Temporary export insurance with a Green Card for the drive to Spain

Our export insurance has three parts:

• 14 days of third-party liability cover, meaning damage you cause to others with the car;
• a Green Card as international proof of insurance, also sent to you as a PDF by email;
• white export plates: two for a car, one for a motorcycle, caravan or trailer.

At our desk in Hengelo you take the Green Card and the plates with you straight away. We are not an insurer: the cover is provided by our insurance partner, and the policy determines which countries and which driver you are covered for. A caravan or trailer also gets its own export insurance on export; see exporting a motorhome or caravan to Spain.

The Green Card proves that the vehicle has at least the compulsory third-party cover of the country in which you are driving. The Green Card system of the Council of Bureaux covers 47 countries, France and Spain among them. Whether your cover applies to a particular country is shown on the Green Card and in the policy. Check it when you receive it, and keep the card to hand on the journey, on paper or as a PDF.

If the car is driven, the white plates are part of the insurance. What you may do with them in the Netherlands and along the way is explained on Dutch export plates.

After export, the Dutch owner's insurance obligation, APK obligation and road tax all stop, the RDW says. Your old policy does not travel south with the car. That also applies if you are moving yourself and the car stays yours: until it is registered in Spain, you need temporary cover. More about that situation is on moving to Spain with a car.

Do not confuse export insurance with a short-term Spanish policy: export insurance covers the car on its Dutch export registration for the journey and the wait until it gets Spanish plates. If you apply for green plates in Spain, the DGT only lets you drive on them while the car is insured.

• the date the cover should start;
• the destination and the route, for example via Belgium and France;
• the details of the policyholder and the driver;
• for a business buyer: company name, address and VAT number.

If the car has not been deregistered yet, choose the complete package: export document, indemnification certificate, insurance, Green Card and plates in one go. It can also be done remotely; you then send the yellow plates to our desk by post or courier.

After arrival come the ITV inspection, the taxes and the Tráfico appointment, and that can take longer than 14 days. You can then extend the export insurance online, 14 days at a time and subject to the insurer's approval, from €120 per extension. This is possible even if your current cover was arranged elsewhere. Apply in time: between two periods of cover the car is uninsured and may not be driven.

The extension only concerns the insurance. Whether you may keep driving in Spain on the Dutch export registration is a matter for the Spanish rules; check before you rely on it.

After registration at Tráfico, the car receives a Spanish registration number. According to the DGT, the owner then has Spanish number plates made at a specialist shop and takes out compulsory Spanish insurance. From that moment you no longer need the export insurance. How registration works is explained on registering a car in Spain.

Export insurance with white plates costs from €100; the complete package with export document costs from €150. An extension costs from €120 per 14 days. The price can be higher outside office hours, for postal delivery or for heavy or unusual vehicles, such as a truck or a heavy motorhome. You always know the price in advance.