Where can you find the cheapest car insurance?
Our answer to the question of how you can find the cheapest car insurance is clear this year: First, go to a comparison portal and then get an offer from a direct insurer.
Specifically, we recommend you: First enter all the necessary data at Verivox or Check24. In the large velocebuzz study on motor vehicle insurance, the two were ahead of the comparison portals. And then, if you have all the information at hand anyway, you enter it on the Huk24 website and have an offer made to you there. In our query, Huk24 often had cheap offers – compared to the two portals, however, the direct insurer also had a significantly higher risk of catching a price outlier.
You should never just look for an offer from one insurance company. But even if you only go through a comparison portal, you will not automatically come across the cheapest tariff. Because no portal lists all insurances. You can read the exact numbers from our large comparison and how we come to our recommendation below in the text.
Which vehicle insurance do you need for your car?
Now it is time to think about the specific tariff you need. Liability, partially comprehensive or fully comprehensive? If you want to be on the road with your car, you need at least motor vehicle liability insurance. It pays for damage that you cause to others in traffic – regardless of whether it is property damage or personal injury. Liability does not cover damage to your own car. To cover them, you can get comprehensive insurance.
However, both partially comprehensive and fully comprehensive insurance usually costs significantly more than a pure liability. So think about whether you need this additional protection. Or whether that is the first point where you can save money.
Check comprehensive insurance every year
Whether partially comprehensive or fully comprehensive insurance makes sense for you depends primarily on the age and value of your car. Fully comprehensive insurance is usually the right protection for a new car. In the case of leasing agreements, fully comprehensive insurance can even be mandatory. If you have your own, very old vehicle, you usually do not even need partial comprehensive insurance. We have summarized for you how the comprehensive insurance rates differ and which protection is worthwhile for whom in our guidebook partially comprehensive or fully comprehensive.
If you have decided to take out comprehensive insurance, you should check every year whether the protection still fits your car. Because a new vehicle does not stay new. Therefore, after a few years, it usually makes sense to switch from fully comprehensive to partially comprehensive insurance – and thus save a lot of money.
How can you save on car insurance?
How much your car insurance costs depends primarily on how high insurers estimate the risk that you will settle a claim. They create a risk profile based on a lot of information that you have to provide. You can influence some of these points to a certain extent. Of course, without giving false information. If you deliberately provide incorrect information, you face contractual penalties.
Here are the six quickest and best tips for you:
1. Deductible pushes the premium
If you decide to take out comprehensive insurance, regardless of whether it is partially or fully comprehensive, you have the option of agreeing to a deductible. This means that you pay for minor damage to the car yourself. In return, your annual contribution will be cheaper. In the current Finanztip study on tariff features, we were able to save almost 20 percent with a deductible of 150 euros in the partial coverage. With an excess of 300 euros, an average of 25 percent. In the fully comprehensive insurance, a contribution of 300 euros is recommended.
2. Pay the contribution annually
If you pay your contribution annually instead of monthly, you can save significantly. So switch to an annual payment method. If you pay your insurance premium in one fell swoop instead of paying every six months, you save almost 4 percent. If you’ve paid quarterly so far, you can save 8 percent. And compared to monthly stammering almost 10 percent.
There are also some insurance companies that do not offer their tariffs with monthly payments. Including cheap providers. If you limit your search because you want to pay monthly, you have fewer providers to choose from.
3. Keep the group of drivers as small as possible
As a rule, your spouse or life partner is also insured as a driver without the premium increasing. Our study from August 2020 confirmed this. In addition, however, the following applies: the larger you choose your group of drivers, the more expensive it will be. Novice drivers ensure the highest surcharges. Our current Finanztip study showed an average premium of over 100 percent.
4. Realistically estimate annual mileage
How many kilometers you will likely drive – insurers call this mileage – you should always estimate defensively. The more kilometers you enter, the more expensive your insurance premium will be. And you can always register kilometers later. The Finanztip study from August 2020 showed the following average values :
- In our investigation, 5,000 kilometers cost an average of 8 percent more than 2,000 kilometers of annual mileage
- 10,000 kilometers cost 13 percent more than 5,000 kilometers
- 15,000 kilometers cost 9 percent more than 10,000 kilometers
- 20,000 kilometers cost 12 percent more than 15,000 kilometers
- 25,000 kilometers cost 13 percent more than 20,000 kilometers
5. Arrange a workshop commitment
A workshop commitment brings an average of almost 10 percent discount on the premium for comprehensive insurance. In return, you must have your car repaired in a workshop prescribed by the insurer after comprehensive damage. Before you agree on that, however, you should check where the nearest partner workshop of your insurance company is.
Be careful with new vehicles: If the workshop does not use original spare parts for repairs, the manufacturer’s guarantee may be lost. Therefore, you should forego the workshop commitment with new cars. If your vehicle is leased or financed, for example by a car bank, a workshop commitment is usually ruled out anyway. Leases or finance contracts usually stipulate that repairs can only be carried out in workshops that the manufacturer has authorized.
6. Save especially as a young driver
Car insurance is often particularly expensive for young drivers. How do you still save as a young person, you can read in our guidebooks novice drivers and claims category transferred leave. In addition, a telematics tariff can be worthwhile for you.
What damage does good car insurance pay for?
There are minimum standards that you shouldn’t go below in car insurance. We recommend that you make sure to select the following tariff features when looking for the best tariff. Then your car insurance meets the following five minimum criteria.
Important for liability and comprehensive tariffs:
Increased coverage: This means that you only get tariffs that have 50 million or 100 million euros as an insured sum. In this context, the insurer also speaks of amounts insured, and by that means the value up to which it is responsible for claims. With a contract that meets this standard, you are also protected against the financial consequences of serious accidents. A Finanztip study shows that most tariffs offer this feature at no extra charge.
Mallorca Policy: This option increases the sum insured for rental cars in other European countries to the German level. This means you are well insured against liability even on vacation. According to our study, this often no longer costs a premium. Only a few tariffs do without this protection – in one of our studies from previous years, however, these tariffs were not automatically the cheapest offers. So it is rarely worth doing without.
Relevant for comprehensive tariffs:
No objection to gross negligence: If your comprehensive insurance contains this clause, the insurer will pay in full even if you cause damage to your car through gross negligence. He waives his right to plead gross negligence. This becomes relevant if you have caused damage because you drove in red, were far too fast, or because you typed a message on your mobile phone. The insurance does not cover cases in which you were under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or if you made it possible to steal your car through gross negligence.
Marten bites and their consequential damage: Marten may be cute. But they also like to nibble on hoses and cables. And if things go bad, those in your car. This can lead to expensive damage. You have to agree on this so that your comprehensive insurer not only takes over the damage to hoses, brake lines, and the wiring itself but also covers for consequential damage.
Extended game damage coverage: This extension is now standard, you should hardly stumble over tariffs that do without them. Without it, the comprehensive insurance only pays in the event of accidents involving furred game like deer or wild boar. With the clause, you are also insured if you collide with other animals – for example with cows or horses.
What is less important in car insurance?
The following tariff features can be a useful addition, depending on your individual situation, but may cost a significant surcharge:
In order to maintain the no- claims class (SF class) after an accident, it sometimes pays to agree on discount protection. However, this clause makes it difficult to switch to another provider. The discount protection does not apply to the new provider and the accident in the past also counts for him in the classification.
With a car insurance cover, you get help after a car breakdown. The provider pays for the towing and accommodation costs if you cannot use the car after an accident. Some letters of protection also pay for a rental car and offer personal services such as patient repatriation, medical supplies abroad, and, in the event of death, assumption of funeral or repatriation costs.
If necessary, you can pay for breakdown service or towing assistance yourself. If you still want to insure yourself against it, you have to choose between a motor vehicle cover letter and an automobile club. According to the Finanztip study, the cover letter is comparably cheap.
With new cars, you can do without a letter of protection or the automobile club, because then the manufacturer’s mobility guarantee usually applies.
For those insured who have no disability or accident insurance and who drive a lot, driver protection insurance is an option. She pays the loss of earnings and pays compensation for pain and suffering in the event of an accident that is self-inflicted or contributed to. It is not to be confused with the driver’s accident insurance, which we advise against.
You can do without that with car insurance
The occupant accident insurance covers the costs if one of your passengers is injured or killed. But such damage is already covered either by the motor vehicle liability insurance of the person who caused the accident or by your own motor vehicle liability insurance policy if you cause the accident. The occupant accident insurance only takes over if after an accident the insurance of the person who caused the accident does not cover the damage, for example, because of a runaway. In such cases, traffic victim assistance can also help.
The driver accident insurance includes similar benefits as driver protection insurance. How much money you get after an accident, however, depends on the amount of cover you have chosen and the degree of possible disability – and not on the actual damage. If you want to be sure that you are fully covered in a car accident, you should take out driver protection insurance. Private accident insurance provides better protection against accidents not only in the car. But even this is not suitable for everyone.
What to do if you can’t get car insurance
Drivers, for whom insurance companies expect high costs or frequent damage, sometimes do not receive comprehensive insurance from comparison portals and direct insurers, even for a high premium. This can also happen to you if you are trying to insure a particularly expensive car.
It is particularly difficult to ensure vehicle types that are frequently damaged, such as sports cars. It can also be problematic if the insurance company canceled you because of frequent damage or incorrect information. Sometimes an insurance broker can help you in such cases. He may find a provider who takes the risk anyway – but often only for a very high contribution. The Association of German Insurance Brokers (VDVM) can help find such a broker.
Car insurance comparison 2021
| Company | Best for |
|---|---|
| Gabi | Quote comparison |
| Liberty Mutual | Customer service |
| Progressive | Flexibility |
| Allstate | Discounts |
| Esurance | Easy application |
| State Farm | Fast claims |
| Metromile | Pay-per-mile insurance |
| USAA | Military members |
| Geico | College students |
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