How many drivers paid more to RCA last year to call their own insurer in case of damage / Head of ASF: Euroins bankruptcy – among the causes

Although RCA prices rose last year, hundreds of thousands of drivers chose to pay extra and the direct settlement clause, which allows them to have their car repaired more quickly, with their own RCA insurer, when damaged in traffic, rather than claim payment damages from the RCA insurer of the car of the driver at fault in the accident. Sorin Mititelu, the new vice-president of ASF, says that the bankruptcy of Euroins was one of the causes.

Hundreds of thousands of drivers paid an average of 187 lei more on RCA for the direct settlement clause

RCA insurers concluded last year a number of 491,230 direct settlement clauses in compulsory car insurance contracts, and the income obtained from premiums exceeded 90 million lei, resulting in an average annualized premium of 187 lei, according to the latest report of the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF).

The situation includes Euroins data in the first quarter of 2023, before the withdrawal of the operating authorization. On December 31, 2023, a number of 472,243 direct settlement clauses were in force.

For comparison, in 2022, more than 352,000 direct settlement clauses were concluded, and the first annualized average was 171 lei.

Why are more and more drivers choosing direct settlement at RCA? The explanations of the new ASF vice president

On Tuesday, HotNews.ro requested an explanation from the new vice president for insurance in ASF, Sorin Mititelu, related to the increase in the number of direct settlement clauses at RCA.

• “The clause is very useful. When you have an event and the guilty party has RCA with another insurer than the one with which you concluded the RCA insurance, you will call your insurer, who will open the claim file, finalize it, after which they will make recourse against the guilty party’s insurer.
• Your insurer takes the risk if the at-fault party’s insurer doesn’t pay.
• Therefore, through the direct settlement clause, you also choose the insurer you trust in the administration of a possible claim file in which you are the beneficiary, i.e. the injured party.
• This benefit was better understood by customers. And there was also the bankruptcy of Euroins”, declared the vice-president of the ASF on Tuesday.

Insurers paid over 103 million lei in almost 13,000 direct settlement claims

The ASF report also shows that last year RCA insurers paid a number of 12,529 claims related to the direct settlement clause, in a total amount of 103,499,015 lei, resulting in an average claim paid per case of 8,261 lei.

The situation includes Euroins data in the first quarter of 2023, before the withdrawal of the operating authorization.

On December 31, 2023, 3,842 claims were registered in the balance of the approved damage reserve, with an estimated value of 35,816,439 lei (does not include Euroins data regarding the approved damage reserve on 09/30/2023).

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