Importing from the UK - definitive guide (Q&A)

CPS84

Quick query on insurance cover for importing a car from the UK.

I plan on going to England shortly to buy a car and drive it back. I currently don't have a car so I do not have the option of transferring any existing insurance policy onto the car I intend to buy. I have checked many of the seven days temporary type driveaway insurances offered in the UK but these either do not cover driving the car to Ireland or those that do requires the car to be registered in the UK!

I am a named driver on the girlfriends Allianz policy for her car and I am aware that some insurance companies offer temporary 30 day insurance on UK regs cars but this usually only covers the policy holder to be able to drive the UK reg car.

What other options do I have to get insurance cover in order to be able to drive it back?

Unrealistic

CPS84 wrote: »

Quick query on insurance cover for importing a car from the UK.

I plan on going to England shortly to buy a car and drive it back. I currently don't have a car so I do not have the option of transferring any existing insurance policy onto the car I intend to buy. I have checked many of the seven days temporary type driveaway insurances offered in the UK but these either do not cover driving the car to Ireland or those that do requires the car to be registered in the UK!

I am a named driver on the girlfriends Allianz policy for her car and I am aware that some insurance companies offer temporary 30 day insurance on UK regs cars but this usually only covers the policy holder to be able to drive the UK reg car.

What other options do I have to get insurance cover in order to be able to drive it back?

I was in the same boat a few years ago. I purchased my first year's insurance from Axa on the UK number plate before I went to pick up the car. In order for the policy not to lapse I had to give them confirmation it had been registered on an Irish number within 30 days.

JMR

CPS84 wrote: »

Quick query on insurance cover for importing a car from the UK.

I plan on going to England shortly to buy a car and drive it back. I currently don't have a car so I do not have the option of transferring any existing insurance policy onto the car I intend to buy. I have checked many of the seven days temporary type driveaway insurances offered in the UK but these either do not cover driving the car to Ireland or those that do requires the car to be registered in the UK!

I am a named driver on the girlfriends Allianz policy for her car and I am aware that some insurance companies offer temporary 30 day insurance on UK regs cars but this usually only covers the policy holder to be able to drive the UK reg car.

What other options do I have to get insurance cover in order to be able to drive it back?

Get a quote from an insurance company based on the car being on Irish plates.
Tell them you intend buying the car in the UK and driving it back to Ireland and need cover from whatever date.
They will provide cover with the UK reg and issue disc etc when VRT is paid and Irish plates are issued

JMR

[Deleted User] wrote: »

So let me get it right, car giant will be happy to hold the car while you get it inspected prior to purchase if you pay a deposit?

Y/N/roll eyes

Best answer is to ring CarGiant.

tea and coffee

Toyota UK want £75 for a Certificate of Conformity. Seems a lot. Hope it doesn't take long to get. Ncts require it for vrt

CPS84

JMR wrote: »

Get a quote from an insurance company based on the car being on Irish plates.
Tell them you intend buying the car in the UK and driving it back to Ireland and need cover from whatever date.
They will provide cover with the UK reg and issue disc etc when VRT is paid and Irish plates are issued

Thanks for the advice. But don't insurance companies usually require specific details of the car they are going to insure i.e. irish reg number, mileage, exact model etc.

CPS84

Unrealistic wrote: »

I was in the same boat a few years ago. I purchased my first year's insurance from Axa on the UK number plate before I went to pick up the car. In order for the policy not to lapse I had to give them confirmation it had been registered on an Irish number within 30 days.

Do you need to know the UK plate number in order to do this? I'm going to cargiant and will be looking at few different cars for the make and model I want so I don't know what the plate number will be. Also don't know at this stage the mileage and other specific details of the car?

iognaid

That's interesting, will nct not accept the V5 document?

GritBiscuit

Anyone know/experience of what proof of ownership is accepted by NCTS re VRT if the car is gifted and so there is no bank transaction or receipt/proof of purchase? Would I have to take the original car owners with me?

Also - will the reg allocated be geographically specific to the NCTS centre?

Have read everything and can't find the answers. Thanks in advance

masit

tea and coffee wrote: »

Toyota UK want £75 for a Certificate of Conformity. Seems a lot. Hope it doesn't take long to get. Ncts require it for vrt

Is it a new car you are buying? This is only needed for new cars.

tea and coffee

masit wrote: »

Is it a new car you are buying? This is only needed for new cars.

No it isn't. Thanks for the heads up. I reread the NCTS website again. That would've been a waste.

Unrealistic

CPS84 wrote: »

Do you need to know the UK plate number in order to do this? I'm going to cargiant and will be looking at few different cars for the make and model I want so I don't know what the plate number will be. Also don't know at this stage the mileage and other specific details of the car?

Yes, I was required to give the UK reg number and mileage. Axa were able to pull up the model details from the UK reg number. I had chosen the car I was buying before travelling so this wasn't an issue for me. I can see how it would be more problematic if you're planning to choose when you get there.

Unrealistic

GritBiscuit wrote: »

Anyone know/experience of what proof of ownership is accepted by NCTS re VRT if the car is gifted and so there is no bank transaction or receipt/proof of purchase? Would I have to take the original car owners with me?

Also - will the reg allocated be geographically specific to the NCTS centre?

Have read everything and can't find the answers. Thanks in advance

I believe the reg is allocated based on the address you provide. Don't know about the first question.

blindsider

rob316 wrote: »

Go direct to Dekra for the inspection, RAC and AA use Dekra so you are cutting out the middle man. It might save ya £30 - £50 only but screw it your spending enough.

Couldn't agree more. Dekra are excellent. I rang them and they did the HPI check over the phone, even before I gave them card details!

They were very helpful and friendly.

The Engineer sent me a detailed form - it was a bit of a box ticking exercise, but if there was a problem it would have been apparent immediately. He included photos.

The best bit for me, was being able to talk to the engineer. He had no reservations about the car and there was no doubt/hesitation in his recommendation.

I would have no qualms in spending 2% (£200) of the purchase price (£10K) on having the car checked by an independent expert.

(BTW - importing my car was one of the best decisions I've made. Absolute no-brainer. I'd never done it before - I followed the process as described on here, and it was perfect. It does take a little bit of planning and coordination, and gathering paperwork etc. However, that's nothing compared to knowing that you've saved a substantial amount of money to get a better spec car than is available in Ireland.

It's no wonder that UK Import figures are up 80%+ in 13 months!)

John_Snow

I'm heading up to Omagh tomorrow to look at a 2013 Kuga, did my homework and so far so good... but one thing has me confused,

the car spent its first 3 years in England and a lady brought to to Northern Ireland in Oct 2016 but the car is still on the English plates, even the V5 shows the original reg number. Do they not have to change to NI plates?

aujopimur

John_Snow wrote: »

I'm heading up to Omagh tomorrow to look at a 2013 Kuga, did my homework and so far so good... but one thing has me confused,

the car spent its first 3 years in England and a lady brought to to Northern Ireland in Oct 2016 but the car is still on the English plates, even the V5 shows the original reg number. Do they not have to change to NI plates?

Mainland plates are legal in NI,

darragh o meara

Quick question that has probably been answered a few times already.

I’m hoping to go over this week to see a few cars and put a deposit on something for collection in a few days.

What is the quickest method to setup and transfer funds to a dealer in the UK? I just signed up to Transfermate and will be forwarding all the necessary docs in the morning but I’m worried that it might be a bit long winded to get a beneficiary setup and funds transferred over to the account. I also signed up to Revolut but is this really the best option seen as it’s a prepaid credit card?

Looking for the quickest method with the best rates.

Thanks in advance 😀

JMR

darragh o meara wrote: »

Quick question that has probably been answered a few times already.

I’m hoping to go over this week to see a few cars and put a deposit on something for collection in a few days.

What is the quickest method to setup and transfer funds to a dealer in the UK? I just signed up to Transfermate and will be forwarding all the necessary docs in the morning but I’m worried that it might be a bit long winded to get a beneficiary setup and funds transferred over to the account. I also signed up to Revolut but is this really the best option seen as it’s a prepaid credit card?

Looking for the quickest method with the best rates.

Thanks in advance 😀

I found Transfermate very efficient with no delays at all. Better exchange rate than my bank too.
Setting up a beneficiary is quite straight forward

moby2101

darragh o meara wrote: »

Quick question that has probably been answered a few times already.

I’m hoping to go over this week to see a few cars and put a deposit on something for collection in a few days.

What is the quickest method to setup and transfer funds to a dealer in the UK? I just signed up to Transfermate and will be forwarding all the necessary docs in the morning but I’m worried that it might be a bit long winded to get a beneficiary setup and funds transferred over to the account. I also signed up to Revolut but is this really the best option seen as it’s a prepaid credit card?

Looking for the quickest method with the best rates.

Thanks in advance ��

Transfermate....
Simple as..
Cheaper than any bank transfer and in my case it was done in 2 hours

tea and coffee

moby2101 wrote: »

Transfermate....
Simple as..
Cheaper than any bank transfer and in my case it was done in 2 hours

I was just going to pay for my car through bank transfer. Is this a bad idea?

tea and coffee

moby2101 wrote: »

Transfermate....
Simple as..
Cheaper than any bank transfer and in my case it was done in 2 hours

I was just going to pay for my car through bank transfer. Is this a bad idea? I was going to pay tomorrow and collect the car next week.

Eoghanaldo

Anyone have any experience in having a VRT appointment and being told that they won't be taking payment and to expect a text with the VRT price with which I can organise another appointment? Went in with my UK reg vehicle and told the above on Saturday. Bloody annoying waste of time!

Isambard

quite common if your vehicle is of a type not already on the system

givyjoe

tea and coffee wrote: »

I was just going to pay for my car through bank transfer. Is this a bad idea? I was going to pay tomorrow and collect the car next week.

More expensive as others have said. Used transfermate myself last week, locked in a price and transferred money to them a few days later. Saved about 200 euro over using AIB.

JMR

tea and coffee wrote: »

I was just going to pay for my car through bank transfer. Is this a bad idea?

You will save money by using a service like Transfer Mate. There are probably others but I used Transfer Mate and saved approx €300 on a transaction of £15,280
My bank, AIB also enforce a daily transfer limit of €10k

Eoghanaldo

Isambard wrote: »

quite common if your vehicle is of a type not already on the system

It had the exact model and version on the calculator and when I gave them the print out of the calculator, I was told that because it is a 2017 they couldn't give me a price or take payment because it was 'too new'. Bit pointless having the age facility on the website calculator if it isn't at all considered, no?

Royale with Cheese

Has anybody ever been refused an AA/RAC check by a dealer?

I enquired about a car on Saturday morning and told the garage I'd be importing the car back into Ireland and wanted to pay in cash. When I said I'd like the car checked over by an AA mechanic before I transfer the balance after initial deposit, he just went off on one saying they've no idea what they're doing and it's a waste of money. Now I've had garages in the UK try and convince me this check was a waste of time before, but they were happy to accommodate when I pushed them on it. This guy just went on a 30 second rant where I wasn't able to get a word in, and eventually he changed his tune from that's a waste of money to we flat out refuse to entertain those checks on our cars.

This was a pretty high end garage, Ferraris and the like for sale (not quite was I was purchasing), and the car had 8 months to run on the manufacturers warranty. I 'd really just paying for someone in the know to give it a quick test drive to check for nothing out of the ordinary and check for any signs of panel damage. I've no idea why that would be such an issue for them.

bazz26

Walk away and buy somewhere else. If they have nothing to hide then they would have no problem with having the car inspected by an independent professional.

Royale with Cheese

Oh I just told him I wasn't interested and hung up shortly after that, he seemed happy enough to be rid of me.

awec

JMR wrote: »

You will save money by using a service like Transfer Mate. There are probably others but I used Transfer Mate and saved approx €300 on a transaction of £15,280
My bank, AIB also enforce a daily transfer limit of €10k

You can transfer more than 10k if you go into the branch.

When I paid mine, I used TransferWise to set up the transaction and then went into my AIB branch and transferred the money to TransferWise.