New prices from Mototouring for Green Card Ins
 

Am going to have a ride in Spain France and Germany starting April 16. Just got a requote from Mariaelana at Mototouring.

□ 15 days at 90,00 Euro
□ 30 days at 113,00 Euro
□ 45 days at 143,00 Euro
□ 90 days at 218,00 Euro
□ 180 days at 360,00 Euro

Cars are higher


Is this still the best deal? I think I will check out Knopf for their latest prices.

UCI - Italian Company
 

Hi, has anyone actually contacted (via email) someone from UCI or purchased green card insurance from them recently? I searched their website, which is all in Italian (which I don't speak) and tried to look for an email address or info in English, but failed.

Please provide either their email address or your experience buying insurance from them, including whether they accept credit cards.

Thanks,
Taz

No personal experience with UCI direct.
Don't speak Italian either, but you can run any website through Google Translator or similar online translator.
The UCI website shown (above)
Ufficio Centrale Italiano/Polizze temporanee di frontiera
is (in translation) apparently only a UCI general administrative office/ website, listing only Italy office locations in major cities with address, tel, fax, but no email addresses. Website says to contact any of these local offices; displays no function to purchase Green Card thru this website.

Although Green Card prices may be more expensive through
Mototouring How does the European Green Card Insurance work?,
(or any of the other Euro Green Card specialty brokers in this thread),
the advantage is that you can apply/authorize purchase of the Green Card directly on their website(s), and even have the Green Card document mail delivered to you in advance of leaving for Europe.

If you're air or seafreighting a bike into Europe, you'll need the Green Card document in advance to present for Customs clearance. If your bike is already in Europe, you'll still likely save a hassle/ separate trip to buy the Green Card from a local broker office, if you obtain the Green Card in advance of travel.

It appears (to me) that, to take advantage of the lower prices quoted on the UCI website, you would have to physically present yourself to one of the Italy city office locations shown on the website--or speak Italian and call one of those offices. Even if you're willing/ able to do that, many local broker offices still require that you physically present your vehicle registration & personal ID to complete a Green Card purchase transaction onsite.

CourtFisher. Thank you. We had run the website through a translator, but that was not particularly enlightening. You are probably right that to take advantage of this price, one would need to physically be there. Thanks for the information.

Another option worth looking into..
 

I used to have the insurance through a German company, arranged by Stephan from Knopftours. However, as the previous posts mention their (insurance companies) rates went way up! I used to pay 66 Euros for 3 months, now the fees are around 70 Euro for a month.

I am currently a US citizen but I was born in Poland. Poland is now part of EU. I researched recently some alternatives to insuring my US registered bike in Germany and was able to find the following: I can buy a so called "border-insurance" in Poland for 170 Polish Zloty, which is about 42 Euros per month. This isurance is only a 3rd party liability (w/o option to add anything else). It covers me in all the EU countries. It can be purchased for multiples of the 30day period, but it has to be for minimum 30 days. I don't think one has to be Polish in order to obtain it.

That might be a useful option for some folks in some circumstances.
But...can you share more detail/ info on exactly where and how one might obtain this Polish-originating "border-insurance" (that means the same thing as Euro Green Card) coverage?
E.g., is there a website of an agency or broker in Poland where anyone can request/ order this coverage in advance of going to Europe for/ with a US-registered bike?
Or, must someone go physically to a particular agency location/ address in Poland to obtain this coverage?
If not a website, do you have name of agency, address, tel, fax in Poland; name of English-speaking staff person at this agency?
Thanks

I have just used Mototouring Italy [who use UTI as the underwriter] and have been super surprised at how easy and fast it was. I saw that someone on HUBB had emailed with "mariaelena" using rental@mototouring.com, so did the same. Almost immediately, back came the application form I had to complete and send it back by email with a copy of my registration papers attached.

I was on a very tight timeframe, leaving Oz and arriving in UK to ride the bike, which I explained to Mariaelena in the original email. No problem - she then responded that everything had already been initiated. Two days later, as I arrived in the UK, her email arrived with a copy of the Green card attached!! :D I printed it out in colour - DONE! How good is that, for service?? Wonderful! The original GreenCard then arrived a couple of days later at the UK address to which it was to be sent.

The application form has all the prices on it. I paid 218euro for 90 days, roughly 100euros less than ADAC. And the best part is that it can all be done by email! :clap::clap:Thoroughly recommended.

Too easy!

I second everything that Margaret said in her post (directly above).

I purchased my Summer 2011 insurance through MotoTouring, and I was very pleased with the service that they provided.

I had asked them to send the document (by post) to a friend of mine in Germany - for some reason, the letter was returned to MotoTouring by the post office. The staff at MotoTouring contacted me immediately by email to let me know about this. By coincidence, I was planning to drive through Milan (in a rental car) a few days after they emailed me, so, I dropped into their office to pick the document up in person.

Below is a picture of the entry to their premises, which is in a suburb of Milan. They also have a complete motorcycle workshop and facilities for storing motorcycles at this location.

If anyone needs to go there in person in the future, the GPS co-ordinates (WGS 84 datum, expressed in Garmin format) are as follows: N45 30.560 E9 14.458

Michael

MotoTouring Office, Milan
http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/a...otoTouring.jpg

Green Card with no excluded countries - universally recognized?
 

I used MotoTouring as well in 2010 and was very pleased with their service, but the insurance had many exclusions at the time: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia Herzegovina, Israel, Iran, Morocco, Moldavia, Macedonia (FYROM), Russia, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey and the Ukraine. I think that these exclusions are fairly common.

Motorcycle Express Motorcycle Express - Ship Your Bike, however, offers Green Card insurance for non-Europeans that says "is valid all over Europe including Russia, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia". They don't list any excluded European countries. It's not cheap (e.g., $550 for 3 months, $1050 for 6 months for liability alone), but there is limited theft and collision available (at even higher rates).

Two questions:

1) Is this universal Green Card for Europe actually recognized at the borders of all the included countries? I remember reading a thread not all that long ago about the fact that although Russia had been officially included into the Green Card program, the border officials and particularly the road police were unaware of it and were looking for an older form of insurance documentation. Has that situation changed?

2) If one plans on visiting many of the normally excluded countries listed above, is it smarter (though maybe more expensive) to buy a comprehensive package from MotorcycleExpress or better to get less expensive but less-inclusive coverage from MotoTouring and buy additional coverage at the borders? I know that when I was in Turkey in 2010, three months of "insurance" cost about $10 at the border. Made me seriously wonder just how much insurance I really had. :rolleyes2: None.

Andorra shouldn't be excluded. While not an EU member it has always been included and is often visited by other Europeans.

I wouldn't dismiss the cheap Turkish insurance, just because it seems too cheap. In any case, you will have the official paper in your hand if stopped or, like me, unlucky enough to be involved in a collision. It's the first paper the cops want to see.

As to your question of what is smarter: I think there are many answers to this one, not least depending on what countries you specifically intend to visit and how long you wish to travel.

OK... that's a good test case. So what did your Turkish insurance company do for you... or was it just the paper to show? Hopefully, your situation didn't really require them to do anything.

They did nothing, as it wasn't my fault. But, as I said, the cops wanted to see my insurance and I don't want to know what would have happened if I didn't have any. As it was, it took about 18 months to get my money out of the car driver's insurance.

Sam,

Russia "joined" Euro Greencard insurance consortium eff. 01 Jan 2009:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ow-valid-40443

BUT
1) No one has reported here on HUBB actual experience of
a. first obtaining Euro Greencard that is endorsed for/ includes RUssia;
b. presenting that document at RU border crossing;
c. having that document accepted by RU border crossing authorities;
d. (much less) recognized by RU traffic police/ authorities on the road;
e. (to say nothing of) submitting claim successfully after accident in RU.

A general Google search in English displays no actual experience reports
from non-HUBB sources since the 2009 RU official announcement.
General interest RU travel sites like
Traveling to & from Russia by car, motorcycle or hitchhiking | waytorussia.net page
still reference obtaining RU insurance separately at the border.

The MotorcycleExpress policy is actually underwritten by a large Euro insurance company AXA, through a general managing agent, tourinsure.de. in Germany. Presumably AXA would not claim that its Euro Greencard covers RU without having made all the required legal/ commercial agreements with the RU authorities. (It's one thing for RU to "join"; its another for Euro (& UK)
insurance underwriters to actually include/ extend that cover. it's a third for the "policy" to work its way down to on-the-ground reality.)

RU bottom-line: it's still an unknown crapshoot :D

2) Beddhist is right. And both the Greencard--or separate border insurance-- are first/ foremost "just the paper to show," because there is so little actual accident/ claim experience reported. "What did your [Turkey] company do for you?" is an unknowable (anywhere in the world) until there's an actual covered accident, and then it all depends on the specific circumstances.

Think of TP insurance as a 'get-out-of-jail-card'. :smartass:

Thanks for all the research and your views. Interesting. Maybe I should fall on the sword, try the all-European Green Card and report back. I am planning on traveling to several of the normally excluded countries, including Morocco, some of the Balkan states and Russia. I can see if it is accepted at the borders and if not, I'll just buy some local insurance too. Maybe first I should try to get a sense of how much money I might waste with duplicate coverage though.

I can just see it being accepted at some border but later, me being hauled off in the paddy wagon by a road cop because he's never seen a Green Card certificate before.

If you never hear from me again... well... it didn't work. :helpsmilie: