How much does the premium of a car insurance go up after damage?
Car damage is obviously annoying enough. You take out car insurance to get compensation for the damage caused as a result of an accident or to be able to reimburse the other party, if you are at fault. What about your car insurance premium? How much will you pay more after one claim and as of when does this increase go into effect?
Increase in premium due to damage caused by fault
When you have had an accident with your car, due to your fault, chances are that your car insurance premium will be increased. However, this does not happen immediately after the claim is settled.
When the damage is small, it can sometimes be more advantageous not to claim it, but to pay for it yourself. For every claim you file, you will lose 5 claim-free years. As a result, you will lose part of your accumulated discount, which will increase your premium.
Decline in claim-free years what now?
The premium increase is the result of a decline in your claim-free years. Insurance companies determine on the basis of the bonus malus ladder and the number of accumulated claim-free years, how much discount you will receive on the premium of your car insurance. Each (fault) damage that you claim, causes a reduction of 5 claim-free years. This is the same with every insurer. The amount of the discount is fixed in the bonus malus ladder of the insurance company. Each insurer has its own bonus malus ladder. As a result, one insurer may give you more discount with the same number of claim-free years than another insurer. So it may be that after a claim with one insurance company you receive a lot less discount and with the other insurance company the difference in discount is negligible.
Negative claim-free years how does that work?
A claim on your car insurance policy will affect your claim-free years. Drivers who have accrued few, if any, claim-free years can have negative claim-free years due to just one claim. This is also known as malus. If you have a malus registration, you will no longer receive a discount on your premium, but rather a premium surcharge.
Damage-free years are linked to your car insurance. Canceling your car insurance does not get you rid of your negative claim-free years. Switching to another car insurance policy is also not a solution. Damage-free years are recorded in a central database for insurers called Roy-Data. When switching to another insurance company, the new insurer will request your data in Roy-Data. Thus, the new insurer will also see your negative claim-free years. You can get rid of your negative claim-free years by rebuilding your claim-free years. This is not fast, because you lose five years with one claim. After five years of damage-free driving, you will have erased the effect of one claim.
When does the premium increase take effect after a claim?
A premium increase does not take effect immediately after the claim is settled. It has to do with the date your car insurance started. If your car insurance starts on August 1, you will receive the new policy and a new green card around this date every year. Your car insurance company will also determine each year on that date whether or not you get an extra claim-free year. Suppose you have an accident on September 1 of the same year for which you are at fault, then the premium increase will only be implemented from the following year on August 1.
However, things can be different. A few days before the start of the new insurance year, do you have an accident that is not your fault? Then the insurer will process the claim. This may take some time. Because you have claimed damage that has not yet been dealt with, the insurer may choose to reduce your claim-free years, causing you to pay more premium. The investigation may reveal that your car insurance company will still have to pay you for the claim. To prevent you from having to pay additional premium, the insurer will increase your premium as a precaution. If it later turns out that you should not have had to pay more premium, you will be refunded the overpayment over the entire period.
Do you have questions regarding a premium increase on your car insurance? If so, please contact us. We would love to help you! You can reach us Monday to Friday between 08:00 and 18:00 on telephone number 088-6883700.
Also take a look at our frequently asked questions. Here you will find the most frequently asked questions per topic
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