Hoping someone can give me a quick narrative on SA liability insurance requirements. What I think I understand is that my personal liability umbrella from a US insurer will cover me in South America--provided I also purchase minimum liability coverage in each country I visit. Does this sound correct????

Also, is there anyway to buy insurance for all SA countries? I assume not. I think Europe and Canada/US are unique in this type of cross border insurance coverage.

Any clarification or links would be much appreciated.

NW Dave

Sounds wrong to me, but in any case you need to ask your insurance company, not us. How would we know? Insurance policies differ, and they're different from state to state also.

Southern tier (Mercosur) countries share insurance. The rest do not. You can search on this site or elsewhere for more details than you can possibly desire--down to photos of specific insurance agencies in different South American cities. Use Google instead of the site search engine, and include "horizonsunlimited" in your search terms.

Hope that helps.

Mark

I'm currently traveling in SA, and to be honest I haven't worried about it. I have herd that if you purchase a third party insurance policy there is no grantee that it will be honored. Border crossings do not ask or insist that you have it.

I suppose if you really feel that you need to have it, I'd source an insurance company/broker upon arrival in each country. Do your research before signing!

Good luck, and keep the rubber side down.

Along with previous suggestions, you might try:
Motorcycle Express - Ship Your Bike

"Customers traveling abroad will have the option of choosing liability only or full liability coverage with fire, theft, vandalism and collision protection for their motorcycle and riders. This coverage meets foreign regulatory requirements for tourists or expatriates.

South & Central America -(Excludes Primary Liability: Mexico, Belize, Columbia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua)"

Dave, some countries will ask you to buy insurance and will sell it at the border. I do not have an updated list but it is becoming common practice.

It is fairly cheap, 20 bucks or so for a couple of months.

In Argentina you can buy insurance for around $15 a month and if you ask for a Mercosur extension that covers you in all Mercosur countries, which are Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay and Uruguay. It may be recognized in Chile, Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.

The company to source this insurance from is ATM but you can do it at any motorcycle shop quick and effortlessly. Most of these shops would not know that ATM insures foreign travelers, so insist and ask them to call ATM to confirm. Don't take a NO for an answer. ATM Seguros

As you may know, the supervision and enforcement of regulations in most Latin American countries is lax, but if you don't have insurance and run over a pedestrian or injure someone you will be in deep brown stuff and wishing you had insurance in the first place.

One more thing: your "personal liability umbrella" whatever that means will certainly not cover you unless it specifies what you are being covered for. So, if it does not say something like third party vehicle insurance in such and such and such country - or something along these lines - you are not covered at all.

Hope this helps.

Happy travels