Online Insurer or Broker: A Measured €97 Gap

Yes, buying online costs less than going through a broker, but by €60 to €97 a year on third-party (RC) cover, not by half. Across twelve Belgian insurers priced for the same profile, the five selling direct average €314.40 at 10,000 km, and the six selling through a broker or an agency €411.67.

What remains is whether that gap weighs more than the choice of insurer itself. It does not.

How much does buying online save compared with a broker?

€97.27 a year at 10,000 km, €60.23 at 25,000 km, on third-party liability alone.

The grid comes from Mon-Assurance-Auto, published by Yago, a licensed broker: one profile, twelve insurers, two mileage levels, recorded on 26 January 2026. The table ranks them from cheapest to dearest at 10,000 km and shows how each one sells.

The first three all sell online. It shows. But look at the sixth line: an agency insurer slips in ahead of a direct one.

The gap, channel by channel

Allianz, whose channel is not stated, is left out. That leaves five direct insurers (Yuzzu, Belfius Direct, ING, CBC, Ethias) and six with an intermediary (Fédérale, ACM, Baloise, Beobank, Argenta, AG).

A word on the percentages. Direct is 23.6% cheaper than a broker, but a broker is 30.9% dearer than direct: same €97.27 gap, different base. Pages that announce "10 to 20%" without naming the base or the profile give you nothing to recompute, while this one can be redone with a calculator.

Why does the gap shrink at 25,000 km a year?

Because direct prices climb faster than intermediary prices as you drive more. Between 10,000 and 25,000 km, the average of the five direct insurers rises by €77.20, the average of the other six by €40.17. Belfius Direct, which prices per kilometre, goes from €281 to €470, which is €189 more. Without it, the direct average at 25,000 km is €372 and the gap with intermediaries climbs back to €79.83.

The conclusion is simple: the channel gap depends on declared mileage, and the heavy driver finds a smaller advantage in buying online. Our guide to pay-per-kilometre car insurance details the threshold where that formula stops being worthwhile.

Does the cheapest broker beat the dearest direct insurer?

Yes, and it is the point channel comparisons tend to skip. Five facts from the same grid:

• €216 separates Yuzzu (€270) from AG Insurance (€486) at 10,000 km, which is 2.2 times the average gap between channels.
• The spread inside direct is €93 (€270 to €363), inside intermediaries €132 (€354 to €486).
• At 10,000 km, Fédérale Assurance through agencies (€354) costs €9 less than Ethias direct (€363).
• At 25,000 km, Fédérale (€393) and four other insurers with an intermediary come in under Belfius Direct (€470).
• Moving from Yuzzu to Fédérale costs €84, from Yuzzu to Ethias €93: picking the wrong channel with the right insurer costs almost as much as picking the wrong insurer inside the right channel.

In other words, the channel shifts the average but does not dictate the price. Having chosen "direct" on principle, you can still overpay by €93 by picking the dearest insurer in that channel. Our pages on Yuzzu, Belfius Direct and Ethias detail each of these three direct insurers.

Does the €97 gap match the broker's commission?

It is plausible, not proven. According to CallMePower, a Belgian broker earns 10 to 25% of the premium, paid by the insurer and not billed to the client, at a higher level on omnium than on RC. The 23.6% gap sits inside that range, towards the top.

But the grid does not measure a commission. It measures displayed prices, with different insurer tariffs, direct-channel promotions it leaves out, and intermediary quotes that Yago obtains from Baloise and AG. Attributing the gap to commission alone would go further than the data.

The useful question remains: what must a broker deliver to repay the gap? The table accumulates the average difference over several horizons.

As a benchmark, an at-fault claim costs €535 of extra premium over five years for the site's reference profile, worked out in the cost of an at-fault claim under the Belgian bonus-malus scale (0 to 22, a premium surcharge after a claim you caused). A broker who spares you a loss of that size within five years (a missing cover discovered on the day of the claim, a badly chosen cover level, a claim wrongly refused) has repaid the gap. A driver with a simple file who can read their general conditions does not.

And on omnium, does the channel gap hold?

Not measured, for lack of a full grid. The same site's detailed sheets, recorded on 26 January 2026, give only two direct points: Yuzzu at €939 and Ethias at €1,246 for full omnium. Both sell online and €307 separates them, more than three times the channel gap on RC. On own-damage cover, the choice of insurer therefore dominates even more clearly, and the quote guide shows that five quotes are enough to capture most of that spread.

Limits of the measurement: one profile, one date, eleven prices

One woman driver (born 1968, lowest bonus-malus, 85 kW diesel Golf, Court-Saint-Étienne in Walloon Brabant), one price check, eleven usable prices: a sample, not a market statistic. An average of six values moves if AG Insurance (€486) drops out, hence the medians above.

The prices are those of a clean profile. A young driver, a driver with a high malus or a cancelled policy, a powerful car are priced differently, and that is where a broker querying several insurers can reverse the gap, as our article on the choice between broker and online insurer explains. The grid does not test it. Postcode matters too: a resident of Brussels or Flanders will not see the same amounts, see price by postcode.

Method, reference profile and sources

The twelve RC premiums come from the public grid of Mon-Assurance-Auto (Yago S.A., broker licensed by the FSMA, Belgium's financial regulator, no. 114863), whose table is dated 26 January 2026 (introduction dated 28 January), consulted on 28 October 2026. Simulated profile: woman driver born 1968, lowest level of the bonus-malus scale (0 to 22), Volkswagen Golf Diesel 85 kW at €33,193 including VAT, Court-Saint-Étienne, 10,000 or 25,000 km a year. This differs from the site's reference profile (35 years old, Golf 1.5 TSI, Flemish Brabant, no claim for five years): only gaps and ratios are claimed to transfer, not absolute amounts. The source does not say whether the amounts include the 27.45% of taxes and contributions that apply to RC since 1 July 2026, nor whether promotional prices are excluded.

The sales channel (direct, broker, agency) is the one the publisher states for each insurer; Allianz is not stated, and P&V, AXA, DVV and Aedes appear without a price in the table consulted. Averages, medians, percentages and cumulated figures are in-house calculations. The 10 to 25% commission is what CallMePower publishes (updated 17 June 2026), with no source or euro amount. The omnium prices for Yuzzu and Ethias come from the same publisher's detailed sheets, recorded on the same date, and already used in our articles on price and monthly payment.

Legal framework: the law of 4 April 2014 on insurance imposes a duty of advice on intermediaries, all listed in the FSMA's public register. Market shares by channel are published by Assuralia. This site compares and calculates. It does not sell insurance, is not an intermediary within the meaning of the law of 4 April 2014 and gives no individual recommendation: speak to your insurer or to a broker licensed by the FSMA. In a dispute, the Insurance Ombudsman steps in free of charge; the Bureau de Tarification (the tariff bureau that sets a premium for drivers no insurer will take) and the Fonds commun de garantie (the guarantee fund that compensates victims of uninsured drivers) are the legal safety nets. No link on this page is affiliated and no insurer pays for its mention.

In short

Online insurance costs on average €97.27 less than a broker at 10,000 km and €60.23 less at 25,000 km, on RC, for a clean profile. The gap adds up to €486 over five years, yet €216 already separates the cheapest from the dearest in the grid, whatever the channel. Run a premium simulation, set offers side by side in the comparison tool and see the ranking of the best car insurers before choosing between direct and broker.