Where and Why to Get a Driving License Suspension Insurance
Almost one million driving licenses are suspended in Europe every year (60,000 alone in Switzerland). And no, it isn’t always reckless drunken driving (which we at Global Nomads certainly do not condone!) that can get you in a fix: An onslaught of new speed limits all over the place, more and more traffic regulations, more police on the roads, more spot checks – overall, convictions are definitely on the rise. Cameras are everywhere these and photographic evidence is admissible in court anytime.
Get involved in a traffic accident, and in addition to the inconvenience this involves you may be convicted, pay high fines, your insurance company will increase premiums and in far too many cases you may lose your driving license as well. Penalties have hit the roof and a zero tolerance policy rules, no matter the consequences it may have for the economy or people’s very own personal lives. Fines and DL suspensions are increasing and there’s no end to this development in sight.
What’s worse, law makers and courts across the globe seem to revel at establishing an inordinate number of offenses that will get your DL pulled in a whiffy. And if you think we’re exaggerating, how about a reality check: When was the last time you heard of traffic laws actually being deregulated ever so slightly?
But why exactly are we pointing all this out here? Well, imagine for a minute that as of tomorrow you aren’t able to drive anymore because your driving license has been revoked. Hey, it can happen anytime to everybody, even to the most responsible driver! So how would this affect your professional and family life?
You’ll have to pay through your nose for taxi-cab transport, beg your spouse or hire some professional to serve as your personal chauffeur, usually at a stiff premium. Suddenly, you’re at the mercy of expensive airfares and erratic flight schedules, or you may have to endure long nerve-wracking bus and train journeys or commute daily by subway: all of which will tear painful holes in your funds, not to mention the hassle and the prime time you will lose in the process.
So talk about some smart, out-of-the-box business thinking! The St. Christophorus Insurance Company of Switzerland (founded in 1985) protects you against the more dire financial stringencies any DL suspension will entail. While they cannot prevent your DL from being pulled, at least they can help alleviate the financial pain this will cause. Because what they are offering is probably the world’s first if not one-of-a-kind Driving License Suspension Insurance!
There’s a choice of different policies available (5 in all), ranging from monthly payments of €333 through €3,000 (for the professional driver) across a period of six months total if your DL is pulled. This totals to a €2,000 through €18,000 payout, depending on your policy.
By comparison, the premiums are quite moderate: Expect to pay €120 (or €11 per month) through €1,985 (or €187 on a monthly basis), obviously governed by your selected insurance plan.
For more information, check out this driving license suspension insurance program here.
Unfortunately, their web site isn’t exactly state-of-the-art, and the application form isn’t hosted on an SSL secured server either, so we wouldn’t recommend entrusting your credit card data to this online setup.
Also, you will obviously want to check out their Terms of Service before signing up. While we’ve found their German TOS here, our research team was at a loss to pinpoint the English language version.
So you’ll probably be best advised to contact them offline instead, which you can do here (and no, we’re not getting a cut!):
St. Christophorus Versicherungsgesellschaft AG
Artherstrasse 101
CH-6405 Immensee
Switzerland
Tel. +41 41 852 1616
Fax. +41 41 852 1618
Note: If you are banned from driving in one country, this won’t transfer automatically to all other jurisdictions. While a second, alternate (foreign) driving license won’t do you much good in the country where the driving ban is in effect (as it’s by person, not by license), it will still as a rule allow you drive legally abroad – an important point for anyone moving about across the world!
But that’s merely one out of a slew of very neat benefits you may want to be aware of. Read more about this topic here:
Driving Big Brother Crazy – How to obtain a foreign driving license quickly, legally and easily!
