Car insurance: bonus-malus no longer exists, and nobody told you
The unified bonus-malus system was abolished on 1 January 2004. Since then every insurer applies its own scale, and FPS Economy itself admits that comparison is "practically impossible". The document that counts today is the claims history certificate. Here is what the law actually guarantees you, and the two remedies when an insurer shuts the door.
The car topic on this site is mostly about tax: regional taxes, company cars, benefit in kind. Yet insurance is the second biggest cost item of a private car, after fuel or electricity. And it is the one where the gap between what the law guarantees and what the market decides is widest.
Third-party cover: unlimited for injury, capped for property
The Act of 21 November 1989 is explicit: "as regards damage resulting from bodily injury, cover is unlimited". For property damage, cover cannot be limited to an amount below €100 million per claim, adjusted automatically every five years to the consumer price index.
Compensated are: pedestrians, cyclists, passengers — including those in your own vehicle — and all third parties. The driver at fault is explicitly excluded from compensation under his own third-party cover: that is precisely the gap filled by driver insurance, which is separate from omnium.
The minimum terms of policies are set by a royal decree of 16 April 2018, applicable to accidents occurring from 12 May 2018. Insurers may offer wider cover than the legal minimum: this is one of the rare places where comparing general terms and conditions genuinely pays.
The regulated bonus-malus has not existed since 2004
⚠️ The 0 to 22 scale no longer has regulatory value. Some insurers still use it commercially, and many comparison sites keep displaying it as if it were the rule. No official source validates it today. Two insurers can perfectly well place the same driver at different levels.
The only residual obligation is descriptive: the insurer must describe the minimum and maximum levels or amounts of its tariff components. Many combine their scale with jokers: after several claim-free years, the next claim does not trigger a malus.
The claims history certificate, the real document
It is what your new insurer looks at to price your risk.
Refused, or priced prohibitively: two remedies
The car Tariff Bureau
Set up within the Belgian Common Guarantee Fund, it sets the premium and the terms on which an insurer is required to cover a person subject to the insurance obligation. Its cover is limited to compulsory third-party liability: no omnium.
| Access condition | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Refusal of cover | At least 3 companies approached |
| Premium treated as a refusal | More than 5 times the lowest premium in the insurer tariff for an identical vehicle |
| Excess treated as a refusal | More than 3 times that lowest premium |
The insurer is required to tell you that you are in one of these cases — a legal obligation few people know about and few insurers advertise.
⚠️ The thresholds govern access, not price. The Bureau itself points out that the legal thresholds only concern access: it can set a premium above those thresholds. The Bureau guarantees that you are insured, not that you are insured cheaply.
The Belgian Common Guarantee Fund
It compensates the injured party in nine cases, including the insurer going bankrupt, an act of God exonerating the driver, theft of the vehicle, the insurer failing to give a reasoned reply within three months, the unidentified vehicle, and the uninsured vehicle.
When the vehicle at fault is not identified, property damage is only compensated if there is also serious bodily injury: death, temporary incapacity of at least 30 days, permanent incapacity of at least 15%, or hospitalisation of at least 7 days. A car dented in a car park by a stranger, with nobody hurt, is not covered.
The declaration must be submitted within five years, which is a strict time limit, with no possible suspension. The Fund does not step in for vandalism, snatch thefts, or damage between vulnerable road users.
Omnium and mini-omnium: nothing is standardised
Unlike third-party liability, omnium is optional and not standardised. Each insurer sets its own cover, terms, excesses, segmentation criteria and valuation tables. No legal minimum conditions.
Two compensation methods coexist. Actual value is calculated at the time of the claim, based on the age, mileage and condition of the vehicle. Agreed value, or adopted value, follows a calculation method fixed when the contract is concluded, with an annual reduction of a given percentage — the year-by-year table is usually annexed to the policy. That table is the one to read before you sign.
The excess is always deducted. It can be reduced if the repairs are carried out in an approved garage. And the insurer must reply to the policyholder within three months of the declaration.
⚠️ We publish no depreciation rule, no excess amount and no average premium. FPS Economy explicitly confirms that these are specific to each insurer, and no official body releases a usable average premium. Any figure you find elsewhere is a commercial estimate, not data.
One official fact does shed light on the trend: the third-party car branch posts a combined ratio of 115.8% in 2024, against 92.9% in 2021. The branch has been structurally loss-making since 2022, which explains the upward pressure on premiums.
What the state takes out of your premium
| Levy | Rate | On what |
|---|---|---|
| Annual tax on insurance transactions | 9.25% until 30/06/2026 9.60% since 01/07/2026 | Basic rate |
| INAMI contribution | 10% | Passenger cars, mixed use, motorcycles, mopeds |
| INAMI contribution, commercial transport | 5% | Taxis, buses, lorries |
| Red Cross contribution | 0.35% | Motor vehicle third-party liability |
The INAMI contribution also applies to "vehicle bodywork" cover: omnium, theft, fire, material damage. Its base is the premium paid, excluding policy and endorsement fees.
The figure of "27.10% in taxes" circulates everywhere. It appears in no official source, and Assuralia states that insurance taxes with a specific rate — motor among them — do not change with the move to 9.60%, which suggests that third-party car insurance may not fall under the basic rate. We publish the three verified components, not a reconstructed total.
Cancelling: two months, and no more registered post
The Act of 9 October 2023 simplified the rules, with effect from 1 October 2024 for contracts concluded or tacitly renewed from that date.
The notice period drops from three months to two.
From the second year onwards, you can cancel at any time, without waiting for the annual renewal date: cancellation takes effect at the end of the two-month period. This is the most useful change — the annual renewal date was the main brake on shopping around.
Registered post is no longer compulsory: cancellation is possible digitally with a qualified electronic signature, such as itsme or the electronic identity card, or by any method accepted by the insurer.
These rules cover tacitly renewable non-life contracts concluded by consumers who are natural persons.