You say that, but in 2008 I paid €340 for a six month policy, that actually cost €132 when I got the documents through from Arisa - for €208 I'd bloody walk down the road to the local insurance office for you - hell, I could get a bargain flight* to Germany and do the paperwork myself and still be quids in! (*I was in the UK at the time I might add)

I'd be more than happy to pay Knopf tours a reasonable 'administration fee' on top of the insurance cost, but not when they charge you €56 (for something that costs €22) every month you have the policy...

Sure you might suck it up if you're only in Europe for a month or two, but I imagine most people from the US bringing their own bike over are going to want to stay for some length of time?

J x

In Stefan's defense, he gave me all sorts of good service without asking a dime--most of it unrelated to insurance. Other stuff I paid for. If he wants to market insurance with a substantial markup, that's fine with me. If I don't want to purchase from him, I won't.

He also shipped a bike for me. I'm sure he marked that up as well.....but he gave me a place to change oil and to store the bike on both ends, and he took care of various stuff that I forgot, served as go-between when I had scheduling difficulties, met me on a streetcorner when I couldn't find my way even though he had better things to do with his time.... Plus I stayed in his unfinished house and ate dinner with his adorable kids. Try asking Arisa for that kind of service.

I mean, really: my second time around I bought insurance from Arisa directly. But I made that choice deliberately. No one held a gun on me (as we Americans are fond of saying, for some unfathomable reason).

Enjoy!

Mark

(from Mendoza Argtentina, where the sun never stops shining....as far as I can tell)

well, doesn't really matter where you go nowadays to get your car/bike insured as ARISA went up to 105 euros a month!
ride safe

Hello,
I will be flying my bike to Lisbon then traveling through Spain to Morocco. Can I buy green card insurance at the airport or in Lisbon rather than doing it by mail?

thanks,

Tim

Without really knowing I dare say that it's extremely unlikely: hardly any vehicle arrives there, so who and why should they sell insurance there? Your best bet would probably be the Portuguese AA. But, if you can't find insurance on the spot then you won't have any...

__________________
Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

It was said somewhere (possibly here) that the costs of the German ADAC greencard insurance/ Grenzversicherung had gone up from the reasonable euro 22 a month to something astronomical.

My parents live in Germany and I asked my mum to check the new price. At her local ADAC office they said, if you do it yourself, it will cost euro105 for 29 days.

So a 400% increase! B*stards!

Chris

__________________

Brighty's website: TheBrightStuffDotCom

CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

Hello all,
I'm trying to get myself organised to do a 2-3 month tour around Europe, starting in June 2010. I plan to get one of the Hubbers to buy a bike for me in the UK, which he will onsell once I have completed the trip.
What I need to know, is just about everything about insurance I will require both in the UK and once I am in Europe. What is the deal with a green card if the bike is registered in the UK ? Who are the best people to deal with in the UK ?
I have a UK drivers license, left over from courier days in London and I can rearrange the address without too much bother, but I'm not sure if that is going to be of any assistance to me or not.
Any advice would be most welcome.
Cheers,
Gav.

Hi Gav - I'd think the best thing to do, if you are only here for two or three months, and your friend here is willing of course, is to get them to buy the bike, and tax/insure it, but with you as a named driver on the insurance policy? A UK insurance policy is valid for all EU countries, so you'll have no problem traveling in Europe (if you want to go to Morocco, you'll need to ask your insurer for an extension, it varies depending on the underwriter). To buy a bike and tax it for use in the UK, you need an insurance policy anyway - so that would have to be arranged for your friend to collect the bike. Adding you to their insurance policy should be no problem.

Having a UK licence certainly helps in this regard (as long as it is still valid, which I imagine it is, unless you're 70 years old!), and since you have no no-claims bonus for the insurance anyway, it won't matter adding you as a named driver, you'll be paying the top price for that anyway...

The only other thing you'll have to do is get a letter from the 'owner' saying they authorize you to use their bike (as the machine is still registered in their name/address) since this may be asked for abroad for example - although to be fair, there are no boarder controls to speak of between EU countries anymore...

Obviously, your friend in the UK has to trust you with 'their' bike - and their insurance policy, although since you are paying for these yourself, as long as their is an understanding/deposit between you, I'm sure that would work out?

J xx

I have just checked with Arisa, and the details now for a motorcycle really are as follows:

(minimum ) 29 days = 105,00 Euros
2 months = 210,00 Euros
3 months = 315,00 Euros
4 months = 420,00 Euros

Not much of a discount there, then...

I asked about the increase and received the reply:
'sorry, but since December 2009 we have new premiums in the motorcycle insurance. '

Bad news, indeed.
Stephan

Or...this marginally less expensive alternative:


How does Non European Green Card Insurance work?

• "15 days - Euro 70
• 30 days - Euro 90
• 45 days - Euro 120

up to 180 days - Euro 290"

That's an interesting link (Mototouring/UCI) - thanks, CourtFisher - and they accept credit cards which would save hassle and costs with the bank transfer that Arisa require. Has anyone here actually used UCI successfully? And does the policy cover the same countries as Arisa? Thanks.
Stephan

Thanks JMo,
That sounds to me like a very sensible idea. I will give my mate a call and see how he feels about going that way.
The only thing with the license is that the address is 20 years old, but changing it shouldn't present too much trouble.

My understanding of their site is that it DOES in fact cover a few more countries than ARISA while being slightly cheaper and possibly easier to obtain with the credit card. The page states that they "can issue a Green Card policy valid for the EU countries and other European countries". After having a look at their useful map, the countries that are outside the European Community where their greencard insurance IS good would appear to be Switzerland & Croatia. It also appears to be good for places such as Spain where I don't believe ARISA covers. Switzerland is great for me because I will be spending around 6 months of my time living and working there.

They also say that the policy is renewable as many times as you need which is great because if I understand it correctly, the ARISA policy had a limit of up to 1 year on any 1 motorcycle.

This thread spans something like 4 years, and I am brand new to these wonderful forums, but are we to believe that currently, since the ARISA policy went up 4x in price about a year ago (ADAC being underwritten by ARISA), that Mototouring is now the best option for greencard insurance on our North American registered bikes? I will be e-mailing Mototouring in due time to try and confirm some of these details, and will keep you updated.

Yasterday I e-mailed both Jessica at ARISA, and Mototouring. I heard back from a new sournce, Sonja (having e-mailed Jessica) this morning, and she sent me a full one page word doc. on the subject. I know people have already copied and pasted their responses from ARISA above, but I think this one has a little more detail. This information is fresh as of April 8th, 2010, so a little more up to date. I am waiting to hear back from Mototouring (the more favorable option in my opinion) and will post what they have to say.

*Update* For anyone interested, there is NO age restriction (other than min. drivers licence age I would assume) or price increase on ARISA Greencard insurance. It is also good in Switzerland.

Just insured my bike NZ regestered bike useing Mototouring in Italy. Paid with credit card for 6 months. Cost 315 euro or something like that. Recieved the document in an e-mail in a PDF today, took 13 days this was due to the insurance company closed over easter. only slight problem is Croatia (HR) is crossed out on the insurance papers. The web site map covers it. Have e-mailed them. (probably a mistake). heaps cheaper than the 630 euro Arisa would have charged.

Cheers Miles