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Advice on getting car Insurance in France after a drink drive ban in the UK


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Any advice greatly received....

A friend of mine has recently moved to France and has asked if he could be a named driver on my car insurance.Stupidly he was banned in the UK for 2 years due to a drink driving ban, he received his UK licence back several months ago.

However my Insurance Company have advised me that there is a 3 year period from the date of conviction before someone with a drink driving ban can be added as a named driver on my Insurance.

Is this the norm in France? If not, can anyone advise what Insurance Companies in France would be prepared to include him as a named driver on my Insurance policy.

Many Thanks

Shazie

 

 

 

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The standard question all insurance companies ask is "have you ever been subject to a driving ban within the last three years".  So, you are unlikely to find an insurer who would offer to take him on as a named driver. 

Even if you did, it wouldn't help because your stuck with your current policy and you can't cancel mid term to move to another insurer just to accommodate your friend driving your car.

 

 

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From the 1st para of SD's reply, you'd certainly say so, wouldn't you?

And by the way, getting insurance in his own right would also be covered by the above - which presumably he has already started to find out in view of him wishing to be 'named' as a driver on your insurance.

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One of the small but subtle differences between French and British insurance is that with vehicle insurance in France it tends to be the vehicle that is insured rather then the person, (though some British policies will work in the same way of course). Thus insurers will set a driver profile for your policy, and anybody who comes outside that profile, as a higher perceived risk, will be excluded. The end result is much the same for most of us, but as far as your friend is concerned he will need to get his own vehicle and insure that. One reason why insurance for sans permis vehicles is so high, despite their slow and simple nature, is that, by definition, they tend to be driven by those who have lost their licence to drive normal vehicles.
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I've just been dealing with this on behalf of a friend who was banned for three months following a road accident - automatically had his licence pulled by the Gendarmerie on behalf of the Prefecteur, then got it back after the three months expired.

Two things you need to know - firstly, most insurance companies will not let somebody who has had a ban piggy-back on somebody elses (third-party's) insurance.  The French see that as a way of trying to get around the system.  I was also told that the insurance company would be likely to load my premium hugely if I found anywhere that would do this - this is NOT a good option for you!

Secondly, he can get insurance for himself but he'll have to pay for it, big time.  There is an office in Paris - I'll look at my notes sometime later to get details - which establishes insurance premiums for people who have been disqualified and will tell him which insurance companies are willing to extend cover.  BUT, he will have to pay serious amounts of money - insurance on our little Saxo, 1.4 diesel started at 3k euros and that was just 3rd party, he wont get all risks covered.  Sans permis after a ban, insurance starts in excess of 1,000 euros.

Got a load more info about this but trying to keep it shortish.

Also a two year ban first time round would be rather unusual - though not unheard of - was it his first time, did he have an accident or something? 

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  • 3 weeks later...

[quote user="Will "]Thus insurers will set a driver profile for your policy, and anybody who comes outside that profile, as a higher perceived risk, will be excluded[/quote]So does this mean you have to declare a third party driver to the insurance BEFORE they are allowed to drive your vehicle?

I understood the French system to be similar to that in Germany where the car is insured and anyone can drive it but if there was an accident and the driver proved to be someone outwith your profile the owner can face a massive excess so the incentive is to not lend your car anyone you don't know or trust.

BTW, anybody ever tried putting a non british driver, i.e. visiting friend from say Germany, on their policy in the UK?

I have and it's nigh on impossible. First question always is "does he have a british driving licence" errr no - he's German - second question "has he resided in the UK for the past 12 month's" errr no - he's German and unsurprisingly lives in Germany, then comes the inevitable, sorry sir, we can't insure him then....!

Another question to ponder: How do some of our recently arrived "eastern europeans" bretheren get insurance in the UK, or is this just another example of positive discrimination in their favour and it's an "un PC" question to ask ?

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That is not comparing like with like is it?  Temporarily adding a non-UK european citizen to your own insurance is completely differnent from a european living in the UK who arranges his or her own insurance direct with the company concerned.  They will no doubt have to prove no claims over a certain number of years to qualify for their own bonuses, as we did when we insured our cars in France.  In the case of the friend from Europe who wants to drive your car, you are paying the rate of no-claims bonus which you have earned and not your friend.
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[quote user="cooperlola"]That is not comparing like with like is it?  Temporarily adding a non-UK european citizen to your own insurance is completely differnent from a european living in the UK who arranges his or her own insurance direct with the company concerned.  They will no doubt have to prove no claims over a certain number of years to qualify for their own bonuses[/quote]You are probably quite right technically but what I find a little difficult come to terms with, and I admit I might be totally wrong here, is that I can't really believe some of the countries in question have a mature enough systems to even demand compulsory insurance let alone operate a no claims bonus scheme and if the incoming migrants are as poor as we're led to believe where are they finding the hundreds, if not thousands of pounds in the inner cities, to pay for insurance? 

To get back to my original question though:

[quote user="ErnieY"]does this mean you have to declare a third party driver to the insurance BEFORE they are allowed to drive your vehicle?[/quote]

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Ernie

You may be surprised to know that civilisation exists beyond the River Elbe and that things like traffic regulation, driving licences and motor insurance systems do exist.....

Back to your original question:

Your insurance covers other drivers for "occasional" use.  You only have to notify them if someone is going to drive your car on a more than occasional basis and that would mean producing licences, etc.

 

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Thanks yet again SD.

Call me an old cynic or whatever but it's symptomatic of why we, my wife and I that is, feel disenfranchised and alienated in our own country and is one of the major  reason we've decided to leave it, but this sentiment belongs in a whole different thread doesn't it....!

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[quote user="ErnieY"]

Thanks yet again SD.

Call me an old cynic or whatever but it's symptomatic of why we, my wife and I that is, feel disenfranchised and alienated in our own country and is one of the major  reason we've decided to leave it, but this sentiment belongs in a whole different thread doesn't it....!

[/quote]

For pity's sake, don't go there Ernie.   There's just so much flesh & blood can stand.

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[quote user="Gardian"][quote user="ErnieY"]

Thanks yet again SD.

Call me an old cynic or whatever but it's symptomatic of why we, my wife and I that is, feel disenfranchised and alienated in our own country and is one of the major  reason we've decided to leave it, but this sentiment belongs in a whole different thread doesn't it....!

[/quote]

For pity's sake, don't go there Ernie.   There's just so much flesh & blood can stand.

[/quote]Seconded, G! [:D]  I can see the mods turning purple at the prospect.
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Aaah, but Ernie, is there any real difference between the Polish builders and the like in Britain who you perceive as having illegal, uninsured vehicles, and the countless British in France who have never bothered to make their vehicles legal, even after several years in a lot of cases? I wouldn't mind betting that the traffic police in Britain are a bit more vigilant about these matters than the gendarmerie.

Regarding your other question, then like SD said, any regular driver who had srious convictions or a lot of accidents would need to be declared to your insurer as they would be outside the 'standard profile'.

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Insurance dodges and other illegalities associated with motoring happen across the board.  My neighbours in the UK had her father's car parked in front of the house (in the garden) and a young lad - drunk - lost control and wrote the car off.  No insurance and no driving licence - he was a local from a very (so called) respectable family - and there was no recompense for the poor unfortunate guy who lost his car!
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[quote user="Will "]

Aaah, but Ernie, is there any real difference between the Polish builders and the like in Britain who you perceive as having illegal, uninsured vehicles, and the countless British in France who have never bothered to make their vehicles legal, even after several years in a lot of cases?[/quote]It may well be more of a perception Will because in these days of ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) it's becoming more and more difficult to get away with driving a car illegally but I still wonder where they find the money. The bare fact is though, that for some it's far more economical to buy a £50 banger which will be confiscated and crushed when stopped and discovered than to pay for MOT, Tax and insurance, and believe me, there is a huge amount of this is going on.

As for a difference, yes, there is a big one. The eastern europeans at least have half an excuse because they probably find it hard to afford insurance in the UK whereas I'm certain that the vast majority of expat brits in France can easily afford it but choose either to deliberately flout the law of their host country or at very least, bury their heads in the sand, both of which are equally irresponsible acts which, IMHO, actually makes them worse offenders.

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I think you are probably right Ernie, particularly about the British p*** takers in France. I know that the police in Southampton,  where there are a lot of Poles, have had a big campaign checking Polish vehicles. I wish the gendarmes would do likewise in certain parts of France.

For what it is worth I am currently doing some work, in England, for a couple of former colleagues from my Daily Mail days. One of these people is Serbian, and a couple of members of his family are involved in the business as well. They are certainly pretty well off, and he can certainly afford to insure his Mercedes [:D]. But then he has been in England for a long time, well before the current influx.

I do think that the Eastern Europeans who go to Britain (or France) to work should be able to afford to run their vans and cars, and those who cannot afford to insure cars should not have them on the road anyway. That's probably more of a problem in France where there is less public transport. We have several Polish people near us in France (one is actually a good friend) and as far as I know, they are quite legal, at least as far as their cars go, which is more than you can say for a lot of the British.

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At the risk of prolonging this....

"It may well be more of a perception..."

"I wonder where they find the money..."

"Believe me, there's a huge amount of this going on..."

"They probably find it hard to afford insurance...."

"I'm certain that the vast majority of Brits....."

Some wild assumptions coming out here [:(].  

 

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