A quarter of French people are ready to stop insuring their vehicle or their accommodation to save money. We explain to you how to avoid getting there.
In which position to cut when the end of the month becomes difficult? Many French people are currently asking this question, as inflation eats away at the budgets of the most vulnerable households. Food? Clothing? Health? Hobbies? According to a recent poll (1)more than a quarter of those questioned would be ready no longer insure their car or home to save money. We are seeing an acceleration in the rejection of insurance, confirms Jean-Louis Kiehl, president of the Crsus federation, which supports households in financial difficulty. People prefer paying rent, reimbursing loans and stopping paying insurance.
Let’s be honest: it’s a very bad idea. Admittedly, in the short term, this option has the advantage of not affecting your lifestyle. However, it must be remembered: insuring your car and your home (if you are a tenant or a co-owner) are obligations. Driving without insurance, in particular, is an offence, punishable by a fine of 3,750 euros and 10 years’ imprisonment. And for good reason: auto insurance does not only cover damage you may suffer, but also damage you may cause others with your vehicle. This is called civil liability. Without it, the entire bill will be your responsibility, and its cost can be prodigiously high.
A 40 day countdown
What actually happens if you stop paying your insurance premium? If, like the vast majority of French people, you have made monthly payments, you generally have a right the error. During a first default, most companies automatically postpone the monthly payment to the following month. This is the case, for example, of MAIF, which agreed to answer our questions.
Be careful, however: if your budgetary situation is not restored the following month, a second payment incident triggers a process, framed by the Insurance Code, which risks leading you, 40 days later, to no longer be covered. It begins with the sending of a letter of formal notice, at the latest 10 days after the non-payment. Once this registered letter has been received, you have 30 days to pay your premium. After this deadline, the insurer launches a new 10 day countdown, during which your guarantees are suspended. After these 10 days, he can simply terminate your contract.
To delay the launch of this countdown, some insurers delay the formal notice. This is the case of MAIF, which sends a letter of pre-formal notice at the time of the second non-payment, billed 7.10 euros.
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Review your insurance coverage
To avoid getting there, there are no 36 solutions: you have to contact your insurer. The suspension of warranties, in fact, can often be avoided by negotiating a payment agreement. This generally begins with a partial payment of the unpaid premiums, then by a staggering of the sums still due.
Discussing with your adviser can also allow you to make a update on your guarantees. Check, in particular, that the guarantees you benefit from remain consistent with the reality of your needs, depending on the composition of your household or the condition of your belongings…
More generally, if the weight of insurance premiums in your budget is too high, it is advisable to make a overview of your insurance coverage. Tedious work, but which can be a source of big savings. Search, for example, possible duplicates: We receive people insured five times for the same thing and who, at the same time, can no longer put food in the fridge, complains Jean-Louis Kiehl. Or go around the marketto check that you could not find cheaper elsewhere.
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(1) Leocare / Poll & Roll survey, conducted with a sample of 1,000 people representative of the French population aged 18 to 65, from September 13 to 20, 2022.