All you need to know about Car Insurance in Switzerland

Car Insurance in Switzerland

In Switzerland, there are many kinds of car insurance. They are organized into three levels, each increasing the coverage by the insurance:

• Liability Insurance
• Partial Casco Insurance
• Collision Insurance

From these three car insurance levels, only liability insurance is mandatory. Each car should have liability insurance in Switzerland. The other levels are optional. But it often makes sense to add some coverage, as we will see in this article.

There is an exception. If you use leasing for your car, collision insurance will be mandatory.

On top of that, there exist plenty of options that you can add to your coverage. And each of these three primary levels has different deductibles and coverage as well.

Unlike health insurance, you must get all the coverage levels from the same insurance providers. So you need to look at your car insurance as a whole, not several parts.

I will consider that you have a car with Swiss license plates. If you have a car with foreign license plates, you do not need Swiss car insurance. But it is mandatory for every vehicle registered in Switzerland.

Liability Insurance

Liability Insurance, or Civil Responsibility, is mandatory for each car owner in Switzerland.

This insurance will cover the damage done to others. For instance, if you bump into another car, the other vehicle’s damage will be covered by liability insurance. The same thing occurs if you injure someone. The insurance will cover the medical costs of the person and their recovery.

This insurance will generally cover a substantial amount of money. In my case, it will cover up to 100 million CHF of damage. Since the law sets this insurance, each insurance will cover almost the same things.

One thing where the insurance can differ is in the deductible. Generally, the deductible is 1000 CHF for drivers below 25. And the deductible is 500 CHF for drivers that got their driving license in the last two years. And most insurances have zero deductible for other cases. Now, some insurances have  500 CHF or even 1000 CHF deductible as a base.

Unless you think you will have many accidents, you should take the cheapest liability insurance. Even if you have a deductible, it is better to take more affordable insurance. You will not use it often (I hope!).

Partial Casco Insurance

Partial Casco Insurance is optional for every car unless you lease your vehicle.

It covers you against many risks:

• Natural damages: hailstorms, landslides, floods…
• Collision with animals
• Damage to your windows
• Damage caused by marten
• Theft of your vehicle
• Acts of vandalism
• Personal effects: If they are stolen or damaged inside your car

The exact conditions of coverage will depend on each insurance. And each insurance will apply a different deductible to each category.

If your car is recent, it is generally a good idea to get this coverage. If you were considering using the full coverage (adding Collision Insurance), you would need Partial Casco coverage too.

If your car is older, it highly depends on where you park it. If you always park your car outside, it may be good to keep this insurance.

Since we have moved into our new house, my car has been protected from hail. And our new place is less susceptible to martens. Therefore, I have removed this coverage.

When comparing partial cascos, you must consider the price and the deductible. Sometimes, it can also be good to read the insurance conditions. Some insurance does not cover some incidents in some special conditions.

Collision Insurance

The last level of car insurance is collision insurance. If you get partial casco insurance and collision, this is sometimes called full casco insurance.

This car insurance will cover you if you are in a collision with your car. It will cover the damage to your car. This insurance is only if you are the cause of the accident. If you are not the cause, the liability insurance of the other driver will cover you.

Collision insurance is also optional unless you lease your car. But, it is a recommended option if your car is recent or if it is of value. The general advice is to keep this for the first five years. You may want to keep it longer if you have a high value car.

I am driving cheap cars. So, after four or five years, there is no point in keeping collision insurance. If I were driving a vehicle with much more value, I would keep it longer.

Now, there are some exceptions. If you are a worse-than-average driver for your car, you are better off keeping this insurance for a long time.

Remember that if the repair costs exceed the car’s value, the insurance could decide not to repair it. You will get the car’s value (minus the deductible), and then it is up to you to either repair the old car or buy a new one.

Occupants Insurance

Welcome to the big scam car insurance! The occupant’s insurance will cover accidents for the people that are traveling in your car. If there is an accident, this insurance will also cover damage to them.

It sounds good. But it is a big trap. In Switzerland, accident insurance is mandatory. So every Swiss people is already insured against an accident. And people with a Schengen visa in Switzerland must also have accident insurance. So for most people in Switzerland, occupants insurance is useless!

The only reason to get this insurance is if you regularly have people in your car that are not insured. This means they are not living in Switzerland, do not have a Schengen visa, and do not have mandatory accident insurance where they live.

If you are not in this case, like most people in Switzerland, you should not take occupants insurance. And if you already have one, cancel it and talk to the person that recommended it to you!

Bonus System

Each insurance provider uses a bonus system for their car insurance policies.

The bonus generally starts at 100%. It means you will pay 100% of your insurance. The way the bonus goes up and down is different for each insurance. But the underlying logic remains the same.

When you have no accident or do not use your insurance for a full year, your bonus goes down. The bonus is generally going down 5% at a time. But it could go down 10% at a time.

And once you have an accident, your bonus will go up, generally by 10%. The bonus can go higher than 100%. Some insurances have an option called Bonus Protection. If you take this option, your bonus will only increase after the second incident each year. You are allowed one incident each year with this option.

Something essential is that the minimum bonus is also different from one insurance to another. Some insurances have a minimum of 30% and others of 40%.

When you compare insurance, you need to compare the actual amount you will pay, not the total at 100%. Most insurance will show you the total amount, not the bonus-adjusted amount. Since insurances do not have the same minimum, you should never compare the full amount.

When you take on new insurance, you must ensure you will start with a low bonus! Unless you are a new driver, there is no reason to start with 100%. Generally, you can continue with the same bonus level you have now.

How can you pay less for your car insurance?

With all that we learned, we can do a few things to pay less for car insurance.

Which car insurance should you choose?

Choosing a car insurance policy is not an easy task. The best insurance will depend on each situation. I cannot tell you which insurance is the best for your case.

First, you must decide which level of insurance you want to take for your car. For instance, you may use only liability insurance if you have an old car. Or you may choose to go with the full coverage if you just got a new car.

Then, once you have decided on the options you want, it is time to compare the offers available to you. There are many insurance providers in Switzerland. And there is not one that is the best for every situation.

For me, the best insurance is the cheapest one for my situation. But there are a few more things I will take into account when I compare different policies:

• The starting bonus. Since I have been driving for more than ten years, I expect to directly start at the minimum bonus.
• The deductibles of the different levels. Given the same price, I would rather have lower deductibles. But if possible, I could increase my deductibles for a lower price.
• The limits of coverage. Some insurances are pretty limited in what they cover. For instance, some insurance providers will directly cover you if you drive abroad. If I have a problem, I want to be covered.

Car insurance comparison tools

Given the massive choice of car insurance providers in Switzerland, it is better to use a comparison tool to find the best one.

Unfortunately, there are fewer great comparison tools for car insurance. It is a bit sad since the comparison tools for health insurance are very good. But for car insurance, this is not the case.

The best car insurance comparison tool, in my opinion, is the comparison tool from bonus.ch. They have a great choice of insurances. And their interface is pretty good. You will have to enter plenty of data before you can get an offer. But that is the case of every comparison tool.

The second car insurance comparison tool you should check out is the comparison tool from comparis. Usually, I like comparison tools from Comparis. Yet, I am not a fan of this one. For the simple reason that they do not show the insurance names directly. You have to click on each product, one by one, to get the real results. It is simply a bad design. But it also gets the job done.

So, first, you should try the comparison tool from bonus.ch. And if you do not like it, you should use the comparis. Of course, you can also use both to validate the results.

If you want, you can also go through an insurance broker. There are some good ones. Be careful that they may not offer you the best offer. Generally, they only work with a subset of insurance. It means they may not work with the cheapest ones available for your situation. And they are likely to try to get you extra insurance that you do not need.

Conclusion

The car insurance system in Switzerland is quite complicated. But, it is not as complicated as the health insurance system.

You need to make sure you do not take too much coverage. Most insurance will try to make you take as much coverage as possible, regardless of your situation. But in a lot of cases, you do not need full coverage. And you will likely never need occupants insurance.

And I feel like the prices for car insurance in Switzerland are fair. They are not cheap (nothing is cheap here). But they are affordable. And you have several choices you can make in what you can want to get covered or not.

And before you ask the question, I am currently with Helvetia for my car. My car is from 2013. I only kept the liability insurance on this car. At this point, my car is not worth much.

To learn more about insurance in Switzerland, you should also read about Health Insurance in Switzerland.

What about you? Which car insurance do you have? And what insurance have you taken for your car?