Hi everyone,
My partner and I are looking into the finances of owning a car here in Scotland. One (very expensive!) stumbling block seems to be car insurance. I am an American, with 9 years of driving experience in the USA. I have a UK residence permit on a partner visa.
I am currently taking driving lessons so I can pass the test and obtain a UK license. My partner is Scottish, but has only been driving for 2 years in the UK. We have received a very high quote from Direct Line, as they are not taking my years of driving experience in the US into account. Just wondering if anyone else has experience this? Have any Americans out there found a company that would consider US driving experience (or who would be persuaded by a clean insurance record from the states!?)?
We would very much appreciate any advice!
Thanks,
Sammi
Car Insurance for American Driver
Geico appears to be the US ex-pats' favourite.
Hi Sammi,
my wife and I had the same problem when we moved from Australia.
We found that Aviva were quite reasonable if you could provide them with something in writing from previous insurers stating that you had not had any claims for x number of years.
cheers,
Greg
What are the documents required for insuring an American with visa?
The issue with UK insurers is that they have what they call a 'No Claims' coverage. Basically what it means is that if you pay a bit more for your insurance and then have to make a claim, it will not affect your '5 years no claims' discount.
So in affect, it is as if you had not made a claim at all. Because of this, they do not want a letter stating you have '5 years no claims' with a previous insurer, since it would not tell them if you had in fact been involved in an accident and had indeed made a claim. What they want is a letter stating, '5 years no ACCIDENT'.
I had this same issue in the other direction. Canadian insurance companies who are aware of the UK practice of offering this 'no claims coverage' insist on a letter from a previous UK insurer stating, 'no accidents', before they will take previous UK driving experience and insurance into account.
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