# Car insurance for new arrivers in France



## MikeandEmilyD

Hi We will hopefully be arriving in France in May this year. One of our first priorities will be to buy a car and wanted to know if this would create any problems. Obviously we will not be french residents on our arrival from Malta. We are still classified as UK citizens.
I don't think buying a car will be a problem it was more the obtaining insurance that I am worried about.
Does anyone have any experience or ideas?


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## Crabtree

Presumably you will be living somewhere in France and will be living here "permanently".If so then you are resident in France Being resident in France does not mean adding your name to a residents list as it does in many southern EU states It means living here permanently(or for the majority of the year) paying taxes etc .Basically to buy a car and get it insured you are going to have to show proof of address eg utility bill "deeds" rental agreement etc and a driving licence and proof of ID eg paSSPORT
I am assuming that neither of you have an EU passport so have you applied for and been granted a VISA to enter France or checked that you can get one. Or are you saying that you will only be visitors using the 90 day Schengen waiver


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## MikeandEmilyD

Crabtree said:


> Presumably you will be living somewhere in France and will be living here "permanently".If so then you are resident in France Being resident in France does not mean adding your name to a residents list as it does in many southern EU states It means living here permanently(or for the majority of the year) paying taxes etc .Basically to buy a car and get it insured you are going to have to show proof of address eg utility bill "deeds" rental agreement etc and a driving licence and proof of ID eg paSSPORT
> I am assuming that neither of you have an EU passport so have you applied for and been granted a VISA to enter France or checked that you can get one. Or are you saying that you will only be visitors using the 90 day Schengen waiver


Hi Crabtree. Thanks for the reply. We have applied for a 12 month visa and have a UK passport. So you are saying that we can insure a car straight away even though we will not have a residents card. If so that's great. Without a car we would struggle.


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## Crabtree

I have seen nothing that says that you require your Carte de Sejour to buy a car or insure it


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## Nunthewiser

Crabtree said:


> I have seen nothing that says that you require your Carte de Sejour to buy a car or insure it


I am not the OP, but I am an EU dual (US/IT). Thinking ahead (still in the US), when I show up there (with income and health insurance) I think I'm a resident...should I be able to buy a car immediately?


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## MikeandEmilyD

Crabtree said:


> I have seen nothing that says that you require your Carte de Sejour to buy a car or insure it


Hi. I found this "If you are a French resident, you will need to take out car insurance in France and make sure that your car has a French number plate" So hopefully as we will be French residents, even though we will not have residency cards, we should be able to get things sorted.


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## Bevdeforges

Nunthewiser said:


> I am not the OP, but I am an EU dual (US/IT). Thinking ahead (still in the US), when I show up there (with income and health insurance) I think I'm a resident...should I be able to buy a car immediately?


When you get here, your validated visa (i.e. with date of entry) should serve you as an i.d. You will possibly need proof of residence in order to register a car. (Buying it requires little or no paperwork, other than ability to pay. It's the registration of the vehicle and the insurance that require certain documentation.) You may want to consider renting a vehicle for at least the first couple weeks, since locating, re-registering and insuring a used car will take some time no matter how you do things. If you're talking a new car, figure on a few months - at least 3 or 4 - due to delivery issues. (DH just ordered a new car, which is how I know.)


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## Tricky Dicky

Is it a simple process re-registering a car from another EU country?


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## Nunthewiser

Bevdeforges said:


> When you get here, your validated visa (i.e. with date of entry) should serve you as an i.d. You will possibly need proof of residence in order to register a car. (Buying it requires little or no paperwork, other than ability to pay. It's the registration of the vehicle and the insurance that require certain documentation.) You may want to consider renting a vehicle for at least the first couple weeks, since locating, re-registering and insuring a used car will take some time no matter how you do things. If you're talking a new car, figure on a few months - at least 3 or 4 - due to delivery issues. (DH just ordered a new car, which is how I know.)


As inactif, I'm not getting and don't need a visa or CdS under EU FOM rights and French law. I will be perfectly "legal" under EU and French law when I set foot on French soil (with adequate income and health insurance), but all I may have at that point will be an Italian passport and a US license. Most likely I will be renting a car anyway (looking for an apartment first) but I may buy a car fairly early and just wondered what might stop me.


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## Bevdeforges

OK, forgive me if I am confusing all the various "visa states" of folks heading for France lately. OK, your Italian passport will serve to prove your legal presence in France, but to register (and insure) a car in your name you will need some proof of residence in the sense of proving where you are living (and thus where you can be reached by postal mail). Usual "justificatifs" include utility bills in your name for your address (some places will accept a mobile phone bill, others won't), rent contract, some government paperwork with your current address, the usual sorts of proof of residence. Early on you may have to get a little creative. I know one time very early on, I used an attorney's invoice addressed to me at my French address.


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## Crabtree

Nunthe Wiser-I think you are getting things back to front It is the Italian Passport that gives you the FOM rights not the fact that you are an inactif and have income


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## Crabtree

Tricky Dicky You may find the Service Public France website very useful for all sorts of things The link below tells you what you will need to do and the documents required.You may find it is easier to use a third party agent such as "Cartaplac" to re register rather than doing it online as you speak to a real person in real time who will sort out any issues Obviously you pay a fee but it save a lot of hassle








Carte grise : immatriculation d'un véhicule neuf


Après l'achat d'un véhicule neuf, vous avez 1 mois pour demander la carte grise auprès de l'ANTS. Sinon, vous risquez une amende.




www.service-public.fr


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## Nunthewiser

Crabtree said:


> Nunthe Wiser-I think you are getting things back to front It is the Italian Passport that gives you the FOM rights not the fact that you are an inactif and have income


Yes, you are right. I didn't phrase that well...That passport gives me the rights, with 2 conditions.

I'm not sure how long it may take me to secure an apartment and have a lease or EDF bills as I will just be AirBnbing it fora month or two..or three...


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## Bevdeforges

To be honest, there is some "wiggle room" in the precise documents you need to prove your place of residence. An insurance agency can be considerably more flexible than, say, the prefecture where you need to transfer the registration. But if you're buying you car through a dealer (of either new or used vehicles), the seller has lots of motivation to help you find the right document (or combination of documents) to make the registration go through. It's one reason to use an agent of some variety to process the registration for you. They do these registrations in bulk and know what they can talk the prefecture into accepting (or not). I have used my ham radio license certificate as "proof of residence." If you are buying from an individual, you need to talk to one of the paid agents about the registration process to get an idea of what you might be able to use. Don't try to do it all yourself if you're in an "awkward" situation (i.e. too new to have the standard documents available).


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## Tricky Dicky

Crabtree

Many thanks for that. You’re right, the less hassle the better!


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## Pedr

Nunthewiser said:


> I am not the OP, but I am an EU dual (US/IT). Thinking ahead (still in the US), when I show up there (with income and health insurance) I think I'm a resident...should I be able to buy a car immediately?


I'm sorry, I just know that I am going to kick myself when you tell me, but what is an "OP"? LOL


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## Bevdeforges

OP = original poster


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## suein56

Original Poster ..


Snap 😊


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## Pedr

suein56 said:


> Original Poster ..
> 
> 
> Snap 😊


 Ok, well now I know Thank you 😁😂


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## saffron_gin

Bevdeforges said:


> To be honest, there is some "wiggle room" in the precise documents you need to prove your place of residence. An insurance agency can be considerably more flexible than, say, the prefecture where you need to transfer the registration. But if you're buying you car through a dealer (of either new or used vehicles), the seller has lots of motivation to help you find the right document (or combination of documents) to make the registration go through. It's one reason to use an agent of some variety to process the registration for you. They do these registrations in bulk and know what they can talk the prefecture into accepting (or not). I have used my ham radio license certificate as "proof of residence." If you are buying from an individual, you need to talk to one of the paid agents about the registration process to get an idea of what you might be able to use. Don't try to do it all yourself if you're in an "awkward" situation (i.e. too new to have the standard documents available).



Bought, registered (agent did it), and insured car with Ad'H from owner and without edf bills to my name...


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## bhamham

saffron_gin said:


> Bought, registered (agent did it), and insured car with Ad'H from owner and without edf bills to my name...


Ad'H?


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## saffron_gin

bhamham said:


> Ad'H?


attestation d'hebergement (sorry am forgetting the accents)


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## BoilingFrog

Can I ask who you insured your car through? My French wife is trying to insure car she just bought but is being asked to provide 13 years of proof of no claims, and apparently a NCD certificate is not sufficient, they want a letter from each insurance company saying who it was insured with, when and that no claims were made. Given the frequency with which one changes car insurance in the UK (free market economy, yay) this is a bit of a nightmare. We've moved house, changed car and who knows who we were insured with. Has anyone found getting car insurance in France straightforward with any provider? This is taking hours so far.


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## MikeandEmilyD

BoilingFrog said:


> Can I ask who you insured your car through? My French wife is trying to insure car she just bought but is being asked to provide 13 years of proof of no claims, and apparently a NCD certificate is not sufficient, they want a letter from each insurance company saying who it was insured with, when and that no claims were made. Given the frequency with which one changes car insurance in the UK (free market economy, yay) this is a bit of a nightmare. We've moved house, changed car and who knows who we were insured with. Has anyone found getting car insurance in France straightforward with any provider? This is taking hours so far.


Through MMA. We had not owned a car for over 4 years and this added to the problem. In the end we had to start NCD from scratch


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## BoilingFrog

Which is what we're trying to avoid as no NCD makes the premium much higher of course. So far the French insurer is not accepting the NCD certificate, so I was hoping someone might know of a French insurer who does.


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## BoilingFrog

The French insuruer wants info for the 13 years of NCD, but GPDR means companies are not legally allowed to hold our information beyond 7 years if we are no longer their customer. So I think we may hit a wall here.


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## Alonthemove

BoilingFrog said:


> The French insuruer wants info for the 13 years of NCD, but GPDR means companies are not legally allowed to hold our information beyond 7 years if we are no longer their customer. So I think we may hit a wall here.


My UK insurer, Direct Line, sent me confirmation of 9 years' NCD. They said this was the maximum they could provide. I took out my French insurance with CA, almost certainly not the cheapest but my bank conseiller was happy to handle all the paperwork and deal with the insurer by phone if necessary. The insurer, Pacifica, gave me 9/13ths of their maximum NCD. I should be up to the magic 13-year mark by now. Must check.


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## Crabtree

I know I have said this before (many times) but make sure you understand exactly what cover you are getting for your money-cheaper is not always the best option -consider claims procedure windscreen cover breakdown cover and what cover you get when not in France I paid a little bit more to get comprehensive cover throughout the EU and UK


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## Xyz789

Allianz Haloche accepted our UK NCD paperwork.


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## dextcorp

In my case I just provided justificatif de domicile document generated by my energy company, as I haven't been here long enough to get the first bill yet.


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