Polish car insurance and how it compares to England

Car insurance, can someone answer this question. Do the Poles have a similar system to the uk, ie 3rd party and comprehensive. More specifically, if someone was insured to drive their mother's car (ie added to their mother's insurance policy) would they be insured to drive any car?

Car insurance across the EU has been standardised by a number of directives.

See the link on the Europa.eu website which clearly says that "Wherever you are travelling in the EU, your car insurance policy will automatically provide the minimum cover (third party liability) required by law"

They have 3rd party (called O.C.) which gives you the minimum cover required by law. Of course you can pay more for higher levels of cover. Insurance is typically bought through agents (like the UK 20 years ago..) but you can buy direct from some of the big companies who have started advertising on TV about it.

To answer your specific question - no, probably not. In Poland it is the car that is insured rather than the person, so normally if I insure my car then anyone with a licence can drive it, rather than I can drive any car (as I might expect in the UK).

But that might give you what you are after anyway - if you just want to be able to drive someone else's car?

thanks for your answer.

it was already my understanding that the insurance was "with the car" rather than "with the person" but I wanted to hear it from someone with personal experience.

basically the girlfriend wants to drive my car. the fact that it's her mother's insurance is the first obstacle (but irrelevant anyway!) and the fact that the Polish insurance is car-orientated is the second obstacle.

I'm confused now - where's your car registered? Who's the registered owner?

My car is in the uk, uk registered, by me.
Girlfriend Polish (she drives her mother's car in Poland).
Basically she won't be insured to drive it, anywhere!

Insurance with Polish cars is with the car itself rather than an individual person. In my experience you can drive any car as long as you have the insurance documents (car documents) with you whilst driving it

Ah OK got it. In which case no, you're presumption is correct.
You would need to add her to your UK policy. The good news is that insurance companies are not supposed to be allowed to charge her extra for not having a UK licence (they are not allowed to discriminate across EU licence holders). The bad news is that she doesn't have any no-claims bonus whatsoever having never held her own policy.

I'll just have to avoid mentioning it and hope she doesn't ask again!

its easy!!in other country it is a tipical process!!its too easy in poland!!
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leneth

I'm British and am plannig on buying a Polish registered VW Passat or a Volvo V40 and driving it back the the UK. Was going to buy a Mini but, too small. I am looking at getting insurance through a UK broker agent or on a basic comprison site, but would it be worth doing AC or OC insurance in Poland?

OLLiN

I think it would - but you will have to drive the car with Polish plates - don't know what that involves (except driving back to Poland for your yearly MOT test)

Why on earth? Car prices are significantly higher here!

but the insurance cost is significantly lower delphi

Not necessarily so - it depends on the circumstances.

(you also need valid Polish residency to buy a car - as he's British and presumably without Polish residency papers, he can't register a Polish car anyway)

Not true. The reality is that anybody can buy a car here but the car can only be registered for as long as the person is legally in Poland for.

Polish car insurace is expensive, fully comp is almost unheard of and I personally don' think i'd trust a PL insurer to pay out if there was a claim (I wouldn't trust any insurer but PL ones are probably worse)

On the plus side the Polish way of insuring a car as opposed to a single driver and a car is excellent.

Why? Both the driver and the car will impact on a correct risk assessment.

Firstly you will have to register the car as a non resident. For this you will require a residence in poland. If you do not have an address you cannot register the car or get insurance. If you buy a car in germany lets say Berlin it is very easy to register and the insurance is very cheap.

Okay :)

gumishu: There is a ridiculous loophole in the British law, allowing anyone with a car not registered in the UK to drive it for 6 months with no charge on roadtax, but if the car leaves at anypoint for 24 hours then returns, the 6 months is topped up.

Delphi: Cars are much cheaper in Poland than the UK. for a 2002 Volvo V40 the UK price is £2750, in Poland it's half that, and the car was in much better condition. Residency wouldn't really be a problem as my Brother and Sister-in-law live in Krakow. my brother will be buying the car for me as a late birthday present!

Harry: that is what i was hoping, the car will only be in Poland for the week i am there for the wedding, then driven back to the UK.

Dnz: I like the idea of insuring the car instead of the driver as my current insurance for a 2002 Mitsubishi Colt is nearly £4000!

warszawaski: so is it worth buying a car in germany instead? the residency of my brother is not yet 100% as they might be moving back here for a while. Germany. Euro? Polish PLN is better exchange rate for me!!

thanks.

A 2002 Volvo V40 for 5,000zl? That sets off all sorts of alarm bells!

It sets off a lot of alarm bells! It's almost certainly going to be a cut and shut wreck for that price - the average price on Allegro at the minute is 20,000zl.


It's not so much a loophole, more simply the British aren't interested as long as the car is legal somewhere in the EU.


Whoever quoting you that price is quite frankly lying through their teeth. Second hand cars in Poland are at least 20% more expensive - I've just had a look now on Allegro and found the average price for a 2002 Volvo V40 to be in the region of 20,000zl, or about 5000 pounds. You do see "bargains" in Poland - but these are almost certainly written off cars that have major structural failings, yet have passed the technical check because someone knows someone.

Even my own example - a plain, dull Astra, is worth about 30% more here than in the UK.

Can you say "scam"? :)

It's hard to even get a pre-2000 Ford Ka for 5000zl in decent condition!

A Volvo V40 for 5000 pln, In the UK yes for a moon mileage one,

cgi.ebay.co.uk/2001-VOLVO-V40-I-SILVER_W0QQitemZ250609518496QQc mdZViewItemQQptZAutomobiles_UK?hash=item3a597dc7a0

The reason for this is that they are **** and just a rebodied mitsubishi charisma.

The price of cars here is ridiculous, Our winter car is a 97 bmw 320i Its in immaculate condition and we picked it up in the UK for next to nothing, Here in PL you're talking 3k for the same car.

I seriously wouldn't buy anything in Poland due to the fact that most of the vehicles on the road have been crashed and bodged back together some with serious structural damage ie pillars and the roof. Even once repaired they give the car strong or weak points which weren't engineered into the car so when you crash it it won't perform as it should. Also the chances are it will drive like a bag of **** due to the fact that Poles don't seem to ever put cars on the jig to check alignment etc

Hmmm.
Crap.

Just insured my current drive for a year, looked at german VW's... CHEAP! XD and i don't have to be a resident to purchase one. although my aunty could always do so if i needed.

Thanks for the help guys :)

I want a mercedes now... ;)

I'm thinking of just renting a room in Krakow, and then insuring a Polish vehicle etc to that address, whilst living in the uk (I'm a UK citizen). What do you guys think? Would I be ok with the Police in the UK if I got pulled, provided the car was legal in Poland, and I took it across back to Poland every six months? Believe me or not, the car price, insurance, room rental etc works out at more than a tenth of what I'd pay to buy the car and insure it in England (I'm nineteen with 0 no claims wanting to buy a mazda mx-5) :/

If you've seen a Mazda MX-5 for a tenth of the UK price, you've seen a scam :)

Anyway, won't work. You need to be a fully registered EU citizen here in order to register a car - unless you want to re-register it every 3 months.

The police in the UK might also be very interested if it appears that you aren't a resident of Poland, but the UK - I suspect they'd be asking some very hard questions as to what a 19 year old was doing with such a car on Polish plates. If it's suspected that you've imported the car permanently, you can expect some pretty heavy fines.

Just renting a room doesn't usually give a registered address and of course there's all the other paperwork.

Better to buy an old Nissan Micra or something else you can afford the insurance on.

Not to mention that a UK insurance company would smell a rat (or several) in a claim against him. I suspect that once the UK insurance company manages to prove that you've got a UK address, UK licence and are merely using Poland as a flag of convenience, they'd soon convince the Polish insurer to withdraw their cover.

A quick look at the electoral roll should exterminate whether someone is a UK resident. Also if the person is working and paying tax in the UK and isn't a Polish citizen who's brought their car over for a few months I doubt the insurance would be valid at all.

Hi there can anyone clarify car insurance /accident procedures in Poland. we were on hols there in June when a driver reversed into us while we were stationary

( causing £1400 worth of damage) the driver admitted liability produced his insurance card which we took a photo of him holding it & all relevant photos, we reported the incident to our insurance company which in turn contacted the drivers polish insurance company, but because the driver has not reported the accident his Polish insurers will not do anything about the claim, surely this must be illegal otherwise that would mean in Poland you don't report you've hit someone to your insurance company & you get away with it ??