Car Insurance

Hi Kate,

Romanian insurance works differently to UK insurance in that the car is insured, not the driver. As the ownership of the car has changed, you'll probably need to get new insurance as a new owner, but once insured, anyone can drive it. I often borrow a friends car instead of renting as I don't need a car all the time, just a couple of times a month when I go to the countryside.

There are two type of insurance. One is the compulsory insurance, which is something like third party insurance in the UK, and the more expensive CASCO, which is like comprehensive. It's not that expensive so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Romanian cars are also only taxed for the county they are registered in normally. The car you've purchased will have two letters at the front (or one, 'B', if it's registered in Bucharest). This will tell you where it was first registered, eg. MS for Mures County or BV for Brasov County. To drive it in the rest of the country, you need a 'rovineta'. You should check you have this if you intend to enter the country with it, but if the guy you bought it from drove it out, then it probably has one, but check anyway as it might have expired. If it doesn't have a valid rovineta, you can purchase one from more or less any major petrol station on entering the country, but at the border crossing, there are usually some little kiosks or shops selling them. They only cost about 20 quid for a year.

I'm not sure what the situation would be regarding using the car in the UK in the interim. As far as I know, you can use a foreign car with it's foreign insurance for a certain period in a new country (90 days maybe) before you have to re-register it with local plates and insurance. But I don't know how this is affect by a change in ownership. Hopefully someone else can help you with that.

kacheson wrote:

Hi - I am looking at buying a car with Romanian registration plates in England. Its ITP is valid until next year and it has its green card until January. I will be moving to Romania soon and it would be convenient to have a car to drive out there rather than take my UK registered car out.

I was wondering if anyone has done something similar? If i paid up would I need to sort out Romanian insurance then and there in order to drive it back to my house in England? Would I pay UK tax on it for the time being? What Romanian car insurance would you recommend?

I am sure there are lots of questions that I don't even know to ask at this point so I would really appreciate any information you can give me on the logistics of this.

Thank you,
Kate

There are indeed some other matters at hand, but WHEN do you intend to move here and bring the car back?  You're gutsy to buy a 2nd hand Romanian regged car 

Romaniac

Hello.
There are a lot of questions and answers for this
First wouldnt it be cheaper to sell the uk car and buy a Romanian car?

If you plan to go back to the uk might be a good idea to keep the uk one

Thanks all for your responses. I have to keep my UK car here so I can fly back occasionally to do my PhD research so I unfortunately can't sell it and raise some money!

What about American license? Thanks

devryimax wrote:

What about American license? Thanks

What about it? 

If you have a question about licenses, please search for a relevant topic on it, or ask your question in a new topic please. Thanks.

Romaniac
Romania Expat Advisor
Expat-Blog

If I end up doing this process myself are there any insurance companies that are recommended or is it a case of them all offering very similar packages?

NPTB wrote:

If I end up doing this process myself are there any insurance companies that are recommended or is it a case of them all offering very similar packages?

Welcome NPTB!

I think they all offer the same.  I've always opted for the least expensive policy I can get.  I've never had to make a claim, so I can't say first-hand about claim service.

Romaniac

Contrary to the expert advice here, you should never go for the lowest policy, because they only look good on the surface. In case of an accident or event, they will make you go crazy. Even to open a file, it will take you days and days and unlimited paperwork. I have heard cases where these bottom-of-the-barrel insurers never offered to accept the claim, and people have left their cars for months at their yard trying to solve this.

Aim for something mid-level, is what I would say. I personally insure with the in-house guys from Porsche Bank ... and everything happens with German precision and on time. I suppose it again depends on what type of vehicle it is, if its something in utter shambles then yeah .. lowest price offer may seem like a good choice

SirNookieOMighty wrote:

Contrary to the expert advice here, you should never go for the lowest policy, because they only look good on the surface. In case of an accident or event, they will make you go crazy. Even to open a file, it will take you days and days and unlimited paperwork. I have heard cases where these bottom-of-the-barrel insurers never offered to accept the claim, and people have left their cars for months at their yard trying to solve this.

Aim for something mid-level, is what I would say. I personally insure with the in-house guys from Porsche Bank ... and everything happens with German precision and on time. I suppose it again depends on what type of vehicle it is, if its something in utter shambles then yeah .. lowest price offer may seem like a good choice

romaniac wrote:

NPTB wrote:

If I end up doing this process myself are there any insurance companies that are recommended or is it a case of them all offering very similar packages?

Welcome NPTB!

I think they all offer the same.  I've always opted for the least expensive policy I can get.  I've never had to make a claim, so I can't say first-hand about claim service.

Romaniac

Thanks for the replies. My car is still currently UK registered but I need to get some insurance asap. I'm hoping to go into a couple of places tomorrow and have a chat and get something sorted. We intend to do quite a few road-trips both within Romania and the surrounding countries so I'll probably not be going for the very cheapest option, all depends what is covered really.

Any help for registering a car? I've contacted a couple of people but no luck so far.

Then I can think about getting it registered.

NPTB wrote:

Any help for registering a car? I've contacted a couple of people but no luck so far.

I'd refer you to this thread

Please post your questions there about registering.

Romaniac
Expat-Blog Experts Team

One thing you need to know is that your insurance pays for the other person's repairs. Buying an expensive one does not help you at all, as if that person has the cheapest insurance, that's what's going to "fix" your car, and your expensive one will fix his.

All insurances are pretty lame in Romania and they'll try to skim you when you get to need them. Be prepared to live without your car for month in a row (as it sits in the service waiting for the go from the insurance company), and be prepared to go to court to sue for your rights.

Bogdan_P wrote:

One thing you need to know is that your insurance pays for the other person's repairs. Buying an expensive one does not help you at all, as if that person has the cheapest insurance, that's what's going to "fix" your car, and your expensive one will fix his.

All insurances are pretty lame in Romania and they'll try to skim you when you get to need them. Be prepared to live without your car for month in a row (as it sits in the service waiting for the go from the insurance company), and be prepared to go to court to sue for your rights.

Very good point Bogdan!  It's also worth mentioning that the service garages will often only fix the damage to a point where it somewhat looks ok and kinda functions (but there's still problems), or they'll use the cheapest parts possible instead of the original manufacturer parts in order to maximize their profit from the insurance claim.  You do indeed need to be ready to go to court to get what you deserve.

Romaniac

Exactly why I rent a car when I need one and the rest of the time use public transport or a cab. Somebody else's problem then and by the time you've factored in insurance, repairs, routine maintenance, road tax, depreciation and the stress and hassle of dealing with insurance companies, devious mechanics, finding parking and so on, it actually works out cheaper up to about 3 months in a year of rent.