Car insurance, home insurance, mutual health insurance… Every month, the French pay monthly payments to be well covered. To reduce these expenses, everything lies in the art of renegotiating your contracts. Manual.
Last year, the French spent an average of 2,822 euros on their main insurance, according to the French Insurance Barometer from the Réassurez-moi comparator. The largest share of expenses being that of mutual health insurance, with an average of 1,786 euros spent per year, followed by car insurance (710 euros per year) and home insurance (326 euros per year). Each month, households see the debits for their monthly insurance payments appear in their bank account. 20 euros here, 35 euros there… Put together, this represents a certain cost every month. Unfortunately, most people mistakenly believe that they can’t change anything. And yet, it is possible to reduce these expenses and save money by renegotiating your insurance contracts. Renegotiation of an insurance contract can be done when you change your personal situation (separation or marriage, moving, real estate purchase, end of young driver status, etc.) and especially before the end of your contract period.
How to do it ? The first thing to do is to read your various contracts and check the guarantees included therein. Also, don’t neglect the clauses and asterisks attached to them in your contracts. For certain insurances, you may have, without realizing it, additional coverage which is not essential. With these elements in hand, it is easier to list what is useful or not according to your needs.
From there, you can use an online comparator to take stock of the prices of insurance contracts available on the market, with the guarantees that interest you. It is important to take this inventory and then negotiate with your insurer. In general, insurers have every interest in keeping their good customers, those who pay their premiums on time and who do not often report claims. After these steps comes the time for the insured to go to their insurance office to negotiate their contract. If you have been a customer for several years, the first argument to be made is your loyalty. Bank on it to get better guarantees and a more advantageous offer, and don’t hesitate to announce that you found it cheaper elsewhere. You can benefit even more if you have several contracts within the same agency. The profile of the insured can also play a role, particularly for car insurance if you are a good driver.
After the negotiations on your coverage, the other point to raise is that of the method of payment. Very often, policyholders choose monthly direct debit, and rightly so, because it allows them to have peace of mind and not be surprised at the end of the year when the bill falls. But if we take into account the economic aspect, it is the annual levy which would be the most advantageous. You can save on fees, which are sometimes added to monthly payments, and you can negotiate a price reduction over the year as a bonus.
This may seem like a small thing, but frankness is also something you can discuss. If this is high and depending on your situation, you can try to negotiate it down. In any case, don’t forget to ask for a quote at the end so that you can then look at your insurer’s proposal with a clear head. And if that doesn’t satisfy you, you always have the option of going elsewhere, to the insurer with the highest bid.