UK Carnet rip off?
 

I've met a few riders and drivers from Austria, Germany and Switzeland in North and central asia while touring there.

Talking about their intended itineraries the carnet question came up.

I was shocked at the prices they said they paid for their carnets, which seemed much much cheaper than the price we have to pay in the UK.

I know the price is pegged to the value of the bike/vehicle nevertheless, some where riding new BMWs 1200Gs or caravan vans worth more than my bike and they had paid a fraction of what I was quoted by the RAC.

Do you have a carnet from a country other than the UK?

Do you mind telling us what you paid on what conditions?

Thanks

Fernando

Are you talking about the cost of THE carnet ie. the certificate that must be filled in at borders, or the amount of dosh you have to deposit?

You can also go down the insurance route in the UK. The premium is something like 50% of the value the carnet needs to be worth and you get 50% of the premium back when you return it without a claim being made.

Here in France I need to deposit a lump of money in a bank account, get a letter from that bank saying the funds are there (and probably pay for that letter), and buy the carnet certificate from the French automobile club... About €120 for members and $250 for none members

Cheers,
J

talking about the cost!
 

The cost of the deposit and paperwork.
I don't have a carnet but I will need to get one to go to India and Pakistan. Also Nepal, I think.
I'm waiting to the last minute so the declaraed value of the bike comes down.
I enquired about insurance bonds to teh RAC; the bonds they were the cheapest option in the UK . But, provided you returned the Carnet the Passage at the end of its year validity, the total cost climbed over £1500 (pound sterling)!
None of the German, Swiss or Austrian riders I met in Centra Asia had paid anything like it and told me it was because the German automotive association could arrange the carnet and bonds for a lot lot less.
I dont remember the figures the told me but they were in the few hundreds of Euros.

f

Don't sound right to me. My mate thats coming with me is in the UK and so organising his carnet there. Will find out what hes come up with.
What do you recon your bike value is? I think you use with the trade value - ask a dealer and get a shit price;-)).

J

Check out this other thread
 

This thread here:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ghlight=carnet

Tells how you can be ecomical with the truth regarding the valuation of you vehicle. From all the people I have spoken to this is not a problem.

Also remember you are valuing you bike/vehicle and not all the add ons. This is particularly true for a car where the cost of the add ons could be 5x the cost of the vehicle. I know nothing about bikes but can guess this might be similar for a heavily loaded bike.

Thanks CornishDeity
f

Do it through the ADAC in Germany. £10 000 landrover comes in at £7000 deposit that you get 100% back and 200 euros admin.

RAC wanted £600 in fees and £8500 insurance only getting 50% back!

The Land Rover is registered in the UK but german carnet is no problem.

If you want cheap then get one in poland Looks like they pay you heres the link.

http://www.uamk.cz/index-e.htm

Did you made the arrangements with ADAC from GB?
Telephone? Web? Snail mail?

Thanks Andy

Heres the e-mail that Kath sent back from ADAC.

Hello Andy and Karen,

the value of your car is 17.500 Euro. So the deposit will be 15.000 Euro.
So if you fill in a value of 15.000 Euro next year - the deposit will be 10.000 Euro.
Are you a member of an Automobile Association? If yes, the issuing fee will be 150 Euro and without 250 Euro.

All information about the document are available in the internet. There you will find the application form and table of fee as well as a little brochure.

http://www.adac.de/ReiseService/tour...et_de_Passage/



For further questions please do not hesitate to contact me.



Kind regards from Munich

Karina Stephani
Grenzverkehr & Sportschifffahrt (GUS)
ADAC Touring GmbH, Am Westpark 8, 81373 München
Tel: ++49 / 89-76 76 63 34 Fax: ++49 / 89-760 75 72
karina.stephani@adac.de
www.adac.de

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!
Thanks a million Andy

DD

your story is simillar to mine, I was quoted £1000 with £500 returnable for a carnet with insurance, thing is, the car was only valued at two grand!! seemed exceptionally extortionate to me. At that kind of insurance valuation there must be an awful lot of vehicles not making it back!!

The thing is that the value of the car is irrelevant, you should be comparing the value of the carnet to the insurance premium. The Insurance premium should only be 10% of the value of the carnet (at least it was when I arranged it a few months back). May favourite bit about the whole exercise was reading the small print and finding that if you don't bring the car/bike back then the insurance company can recover all costs from you. So in summary, it is insurance to prevent you having to stump up a full carnet deposit, but it doesn't offer you any form of protection in the event of you selling your vehicle abroad.

ADAC-carnets for non-German registered vehicles?
 

According to the Carnet info section of The Hubb ADAC have stopped doing carnets for non-German registered vehicles. This is what it says:

ADAC NOTE: "we no longer issue the carnet de passages for people living outside Germany and for vehicles not registered in Germany. There were too many problems with customs formalities and refunding the guarantee."

Website is in German only, but since you now have to be a German resident with a German registered bike that's not likely to be a problem

However, Andy's link to ADAC's site still works (and is dated November 2006) and it makes it clear that being non-German/non-German registered is not a problem. The fees and deposit are a fraction of the RAC's demands which is ironic as both it and ADAC scheme's are underwritten by the same insurer at Lloyds.

Does anyone know for certain what the true position is?

Best wishes

Q

Adac
 

I've posted this before, in this thread:

In the Netherlands the carnet was issued by the ANWB (the dutch AA), but since september 2005 this 'service' is now done by it's german sister-organisation ADAC.
So you're not obliged to get it in the country where your vehicle is registered or where you live (otherwise we dutch would not be able get one anymore!). The pages concerning the carnet are in English, Français and offcouse german, lots of information/fees etc.
For more info/questions you can mail to: carnetdepassages -at- adac -dot- de (in english, france or german).
Found on their pages (a doc. showing where carnets 'officially' are required) although it seems to be a bit outdated.

Seems the info on the Carnet info section, on 'our' site (horizonsunlimited) is outdated.
hmm, maybe inform someone through website feedback to avoid more confusion.


regards

Here in OZ - TWO items

Cost of carnet $aud400 ..

Then the vehicle garentee -

Value depends on where you go .. up to 470% of vehicle value. Depends on the country.
See http://www.aaa.asn.au/touring/overseas.htm for country variations

On the vehicle value .. they require an estimation of the vehicles value on a dealers company letter head. So no more guessing.

Three ways of doing it -
a) bank cheque made out to the full value (vehicle value * customs charge). Held by the AAA untill carnet returned (you get it back - no intrest) or country demands payment.

b) bank garentee (you get this back if carnet returned .. intrest depends on teh bank)

c) insurance policy Minimum $300. Calculated as 2% of full value. You don't get this back .. and are still liable if you leave the vehicle behind!

Full aplication here
http://www.racv.com.au/wps/wcm/resou...cationform.pdf
You need the vehilces rego, insurance, estimated value, one of the three $$$$ items above.. and probably some other stuff I've forgotten .. all in the pdf.