Compensation claim or better to pay for it yourself?

This is how you determine whether your damage must pay yourself

In some cases, it may be better not to claim a small(er) damage on your car insurance policy. As mentioned before, for every claimed damage you lose 5 non-life years, regardless of the damage amount. Therefore, for small damages, with a low claim amount, it may be more advantageous to pay the damage yourself instead of claiming on your car insurance.

Often, the premium increase that occurs when you claim is higher than the total claim amount of a small loss.

1. You have so many claim-free years that falling back has no effect on your premium

Have you been driving claim-free for years? Then you have probably already accumulated many claim-free years. By claiming a damage, you fall back on the bonus-malus ladder, but if you are already at the top of the ladder, the discount remains the same with some insurers.

2. Repair costs are disproportionate to the premium increase

With a small damage, sometimes the damage amount is not very high. In that case, it is often wiser to pay for the damage yourself. In most cases, the premium increase that occurs when you claim the damage is higher than the repair costs.

3. Repair costs are very high

If the repair costs are thousands of dollars, sometimes it may be wiser to claim the damage from the insurer anyway. You can check the bonus-malus ladder yourself to see how much more premium you have to pay after the damage and compare this with the cost of the repair.

Car damage and claim-free years

The amount of the premium for your car insurance depends heavily on your claim-free years. By driving claim-free, you build up claim-free years. One year of claim-free driving earns you one claim-free year.

Claim-free years entitle you to a discount on the premium. When claiming damages on your car insurance, you lose claim-free years. However, this is only the case with faulty damage. When the insurer can recover the paid damages from the other party, this has no consequences for your claim-free years and the amount of the premium.

In the year you claim damage, you don't build up a claim-free year, you lose 5 claim-free years. This can reduce your discount by tens of percent. This depends on your position on the bonus-malus ladder. Insurers determine your discount using the bonus-malus ladder. Each insurer has its own bonus-malus scheme, so there can be differences in discount between the different insurers.

The impact of damage on your premium

How much your premium drops varies by insurance company. This is because it depends on how much discount you get with your claim-free years. It also makes a lot of difference whether you have only a few claim-free years or more than 10. To give you an idea, we will take a random large insurer as an example. For the sake of clarity, we leave out fees and insurance tax.

Sample calculation

Your car is WA-casualty insured and you have accumulated 7 claim-free years. The insurer gives you a 64% discount on your premium. Assuming a basic premium of € 1,000, you will therefore pay € 360 in premium. You cause damage of € 650 to the other party's car. Should you claim this damage, or are you better off bearing the costs yourself?

Because of the damage, you fall back in discount to 40%. The next insurance year, your premium will then be €600, an increase of €240. Looking only at next year, it might make sense to claim the car damage. But the consequences go further.

In the next insurance year, without a claim, you would be entitled to a 72% discount. Because of the claim, the discount in the second year after the damage comes to 48%. Also in the second year you pay €240 extra in premium. If you look at this over 3 insurance years, the total premium increase is higher than the claim. So when you add it all up, in this case it is disadvantageous to claim the car damage from the insurer. This is because the consequences of a claimed car damage are felt for years to come.

In the earlier example, did you have your own car damage? Then things are different. Suppose you also had a damage of €650 yourself. The total claim expense would then be €1,300. In that case, of course, claiming the damage makes sense.

The benefit of no-claims protection

If you choose no-claim protection when you purchase insurance, you can claim one claim per year without affecting your car insurance discount. Attention! You do fall back in claim-free years. However, this does not affect the premium. Without no-claim protection you will pay more for your car insurance when you make a claim. When switching to another insurance company you can often take your claim-free years with you.