26.09.2024 – 06:00
Finanztip Verbraucherinformation GmbH – a company of the Finanztip Foundation
Press release
Car insurance: Reduce your bill by a quarter with a deductible
Berlin, September 26, 2024 – Drivers can save up to a quarter of their annual premium on average with a deductible in their partial comprehensive insurance. This was the result of a study by Finanztip on the occasion of the annual vehicle changeover season. A representative survey by the money advisor shows that around a third of those insured have never optimized this tariff feature (33%) in order to save on their vehicle insurance. Many have not agreed to a deductible and are paying the insurers too much.
Insurance is primarily intended to protect against existential risks. Anyone who takes out a deductible on their car insurance should therefore ask themselves up to what limit they can pay for repairs. “A sensible deductible in partial comprehensive insurance is 150 or 300 euros,” says Kathrin Gotthold, car insurance expert at Finanztip. “This covers minor damage and already reduces the annual premium noticeably. Anyone who can afford more can also take out a higher one – or compare prices with the higher amount.” The agreement of a deductible of 150 euros led to an average reduction in the total premium of 18 percent for the partial comprehensive insurance tariffs examined by Finanztip. By increasing the TK deductible of their sample customers to 300 euros, the insurance experts at Finanztip were able to increase the savings to an average of 25 percent of the total premium. In fully comprehensive tariffs, they could save an average of ten percent on the total amount if they increased the deductible from 150 to 300 euros.1
However, only a few car insurance policyholders have recently taken advantage of the opportunity to adjust the excess and thus reduce the premium for their car insurance. Over the past five years, only 31 percent of drivers with partial comprehensive insurance have agreed to an excess. Of those with fully comprehensive insurance, slightly less than half (46%) took advantage of this savings option.2
A little more personal risk brings big savings
The excess also has an advantage for the insurer: the customer bears the risk for minor damage. “The insurer saves twice: the repair costs for minor damage and the administration costs if the company doesn’t have to set the whole system in motion,” explains Gotthold. These savings are partially passed on to the customers. But for consumers, this also means that they have to pay for minor damage themselves, adds Gotthold: “Those who are often involved in minor accidents will not benefit from the savings on the total premium. It’s always worth driving carefully.”
Excess only possible in partial and fully comprehensive insurance
The excess, also known as the “deductible”, regulates whether and how much the insured person has to pay out of their own pocket if their own car is damaged. In car insurance, this amount is usually set as an absolute amount and not as a percentage. The insurance company then only covers the amounts that exceed the excess. In car insurance, a deductible only exists in fully comprehensive and partially comprehensive insurance. However, the legally required motor vehicle liability insurance can only be taken out without a deductible.
This is how Finanztip investigated
The insurance experts at Finanztip have created ten fictitious sample customers with different characteristics and cars for their regular vehicle characteristics study. The prices for these profiles are queried on the Nafi-Auto comparison calculator. These basic profiles are then varied in one characteristic each and the 30 cheapest offers on the comparison portal are determined. In this way, we want to make a statement about whether and how the respective characteristic affects the offer (prices, number of results and providers). All characteristics of a characteristic to be examined are queried at the same time; all others are retained.
Every year, financial advisor Finanztip conducts a major study to analyze how consumers should go about looking for good car insurance. The current analysis is still ongoing, and Finanztip will present the results in the fall as usual.
The reason for the study is the widespread need to save money: According to Finanztip, more than one in three drivers in Germany now sees their car insurance as a financial burden (36%).
1) The deductible for the partial insurance portion of the contract was 150 euros in both fully comprehensive insurance variants.
2) The survey data is based on an online survey conducted by Innofact on behalf of Finanztip, in which 1,029 people took part in September 2024. The results are representative of the German population aged 18 and over. After population-representative quotas for the screening interviews, (co-)decision-makers were surveyed on the topic of motor vehicle insurance.
More information
To the press release
About Finanztip
Finanztip is Germany’s leading financial advisor. Finanztip shows how you can easily manage your finances yourself. An independent editorial team of experts around the editors-in-chief Hermann-Josef Tenhagen and Saidi Sulilatu researches relevant financial topics for their audience: from investments, insurance and credit to energy, media and mobility, travel, law and taxes. The editorial team works according to a strict Editorial CodeFinanztip’s offer is free of charge and includes a weekly newsletter with more than one million subscriptions and a website with more than 1,000 well-founded guides with concrete recommendations. The Finanztip guides were accessed more than 60 million times last year. In addition, Finanztip offers a Youtube-Kanal and the podcasts “On a money journey” (which is aimed specifically at women) and “Money made easy”Finanztip is part of the non-profit Finanztip Foundation, whose purpose is to provide financial education to consumers.
Press contact:Finanztip Verbraucherinformation GmbH – a company of the Finanztip Foundation Hasenheide 54 10967 Berlin Telephone: 030 / 220 56 09 – 80
Managing Directors: Dr. Fabian Dany, Stephan Link, Saidi Sulilatu, Hermann-Josef Tenhagen Company headquarters: Berlin | Local Court: Charlottenburg | HRB 162233 B