Although last year’s pandemic and related measures resulted in fewer car claims being claimed from insurers, most car insurers are not lowering their premiums. This is evident from a comparative commodity study by the financial comparison site Geld.nl.
Geld.nl has examined the car insurance policies of 11 car insurers and concludes that the majority of them received fewer damage claims last year than in 2019. Especially in the months of March, April and May – the period of the first lockdown – there were less damage. Geld.nl links this data to figures from De Nederlandsche Bank on the total amount of the claim. In the second quarter, April, May and June in particular, the total claim amount was lower than in the same period in 2019. In the third quarter, the claim amount approached that of the same quarter of the year before. Although fewer claims have been made, the majority of car insurers do not lower their premiums.
According to Geld.nl, only Promovendum, ABN AMRO and Univé have lowered their premiums. “Because fewer cars were driven, there was also less damage. As a result, Univé paid out fewer claims. Because Univé is a non-profit cooperative, we can therefore lower the car premium for most customers, ”a Univé spokesperson told the comparison site. Insurers that have not lowered their premiums explain, among other things, that the total amount per claim is still high and will only increase further in the future. Insurers Centraal Beheer, FBTO, ING and Unigarant indicate that the number of claims in the corona period is only one of the factors that determines the levels of the insurance premium in the long term. These insurers say they choose to keep the premiums stable in the longer term so that they are not suddenly increased sharply if the number of car damage and the total claim amount does turn out higher.
According to Geld.nl, the Dutch consumer paid an average of approximately € 84 per month in premiums for car insurance in 2019. Last year, this monthly amount was on average € 87.