The General Association of the German Insurance Industry has published the annual recalculation of the regional classes. This can affect the amount of car insurance. Read here which regions are particularly affected.
Basically, the better the classification in the regional class, the cheaper the contribution to car insurance is usually. Because the regional class reflects the damage and accident balance of a region. Irrespective of this, other parameters are also used for the calculation - for example changes in the type classes of the car model or general price adjustments by the insurer, so that changes in the regional class alone cannot make any statement about the development of the entire contribution, according to the General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV), which published new figures on the subject today.
Which entails changes for around 37 percent of drivers with pure vehicle liability insurance. Around ten million of them will be classified higher in 101 districts in 2023, around 5.5 million lower in 67 districts. As in previous years, the damage balances in Brandenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are particularly low compared to the national average and are therefore good. The district of Elbe-Elster in Brandenburg did best. In the highest, and thus worst class 12, Offenbach and tail light Berlin can be found again.
The calculations for 400 registration districts in Germany by the GDV and the division into regional classes are not binding for the insurance company, but they are a point of reference when calculating new tariffs.
The capital in particular is an expensive place for drivers. In a model calculation by the comparison portal Verivox, Berliners pay 81 percent more for motor vehicle liability insurance than those insured in East Frisian Emden. The premiums for partially comprehensive insurance are 66 percent higher and for fully comprehensive insurance there is a 64 percent cost difference. That corresponds to about 243 euros per year.
The background to these price differences is the claims ratio, which is significantly higher in Berlin and thus ensures that the city is classified in higher regional classes. In order to show the regional effect, Verivox compared the insurance costs for driver profiles that were identical, apart from where they lived. The average premium amount of the five cheapest offers from a total of over 400 insurance tariffs was evaluated. Regional price differences may change minimally as a result of the reclassifications.
Within the urban area, the regional classes are usually significantly higher than in the surrounding area. In some places, this leads to jumps in costs between suburban areas and the neighboring communities. Verivox calculations show: In the Berlin outskirts of Nikolassee, drivers pay up to 45 percent more for car insurance than their neighbors in Kleinmachnow in Brandenburg. And this despite the fact that they sometimes live in the same settlement. In fully comprehensive insurance, there are additional costs of around 191 euros per year "over the garden fence".
According to GDV, there are fewer shifts in the regional classes of comprehensive insurance. According to this, around 2.8 million fully comprehensive and around 3.1 million partially comprehensive insured persons will be downgraded, around 900,000 fully comprehensive and around 2.9 million partially comprehensive insured persons will have a better classification from 2023.
Once a year, the GDV publishes the so-called regional classes for liability, partially comprehensive and fully comprehensive insurance for all motor vehicle registration areas. The class in which the respective district is assigned can be queried via "dieversicherer.de". The classification is not only based on the damage reports of the past year, but is determined over a longer period of time. For this reason, transfers from one year to the next usually only take place by one class. The resulting additional contributions or savings for the individual driver are therefore usually less than 10 percent.
(This article was first published on Tuesday, September 13, 2022.)
