Buying German car insurance
Our beloved Renault Scenic died unexpectedly. It all started when my wife rang me to see if the car is still OK to drive even though it was making a funny noise when it is braking. Not to tempt fate too much, I check the car into the mechanic. The problem turns out to be three major costly problems, a sensor has malfunction within the braking system, a belt has reached its end of life and needed to be replaced and the car is overdue for its regular service by 10000km. It was going to cost about 3500 € to get the car back on the road.
Given that we originally only paid 5000 € (some say that it was too much already), we opted to trade it in and get a new car.
Well, with a new car, I need to shop around for some insurance for it. The insurance needs to be the full insurance covering liability and comprehensive.
Along the way, I discovered the following things.
- There are surcharges if you choose to pay quarterly (3% surcharge) or monthly (5% surcharge). So go annually or half yearly if you can.
- Protect your insurance rating. We had a accident during the year and our rating went from a SF 10 to a SF 04. The higher the number, the lower your insurance cost. For us, this is a different of 30%. The rating goes down quickly, but goes up slowly.
- Shop around. Using both check24.de and geld.de, we were able to get a comparison of some of the major German insurers. From this comparison, we were able to get a 10% discount from our current insurer's offer.
- Internet insurers vs shop front insurers. Those who sell insurances online seems to cost a bit less.
- A small car may not be cheaper to insure than a bigger car. Apparently if a lot of young people drives a particular type of car, the cost of insuring it will be higher even though the driver is not consider young any more.
4 comments:
Thanks for the comment.
But bummer to take the car in for work and find you needed to get a new one!
G, it is definitely a bummer. At least with a new car, we can hope for a repair free period for the next few years. Fingers crossed!
@tehnyit, You make a good point about the language barrier, I just got back from a two year stint in Germany for work and I know how difficult it can be to untangle a new country's rules when it comes to getting cars, machines, land, buildings, you name it.
We used to employ Swiss company Sinitus, with Urs Meisterhans to do our asset management thats and that advice was really useful, especially for myself and the other expats over there. If you're in the South of Germany, Switzerland or the region you could do a lot worse than to contact Urs Meisterhans.
That being said, anyone in the industry will be able to help. Auf Wiedersehen!
Hi,
Sorry if my english is bit difficult. it is not my mother tongue.
I co-manage a smaller European trucking supply chain and logistics company which travel across most Europe and East Europe.
I saw WHunter comment and I agree. Part of our advisory come from Sinitus and Urs Meisterhans. Excellent accountants and advisors, helped my company through difficult situations with financial.
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