insurance
Motor vehicle accident – this trick brings in more insurance money
After an accident, many trust that their insurance company has the best for the customer in mind.
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In many motor vehicle accidents, customers give away cash because they trust the insurance company to take care of the damage. With this trick you can get more than 1000 euros more.
The insurance company thinks of itself first and then of the customer. Strictly legal and apparently correct – but the insured still has over 1000 euros less in the account.
How does this come about and who does it affect? The procedure described by Finanztest cannot be used for every accident. Two conditions must be met: In the event of an accident, several parties must be “to blame” – then the damage is divided between the parties involved using a quota. You also need to have fully comprehensive insurance. If you only have liability insurance and perhaps also a partially comprehensive policy, you cannot go the way described by Finanztest.
Not in every accident
For the sake of simplicity, the example calculations assume two people involved, who were both 50 percent involved in the accident. In the case of unsuspecting customers, the insurance industry proceeds as follows: The opposing liability first pays 50 percent of its own damage. The remaining damage is then covered by your own fully comprehensive insurance. Great, thinks the layman. 50 plus 50 makes 100 percent. And he is wrong, with this model he is left with a good part of the costs.
How so? Because liability and fully comprehensive replace different items. As a rule, fully comprehensive insurance does not reimburse an appraiser or rental car, and a few other costs are not taken into account.
This need not be. At least if the customer makes use of his “quota privilege”, which means, in simple terms, that he can determine the order in which the insurance companies take effect. The word “quota privilege” is hardly known, but it can mean real money.
Magic word quota privilege
In the sample calculations for the financial test, the smart customer proceeds as follows: First, they contact their fully comprehensive insurance and have them settle 100 percent of the damage to the vehicle. Only with me the post that the fully comprehensive insurance does not take over, he then turns to the opposing liability. For some items he is then not only reimbursed 50 percent, but the full amount.
The biggest highlight: the upgrade to fully comprehensive insurance is also considered damage. Unfortunately, the effects are no longer paid out in one fell swoop, but must be claimed from the insurer year after year after they occur. Background: If you no longer have any insurance, the damage will not occur.
Overall, this way of regulation is more complicated, one should consider bringing in a specialist lawyer.
However, this model only works within certain limits because the opposing liability must not be placed in a worse position – the “extra money” for the customer is ultimately at the expense of his fully comprehensive insurance. In the example of Finanztest it looks like this: With total costs of 5600 euros, the insured person would normally only get 4300 euros reimbursed. With the smarter method, he would get 5440 euros. That’s a whole 1140 euros more.
You can take the entire test with valuable explanations for a fee here read.
Editor’s note: This is an updated version of the article. Our reader RA Franke kindly pointed out a change in the jurisprudence.
Source: financial test