by They are the system on which auto insurance is based but how do the merit classes work? How and when does the transition between classes take place and how to avoid worsening your class?
The insurance premium varies greatly according to the class of merit to which the motorist belongs. The Bonus Malus system, organized precisely in classes of merit, has a simple operation but you have to pay attention to some details.
Car insurance: when moving from one class of merit to another
The so-called Bonus Malus is the operating system of car insurance, designed to reward the most correct motorists and penalize the most dangerous ones. It is therefore a merit-based system, which allows you to have lower premiums if you do not cause accidents and higher premiums if you are considered risky drivers.
The transition from one to another about the class is defined for each year:
- whoever causes an accident suffers the worsening of two classes of merit;
- who does not cause accidents to improve their class by moving up one level?
In total, there are 18 merit classes: 1 is the best, 18 is the worst. Anyone who takes out a car insurance policy number for the first time is placed in class 14, also known as the entry class. Each insurance company can establish a different scale, but must still indicate which is the corresponding universal class.
Car insurance: how to keep the merit class
To improve one’s class of merit, one must not cause accidents while driving. But other solutions allow you to keep your class and not suffer penalties.
If the insurance policy provides for the protection option in the event of a first accident, the negative effects of the first reported claim are canceled. The company will reimburse the other party who has suffered damage but the policyholder will not suffer the worsening of the merit class.
There is another useful option to benefit from a better merit class than the standard entry one and that is the one offered by the Bersani Law. When you buy a new vehicle, you can inherit the merit class of another vehicle already insured, if it is owned by the same person or by a cohabiting family member.
