Travel Insurance for longer term Home Exchange

Dear Kath

I like the new clean layout of the website.

Haven't been able to travel to NZ these past two years - 2 knee replacements! I am still not sure I am up to the walk to all those longhaul, far distant, departure gates just yet.

One matter has worried me, as I now exceed the age most insurance companies are keen to cover - travel insurance for longer periods. 20 odd mainline insurers didn't want to know, so it has been down to brokers only. My doctor suggested Help the Aged and their broker offered the best amount of £600 for three months; others quoted up to £1200. I also discovered that the price of air fares has rocketed since last going out to New Zealand in 2004 - with hardly any discounted business class fares these days, compared with the 90's.

I'm trying to achieve an exchange in Christchurch for next Spring, preferably three to six months. Something might 'turn up' for me in South Island, New Zealand, so I can visit not only my relatives there, but also the earlier exchange partners with whom I am still in regular touch.

Best regards
Godfrey HE12473

Kath's Note

If anyone can suggest other sources for competitive travel insurance quotes for the more elderly traveller and for longer periods, please let us know at Green Theme International Home Exchange.

Home Exchange and Temporary Car Insurance Cover

QUESTION

Good Morning,

Would you be able to recommend a car insurance company who will take American and Australia drivers without an additional charge. We recently changed from More Than to Zurich who now require an additional £21 per week for our American exchangers. As we like to exchange for a few months this does mount up.

Your help would be most appreciated. Thank you.

Katie Evans

Thank you for your question. I don't think I have any easy answer here for you. In fact, I had understood that More Than was a company who were quite lenient about accepting other drivers and providing temporary cover, and I was wondering why you had in fact moved from them to Zurich.

It seems to be insurance for Americans that always causes the most concern to the Insurance companies. Have you tried Direct Line to find out what their terms would be? Or perhaps the only answer is to go to an Insurance Broker who may be able to suggest a number of alternatives to try.

I seem to recall that I posted a few items on our weblog about car insurance, but currently haven't been able to find the one which I thought was relevant to your situation. I will post your question on the weblog too and hope that someone will come up with some feasible suggestions for you, and if so, will let you know as quickly as possible.

Very best regards
Kath

Comment
The question of finding insurance companies who provide temporary car insurance cover for additional drivers at reasonable cost is one which home exchangers seek advice on more than anything else. If anyone has useful information to pass on, or if there are any insurance professionals or car insurance companies who would be kind enough to provide GTI Home Exchange UK-based member Katie, Member ID HE17900 (and many, many others) with advice on this perennial problem, it would be most appreciated.

Kath

And a follow up from Katie:

Dear Kath,

Thank you for your quick reply.

Unfortunately we had to change our car insurance from More Than after being with them for years as they wouldn't insure our exchangers.

We are currently with a broker who has only been able to find Zurich who are willing to cover our American exchangers. I have heard about Direct Line and will give them a call.

We joined your site whilst in Florida a few weeks ago and immediately received 3 enquiries! Amazing.

Best regards, Katie Evans

Temporary Car Breakdown Cover in Spain

Once again the taxing question of car insurance, this time for temporary breakdown cover, poses a problem for GTI Home Exchange member Suzy Topolski HE13483. Suzy writes: "do you have any advice regarding getting breakdown cover on our Spanish exchange partner's car. She has annual personal cover.....so is even fine with our car in UK........... so we need to know if we can get temporary breakdown cover in our name for a Spanish registered car. It seems we are fine for insurance.
Thanks.

If anyone, and particularly perhaps one of our many Spanish members, has any information on this point, would you please kindly post a reply on the GTI Weblog, or if you do not feel confident with this, please send me an email and I will pass the information on to Suzy, as well as posting it on the weblog for the benefit of other members who may have the same difficulty in arranging temporary breakdown cover whilst abroad.

Kath Botterill

Adding Temporary Insurance cover to your Car Insurance

Dear Kath
Thankyou for your response - a few updates/bits of new information

- the insurer that I was having problems with is Morethan (part of Royal/Sun Alliance I think) and they told me that they have the same underwriting condition of 'Confirming that any additional driver has had more than 6 months driving in the UK in the last 5 years' (whether or not they were being asked to add a named UK driver and UK resident, a UK resident living overseas, or an EU resident, or a non EU resident).

I went to a brokers(Swinton) to ask them to see what other insurers would do. According to them, some insurers adopt a much more reasonable approach by allowing 'up to 28 days a year cover for any additional driver' (or drivers), however, as adding a driver consitutes a change of contract with the insurer, they would have to consider each driver circumstances individually before adding them, and work out the additional premium cost accordingly. I asked to see these policy terms in writing before making a move to this alternative insurer but they (& they suggested, any company) did not have this in writing as it was 'a temporary and negotiated contract change', nor could this company 'Broker Direct' guarantee whether or not at the time of the exchange (in our case July) that their underwriters would still adopt the same approach. The expected annual additional cost compared to my existing insurance was about another £40-£50 a year (on top of which would be the additional fee for adding a driver at the time (to be confirmed). Therefore I was recommended to stay with my cheaper insurer for the time being, and seek to reinsure at the end of June to find someone who was at that time willing to add named driver(s) as above!!

It is a catch 22 therefore. It may be that some swappers have company cars which may allow more comprehensive cover, but I don't know. As I imagine that most people like us are planning swaps Jan/March (or even before) for a summer swap, I am intrigued that anybody can make a hard & fast assurance that a car swap will be acceptable because their insurer may not until only a few weeks before, be able to confirm that they will do this.

Phew!

Anyway I will be telling my swappers that we should still go ahead with a planned car swap as part of our exchange but that I will ensure that I arrange this in the month prior to the swap as I do not think that I can do anything else.

The worst case scenario is of course that both or one party has to hire a car and book this a few weeks before and it may be that I am trying to confirm all possible arrangements too early....

Anyway. I hope that this helps. If there are any other more friendly (and cheap!!) insurers out there who are more in tune with house swapping, I would be pleased to hear from them!!
Neil

Car Insurance for Members from Another Country

Question: Hi there, we are in the process of completing two exchanges (hurrah!) and have come across a query with our car insurance which we had not expected. They are asking that any temporary driver has to confirm that they have had at least 6 months driving experience in the UK in the last 5 years.

Clearly many UK members offer car swaps in their details but I would expect few from other countries could meet this criteria that my insurer is asking for.
Ironically our new friends in France are telling me that it is no problem to have me set up as a driver with their car over the holiday.

I do not expect you at GTI to be insurance experts of course and every insurance company clearly has their own policy & underwriting criteria - I just wondered if any other members had flagged this as an issue to you?? Or is there a part of the GTI website where I can ask this question to find the names of other insurance companies who are more amenable to car swap arrangements??

Many Thanks Neil Rogers HE16210

Answer: It's great to hear that you have two exchanges lined up. Unfortunately I have never heard of the car insurance query that you mention either. As you say, each insurance company does have their own policy & underwriting criteria. Maybe an insurance company or broker reading the query which I have posted here on our GTI Home Exchange weblog will offer you an answer. I will also post a query on the Travel Forum at Insurance for Car Swap arrangements