Negative claim-free years

What are negative claim-free years?

Each year that you do not make any claims on your car insurance, you get 1 claim-free year. These years give you a discount on your car insurance. The more claim-free years you have, the cheaper your car insurance becomes.

Instead, have you claimed many claims? This is an increased risk for insurers, making you pay more for your insurance.

The consequences of negative claim-free years

After, say, 10 claim-free years, you have accumulated a large discount. You then get for example 75% discount on your car insurance. If you have negative claim-free years, you will get a malus registration. You will then no longer receive a no-claim discount, but rather a premium surcharge.

This increases your car insurance premium. For example, with 5 negative claim-free years, you will pay 15% extra for your premium. Switching with negative damage free years is also difficult. With most insurers it is not possible to get a new car insurance.

For one claim, you go back 5 years

A claim will cause you to lose 5 claim-free years. As a result, you lose part of the accumulated discount.

Expiration of claim-free years

Both positive and negative claim-free years usually remain for 3 years. There are a few insurers who allow negative years to count for 4 or 5 years.

Damage-free years expire if you cancel an insurance policy and do not purchase a new policy within 3 years. Do you want to stop your car insurance temporarily? Even then your claim-free years remain valid for 3 years.

Registration of negative claim-free years in Roy-data

Insurers record claim-free years in the Roy-data system. Do you terminate the insurance? Then your insurer records the number of claim-free years you have. So the new insurer will see it if you have a malus registration.

Here's how to get rid of negative claim-free years

Negative claim-free years are annoying because your premium will be higher. Taking out a new car insurance policy and concealing your claim history is not a good idea. Insurers see this as fraud.

That's how you do get rid of your negative claim-free years:

• Build up new claim-free years. This takes a long time, because one claim report costs you 5 claim-free years. So after 5 years of claim-free driving, the effect of one claim notification is only gone.
• Sometimes a one-time buyout is more beneficial than a higher premium. This is called negative claim-free years commutation.

Buy off negative claim-free years

Buying off negative claim-free years means that you pay for the cost of the damage yourself. You do not then fall back in claim-free years. The maximum period for (re)paying the damage differs per insurer. Usually it is 1 year.

Is it wise to pay for the damage yourself?

Always consider the damage amount. Is the damage substantial? Then paying out of pocket is often too expensive. It is usually smart to pay for damage up to about €1000 yourself. This also depends on:

• Your car.
• How many claim-free years you have left if you don't pay for the damage yourself.
• Your financial situation.

Insuring your car with negative claim-free years

You are required to have at least third-party insurance for your car. However, insurers are not obliged to accept your insurance application. With a malus registration, you cannot get car insurance from all insurers.

We always try to place you with a regular insurance company first. Is that not possible? Then you can always turn to insurance company de Vereende. De Vereende is specialized in insuring special risks. Here you can also take out car insurance with negative damage-free years.

Do you buy off the negative claim-free years? Then you do not need to purchase car insurance from the Vereende. You can purchase your car insurance with an ordinary insurance company. This way you save a lot of money on the insurance premium.

Switching with negative claim-free years

Are you switching to another insurance company? Then the new insurer will request your claim-free years in Roy-Data. Not every insurer accepts negative claim-free years. They then think you pose too great a risk. We give 2 tips:

1. Don't cancel your current insurance too early. Are you rejected and have already cancelled your old insurance? Then your previous insurer cannot take you back.
2. Switch only after a full claim-free year. This is because insurers only register whole claim-free years in Roy-Data.

Novice drivers also start in the minus

A novice driver has not yet accumulated any claim-free years. In case of a claim, the insurance company deducts 5 claim-free years from the total. You then have claim-free years in the minus and thus negative claim-free years in your name. An experienced driver also runs this risk when he or she makes several damage claims in a row.