Car borrow question for England Trip

Normally the owner of the cars Insurance would cover you. Id check with your cousin.

Hello again, R. Insurance from your home country is unlikely to cover you in the UK. When my brother visits from the US I lend him a car. I have to contact my insurance company here and pay for him to be added to my policy for the time he is here. I have to provide address details, date of birth, accident and claims record for him. They then say how much it will be, and I say yes. He is a very safe driver. Before we moved here my father did the same thing for me. That's what your cousin can do. Insurance here is per person for specific vehicles. If she puts you or your Indian person on the policy for one of the cars you can't drive the other car unless the adds you to that car too. If you do borrow the car, make sure that if you drive it in the Congestion Zone you pay the charge the same day or it goes up, way up.

Thanks Nigel, I'll ask and see how much the insurance costs so she can add him if we decide to go with that option. We'll only be using the car for out of London trips particularly Stonehenge and Windsor: not within the city, so congestion charge would not matter. Personally it seems like too much of a liability and public transport is fun especially since I hardly get to use it here.

Before you try to park in Windsor check on here for people who have driven there recently. A few months ago I nearly parked there but couldn't find anywhere reasonably close. Windsor and Eton Riverside station is only 7 stops away from Hounslow Station on the train.

We have done 3 home exchanges with different families in the UK and I know that each time the family has had to add us temporarily to their insurance policy. The first family we exchanged with even had to switch policies because their regular policy would not accept others driving the insured's car. There have been lengthy discussions on my home exchange forum by many people from the UK over the issues they face when trying to insure others. It can be done but it seems that each insurance company is a little different in how they handle the situation.

My brother-in-law from California borrowed my Renault Clio on his recent two week visit over here. i had to extend the car insurance to cover him, and answered the same questions that Nigel quotes. The cost for two weeks was £28, but that included an admin fee that is the same whatever the period covered. The insurer was Direct Line, one of the major UK insurance companies.

Wow: if its only approx 28 GBP for a week, I MIGHT just ask to see how much it would be for us. Especially the trip to Stonehenge might be worth taking a car.
BTW: How is one supposed to use the US keyboard and get the pound symbol? I see people on this baord doing it but my laptop has no such symbol.

When I put my brother on for a few days it was just short of £100. It may vary with the company and may be different for your Indian relative. I would suggest your cousin contact her company asap and enquire. For a £ on a US keyboard:- press and hold the Alt key, then, using the numeric keypad, and only the numeric keypad, still holding the alt key, key in 0163 and let go and you will have a £. Easier for me, it is just <shift-3> on the normal British keypad.

aRies, "BTW: How is one supposed to use the US keyboard and get the pound symbol? I see people on this baord doing it but my laptop has no such symbol." Are you using a PC or a Mac? If you're using a Mac, it's VERY easy to access foreign currency symbols such as £ (Alt/Option + 3) or € (Alt/Option + Shift + 2). With a PC, the easiest method I've found is to open the Character Map which has all the symbols, and just copy and paste. I'm currently on a Mac, so I can't remember the exact sequence to access the Character Map. Hopefully someone else can "fill in the blanks". Cheers!

On a PC, ALT+0128 = € and ALT+163 = £

Thanks everyone for the advice :)