirvine.com

Thanks guys! I appreciate the advice. Some more avenues to try.. haven't given up yet:) Melanie

Perhaps not relevant for bikes, but Julian has some info on his insurance at 2010-06-27

There is also ADAC in Germany, I've found that UK insurance companies are a real pain - in spite of the UK belonging to the Green Card insurance scheme since its inception, the insurers still insist on charging extra to issue a green card for travel within the EU and then saying that its only valid for X months in 12. When you dig a bit deeper they will only cover you for the legal minimum insurance in the country you are visiting which maybe anything from third party injury to third party injury and property damage - which they are obliged to provide anyway.

BTW Green Card insurance zone covers a lot of non EU countries now - Russia and I think some of the old USSR states as well. I know that you can drive from Eire in the West to Vladivostok in the East on Green Card insurance. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interna...graphic_limits

How else could it work? This is how all of the commonly used insurance brokers operate in the UK, which is an island, separated from the mainland nearby, so most folks don't go there most of the time - hence cover is cheaper for staying in the UK.
As it happens, I pay extra for 365 days per year European cover; that was about £19 extra when I first took on that cover.

Green card = in accordance with local minimum insurance requirements, by definition. So, every country has it's own specific minimum standards.
The OP wants comprehensive insurance which is much more expensive, if it can be found anyway for a wide range of countries (if I was an insurance agent, I wouldn't take on that risk!!)

Dave, you're right in saying it is much more expensive. We have never had comprehensive insurance on our bikes here in Australia until we loaned a mate our older CBR for a year. He paid for it to have comprehensive insurance with Insure My Ride (great insurance company for bikes) - cheaper than buying a bike for a year though!
Talking to Rols about it, we have an engine immobiliser already, fork locks and will get disc locks. They'd have trouble stealing it but it's that one in a million chance your bike gets written off while it's parked or some idiot wants to damage/torch it for fun. Long way from home for Plan B. Truly, if we can't get the insurance, we'll take that chance but I'd like to pursue it a little further while I still have time.
Appreciate everyone's leads:) Melanie

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Comprehensive Bike Insurance for Overseas Bikes - FOUND
 

Oh THANK YOU TourInsure! Seems I have found what I was looking for. I will definitely get a quote for the trip our bike is taking us on, and we'll see how it fits within our budget.