What is Green Card motor insurance, and do I need it?

When planning your move to France you will find that lots of rules and regulations are a little bit different to what you’re used to. Your car insurance is no exception, especially if you plan to keep your own vehicle to use it there.

Many French insurance companies will resist insuring cars owned by expats – especially if you need to take it out of the country again on a regular basis.

Sterling Insurance offers bespoke expat insurance policies, providing fully-comprehensive car insurance while you live and travel across Europe, and offering green card insurance when you drive to the UK, which you will need with or without a Brexit deal.

The green card system is an entente cordiale between almost 50 national insurance bureaux throughout Europe and beyond. It is designed for two main reasons:

• To facilitate the movement of vehicles across international borders by the use of an internationally acceptable document proving the existence of insurance (the Green Card or International Insurance Card).
• To ensure that victims of accidents involving foreign registered vehicles are not disadvantaged.

As long as you keep your UK-registered car abroad for at least eight months of the year, the expat green card scheme can provide cover that allows you to use the car on the road in Europe and on occasional trips outside of it.

That will mean no tricky bartering in broken French with foreign insurance companies and no need to buy a new car when you have other things to spend your relocation budget on.

The Sterling Insurance policy is simple and provides peace of mind for your Channel-hopping excursions, with windscreen cover automatically included with all comprehensive policies.

The policy covers all types of car, camper and motorhome, including left-hand drive, import, exclusive and modified cars. In fact, the policy is bespoke to meet you and your vehicle’s unique needs, so whatever you’re driving, they want to hear from you.