Car Insurance

fidobsa wrote:

My car was vandalised today when parked in a quiet country lane. The front passenger door glass was smashed. I only have the Generali KGFB insurance cover which is 3rd party. Am I right in assuming there will not be any cover for glass included in the insurance? I seem to recall some UK insurance policies covered glass even when only on TPFT.

Don't know about your insurance but someone smashed our rear passenger door car window and it cost me 70 EUR to replace. They came to us (Autoglass) and did it there and then. Not too bad overall.

Hi,

KGFB is just liability insurance, in case you are at fault in an accident. You may have gotten a "mini-CASCO" rider, which might cover this, it's worth a quick phonecall to your insurance company with your policy number at hand.

Don't leave stuff in the car, thieves will do insane amounts of damage jacking it for an empty backpack or a shitty radio. Some people just leave it unlocked to save on repairs.

Wouldn't asking your insurance company directly give you the correct answer?

I did try to phone the insurance company but got a menu of options in Hungarian that I did not understand. I think there is a way to speak to someone in English but I don't know how.

This map says you should press 2.1.1.1
https://www.generali.hu/Kapcsolatfelvet … ontok.aspx

But I think if you just press zero or nothing at all, you usually get transferred to a human who should be intelligent enough to patch you to an english-speaking rep.

I never bother with dealing with crazy hungarian phone menus, i just hack some random numbers in the keypad and that usually works to make the system give up and transfer me to an operator ...

pressing 0 or just waiting often does NOT work

also sometimes if hungarians hear english they just hang up.

TornadoHH wrote:

also sometimes if hungarians hear english they just hang up.

Yup, it's close to pathetic here for language skills.

I regularly get called by Vodafone HU and they never seem to remember I want to talk in English (or German).

I've worked extensively in the FRY (Former Republic Yugoslavia) and I can only say their English language skills as superb - not quite on the level of the Dutch, but very close. Even in the smallest shops, one can get by in English and sometimes in German.

Something not right with English skills in HU.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Something not right with English skills in HU.

From my conversations with locals, Hungarians with language skills will leave Hungary for work abroad in other EU countries. They earn more and send the money back to their family.

Kind of like a "brain-drain", but for those with language skills.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Something not right with English skills in HU.

From my conversations with locals, Hungarians with language skills will leave Hungary for work abroad in other EU countries. They earn more and send the money back to their family.

Kind of like a "brain-drain", but for those with language skills.

Sure but in Croatia (for example), they are all still there, speaking excellent English. Maybe they haven't had time to leave yet, since the acession of Croatia to the EU.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Sure but in Croatia (for example)

Once in the EU, exodus by foreign language speakers may also happen from Croatia.

But, in my humble opinion: it also will depend a bit on tourism. Croatia has a sea coast. Better tourist options. Better reason to have language skills not just in tourist areas, but also at call centers that tourists may use. It is all interconnected.

The "problem" is, even Hungarians who use to go to Lake Balaton now go to Croatia for vacation.

My theory: Basically, quality matters. Hungary has systematically shot itself in the head regarding tourism as there is inconsistent quality here; as word gets around quickly between tourists what is a tourist friendly location and what is not. In tourist areas, more foreign tourists means a greater need to retain and learn language skills. It is mutually reinforcing.

Take fore example Hévíz and Keszthely, about 15 minutes apart by car.

Keszthely recently got an EU grant to "update" their city center. If one is impressed or not by the design is a matter of taste, but no one can avoid noticing literally where the "funding stopped" as from one building to the next the renovation ends, and this line is easily within sight of the city center. Tourists are not blind, and it really looks incomplete and overall awful. There is also no maintenance grant, and I have already detected signs of unkempt wear and tear in Keszthely's new remodel. Such incomplete tourist concepts does little to suppress the downward spiral of decreasing foreign tourists (not just for a region but for a country if the quality is inconsistent), and thus creates an exodus climate for those locals with foreign language skills that could be otherwise retained in a stable tourist economy.

Hévíz has the largest per capita budget of any city in Hungary. So they have budgeted money also for upkeep and repairs. In Hévíz the signs mostly avoid the all too common spelling and grammatical mistakes found in signs around the Balaton. There is really not that much to do in Hévíz except go to the thermal lake or get spa treatments, but Hévíz looks good to a foreign tourist and that "quality" brings them back or brings in others. Hévíz understands to make money you gotta spend it. Any wonder then that the shop keepers in Hévíz also had better language skills (mostly German, but some English).

Case in point: my wife and I speak English, and we just left Hungary...

klsallee wrote:

Such incomplete tourist concepts does little to suppress the downward spiral of decreasing foreign tourists

Maybe they are aiming for Szentendre's quaint look?
That truly is captivating: We lived near there for years, and I took the extra 10 minutes to pass through the promenades on foot both ways every day, rain or snow.

klsallee wrote:

.... Hungary has systematically shot itself in the head regarding tourism as there is inconsistent quality here; ...

I was amused by that.

One would have thought repeatedly shooting yourself in the head would be a learning experience. Unfortunately, my own thoughts probably mirror everyone else's - that there's institutionalised learning deficiencies in most government organisations in Hungary. Just because the first bullet missed vital parts of the brain, the next one might not.....*sigh*.

To use an IT based analogy, it's a bit of a stateless machine (i.e. previous states are not retained for use in the next iteration).

It's true that Croatia has more tourism opportunities but the season is short, the beaches aren't that good (rocky, few sandy ones) and it's not particularly cheap. They do have however, a truly excellent motorway network for those Germans powering down to tourist areas in their BMWs and Mercs.

Hungarian Aegon has part of their website in english and I have never had a problem speaking to anybody in English or writing an e-mail in english and getting a swift reply. Maybe an idea when you can change your insurance to go to them. Anyway, I hope you got your things sorted fidobsa.

Yes, I got my house insurance from Aegon and they do seem easier to deal with. The car insurance was arranged by the car dealer  so was just the one they happen to use. I should really go for a better type of cover anyway. I normally had fully comp. in UK.

because both are Indo-European languages Croat and English:)