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| Hiya fellow expats,
I just moved to Basel and 'm trying to bring my car to Basel from Surrey driving through France, but I want to know how long I have before I need to change the UK number plate to Basel number plate. What if I take the car back to UK and come back again to Basel does the time to change the number plate start again from the moment I bring my car.
Any advice on the following would be greatly appreciated:-
1. Parking in Basel
2. Converting UK driving license to a Swiss one
3. Car insurance, will my British insurance cover driving in Basel
3. Any tips on travelling from UK, Basel then UK
Cheers, Kash | |
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Welcome to Basel Kashim; I reckon I can answer your questions concisely:
You can run your car on british plates for up to 1 year before having to go throught the conversion to Swiss plates (and all the hassle this involves... just search the forum!)
1. Parking in Basel- difficult, almost impossible. In all probability, you'll have to rent a space somewhere- on-street parking is difficult to find. Wherabouts are you living?
2. Same as you car, you can convert to a Swiss license within 1 year, before you'd have to do a full Swiss driving test. You need to get an eye test from the opticians (specifically for the driving license, should cost 10-15 CHF) and fill in the relevant forms at the Gemeinde. If you have a lot of driving categories on your license and wish to keep them, you'll probably also have to have a medical (I did).
3. You'll probably find in the small print that your british insurance does not cover you unless you are resident in the UK. So you'd have to get swiss car insurance (more expensive than the UK), which will be more difficult and expensive as you have a foreign registered car (and presumably RHD too)
4. Driving is pretty straightforward, but I've only done it once. Eurotunnel can save a lot of time; from Surrey, it should take you about 8-10 hours, door to door. Plenty of carriers and cheap flights from Basel to London City, Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester... which usually works out a lot cheaper, quicker and convenient, unless you have a car full of stuff/passengers etc.
Hope this helps.