Car insurance fees stagnate

Netrisk says that the winners of this yearʼs insurance season so far are K&H, Union and Allianz, with these insurance providers together accounting for some 59% of all new contracts.

"It is good news for motorists that the dynamic fee growth that has been going on for years has practically stopped: the barely more than 1.5% increase is well under the rate of inflation," says Netrisk CEO László Sebestyén. "While the totality of damage fees still shows an upward trend, broker services such as fee comparison create appropriate competition to keep the fee increase strongly limited."

Around 40% of signed contracts in the first quarter concerned changing insurance providers at the end of annual expiration. Netrisk says that the rate of owners consciously comparing insurance offers even outside the "campaign period" is increasing.

The average fee on an annual expiration deal was HUF 38,100, only HUF 100 more than last year. The average fee of immediate contracts was HUF 57,700, up 2.5% year-on-year. The difference between the fees can be attributed to the differences in the composition and bonus classification of the car fleets of the two contract types.

Similarly to end-of-year insurance campaigns, insurance companies provide special discounts in the case of clients paying their insurance fees in one lump sum, or if they pay via bank transfer instead of cash. These discounts may lower yearly insurance costs by as much as one third, Netrisk says. Due to this benefit, the number of those who pay their yearly fees in one sum has grown from 60% to 63%. The ratio of those paying quarterly fees has decreased from 33% to 31%, with the remaining 6% settling payment in two transactions.