Motor vehicle insurance prices continue to rise and are currently 25 percent higher than last year. Insurers had already increased premiums in 2023 to cover the increased costs, but many providers are still in the red. The reason: higher spare part costs and hourly rates in the workshops as well as increasingly complex technology through sensors, cameras and assistance systems.
Cheap fares can still be found
Wolfgang Schütz, managing director of the Verivox insurance comparison, says: “There is no end to the price increase in sight, and drivers will have to prepare for higher premiums in the coming year.” But even if prices rise, consumers can still find cheap tariffs on the market and can often save a quarter of the premium by switching insurance. Despite necessary adjustments, insurers continue to rely on competitive prices in order to attract new customers.
500 tariffs from 75 providers in check
In order to see how high the savings potential is when choosing a cheap tariff and which providers are generally among the particularly inexpensive, Verivox evaluated around 500 tariffs from 75 providers on behalf of AUTO BILD. This corresponds to market coverage of more than 90 percent. The tariffs were analyzed based on seven different driver profiles, which correspond to the majority of the actual user profiles of the comparison portal, i.e. reflect realistic conditions. A maximum of the two cheapest tariffs per insurer for each profile, which had to meet certain performance criteria, were taken into account. This includes, for example, a Mallorca policy as part of liability as well as protection in the event of gross negligence, cover for animal and marten bites with consequential damage and extended game damage in the comprehensive insurance portion.
The results: The tables show the ten cheapest insurers for seven example cases – and, for comparison, the annual premium for a medium tariff and for the most expensive one. As an example of the savings potential, we have given the difference between the average and cheapest price both in absolute terms in euros and as a percentage. In our seven examples, this difference was between 40 and 55 percent.
Married couple with small children*
Married couple with adult children*
Civil servant with spouse*
What does this actually mean for your wallet? The student who only has liability insurance could save up to 675 euros (or 55 percent) simply by choosing the right tariff and opting for the cheapest provider instead of a provider in the middle price segment. You wouldn’t even have to accept any loss of performance, at least not in relation to the criteria mentioned above. In the example of the pensioner couple (40 percent difference between the average and cheapest tariff), the price saving amounts to 360 euros.
Tip: check your insurance policy regularly
Our overview in the small table below shows which insurers were most often represented among the cheapest tariffs in the Verivox analysis: The top insurer in the AUTO BILD tariff comparison is HUK24, which appears twelve times among the ten cheapest providers with various tariffs. This is followed by HUK (eleven times), CosmosDirekt (eight times), WGV (five times) as well as Adcuri, Allianz, Axa Mobil, S DirektVersicherung and VRK (three times each).
The top insurers 2024*
Are these providers always the cheapest? This depends on the personal conditions of the insured person. In any case, in our analysis they are among the particularly inexpensive providers – candidates that you should generally take a look at. However, only an individual price comparison can determine which insurance is actually the cheapest for each individual driver. Wolfgang Schütz from Verivox generally recommends this once a year: “A regular review of your insurance policy is not only a way to save money, but also important in order to benefit from improved tariffs and new services. Anyone who has been insured with the same tariff for too long, risks paying too much for outdated services.”
