Hello everyone!

Hope you're all having a good weekend.

With any luck I will be the proud owner of a Pathfinder as of Sunday, and I can't wait to join you at some point on one of the trips!

My question is this:

I have heard that insurance companies will only cover 3rd party with drivers that have a UAE licenses <1 year. Mine is just a few days old, which I transferred from my UK license, which I've had for 8 years.

Where I get confused is that I have also heard that over here the insurance covers the car, not the driver.
Given that the current owner of the car I will be potentially buying on Sunday says that the car has fully comp insurance until March next year- I'm wondering if this will still be valid given the amount of time I've had my UAE license.
I believe he said the insurance company is RSA.

What is the procedure for changing the details of the insurance when the car changes owner?
Does anyone know of any complications I may come up against?

Many thanks in advance for any words of wisdom!

Joe

By the way, apologies if this is not the right area of the forum for this post- I couldn't really see anywhere that stood out as being more appropriate!

Good morning joe,
From what i understood of your question, 3rd party covers anyone and even full coverage for a driver who has a license which is one hour old. The only difference that would be is the insurance rate (also depending on the age < or >25) and repair condition of how much you would have to pay towards fixing your car if your at fault (only applicable with full insurance and think rate is 10% of total repair cost). Most 3rd party covers the car and driver ( some insurance also include passengers - have to check). Also all insurance cover injury / death (blood money) caused in accident ( you are at fault), but most cover up to 250,000dhs. My insurance for example (RSA- full insurance covers up to 1.5 or 2 million dhs if i cause a death or injury to someone.

If transferring insurance from one owner of vehicle to another, you go to the insurance company office in licensing section (if they have branch there) tell them change of ownership. If insurance has very few months left they might ask to just do a full new registration (car inspection,registration,insurance,number plates,..,) as to start from now fresh start instead of paying more and come back in couple of months and pay more.

Phew. Hope that has given you more info.

Yes, what Scavenger says is my understanding, too.

To say the same thing he said, but in point form:

1. how long you've had your UAE license has no effect on insurance.
2. fully comprehensive is only for newer cars (who knows exactly, is it less than 10 years?) and it means all cars and all passengers are covered regardless of who's wrong.
3. third party is minimum required by law: if you are at fault, it does not cover repairs to your own car, nor compensation for your passengers.

Hey guys thanks for your replies, I think that's cleared up any questions I had!

Hello again... some more questions now I'm afraid!

Having found a car I'd love to buy within the next few days, assuming the seller can still sell it (a few delays/complications)- I have a few concerns regarding the insurance policy he's going to be transferring to me.

The car is a 2003 Pathfinder, and the policy he intends to hand over to me prior to transfer of vehicle registration is from Al Fujairah Nat. Ins. Company, which is valid until July '14.

Now I'm aware of the process of having to transfer/buy a new insurance policy before transferring vehicle ownership, however what concerns me is that when I went in to their office today in advance to ask about their policies- they do not cover anywhere near as much as AXA/RSA do.

Having read Wasif's previous thread about off road insurance, I'm also aware that for a 2003 car it is too old (or will be very soon.. RSA's website seem to still let me get a quote, just!) to get a fully comp policy, or one that covers off-road, as I understand it.

With that in mind, they still offer more than Al Fujairah as they cover Oman, and also include breakdown cover (P.S. does anyone know if this breakdown cover includes being off road?)

My thoughts are either that I should tell the seller that I want to get my own policy anyway, or I could try and get breakdown cover with AAA as well as having the Al Fujairah cover.
When I was in the office they said that I could get temporary insurance during my time in Oman with another company when I reach the border. Does anyone have experience with this?

Finally does anyone know if I can cancel an insurance policy mid-term if I have to end up going with it, and later decide to change to RSA or AXA?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
Joe

Just as a side note- I just rang AAA to see what their policy was for off-road recovery (which their website states is included with their "gold card" membership.
I found it pretty hard to fully understand what the guy was saying but I think I got the gist of it- please correct me if you know their policy in more detail!

It seems that their definition of "off-road" is basically anything up to around 10 metres away from a road.
It would not cover you if you were, say, 500 metres away from the road in the desert.

Just thought I'd mention it as a word of warning to anyone looking to them from off-road recovery!

In addition to the questions above, does anyone know of any company that legitimately does do breakdown cover for real off-road scenarios?

Off road cover is a tricky issue.

One thing for sure is that the term, in most cases, doesnt live mean what it sounds like. Off road cover from major agencies like AXA, RSA, Zurich, AIG etc means they will cover costs / damages arising from an off road accident but they will not venture into the desert to recover you or your vehicle, this you have to undertake yourself.

Some of the smaller companies do not offer off road cover or if they do then it is restricted to off road communte to and from a farm and doesnt cover recreational off road use.

Best to go with the companies listed above. Take a fresh policy to be on the safe side. With the price you ar epaying for your Pathfinder the premium should not be too high.

You will get a better price if you buy from an insurance dealer like Gargash Insurance or thru a bank like RAK Bank as they get preferred rates.

Call the above and give them your car details, its price and tell them you need full off road cover with Oman cover as well and they will send you several quotes.

Meanwhile if you plan to travel to Oman temporary cover on a day to day basis can be purchased at the borders,

Thanks Wasif that's really helpful!

Whenever I do finally manage to find a car (in the case the one I found falls through... hope not!) I'll take out a fresh policy with AXA, they seem to be the best for my situation after talking to them all on the phone to get a quote.

I would argue with axa on pricing they give as they raised their insurance prices this year because they said they are not profitting. Try and get them to go down. Oh and dont let insurance companies give u the reason of high price because " the older the car, the more expensive to fix