Business –

If you need german insurance for a car, make sure, that you have a paper from your previous insurance (from the country you lived before!), that says, how many years you were driving without any damage (e.g. accident) caused by you. This letter will save you several hundert Euro per year. Here is how it works:

In Germany, the rates for car insurances may be influenced by many factors: by the brand name and the model of the car, by your milage per year, by questions like «Is a garage available for parking?» etc.

However, the most important parameter for your insurance bills is your conduct in traffic. Insurances honor every «good year» meaning they honor every year without an accident caused by you. you will get a reduction for every «good year»!

Insurance have a basic rate – the so-called 100% rate. For every «good year» (without any accident caused by you) you drop in this percent-rating. After one «good year» you only pay 85%, after two years you only pay 70%. For each following «good year» you drop by 5% untill you reach a lowest rate of 30%. Isn’t that something? However, here is the flip side of the coin: Beginner represent a much higher risk for insurances and therefore they are rated with at least 125%.

Without anything in writing, a german insurance company will rate you as a beginner! However, if you present a letter from your previous insurance – telling how many years from your last accident caused by you till now – then these years will be accepted by german insurances and will result in a better rating. If you had insurance with different companies, get a letter from every company. The only thing that counts is to prove how many years without accidents – caused by you – you have up to today.

Here are a few examples:
No such letter and the insurance company will rate you as a beginner. Your insurance rate will be at least 125%.

Your car was insured for the past three years and you had NO accident in that time: With a letter from this insurance you will be rated with 70%.

Even better: In the five years before that last example, your car was insured at some other companies. You never had an accident caused by you in that time: You never had an accident in the past eight years. With some letters from these insurance companies you will be rated as 8 «good years» and pay only 45% of the standard rate!

The difference can easily be 500 Euro per year!

Other example: For 20 years you drove without problems, only in 1995 you caused once an accident. So: All the time before 1995 does not count. The years from 1995 to now count as «good years»: With a letter, your rating would drop from 125% (for beginner) to 70%!

Important Note: Accidents do NOT count, if it was not your fault. We also could make this definition: «good year» means a year in which you paid your insurance bills, but you did not cause any costs to your insurance.

Note: The rating will drop for liablilty as well as for full coverage insurances!!

If the german insurance of your first choice does not want to accept your letters for your «good years», I would immediately turn around and look for an other company – the other one will accept it!

If you have already an insurance contract at a high percentage: Still, get that letter from home. Most insurance companies will mark down their rating as soon as they have such a letter

Here you see a list with typical «good year» ratings. By the way: If you have an accident, you do not start all over. You go up to the category listed on the right.

The following is only an example, I copied it from my own insurance company. Other companies may have sligthly different ratings! If you have a car insurance contract, the bill or contract should show the present rating (SF-category) and the percentage of your rating. Check it!

Stop! One more hint: If you live in a larger city such as Stuttgart you should learn about the public transportation system and how to get to and from work with the S-Bahn or streetcar. Thus you might save all the costs for a second car. Many of my students did so. It is at least worth a thought….