How to claim back excess from French car insurers after an accident
If you are involved in a car accident, you usually have to pay a franchise (Deductible) – the amount the insurer won’t pay back for claims – but there are some notable exceptions.
If the excess on your contract is €500 and you charge €1,200 for repairs to your car, the insurance company will pay €700 and you will have to pay the rest.
Read more: Who pays for my car damage caused by a pothole on a French road?
Many French insurers work with a tiered deductible scale.
With a high deductible – for example 500 euros – you pay less for your insurance than with a lower deductible.
Three important criteria
In France there is a general exception to the rule: you do not have to pay the excess if you claim an accident for which another driver is fully responsible, identified and insured.
If the three requirements are met, there are two ways of persuading the insurance company to pay the deductible.
The first is that you pay the deductible to your own insurance company but claim it back from the accident driver’s insurance company.
Legal protection can be included in the policy
Alternatively, if legal protection As part of your insurance, activate it to trick your own insurance company into claiming the deductible from the other driver’s insurance company.
legal protection is usually included in the package even with the cheapest car insurance from well-known companies or can alternatively be offered as a paid extra.
Most insurers in France also offer separate insurance renseignement juridiquThe service informs you about your legal options after an accident.
What if you get rejected?
If the other driver’s insurance company refuses to pay the excess, your insurer refuses to go through with the procedure even though you have Protection Juridique, or your company goes through with the procedure but the other company refuses to pay, unfortunately your options are limited.
You should open a case with the as soon as possible mediator Your own insurance, a kind of internal ombudsman.
In addition to trying to resolve conflicts between customers and the company, the mediator also has the task of resolving conflicts between customers and other insurance companies.
Since 2014, insurance companies must a mediatorto state their contact details clearly in the insurance documents and to inform you about the benefit when the contract is concluded.
If you can’t find them mediator Contacts yourself, your insurance advisor must provide them to you upon request.
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