What is car insurance?
Whether you use your vehicle daily or only occasionally, suitable car insurance protects you against the financial consequences of an accident, theft or damage to your vehicle.
In Switzerland, car insurance is made up of several cover levels, which you can choose according to your vehicle, its value and your needs.
Is car insurance mandatory in Switzerland?
Motor liability
Third-party liability is mandatory to register a vehicle and drive on public roads. It covers bodily injury and property damage caused to third parties.
Casco and options
Partial casco, fully comprehensive and supplementary covers are optional. They protect your own vehicle: theft, hail, glass breakage, collision.
Fully comprehensive required
In the case of leasing, fully comprehensive casco is generally required by the leasing company, even though it is not required by law.
What exactly does it cover?
Third-party liability (RC): the essential cover
Motor liability is mandatory in Switzerland. It applies when you are liable for damage caused with your vehicle.
Example: a collision
You cause a collision with another vehicle. Your liability cover indemnifies the other party’s damage, but not the damage to your own vehicle.
Partial casco: protect your vehicle against external events
Partial casco complements your liability cover by covering certain damage to your own vehicle, independently of a collision for which you are at fault.
Your partial casco can then be extended
Depending on your vehicle and needs, various additional guarantees can extend your protection.
Parking damage
This cover protects your vehicle when it is damaged while parked and the person responsible is unknown. Example: a dented door in a car park.
Glass breakage Plus
Standard cover mainly concerns the windows. An extended formula may also cover headlights, rear lights or indicators, depending on the insurer. Example: a broken LED headlight.
Personal belongings / travel effects
Cette garantie couvre certains objets personnels transportés dans le véhicule lorsqu’ils sont endommagés, détruits ou volés à la suite d’un événement assuré.
Fully comprehensive
It combines partial casco with collision cover: impact, rollover, becoming bogged down, being crushed or a fall, including when you are at fault. Often required in leasing.
Beyond these three levels, your policy can be completed with various guarantees: gross negligence cover, bonus protection, assistance and breakdown. See also: breakdown assistance, traffic legal protection.
Common pitfalls
Example: the impact of an accident on your bonus
The bonus system determines the percentage of the basic premium you actually pay.
So if your level is 35%, you pay 35% of the basic premium, i.e. an effective 65% reduction.
Take the example of a basic premium of CHF 3,000 per year:
You then cause an at-fault accident and your insurer covers the claim. Without bonus protection, your level can rise by several steps.
Without a further claim, your level can then fall gradually according to your insurer’s bonus-malus system, but this usually takes a few years.
Premium levels and bonus-malus systems vary by insurer. This example is provided for illustration, based on a bonus-malus system used on the Swiss market.
Without bonus protection, the premium goes from CHF 1,050 to CHF 1,350. Insurance pays the claim, but the malus can last several years.
I already have this policy: how can I cancel or switch insurer?
Do you already have car insurance? You are not necessarily required to wait several years before switching insurer. Swiss law and the general conditions of your policy provide several cancellation options.
At the end of your contract
You can cancel at contractual expiry, observing the notice period stated in your policy and GIC. Example: 31 December, 3 months’ notice.
After 3 years, even if the contract is longer
A 5-year contract does not lock you in for the whole term. The ICA allows you to cancel at the end of the third year, then each following year, with 3 months’ notice.
Increase or change to the contract
A premium increase or a change of conditions may open an extraordinary right of cancellation. An increase due to a malus after an accident does not automatically give the same right.
After a claim
After a claim for which the insurer pays a benefit, you have a legal right of cancellation, to be exercised no later than 14 days after you become aware of the payment.
When you change car
Buying a new car is an opportunity to put insurance back out to competition. You are not automatically required to transfer your current contract.
Actual change of keeper
The new keeper can choose another insurer and have a new liability certificate issued. A simple transfer between spouses in the same household is not automatically a cancellation ground.
Permanent deregistration
If the vehicle is permanently taken off the road, the contractual situation changes. A simple temporary deposit of the plates does not automatically equal a cancellation.
Permanent departure from Switzerland
If you export the vehicle and deregister it in Switzerland, Swiss car insurance can be closed in accordance with the applicable rules.
Not sure whether you can cancel? We will take care of it.
You do not need to interpret your policy, GIC or legal provisions yourself.
Simply send us your current insurance policy and, if applicable, the latest letter received from your insurer.
We take care of:
We check its term, expiry date, notice period and cancellation conditions.
Expiry, 3rd year, premium increase, claim, vehicle change, sale or another situation: we look for the first cancellation ground that actually applies to your case.
We compare premiums, but above all benefits: deductibles, casco, indemnity value, gross negligence, bonus protection, parking damage, assistance and other important covers.
Once you have chosen, we organise the new cover and the steps needed to switch insurer.
We also handle the steps with your current insurer, making sure the ground, date and cancellation deadline are respected.
We compare cover, not only the premium
We work with several market players to compare cover, deductibles, bonus and conditions. The goal is not to sell the first offer, but to keep the one that matches your vehicle and situation.
Complete your mobility cover
Good car cover rarely works alone. Depending on your use, it can be useful to coordinate vehicle insurance with breakdown cover and traffic disputes.