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So you’ve moved to France, found a car, agreed on the price but before you can pick up the keys and drive off, there’s one more thing to tick off the list…
Car insurance in France is compulsory and you must ensure you are covered before you get behind the wheel.
And hopefully you won’t reverse into a bollard, find your car missing from the driveway or break down outside the boulangerie but if you do, you need to understand exactly what the different levels of cover actually provide.
So what are the different options?
Third-party insurance
This is known as assurance au tiers and is the legal minimum; it covers what is known as responsabilité civile, in other words public liability. If you have third-party insurance you will be covered for any damage you cause to other people or their property. That could include any vehicle you hit, injuries to passengers or pedestrians and any damage you might cause. It’s important to remember that if you are responsible for the accident, this type of basic cover will mean that you have to meet any repair costs for your vehicle and you won’t receive any compensation for injuries to yourself. If you are driving an old car and could afford to scrap it / replace it yourself, then this type of cover can be an option but you won’t have any of the benefits that a more extensive policy provides.
Fully comprehensive insurance
Tous risques or comprehensive cover is probably the option to go for if you drive a new, relatively new, expensive or leased car. It’s also a good solution if you know that you couldn’t afford to replace your car with something of a similar value should the worst happen. A tous risques policy will pay out for damage caused to your car, even if you caused the accident. Some policies cover damage that occurs with no one party responsible; for example, if you come out of the supermarket and find that someone has reversed into your car or scraped the side panels and driven off. Always compare any exclusions and payout limits. It’s important to factor in the excess or in French, franchise. If the policy terms mean that you will be paying a high excess, then a lower premium starts to look less appealing.
Fire, theft and injury cover
Mid-range policies provide more than the legal minimum but less than a fully-comprehensive and can be a good option if you want a decent level of cover without paying for all possible options. These policies are often referred to as tiers étendu or tiers plus and may include options such as theft (vol), fire (incendie) and glass breakage (bris de glace). As the windscreen, sunroof and headlamps may be treated differently, it’s important to check the small print and see exactly what this covers. You should also look to see if there is a garantie du conducteur; this is the part of the policy which will pay compensation for your own injuries if you are involved in an accident which is deemed to be your fault. Even with a fully comprehensive policy, this is an area where it pays to check out exactly what is covered, what will be paid out and whether a minimum level of permanent disability applies.
The French no-claims bonus
The French bonus-malus is a calculation applied to your insurance premium. If you have no recognised previous insurance history and are insuring a standard private car, the bonus-malus starts at 1.00. Every year that you are insured without having an ‘at-fault’ accident reduces the current coefficient by 5%, so 1.00 becomes 0.95 and the eventual lowest it can reach is 0.50.
If you have an accident where you are deemed to be fully at-fault, this usually increases your coefficient by 25%, or by half of that (i.e. 12.5%) if responsibility is shared.. There’s an exception for the first ‘at-fault’ accident after at least three years of having a 0.50 coefficient. Having a lower coefficient can reduce your insurance costs quite dramatically, for example, on a premium of €600, a coefficient of 0.80 will bring that down to €480 before any other adjustments.
Roadside assistance and breakdown cover
Assistance is known as dépannage and the type of assistance will really depend on the policy; this might include paying for roadside assistance, towing to a garage or a replacement car. You’ll need to check whether it covers mechanical breakdowns as well as accidents, how far from home you need to be, and whether you’re covered if you travel abroad. The element known as Assistance 0 km means that you can call for help if your car won’t start at home and if you rely on the car on a daily basis, make sure you are aware of how long a replacement vehicle will be provided for and whether this is different in the case of breakdown, accident or theft especially as stolen vehicle claims can often take a while to resolve.
How to make a claim in France
- The first thing to do is, where possible, get everyone to safety and call 112 if there are injuries. If it is safe to do so, take photographs of the vehicle positions and damage, exchange driver details and if there are witnesses, their contact information.
- Then complete the accident report form or constat amiable. This is what the insurer will use to establish what happened and who is responsible. If the other driver refuses to sign, complete your own report and record the fact that they have refused to sign.
- The next step is to inform your insurer and you should do this as soon as possible and in any case, you must send it within five working days of the accident. In the case of theft, report it to the police (gendarmerie), check your policy and report it straight away as the deadline for reporting a theft can be as little as two working days from when the theft is discovered.
What happens next?
The insurer may appoint a vehicle ‘expert’ to check that the damage claimed for tallies with the accident reported, estimate repair costs and assess the car’s (pre-accident) value. If the repairs are going to cost more than the car’s value, the insurer may offer a settlement based on the replacement value as determined by the expert.
For damage which is covered under the terms of your policy, you can choose your repairer, but before authorising any work, check to see if the insurer is going to pay the garage directly, what excess applies and whether you’ll need to pay anything upfront. If you disagree with the proposed settlement, you are free to dispute the valuation and in this case, you’ll need to provide adverts for similar vehicles and any service history and ideally, photographic evidence proving the pre-accident condition of the car.
TOP TIP
Almost all French vehicle insurance policies have a level of ‘pick and mix’ so work out which ‘extras’ are important for you and add on or delete options as required. And it’s always worth talking to a broker if you are not sure about the cover provided – this is something you don’t want to get wrong!
