Today I was convinced that it is possible to save thousands a year on mandatory liability insurance with a 15-minute phone call.
How?
Sometimes all it takes is not letting the insurance companies “pull the wool over your eyes.”
That happened to me today.
We have two cars at home.
One is a roughly one-year-old Mitsubishi ASX, and the other is a Škoda Fabia 1.9 TDI, whose insurance expires in March.
Personally, I prefer the Fabia, even though it has 74 kW and the Mitsubishi 86 kW; it is considerably nimbler and I sit more comfortably in it.
My girlfriend is the opposite; she prefers taller cars.
A year passed in the blink of an eye, and today I received a renewal notice in the mail for another year of mandatory liability insurance.
As I was opening the envelope, I remembered last year, when I paid roughly CZK 4,300 for mandatory liability insurance and additional windshield insurance.
I always insure the windshield, because Murphy’s law works perfectly in my case: whenever I decline the insurance, I end up having to replace it within a month (a stone from the car in front of me or something similar).
When I have it insured, nothing happens with 100% certainty.
So, back to the letter with the contract renewal and the new green card.
I opened the envelope with the AXA logo and read:
“With regard to the development of claims rates in individual insurance segments, the costs of claim payments and other circumstances, we have determined the annual price of your insurance as follows:
Mandatory liability insurance: CZK 5,446
Additional glass insurance: CZK 908
FIX insurance premium for the costs of the insurance contract: CZK 174.
Your new annual insurance installment: CZK 6,528”.
Excuse my language, but I was “staring at it in shock.”
Can an insurance company really just raise mandatory liability insurance by more than CZK 2,000 a year?
Even though I had once again had a completely claim-free year?
And on top of that, I had insured additional vehicles with them during the previous year?
I am not going to pay this. Why should I?
I did a little research using various mandatory liability insurance comparison websites.
ČSOB Insurance always came out cheapest, so I called them right away.
I gave the operator my details and the vehicle details and told her what coverage I currently had and how much I was supposed to pay to my current insurer.
She entered it into the computer and gave me an offer for the following year:
“Mr. Barták, I have the quote ready for you. The liability coverage will be CZK 130 million, your driver insurance will be CZK 1 million, I will also insure all your windows and passengers, and we will add comprehensive insurance (including natural disasters and theft) for damage of up to CZK 50,000, towing and a replacement vehicle for up to CZK 10,000, all included in the price.”.
Honestly, I wanted to stop her and tell her that she had probably gone too far and that the price for such coverage, including additional comprehensive insurance, would be much higher than what AXA was currently offering me.
I will not keep you in suspense about how it turned out.
In the end, she offered me a price of CZK 3,422 for everything for one year, and she would even cancel my previous contract free of charge so that I would not have to do it myself and waste time on it.
I almost dropped the phone.
Hehe, I did not expect that.
I know that insurers usually offer larger discounts during the first year to attract a new customer, but honestly, I have never received a better offer from anyone.
We also agreed to switch the insurance for my motorcycles once their annual policies expire—one runs roughly until spring and the other until summer.
In any case, it is clear to me that one or two months before the policy anniversary, I will have to call again and negotiate a better price; otherwise, they will raise it again on their own.
All in all, I saved half the price during a 15-minute phone call.
I recommend that everyone do the same; it is especially worthwhile if you have been claim-free for many years, like me.
How much do you pay for your car insurance?
