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✎ EN Car insurance for Europe
    

Discussion in 'Netherlands' started by Jurgen1974, Oct 23, 2012.

  1. Jurgen1974

    Jurgen1974 New Member

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    Hi all

    I am Dutch and I've lived in the UK for over a year and bought my nice family car there.
    It is a English registered car. We moved to the Netherlands for a unknown period.
    We brought our car with us and wanted to register it here. Everybody, who is familiar with Holland, knows how much rules there are in this country.
    I found out that I can drive my English registered car here as long as I pay tax.
    This seems to be much easier than going through all the paper work of registration.

    Now I try to figure out how to get the car covered. Do you people know some good insurance companies who offer a car insurance (even thought I live abroad)?

    Kind regards,
    Jurgen
     
    #1 Jurgen1974, Oct 23, 2012
  2. Cyrilexpat

    Cyrilexpat Administrator
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    What about the insurance company that you used when you where in the UK? Are they not covering when using the car abroad?
     
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    #2 Cyrilexpat, Oct 23, 2012
  3. Jurgen1974

    Jurgen1974 New Member

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    Dear Cyrilexpat

    Thx for your reply.
    The thing is that we do not live in the UK any longer and I do not have the English nationality.
    We've lived in the UK for a bit more than a year, but we are Dutch.
    The company, which insured us in the UK, was Sainbury's. The do offer a 90 days holiday but only if you have a permanently address in the UK.

    Kind regards,
    Jurgen
     
    #3 Jurgen1974, Oct 23, 2012
  4. Cyrilexpat

    Cyrilexpat Administrator
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    I understand the difficulty. It would have been easier probably if you could keep an address in England (through friends for example) for the time being. However at some point for insurance purpose, you will have no choice but to change the registration unfortunately.
     
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    #4 Cyrilexpat, Oct 23, 2012
  5. Jurgen1974

    Jurgen1974 New Member

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    Okay, thanks for the reply.
    We've found out that it is not really affordable to keep the car in Holland.
    It is possible to drive it here and insure it with an international insurance. In that case we will need to have a address in England (an address from friends/family will do).

    BUT, besides the English 'road tax' (209 Euro per year) we will have to pay the Dutch road tax as well. For our car (Touran 1.9 TDI) you have to pay about 1700 Euro's per year :eek: On top of that the Dutch government does not allow you to drive the car longer than two weeks. After that one has to pay a sort of import tax (bpm) which will be another 1400 Euro's for my car. And finally we have to pay VAT over the purchase sum I've paid in the UK for this car (I think this is 20% of 3985 Euro = 797 Euro).

    Do I need to say more :cry:

    We've decided to sell the car
     
    #5 Jurgen1974, Oct 29, 2012
  6. texkourgan

    texkourgan Addicted member
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    Sorry to hear you will have to sell, but thanks for taking the time to share your decision. That is helpful info for other expats in the same situation.

    Absolutely best of luck going carless. We gave up our car moving from the USA to Berlin and it has worked out wonderfully for us. Happy travels! :D
     
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    #6 texkourgan, Oct 30, 2012
  7. Cyrilexpat

    Cyrilexpat Administrator
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    For the record, similar things happen in Denmark where importing a car (or even buying a personal car is VERY expensive). hat's why you can see a lot of very old cars over there. There is an exempt category for vehicles that can be considered as utilities+commercial (meaning roughly the boot must be as big as the passenger area...).
     
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    #7 Cyrilexpat, Nov 2, 2012
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