From moped to car: how about claim-free years?
There are many people who start riding mopeds at age 16. As long as you do not make any damage with your moped, you build up claim-free years. These claim-free years in turn affect the premium. The more claim-free years you build up, the more premium discount you get. At some point you may want to trade in your moped for a car. Then of course it is nice if you can take your accumulated claim-free years with you. Especially young people often pay a higher premium for their car insurance, a discount on the premium comes in handy then. Unfortunately, most car insurance companies do nothing with the claim-free years built up with a moped insurance. On Alpina.nl we explain why.
What exactly are claim-free years?
If you do not drive your motor vehicle damage-free, insurers reward you with a discount on your insurance premium. The longer you drive claim-free, the higher the premium discount. Each year that you do not claim, you build up one claim-free year. The discount can be up to 75% and with some insurers even up to 80%. This saves you a lot of money on insurance. That is why people sometimes choose not to claim a small damage with the insurer, but pay for it themselves. This way they keep their claim-free years and do not fall back on the bonus malus ladder.
Why do the claim-free years with my moped not count?
Insurers unfortunately feel that the claim-free years you have accumulated with your moped have little value for car insurance. One argument is that the driving experience you gain with the moped is irrelevant to driving a car. Experience with moped driving does not reduce the likelihood of an accident with the car. Therefore, they do not count the claim-free years you accrue with your moped when calculating the car premium.
What can I do with the claim-free years I have accumulated on the moped?
Moving from a moped to a car does not mean that you will never ride a moped again. If you want to insure a moped or scooter in your name again, those claim-free years may still come in handy. If you have accumulated quite a few, you will probably get a high discount on the premium. Be careful, however, because claim-free years do not remain valid indefinitely. They expire after a certain number of years. So always check this before taking out moped insurance again.
I am a novice driver. Can I still get cheap insurance?
Younger drivers often pay a much higher premium for their insurance. This is because insurers see young people as a greater risk. Research has shown that young drivers are proportionally much more likely to cause damage. Therefore, up to age 24, you often pay a higher premium for car insurance. That doesn't have to mean you have to pay a sky-high premium for your insurance every month. Fortunately, there are always insurers who have different rules and conditions. By comparing well on Alpina.nl you can still get cheap car or moped insurance.
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