Serrano

OK, that's the Insurance Company's assessment of their risk. It has absolutely nothing to do with the law though.

GeorgeYoung

Well without quoting you chapter & verse, it's my best understanding of the situation.

I had a look at the patente.it site and the conversione pages seems to relate solely to extracommunitari - certainly this doesn't apply to EU citizens as far as I understand:

Gli stranieri che hanno ottenuto la residenza in Italia possono guidare con la patente rilasciata nel proprio Paese solo per la durata di 1 anno (a partire dalla data di acquisizione della residenza). La patente deve però essere accompagnata da un Permesso internazionale di guida o una traduzione giurata della patente stessa.

Serrano

I'm not insisting that I'm right - but with respect a private company's risk assessment (and that's all an Insurance Company is interested in) can have no bearing on the law.

I agree the patente.it pages can be confusing and possibly contradictory. The only concrete(ish) evidence we have is what happened to me (but as we all know administrative errors can and do occur), and what our local ACI office said (though the reply during my call was instantaneous, which struck me as odd for an office in a small - 15,000 population - town with a low incidence of foreigners).

I was hoping (and still hope) that someone would be able to supply other evidence; unfortunately I don't think that an Insurance Company's view on when to apply policy limitations and/or financial surcharges really does that.

37100

As new drivers are limited by what they can drive, an insurance company won't insure a car that you couldn't drive, would they?

Serrano

What, take the premiums and then refuse to pay out on a claim? No, never.

modicasa

For insurance purposes I was a neopatente, because i didnt import my noclaims bonus from the Uk within the 18 permissible months, inasmuch as I started as a class 16. For my licence I wasnt, I converted when it expired - after a few years of residence - and it was a straight swap - though i have no idea how many points I have.
In fact the more I think about it, I remember there being a difference in conversion between EU and nonEU straineri -and the EU - having largely the same driving test, didnt suffer with conversion while others were treated as neo patente.

GeorgeYoung

Hang on - what? You can transfer across your no-claims history from the UK? How does this work? I think if there's an 18-month limit then I've got about 2 months to look into it!

modicasa

Yes, you can bring your noclaims as long as you insure in italy within 18months of the expiry of your UK policy. You need your no claims bonus from your UK insurer in Italian.

Serrano

If you were insured with Direct Line in the UK, you can transfer your NCD directly to their subsiduary over here (and, I would imagine they are well-placed to issue the appropriate documentation if you wish to use another company here).

Wasn't aware of the 18-month rule though (we simply transferred DL to DL) - is that a Bersani thing?

Geordieborn

I believe the document that was important to get was an "ATTESTATO DI RISCHIO " , which we were able to get from Clements when they decided to stop their car insurance for Italy. Not too sure how other UK insurance companies would deal with issuing such, but they turned out fine for us. It ended up with a much lower insurance cost for the car than we were paying Clements!

Donna Noble

When I got my first insurance here in Italy over ten years ago, it was within that 18 month deadline, but I wasn't allowed to bring my no claims bonus here. I know cos I was gutted to lose about 10 years and I had to reset to zero. I remember asking the woman in the insurance office about it.