MUNICH / HEIDELBERG (dpa-AFX) – Regardless of fierce competition, there are at least no drastic price reductions in sight in motor vehicle insurance for this year’s changing season. The brokerage portals Check24 and Verivox, however, expect that, as in previous years, prices will fall in the course of November.
Every autumn several million car owners change their insurance in search of a cheaper tariff. The two portals calculate the price development differently, but unanimously report that prices have fallen since summer and are expected to decline further in the course of November.
“The savings potential in motor vehicle insurance is currently 23 percent,” said Wolfgang Schütz, managing director of Verivox Versicherungsvergleich GmbH. That’s how big the difference between the cheapest tariffs and the offers in the middle price segment. This savings potential is greatest in October and November each year. Verivox calculates its motor vehicle insurance index in cooperation with the statistics professor Wolfgang Bischof from the Technical University of Rosenheim.
Check24 put the current average liability premium at 286 euros, 15 percent less than in July. “Every year we observe that the prices for motor vehicle insurance fall until shortly before the changeover date on November 30th,” said Tobias Stuber, Managing Director Motor Insurance at Check24. “And we are assuming that the average liability premiums will fall even further. We suspect that this development will continue and that the motor vehicle liability premium will fall even further this year than in the previous year.”
Because during the corona pandemic, the general volume of traffic and thus the frequency of accidents decreased. The lower claims could have a positive impact on insurance premiums, said Stuber.
However, there are a number of factors that affect car policy prices. The development of spare parts prices has had a very significant impact, and these have risen steadily in recent years. It is true that insurers have to pay less damage on average due to the corona. But because fewer cars were sold – and thus insured – this year, many insurers have presumably also gained fewer new customers than usual. The hoped-for relief after the low-accident Corona months has not yet materialized, says Verivox manager Wolfgang Schütz.
In the past year, the price war in the industry intensified. Allianz and ADAC played a key role in this. Allianz launched its new online subsidiary Allianz Direct, and ADAC – also in cooperation with Allianz – wants to capture market share in car insurance. The market leader in motor vehicle insurance is HUK Coburg, which, however, does not want to lose its top position. The result was that, for the first time in years, new motor vehicle insurance contracts did not become more expensive in 2019, according to the data from the German Insurance Association (GDV) ./cho/DP/zb
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