Insurance for touring outside the EU
 

Does anybody know who provides motorbike insurance for touring outside the EU?
Specifically: Former Yugoslavian Republic, and Ukraine.
I have tried all the usual bike insurance brokers in the UK.
Thanks.

If you cannot find someone to insure you from the UK it is available at the borders of these countries but if you can get it at home it will probably be cheaper.

Ask for green card insurance.

it covers all of this countries.

talk to Dooby, he's a member, and who i use for greencard for the balkans, Lobagola MotoTours | expedition off road tours, insurance, storage, freight, dooby is cool, easy to work with and always happy to help. bier

Hello Chris:

Welcome to the HUBB community.

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

The post is a few years old, but to the best of my knowledge, the information in it is still current.

Basically, you buy the insurance as you cross the border into each of the various former Yugoslavian countries. Same for Ukraine.

If you live in the EC, first try contacting your existing insurance company to see if they can add cover for some or all of the countries you plan to visit - it will likely be less expensive to get the coverage added to your existing policy (and get a new green card showing the extended coverage) than it will be to buy insurance as you cross the border into each country.

But, if your current insurer can't offer that, just buy country-by-country coverage as you enter.

Michael

Thanks
 

I am very grateful for all the advice, and the speed of response.

I have rented a lot of bikes locally all over Asia, Africa and South America, but I have never taken a bike of my own outside the geographical limits apparently imposed by all UK insurers (essentially the EU and the 4 other signatories to the EU Motor Insurance Directive). I think I have spoken to every major broker and most of the significant UK insurers.
So it hadn’t occurred to me that it might be easy and quick (even if not necessarily cheap) to buy insurance on a pay-as-you-go basis at the borders.

BTW: I have just had that advice corroborated by the leader of a group of bikers I ran across in Armenia last September. They had come from Spain, Iran, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. If it worked for all of them I am confident it will for me (lifelong UK resident with EU nationality) on a UK registered bike.
On that basis I am ready to take the plunge if and when the borders start to re-open.

Thanks again.

Of course it will work. It's worked for legions before you, and in the absence of major pandemics it will likely work for legions after. If you do a site search you'll find enough discussion on the subject to keep you occupied at least until travel options open up (say, summer of 2021), and if that doesn't satisfy you may wish to start reading blogs, of which there are a great many.

It's just a pity that the "out of area but only just" green card has become such an endangered species in the UK. None of the insurance companies I have vehicles insured with (4 at the moment) say they can provide them. It's one of the things I ask whenever a renewal comes up and we're shopping around. It doesn't really matter too much for our daily driver cars which are never likely to head for the Balkans (except maybe against our wishes in a shipping container) but one or two of my bikes might.

Just one additional info on top of the ones already provided by @pepelopez and @PanEuropan , that is not all the border crossings your route will take you will have the option of purchase of the coverage (sometimes you will be forced to ride 100-200 or more km to the next one to get it). There is no way to track the exact border posts where you will be able to buy it as many insurers were/are cutting the costs and removing the option to get the coverage at the border crossing.
Plan wisely and allow the extra time buffer for the crossings in case you get re-routed to another crossing.

BR
Dooby

As I found when riding down Croatia through the Neum corridor. Despite this being a major route there is nowhere to buy insurance as you enter Bosnia, which is outside the EU and thus outside normal EU insurance coverage. The nearest border post with insurance is Doljani. Nobody at Neum checked, but it was a nervous 9 kms.

Dooby makes a very good point.

Most major highway border crossings will have insurance booths on each side of the border. Sometimes you will get lucky and find an insurance booth at a smaller border crossing - but not always.

It's best to plan to make your border crossings during daytime business hours (0800 - 1700). Ideally, plan to make the border crossing sometime in the morning, that way, if insurance is not available, you'll still have the rest of the afternoon to travel to another border crossing.

Once you get your route planned out, post it here on the HUBB and ask others for advice about whether or not there are insurance booths available at the locations you plan to cross borders.

Once, I came to a border crossing that did not offer insurance - it required a 60 km backtrack and detour to the next closest crossing. It was an enjoyable ride. The border officials at the crossing without insurance were very helpful, they told me exactly where the closest border crossing with insurance was, how to get there, the most scenic roads to ride on to get there, etc.

Lastly, remember that the folks who man the insurance booths "never have change" - so keep an adequate supply of small Euro notes and small Euro coins (€1 denomination) to pay the exact price for your insurance. Every single insurance booth will accept Euros for payment if you don't have the local currency. I have never yet found a Balkan insurance booth that accepts credit cards.

Michael

We're you looking for comprehensive cover for your bike, or just cover for damage to other people and their vehicles

Thanks again everyone. Lots of good advice there.
I won’t have a fixed itinerary, or any deadlines, so I am increasingly confident this is going to happen - whenever the borders re-open.
I will be hoping for comprehensive insurance, but if I can only get the legal minimum that will have to do.
Time is running out for me to achieve this lifelong ambition!

There is no insurance company and will never be that provides comprehensive coverage that includes the case of theft outside EU.
Axa is little by little pulling out of the rest of the market as well.

Take that into consideration when making the framework for the plan of such journey.

Cheers
Dooby