Albania and Montenegro - Bike Insurance

[biker_smith]

Hi all,
Planning a trip in October coming from Italy (Ancona) to Durres in Albania, then north into Montenegro. Both these countries are excluded on my Carol Nash insurance.
Has anyone experience of buying bike insurance at the port of Durres and then when entering Montenegro?
Thanks - Paul.

[PanEuropean]

See this post: Balkans Insurance - Here's the story, with details & sample documents.

The post is from 2014, but I doubt very much if anything has changed since then. I entered Durres by ferry a couple of years ago and was able to buy Albanian insurance without any problems.

My experience going into numerous different Balkan countries, as I explained in the above-cited post, is that you can buy insurance for each country at major border crossings. The insurance kiosks don't always operate H24, so plan to make your border crossings during normal business hours.

Have a supply of small Euro bills (5 Euro bills), because the insurance vendors "never" have change for anything... which means that if you don't bring exact change with you, you are going to wind up leaving a large tip with the employee on duty at the insurance vendor.

Michael

PS: That ferry trip is a long one (about 24 hours, if I recall correctly), and the boat is less than luxurious. I suggest you investigate getting a private cabin for the voyage. Bring something to read, you will be out of cell phone coverage and the cost of Wi-Fi on ships is staggering.

[biker_smith]

Thanks for all the info PanE.

[tim.angus]

I did both countries this year. No issue buying at the border. However you might have to buy either 15 days or a month minimum, and prices vary from €5 to €51

[manzini]

kosovo=15€
macedonia=50€

[PanEuropean]

Originally Posted by manzini

kosovo=15€
macedonia=50€

Macedonia is the most expensive of the Balkan countries for insurance. The rest of them are somewhere in the €15 to €25 range.

Fortunately, everything else in Macedonia (food, hotels, etc.) is very inexpensive, so that pretty much offsets the big premium for the insurance.

Michael

[paco2cv]

Have just got back from the Balkans in a camper van and things have changed. I crossed from Croatia in to Montenegro and the guards usually keep your passport until you have bought insurance. This time they did not so I went to the booth as usual and it was closed and empty. The truck agent upstairs said Montenegro was now in the European Insurance arrangement for uninsured drivers so no one was bothered about checking. She said Bosnia and Kosovo was as well. So no checks, but no insurance either and nowhere to buy it.

[PanEuropean]

Originally Posted by paco2cv

...The truck agent upstairs said Montenegro was now in the European Insurance arrangement for uninsured drivers so no one was bothered about checking.

I'd take that with a pretty big grain of salt - meaning, I would not rely on that advice.

The easiest way to determine if your existing insurance covers you for any given country is to look at the "green slip" and see whether or not that country's symbol is crossed out or not.

If it is crossed out, then you need to get a policy specific for that country. If it is not crossed out, you are covered in that country.

Michael

[graham_maddison]

Check the policy details when you buy it! The guy selling insurance at Durres had no english and when he wanted to fill in my name, I handed him some document with my name on it, and pointed to my name. Stupid move. When I got back to the bike and checked the policy, he'd insured my passenger to drive (her name was elsewhere on the document I gave). He had absolutely no interest in correcting it or even selling me another, so in Albania we were essentially uninsured unless we convinced anyone interested that she was driving from the back seat.

[PanEuropean]

Originally Posted by graham_maddison

...he'd insured my passenger to drive ...so in Albania we were essentially uninsured...

It's possible that you were in fact fully insured.

The big question is whether or not the insurance policy covers the vehicle or the driver. In many countries, it is the vehicle that is insured, not the specific driver.

This may not be the case everywhere, and I'm not saying it was the case for you, but it is a possibility. You would have to look at the fine print of the policy, which is probably on the back of the document, to determine the answer.

Michael

[chris gale]

If u r a UK citizen then u r part of the eaa group of countries . Under the eu directive covering civil motor insurance Bosnia does not require a green card anymore as it adheres to this directive as do other countries not in the eu per se such as Serbia + Montenegro.
However Albania Willl require a green card as will Nth Macedonia .
Your level of cover is at a minimum third party only . A number of UK insurers will provide fully comp for up to three months .
There is a website listing the 27 countries that adhere to the directive , the 6 eaa countries and the other ones that also adhere to it .

[chris gale]

Cob / article 44 is the site that explains all

[chris gale]

Michael.....there is now am automatic presumption that if ur vehicle is from one of the states mentioned in the legislation then u r insured at least 3rd party

[PanEuropean]

Originally Posted by chris gale

Michael.....there is now am automatic presumption that if ur vehicle is from one of the states mentioned in the legislation then u r insured at least 3rd party

Chris:

That's a dangerous assumption to make, because it is up to the individual insurance provider to decide which countries they want to include in the coverage that they sell.

The photo below shows the portion of a "green card" document (a "green card" document being a standardized proof of insurance document for insurance that is valid in more than one European country).

Countries whose country code is NOT crossed out are countries in which the vehicle is covered. No insurance coverage is provided in countries that have an X through the country code. Each individual insurance company makes their own decisions about what countries they extend cover to, and which ones they don't cover. Even if an insurance company has the ability to extend cover to multiple countries, they might not offer that as 'basic' coverage - in other words, they might charge you extra to cover additional countries.

What I am getting at is this: Look at your green card document, and make sure that it indicates that you are covered in the countries that you plan to visit.

Michael

PS: This is a photo of an old insurance document of mine, from 2012. It's possible that 10 years later, the same company that provided this document might have extended their coverage areas to include countries that were crossed out in 2012, for example, Albania (AL) or Croatia (HR). But my point remains the same: CHECK YOUR DOCUMENT. Don't assume.

Portion of a "Green Card" showing which countries you are insured in

[PanEuropean]

Here's a scan of a green card issued when I purchased insurance for the same motorcycle 3 years later, in 2015. You'll notice that one additional country is now covered by this policy, Croatia (HR).

Whether this was because I bought the policy from a different insurance provider, or because Croatia's insurance regulator made some legislative or policy changes that made it easier for non-Croatian insurance companies to underwrite coverage valid in Croatia, I do not know.

But, here's a surprise for all of you: Consider Andorra (AND), that little gas station and duty-free cigarette and alcohol shop located between France and Spain. You would THINK that your coverage would be valid there, because the document shows the coverage is valid in all the other Western European countries, and Andorra is administered as a condominium by Spain and France.

Well, guess what - you have no insurance in Andorra. That country (AND) is crossed out. I didn't know this until I took a close look at the document a few years ago... and I had been happily (and ignorantly) riding through Andorra for years with these policies, thinking I was covered.

Again: CHECK THE DOCUMENT and be sure! Don't assume!

Michael

2015 Document