Motor insurance, whether for BFG / military personnel or any other customer, is a constantly changing insurance product (benefit and premium wise) and should be reviewed on a yearly basis! Whilst other agents like to advertise their car insurance products with the words experience, cheap and at all times comprehensive we at ERICON broker let actions speak louder than words.

Experience... is very important but how much experience should your broker really need for a simpler insurance product like car insurance? 10, 20 or even 50 years... Well to answer this question one just needs to look at the constantly changing Terms & Conditions for car insurance, with providers always out on the prowl for new customers. Insurers are frequently improving their tariffs by introducing even higher insured sums or extra (often pointless) benefits. Reading just these few examples you will have already worked out where we are heading... ... an up-to-date broker will unquestionably be able to give more precise and professional advice on benefits and exclusions than, let us call a spade a spade, the broker with bags of experience but its staff lacking compulsory qualifications or real knowledge on the product they are selling.

Cheap... is also good and we all like the best deal. However cheap has its pitfalls, especially with insurance!
There are only 3 real reasons why an insurance company will offer motor insurance cheaper than the competition:

1. They can afford to attract customers for a short period, hoping to cross-sell other, more lucrative products.
   These offers never last very long and are normally followed by a premium increase on renewal.
2. The costs are cut by keeping administration and staff to a bare minimum, hence the low premiums are reflected in poor service and customer-unfriendly claim regulation. If you never need assistance then you will cut yourself a very good deal but should you not be familiar with the way German insurance works or you need to provide foreign certificates for accident-free driving (No Claims Discount) then hands off!!!
   Direct insurance companies are the best example and apart from a few exceptions are all running at a loss.
3. The insurance company is well established with a big car insurance customer base. In addition it must know the market with its customers and be able to perform a very precise risk management. Experience and flexibility are the keywords here and only a handful of companies have these qualities for the constantly shrinking BFG / NATO market - Axa Versicherung with their special and long-established NATO department must be mentioned at this point.

Comprehensive... this wording of "overall coverage" has various interpretations amongst the numerous companies but should include the following benefits to meet the requirements of real comprehensive car insurance:

Not even with fully comprehensive cover do German motor insurances insurer all imaginable cases.
Commonly excluded from insurance coverage are:

• Damages caused intentionally
• Damages while participating in approved races
• Damages to the load
• Wear and tear

• German motor insurance is vehicle and not person related
• The No Claims Discount scale does not finish at 10 but one needs at least 25 years to reach their maximum level of discount
• No approved license plate - no motor insurance!
• German car insurance cannot be cancelled without providing a legal documentation

Apart from just assessing the human-risk using the following personal parameters

• Age of policy holder
• Number of drivers, their ages and relation to policy holder
• Year of previous No Claims Discount (NCD) of the policy holder
• Occupational status
  • Normal
  • Public Service
  • Agriculturist
• Profession

The actual main risk German insurers are interested in is the actual vehicle. Therefore, the following factors play a more important role.

• Date of initial registration
• Age of vehicle at date of purchase
• Make and model
  Each specific model has its statistically proven risk-ratio, called 'Type-Classes'. Latter are devided into:
  • Liability Type-Classes (10-25)
  • Partial Casco Type-Classes (10-33)
  • Full Casco Type-Classes (10-34)
  The higher the Type-Class, the more expensive the insurance is going to be!
• Area of registration
  Some destricts are pron to be more dangerous than others, therefore the postcode under which the plates are registered plays an important role (Regional-Classes). Regional-Classis are devided into:
  • Liability Risk-Classes (01-12)
  • Partial Casco Risk-Classes (01-16)
  • Full Casco Risk-Classes (01-09)
  The higher the Regional-Class, the more expensive the insurance is going to be!
• Annual mileage
• Overnight parking