UK Motorhome Insurance with EU Driving License

ForeverCopilot

ForeverCopilot

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Hi All,

Need all your help please, we have recently just moved back to the UK having lived in Sweden for the last 3 years. Due to the risk of a 'no deal Brexit' we were advised to exchange our UK driving licenses to EU ones beginning of last year.

We moved back to the UK in May this year and now when we look for insurance on a motorhome we are getting refused due to either having only held an EU license for 18 months or the fact we have only been UK residents in effect for 3 months. Seems the system do not recognise we have lived in UK for all our lives except for 3 years and held our UK driving licenses since we were 17.

Comfort - NO
Safeguard - NO
AIB Insurance - NO

Waiting to hear back from Arian Flux and NFU but struggling to stay positive.

Have any of you been in a similar position (worked abroad/moved back/EU license) that managed to find insurance ??

Any help/suggestion would be appreciated
Right now the dream is starting to slip away ......

Thanks
 
Couldn't you just change it back to a regular UK license ?

I always assumed that the process was reversible.

Is it the same for you car (assuming you have one)? as i know when we go back to the UK and ask to be put on our families insurance then they do seem to charge a lot as we also don't have UK driving licenses any more, seems a nice way for them to make more money out of you...
 
yes it is just a Uk insurers scam. If you change back then they will say no as you "haven't had a licence for 3 years in the UK
They will also say no if you haven't lived in the Uk for the last 3 years.
someone somewhere will insure it but it is finding them.
 
Ridgeway said:
Couldn't you just change it back to a regular UK license ?

I always assumed that the process was reversible.

Is it the same for you car (assuming you have one)? as i know when we go back to the UK and ask to be put on our families insurance then they do seem to charge a lot as we also don't have UK driving licenses any more, seems a nice way for them to make more money out of you...
Click to expand...

We can change back, but takes time and then they are saying but then you will have only held your Uk license for a few weeks. The problem appears to be the systems are not configured to take into account the time you had on your previous license (UK or EU) it only considers the time on your current license, which in our case is EU 18 months, or if we swap back to UK a few weeks.
 
I do not have personal experience of this however your post stimulated interest:
Admiral offers cover to drivers from all around the world, if you haven’t arranged your cover you can get a quote for your car today.

The DVLA has an interactive tool so you can check if you can exchange your licence to a UK one. Plus Admiral offer none UK licence holder insurance it seems

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Clipgate said:
I do not have personal experience of this however your post stimulated interest:
Admiral offers cover to drivers from all around the world, if you haven’t arranged your cover you can get a quote for your car today.

The DVLA has an interactive tool so you can check if you can exchange your licence to a UK one. Plus Admiral offer none UK licence holder insurance it seems
Click to expand...

No problem to change back, but as said the UK license will not have held for 3 years ....

Sadly just checked but Admiral do not do motorhome insurance, only van insurance
 
Seems like this is a "computer says no" situation and i think it needs a conversation with an insurer or maybe a broker. I did keep a photocopy of my old UK license but not sure it that would help in in this case.
 
Ridgeway said:
I did keep a photocopy of my old UK license but not sure it that would help in in this case.
Click to expand...
Now it is all computerised if you go online with your old licence number you will get the message
" no licence held" If as the op says you then change back it will state "licence held since 24 July 2020" The system is fit for nothing.
How Uk insurers ever got away with differentiating between UK& EU licences i've no idea'?
 
Anyone been asked by an Insurance Company for sight of their Driving Licence. :winky:

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Littlewheels said:
Anyone been asked by an Insurance Company for sight of their Driving Licence. :winky:
Click to expand...

That's a good point, can't ever remember being asked however would think it would give them massive wiggle room in the event of a claim...
 
Yes had to upload copies to be a named driver on daughters car and others.
 
I am a named driver on a friends 2 cars in the Uk & he just told them I held a spanish licence.
They never asked to see it or for a copy.
 
DandG5515 said:
Yes had to upload copies to be a named driver on daughters car and others.
Click to expand...
I’ve had about a 100 vehicles and never been asked other than “ Do you hold a full driving licence” or similar no mention of a UK one, of course l stand corrected.
 
Just an update for everyone, we finally after a lot of hunting found insurance with NFU Mutual. They did not have an issue with the EU licenses nor our residency only being from May 2020. Interestingly it did have to go to the underwriters due to the value of MOHO (£89K) but they had no problem and amazingly did not specify any requirement for security being fitted :unsure:. So insurance all sorted ....
Of course having a growler fitted, but don't need to pay for the useless tracker that most insurance companies specify (signal can be blocked so easily rendering useless) .....

Thanks for all your help ...
 
Hello,
We are currently in the same situation and are looking for a camper van insurance. As we were just moving to the UK from Germany the insurances are really expensive or don't want to insure us at all as well. The offers we got so far were mostly above 5000£ per year and only the one with NFU is 2000£. One reason is our German driver licenses and the other reason is our post code in London.
Can you maybe share how much you are paying now with NFU?
And did you get your UK drivers license again or did you stick to the EU license?
And are you still with NFU or did you switch to another one now? Any issues with NFU?
Thank you!
Best regards
Florian
 
I had the same problem towards the end of last year. We had returned from Spain in May 2021 and had also changed our UK licences for EU licences while resident in Spain. We were there for 17 years in total. The motorhome was bought new in Spain in 2014 and I had re-registered it in the UK prior to seeking cover. It was insured still under our old Spanish policy and parked in secure storage virtually from the time we arrived at our new home, so at reduced theft risk and not being used on the road. I'll be honest and say I'm glad we didn't have cause to claim during that period, though.

We were able to get our EU licences exchanged back to UK ones in about August, notwithstanding the delays at DVLA, but so many online insurers declined to quote because we either had not been UK residents for 2 years or more, or our UK licences were only recently issued.

As someone else has said, the only option was to hit the phone and talk to people. Even that resulted in more declines than offers to quote. In the end, I found an incredibly helpful chap at Advance Insurance who was able to come up with a quote that wasn't ridiculous - albeit probably £100 - £150 more than I ought to be paying - and I have no hesitation in suggesting you give them a call.

Joshua Payne

Advance Insurance Agencies Ltd

16 Fore Street, Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

01225 433491

joshua.payne@advanceinsurance.co.uk

Good luck!
 

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