Hi, I don't know if this has been suggested before but it would be great to exchange knowledge with forum members who spend extended periods of time in Florida. There are lots of things that are specific to being there for 1-6 months of the year.
1. Whilst I currently use the car hire from this site, I would like to explore the possability of buying a car for our use whilst in FLorida.
2. Travel insurance for extended stays
3. Return flights v one way tickets
etc etc
I've never stayed for longer than about 4 weeks but it has been discussed a few times in different threads. From memory, the main issues are:
Purchasing a car isn't a problem but insurance for it is very expensive in these circumstances.
Travel insurance can also be prohibitively expensive because of the medical cover element although it's perfectly possible to find decent rates for just a few weeks stay. In the event of a claim, I think insurers would look very carefully to satisfy themselves that the stay could properly be regarded as a 'holiday'.
One-way airline tickets are usually very poor value. A flexible ticket will also be pricey but probably a better deal. If you have Frequent Flyer miles, they are the best bet.
I looked into buying a car and keeping it at my property(I don't rent). However the insurance was very expensive(no UK no claims bonus counted), and every company I tried insisted that I needed a USA driving licence.
Getting a licence isn't a problem, but it only lasts for the duration of the visit. New visit requires a new licence.
We go for just over three months and get insurance for about £130 for the 2 of us (annual multi trip).
We use VA airmiles for our flights.
Expenses of a car don't make it viable for us but almost every insurance company will accept a UK license now, we have 4-5 friends who do not have a US lic and get insurance with no problems, its not much dearer either than having a US lic.
Is that a single 3 month visit? If so, then that's much less than I'd imagined for such a long stay.Originally Posted by wrpac00
Insurers being what they are, I wonder what limitations there are on people who own a property abroad and habitually spend several months a year in it using travel policies? At some point you can see a claims handler questioning whether you're actually a temporary resident rather than just another traveller.
Last edited by Katys Grandad; 12-08-2011 at 04:00.
I had a friend who lived next door to me in the U.S., he had both a car and two Harley's. This was a couple of years ago so things may have changed a little.
At that time you had to pass a U.S. car/motorcycle test to get the insurance but did NOT then have to keep it 'live' if you had a UK licence. I'm guessing that they wanted to to have passed the U.S. test so that you had knowledge of local laws.
They took payment for the whole year but whenever he left Florida he told the insurance company. They cut the cover costs to almost nothing as it was stored in the garage. At the end of the year he received a cheque back for the portion of the year when full cover was not needed. at the time the cover was about 25% more expensive than a similar policy in the UK.
You do need to find a broker that knows about non-resident car insurance otherwise you will not get a proper quote.
Regards Dave
Dave Lewis
That is interesting - admittedly I tried some while ago and my information will be out of date.
My brother has lived in the USA all his adult life and has a 'perfect' record for insurance purposes. He lives in California but on a visit to me in Florida got a quote from State Farm(his insurance company) to insure a car he would 'own' in Florida. To get a decent level of liability insurance iirc the cost was in the region of $,2,000 pa.
We usually stay for 6 months and we own a car. It costs us $1100 for the 6 months we are using it and $500 for the 6 month 'vacation package' and we pay quarterly. The vacation cover could be a little cheaper, but as we only have a car port rather than a garage (and we have guests when we're not there), we pay a little extra for accidental damage. We do have Fl licenses, but our insurance is done on our UK licenses because to have insurance on a US license, you have to have held the license for 3 consecutive years or more, which is impossible for those on visa's.
Our insurance is an extended stay policy which last year cost us around £400 for the two of us for 7 months cover. There are no issues with cover for longer periods, the company we use will insure us for a maximum of 18 months if required. As we don't live in the UK, we are very limited to which insurance company we can use, so I have no idea if this is a good price or not as I am not able to 'shop around'. We have used the same company for the last 5 years but, touch wood, have never had to claim so cannot speak from that point of view.
With regards to one way flights, as we are only allowed to stay in the US for 6 months, we wanted to extend elsewhere for an additional month on our next trip, so we did look into one way flights, but as mentioned above it's not cost effective at all. In the end we booked with Virgin to Orlando with a return from Barbados 7 months later. It worked out exactly the same cost as a return from Orlando.
Sarah
This is exactly the sort of useful information I was hoping to get from a Snowbirds forum - thanks!
I am keen to buy a car but on every website I go to to get a quote for insurance they want either social security number or other information that I dont have. I was told State Farm would insure UK nationals but it is impossible to get a quote online.
Looks like this sort of forum would be useful? :-)
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