bairn7

Hi all

Encountered another unexpected stumbling block. I'm renting a car for my first couple of weeks in Alberta. I normally take out excess insurance but I've noticed that one of the terms is that I am a UK resident. I'm assuming that the fact that I am not returning to the UK means that I cannot rely on such a policy.

So I either have to take out the rental company's extortionate fully comprehensive cover or find a Canadian equivalent (which will presumably cover me as I'll be resident in Canada from day 1 of the cover?).

Does anyone have any recommendations for such insurance cover?

Thanks

Stumpylegs

Can't advise on the Canadian aspect of it, however I can tell you when I took mine out via confused for an annual policy (thinking i may of ended up in your boat at the end of the 12 months, look like things may be longer), it states you must be a permanent residence of "X,Y,Z" (list of Eu countries) at the time of purchasing and the start date of your policy. Doesn't mention anything about staying a resident for the duration of my policy in my T&C's - might be worth a phonecall to check that out as you may be pleasantly surprised.

As a side note the way I see it till you swap your driving license out etc, you are still a UK resident, driving in Canada on a UK license. yes you may in theory have a Permanent resident card - but does that mean for the next 5 years you aren't a permanent resident of the UK, even if you were to move back here. On my soft landing (if everything comes through) i will be doing exactly the same as you using confused.com (or maybe someone else by that time next year) even though i will in theory have a PR card at this point, but i'll still have a UK license, a UK property etc. Granted the awkward bit will come if when you move, everything is sold and you immediately lose any sort of UK postal address etc.

mattheww65

I had the same thing - spoke to the insurer and they said I needed to be a resident of the UK for the duration of the policy... which I wasn't!

What we done was rent a car in Canada through a UK website that included the insurance - I used travel supermarket. The insurance they offer is provided by the car hire company, and they had no qualms about residency.