Do my claim-free years count when insuring a second car?
When you do not claim any damage with your insurer, you build up claim-free years. With claim-free years you can get a premium discount up to 80% on the basic premium of a car insurance. These claim-free years are linked to your car insurance. However, more and more families today have a second car. So what about claim-free years? Can you also use them when insuring a second car or do you start building up again? In this article at Alpina.nl we explain.
Transferring claim-free years to a second car
Your accumulated claim-free years are locked into a car insurance policy. Existing claim-free years cannot be copied. This means that for a second car you cannot use the accumulated claim-free years. These are in fact already used for the first car. In principle, therefore, you would have to start all over again. However, insurers also recognize that this is not entirely fair, because you are already showing that you have a good claims history. To solve this problem, the second car scheme was created.
Second car scheme
Insurers operate different second car schemes. The most favorable method is to copy the discount on the first car to the second car. Suppose your accumulated claim-free years give you a 70% discount on your existing car insurance. With the second car policy, you will then get 70% discount on your second car as well. Some insurers do offer the option to carry over the discount from the first car insurance, but only up to a maximum discount. Finally, some insurers give a fixed percentage discount for a second car.
With a second car scheme, the discount is taken over from the first car, but the policies are not linked to each other. Therefore, in case of damage to one of the two cars, this does not affect the other car insurance.
Second car: transferring damage-free years
Upon termination of the second car insurance policy, you are entitled to the actual accumulated claim-free years in this policy. So if you have had the second car insurance for 5 years, with no claims, you are entitled to 5 claim-free years. The discount makes it seem like there are many claim-free years accrued in the policy, but this is the extra discount related to the claim-free driving in the first car. This can create confusion when terminating the second car insurance policy.
Normally, the second car must also be insured with the same insurer in order to benefit from the second car scheme. There are insurers who are prepared to take account of the claim-free years accumulated in a policy with another insurer when setting the premium, but this is the exception rather than the rule.
Claim-free years transferable since 1-1-2022
Since Jan. 1, 2022, claim-free years are transferable in some situations. Upon death, for example, they can be transferred to the surviving partner. Also for lease drivers and drivers who have lived abroad for years, it is now possible to transfer claim-free years. This way they do not lose their accumulated claim-free years. You can read more about this new regulation in our blog post.
Related pages about claim-free years
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