Taking my car to Ireland

[Gaslamp]

Hi folks -

Have been living in the UK for about 11 years now and am finally moving back (when I get a job!).

I have a 1999 Seat Toledo 1.8S 20v which I intend to take over with me. Got a couple of questions:

Can I keep driving on my British Licence?

How long after I move back before I have to re-register my car in Ireland? How do I do that?

Are there any insurance websites in Ireland that I could start looking at quotes on? I've heard horror stories about the cost of insurance over there I'm currently paying STG £350 (about 500 Euro) with 5 years NCB (am 29).

Any help much appreciated! :)

Cheers.

[WhipLash]

To get some online quotes, try the following page of Irish Insurance links: http://www.eforecourt.com/links_insure_irish.htm . If you are close to 30 then perhaps you can hang on until then to move over - the insurance will be cheaper at 30.

For a good (official!) guide to brining over your car, read this article (http://www.revenue.ie/services/vrt/usedcar.htm) on the Revenue's site.

I’m not sure about your British driving license, but I’d imagine that you could drive on it in Ireland.. However, it may impact your insurance quote – best to query this with a few of the insurance companies first.

HTH.

[Gaslamp]

Thanks for that - I'll try that site.

Jeez - I'm glad I got rid of my Alfa GTV though 'cos the cheapest quote I got with www.123.ie was 955 Euros!:eek: For a standard Toledo! Cripes!

Unfortunately, I'll be 29 next month so bad timing there;)

I can drive on my British licence indefinitely, though it may be better to change them over and build up a no-claims bonus with an Irish one, depending on whether my 10 years British no-claims count or not!

Lastly, can you get a car registered in any county? Am originally from Donegal and would like a DL plate....

[WhipLash]

Heh, I suspected that you'd get a bit of a fright all right when you started to get some quotes! :D Still, don't despair. There are several different insurance companies and many brokers around. Its very important to shop around as each one quotes different for different scenarios. The company that I find cheapest may not give you the best quote because of differences in age, car driven, experience etc. The bottom line here is you really do need to shop around - which I'm afraid usually means spending some time on the phone giving the usual details. Also, I've heard many people claiming that many of the online quotation systems appears to be dearer then a quote received over the phone.

As far as I know, you can get a car registered in any county, so long as you have a mail address that you can collect your mail from.

If you are not going to move back over for at least 6 months and have the money, it might even be wise to buy a more expensive/luxurious car over there (one that’s going to sell easily) and bring it into Ireland VRT free. You could then sell it on at a possible profit. Might be worth looking into - something like a second-hand BMW X5 might be a worthwhile investment :cool: Or think along those lines anyhow. I’d imagine that a newish Merc E-Class/S-Class would also sell well, or perhaps a Porsche Boxster, or a 911 – ok, so maybe I’m loosing the run of myself here, but you get the idea. Anyhow you’d need to look at second-hand prices over here, look at the Sterling prices over there, convert to Euros and see what type of profit/loss that would give. Would be an interesting exercise and if you do happen to do some research let us know if its worthwhile!

Orders anyone?

[WhipLash]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, if you bring a car in VRT free due to you driving it for over 6 months in the UK then you may need to hold onto the car for a specific amount of time before you can sell it. Might mean 6-12 months before you can sell, but I'm not quite sure about this restriction...its just something in the back of my mind. If you think of doing this it would of course be best to check first with the Revenue, just to be sure.

[Gaslamp]

Thanks, and phew, some of those other insurance sites were better - about 700 Euro on a British licence! Looks as though I will have to re-register it - those quotes are based on Irish cars.

Cool - my V-reg car will become 99 DL something or other!

Did think about bringing a car back, but am hoping to return this side of Christmas and coulnn't afford to buy a decent car at the mo! Nice idea though...:cool:

Right, better get a job now....

;)