Bonus-malus in automobile insurance
Verified 04 September 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
You've had a traffic accident and you're wondering what its impact will be on your car insurance contract? The claim may affect your bonus-malus, which is a system of modulating the insurance premium according to your behavior on the road. We explain how the bonus-malus system works.
The bonus-malus system, also called reduction-increase coefficient, is a clause contained in auto insurance contracts.
This is a formula for reducing or increasing the insurance premium, at each annual deadline, depending on your behavior.
The principle is that your reduction-increase coefficient is increased when you have claims involving your liability, and reduced in the absence of claims, over a reference period.
Each year, your reduction-increase coefficient is applied to the reference premium, the premium calculated at enrollment, to determine the new amount to be paid.
If your coefficient has dropped, you will have a reduction in the reference premium and you will pay less for your insurance.
If your coefficient has increased, you will have an increase in the reference premium and you will pay a higher rate.
The bonus-malus system applies to all land motor vehicles.
Warning
The following vehicles, equipment and appliances are not not concerned :
- Moped
- Winter service craft
- Light weight motorcycle
- Light motor quadricycle
- Heavy motor quadricycle
- Collection vehicle (over 30 years old)
- Priority general interest vehicle (bus)
- Vehicles of general interest with easy access (ambulances, fire-fighting vehicles)
- Agricultural vehicles and equipment
- Forest equipment
- Public works equipment
The claims taken into account for the application of the bonus-malus are those in which you have a liability and which have resulted in compensation from the insurer.
Your liability may be total or partial, but it has to be established after discussion between the insurers, not just by the driver with whom you had an accident.
The bonus-malus takes as a reference the period of 12 consecutive months which ends 2 months before the annual expiry of the contract.
Example :
For a contract with an annual maturity of December 31, 2024, the reference period must end 2 months before that maturity, i.e. on October 31, 2024.
If you count 12 months back, the beginning of the reference period is 1er November 2023.
For a contract with an annual maturity of 31 December 2024, the reference period is therefore 1er November 2023 to October 31, 2024.
The insurer is obliged to apply the bonus-malus rule.
However, the benchmark premium is determined by the insurer, and each insurer has its own benchmark premium rates. You must compare the reference premiums that insurers apply before you enter into the contract.
The vehicle's insurance contributions are calculated based on a bonus-bonus (or bonus-malus) system, which takes into account the accidents you report.
The starting coefficient is 1.
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Bonus
For each year without a responsible accident, you receive a discount of 5% on your previous year's coefficient.
Multiply the previous year's coefficient by 0.95 to obtain the year's coefficient, if there was no accident with a share of responsibility. By default, the coefficient is rounded to 2 decimal places.
The maximum reduction is set at 50% (coefficient 0.50).
When you reach that level, the coefficient can no longer fall.
Age of the contract | Bonus Coefficient | Calculation of the coefficient | Example with a reference premium of €1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
Subscription | 1 | - | €1,000 |
1er birthday | 0.95 | 1*0.95 = 0.95 | €950 |
2e birthday | 0.90 | 0.95*0.95 = 0.9025 rounded to 0.90 | €900 |
3e birthday | 0.85 | 0.90*0.95 = 0.855 rounded to 0.85 | €850 |
4e birthday | 0.80 | 0.85*0.95 = 0.8075 rounded to 0.80 | €800 |
5e birthday | 0.76 | 0.80*0.95 = 0.76 | €760 |
6e birthday | 0.72 | 0.76*0.95 = 0.722 rounded to 0.72 | €720 |
7e birthday | 0.68 | 0.72*0.95 = 0.684 rounded to 0.68 | €680 |
8e birthday | 0.64 | 0.68*0.95 = 0.646 rounded to 0.64 | €640 |
9e birthday | 0.60 | 0.64*0.95 = 0.608 rounded to 0.6 | €600 |
10e birthday | 0.57 | 0.60*0.95 = 0.57 rounded to 0.57 | €570 |
11e birthday | 0.54 | 0.57*0.95 = 0.541 rounded to 0.54 | €540 |
12e birthday | 0.51 | 0.54*0.95 = 0.513 rounded to 0.51 | €510 |
13e birthday | 0.50 | 0.51*0.95 = 0.48 rounded to 0.5 maximum coefficient | €500 |
Please note
the coefficient obtained by applying the bonus-malus rule shall be adjusted according to the number of claims registered by the insurance companies during the previous year. This is the technical coefficient of variation for disaster.
Malus
For each accident responsible, the insured person is subject to an increase of 25%.
To determine the coefficient which will result from this increase, the coefficient before the accident is taken and multiplied by 1.25.
Example :
Example:
- You have a coefficient of 0.68.
- One 1er The accident will result in a new coefficient, namely: 0.68 * 1.25 = 0.85.
- If you have a second accident in the same year, your coefficient will increase to: 0.85 * 1.25 = 1.06.
The maximum coefficient shall be 3,5.
Thus, for a reference premium of €1,000, the maximum premium amount is €3,500.
If you are partially responsible for the accident, the increase is 12.5%. In this case, the coefficient will return to 1 again if you do not have a responsible accident for 2 years.
FYI
if you have had a coefficient of 0.50 for at least 3 years, the 1er the responsible accident that occurs does not result in the malus being applied.
Link between bonus and malus
When subscribing to the 1er contract, you have a coefficient of 1.
If you do not have an accident involving even part of your liability during the 1re year, you receive a discount of 5%.
Your coefficient for the 2e year will therefore be: 1*0.95 = 0.95.
If you have a responsible accident during the 2nde year, you will be subject to an increase of 25%.
Your coefficient for the 3e year will therefore be the year of the 2nde year plus 25% : 0.95*1.25 = 1.1875, rounded to 1.18.
To determine the coefficient of the 4e year, the coefficient of 3 shall be appliede year is a reduction of 5% or an increase of 25% depending on whether or not there was a responsible accident.
How is the transfer done?
You keep your bonus-malus coefficient at the end of your insurance contract.
He will be automatically transferred if you change your vehicle or insurer or buy an additional vehicle (provided there are no new usual drivers).
If you're selling your vehicle and if you do not take over another one immediately, your contract will be terminated.
If the outage is less than 3 months and you have not experienced a responsible disaster within a year, you will benefit from an evolution of 5% of your bonus by signing your next contract.
If the interruption is more than 3 months, you keep the bonus-malus you had before the interruption, but the insurer may decide to consider you as a new driver if the duration of the interruption is very long.
How to know your bonus coefficient malus?
Each year, when your contract expires, your insurer issues you with a statement of information.
This document mentions your bonus-malus coefficient and the list of claims liable for the previous 5 annual periods. You can also request this statement at another time.
This statement will be essential if you want to change your insurer.
Who can help me?
Find who can answer your questions in your region
General provisions of the insurance contract
France Insurance Companies
Supervisory and Resolution Authority (ACPR)
European Commission