Right, here's the deal.... I'm buying a new car (my first in Switzerland)! At the moment, I'm trying to figure out the best car insurance provider to take out a policy with. I've already gone through all related threads in this forum, and have done the usual searches on Comparis/Google, etc. All to pretty much no avail.
Does anyone recommend a particular provider, and why? At the moment, I'm kinda leaning towards Auto TCS (Touring Club Suisse). Anyone got anything good or bad to say about them?
Here are my vital stats (relating to the insurance!), and what I'm looking for:
1) Male, 29, Irish, Full Driving Licence since Aug 95. No accidents, parking tickets or anything else. No 'no claims bonus' either since this is in fact the first car (and hence car insurance) I've ever bought! Permit L since Dec '05.
2) Want fully comp, i.e, everything covered. Don't want to have to pay a higher excess if I have an accident abroad (as I plan to do quite a lot of travelling in it). Want as high as possible compensation if car is totalled. Do not want to have to watch my mileage (e.g, fastastic cover as long as I don't do more than 10,000km a year is of no interest to me).
3) Car is CHF 42000, 2.0 Diesel, I haven't got a garage, family, pets, and I'm the only driver
I'm not sure what you mean by "to no avail". Comparis lists and compares a large number of insurers with a huge variance in quote from the details you enter online. You can select a few , and they will sent you a free policy summary. Then you can compare details of cover before making your final choice.
Whats missing here ? a brand , image or warm feeling ?
As crime rate is low here, not many careful drivers have experience of actually claiming in their insurance...at least I don't...
Well if it helps I’m with Winterteur, have a 18 month car bought new here in CH.
Last year (in my 10th month with them) I had a claim ,due to someone putting a dent in the roof which I presumed was done in at a car park.
Up shot was basically no prob, they asked me to take it to a nominated panel beater in the same town as where I live and they would deal with it.
I had a courtesy car for two days the whole bill for CHF1800 was sorted out directly by the panel beater and wintertuer and I haven’t heard anything since,. This years premium was slightly down on last years, so all in all happy enough with them.
"To no avail" = still haven't found what I'm looking for.... hence the post. Comparis query actually returned just 7 providers. Only one had a quote displayed. The rest had to be applied for (and only 3 were free online).
"Whats missing here ? a brand , image or warm feeling ?" Quotes.
"As crime rate is low here, not many careful drivers have experience of actually claiming in their insurance...at least I don't..." Pride comes before a fall.
Hmmm.... that's quite a talent you have Dave. You actually managed to avoid answering a single question I asked in my post! Congrats!
It may come as a bit of a surprise to you, but we don't make postings on this forum specifically to answer your questions. Many people, myself included, are often happy to help, but on this occasion I don't see your difficulty in finding an insurer.
I had a bit of trouble getting car insurance as many insurance companies dont seem to like insuring holders of a 'carte de legitamation' (I have heard that Zurich, Allianz and Winterthur are the only companies that will insure you but I'm not sure how true this is).
In the end, I went with Zurich. haven't had any trouble with them. When I rang the salesman, he invited me to his office, took the time to explain everything to me and was generally very helpful. He was even happy to speak English with me (which can be unusual in Geneva).
I did notice that the premiums seemed to be pretty much the same among insurers, although the conditions (courtesy car etc) did seem to vary a little.
I've heard that Swiss insurance companies charge foreigners extra, however a colleague tells me that they are less likely to do this if you have a swiss driving license.
Dave, my original post asked if anyone recommended a specific insurer, and if so, why. I was interested in other people's experiences, opinions, and recommendations. I guess I'm using a bit of a 'gather, sift, decide' approach to car insurance.
To be clear, does "we don't make postings on this forum specifically to answer your questions" mean you don't answer anyone's questions, or just mine in particular?
Nick & Pacman's responses were very helpful. As was your response to Pacman. So, when all is said and done, thank you!
Thanks Pacman. That's good to know. I've got my Swiss driving licence, so at least I can tick one box. I'll give Zurich a call as well to see what they quote me.
Hi Murphy, frankly speaking, go comparis and after you looked up every comparisons give me a call to get better offer than the best of comparis. An English gentleman of that English Forum Switzerland is very hapy with my offer. You are a special human being so you need a special offer. Cheers, Arek Kasprowski My phone number is Call me just: Arek!
They still charge foreigners extra (up to 70-80% more than Swiss, depends on nationality) despite this practice was recognised as anti-constitutional by Swiss Supreme Court!
I've read an article about it in '20 minutes' newspaper few months ago.
Actually the first part of that statement is correct, the second part is not. It's very easy to check this for yourself - just go onto comparis and pull up some different quotes, but just the nationality and see how it affects the price. Whether or not you have a Swiss drivers licence (which is required after one year of residency anyway) doesn't factor into it.
To the original poster - Like DaveA, I'm also puzzled as to why comparis didn't seem to work for you. There may be something contained in the information you supplied which prevented certain companies from giving immediate online quotes.
A couple of my own observations about car insurance in Switzerland: Insist on a one-year contract - if they complain about this (in other words they want a longer one), hang up. I got trapped in an overpriced 5-year contract with Zurich because I was in a hurry and didn't read the fine print (1st page said 1 year, 2nd page said 5 years). Never again Insist on your quote being prepared as soon as possible, and without personal visits from the insurance guy. They'll try to get you to invest your time, so as maybe to ge you to forget that they aren't the cheapest, or cause you not to shop around. With car insurance, like health insurance, the right company for someone else is not necessarily the right company for you - different risks are insured in different ways at different prices by different companies. Check what is best for your particular case. Fully comprehensive insurance is almost always a bad value proposition, except in the case of new (1-3 year old cars). The premium will not go down as it is calculated from the new value, however in the case of total loss you'll get the second hand value. If you come from a country where your premium shrinks each year because the value of the car is dropping - you are in for a surprise. In my own case I found after insuring with Zurich and Winterthur that Zuritel were MUCH cheaper and easier to deal with. This is the "direct insurance" model which is seen in other countries. Zurich have always been the most expensive (for me, when checking comparis), yet ironically Zuritel actually are Zurich, just a lot cheaper.
I generally have a zero expectation with regards to how I'll be treated or what I'll get in the event of a claim. That way I can never be disappointed and can simply shop on price. For this reason I have only the minimum insurance as required by law: third-party liability (or haftpflicht in German). I apply the same philosophy for all insurance, I'm simply tired of it.
But as I said - those are my circumstances, yours will be different. DaveA wasn't that far off the mark in his response - you need to do some of your own legwork.
I'm not trying to defend Züritel (I have no love of insurance companies), but I do feel I should point out that your story sounds like standard operating procedure for all insurance companies, not just in Switzerland, but also in other countries I've lived in.
If the amount of the claim is lower than your excess (and the amount it would affect your no-claim bonus), then it makes sense that you pay it out of your own pocket. If you were the driver at fault, you can't expect the insurance company to fight over it. Even for larger amounts insurance companies often have agreements with each other to settle according to certain guidelines, it saves them time and court battles (which cost money!).
The fact that the money was never spent on a repair is also not relevant because the person may have to do this work in future (if selling the car for example) and it has effectively devalued the car. One day you might be a in a similar position and decide to keep the money.
I know it hurt, so don't think I'm having a go at you - just wanted to point this out in the interests of fairness.