Car Insurance for a foreigner living in Poland on a temporary permit

Hi all,

I'm a foreigner living in Poland on a temporary permit. I have a small business here so I'm self-employed paying my taxes and zus.

On September last year I bought a used car via Allegro and was told by the car owner that it has insurance till January which I could see in it's documents. I was also told to contact the insurance company for cancellation if I wouldn't want to continue with them latest a month before the insurance runs out. Since I don't mind continuing with them, I didn't contact them until few days to the end of the insurance policy.

I got in touch with them (MTU) and asked to renew the insurance. After few questions like my date of birth and the car model etc, they gave me a quote of around 600zł and they asked me to send my details, the contract I did with the previous owner as well as the car documents which I did straight away. I was surprised when I got back only a bill of 182.93 zł which they said is the difference from September when I bought the car till the day the insurance expires. They didn't give me the insurance which I was expecting so I ignored that and parked the car. Today I received a letter from them that I have to pay that bill within 7 days.

If there's anyone who has idea what I should do, I'll be very grateful.

Regards

Probably you ought to pay it. You may write more details, what was that bill supposed to be (and upon what legal basis).

They said it's the difference between what the previous owner paid and what I should have paid. I don't understand this at all.

Hi Ambrose,
Well, it seems that the previous car owner had discounts and you have less. So when the car was changing it's owners there was a difference created and they calculated it on the basis of: your age, any previous discounts, how long you posess driving licence, age of the car etc. (hence they were asking you many questions). That is not a huge difference though, depending on the make of the car and other details.

You can try to find a cheaper insurance company for the future insurance period. Write me a pm if you need details.

cheers

Yes, there is a law, that an insurance compay may re-count a premium, starting from a day of buying a car, taking into account discounts or penalties of the new owner. A seller should inform the insurance company about selling a car in 30 days, so they can react earlier. Anyway, the insurance will be most probably* renewed automatically, unless you resign from continuing it (you can do it until one day before it expires, in written form).

*(I wrote "most probably", because I'm not sure, if they treat premium as fully paid, in case, if one doesn't pay the difference coming from re-counting the premium... The insurance doesn't get renewed, if the premium for a previous year hasn't been paid)

Yes, exactly. And here's a nice tip: also YOU can claim a re-count during your period of insurance as your car looses value.
You can experience this always when your (insured) car got some dent or other damage and you claim your insurance. At first they never pay you the percentage of amount for which you insured stating that the car has lost it's value since then and you are not entitled to get it. Since insurance companies make use of this argument then their clients can too, but not many people think of it.