When I was getting ready to move to Germany in 2004, car insurance was one of my main to-do’s, as I was shipping my car over (only sensible if you’re involved w

When I was getting ready to move to Germany in 2004, car insurance was one of my main to-do’s, as I was shipping my car over (only sensible if you’re involved with the US government) and my bank would only release the title for export when I showed insurance coverage. There was precisely one provider: AIU via Geico. What luck, I thought! I already had a good Geico policy at Maryland’s max ($500k), because I was a very careful young woman with a bright career ahead of me that I didn’t want to bog down in legal debt should I cause an accident. When I asked for the max, the saleswoman on the phone laughed. “You just need the minimum, sweetie.” The minimum liability was a bit over 7.5 million EUR (15 million Deutschmarks, two years after Euro-ization). In Germany, you are liable for ALL costs associated with an at-fault accident, down to fixing the guardrails and traffic signs. It was also $2700 that first year, because I was 24 with no driving record and a car I still owed a fair amount of money on, and only got one year of credit for my time in the US. Forcing a grieving family to deal with medical costs from a crash they were victims of is inhuman.