Bonus-malus in car insurance: how does it work in Belgium?

The bonus-malus is simply a degree pinned to your driver profile: it drops one notch each claim-free year, climbs five notches at every at-fault claim, and that degree multiplies or divides your base premium. The whole Belgian subtlety lies in a detail many people miss: since 2004, this system is no longer mandatory, and each insurer applies its own grid. Understanding the mechanism is understanding why two identical drivers can pay double one another.

What is the bonus-malus in car insurance?

The bonus-malus is a degree attached to your contract that adjusts your premium according to your at-fault claims record. The lower your degree, the less you pay; the higher it is, the more the premium climbs. It is a posteriori pricing: the insurer adjusts your premium according to what you have actually cost.

The principle comes down to two movements. A full calendar year with no at-fault accident, and your degree drops one notch: that is the bonus. An at-fault liability claim where you are found responsible, and your degree climbs five notches: that is the malus. Claims that are not your fault — an identified responsible third party, a theft, hail — do not touch your degree.

In practice, for an average driver: the bonus-malus says nothing about your cover. You may have liability only or a full omnium, your degree is the same price lever. It rewards neither loyalty nor mileage — only the absence of at-fault claims over time.

How does the scale of degrees work?

The historic reference scale has 23 degrees, from 0 to 22, where degree 0 is the most favourable floor and 22 the heaviest ceiling. Each degree corresponds to a coefficient applied to your base premium: degree 11, the starting point of a new driver, is worth 100%, meaning no reduction and no surcharge.

Read this table as an order of magnitude, not a law. It is the single scale that applied before 2004, and it still serves as a common benchmark. Today, some insurers stretch the scale downwards (to −2 or −4) to reward very good profiles, others tighten the percentages. Degree 0 cuts the premium by roughly 46%, degree 22 doubles it: in between, every notch counts.

Is the bonus-malus still mandatory in Belgium?

No, and this is the point most drivers miss: since 1 January 2004, the single mandatory bonus-malus scale has been abolished in Belgium. Under the pressure of a European directive liberalising the insurance market, the state stopped imposing an identical scale on every company.

The mechanism has not disappeared for all that. In practice, every Belgian insurer still applies a reduction-surcharge system: driving claim-free stays rewarded, piling up accidents stays penalised. But each company freely defines its own table — number of degrees, percentages per degree, speed of the climb after a claim, rules for young drivers.

How much does an at-fault claim raise your premium?

An at-fault liability claim pushes your degree up five notches on the reference scale, while a claim-free year drops it just one. This 5-to-1 asymmetry is the heart of the system: a single at-fault accident can erase five years of patiently accumulated bonus.

Take a concrete case. A driver at degree 6 (coefficient 60%) causes a knock for which he is found responsible. His degree moves to 11, coefficient 100%. On a base premium of €700, he was paying only €420; he goes back to €700. The surcharge is €280 the first year, and he will need five claim-free years to drop back to degree 6. The real cost of that knock is not the repair: it is several hundred euros of extra premium spread over years.

At what degree does a new driver start?

A new driver in principle starts at degree 11, that is coefficient 100: the base premium, with no bonus or malus. He simply has no record to show yet. This is one of the reasons a young driver pays a lot — the base rate is already high for that age bracket, and no reduction lightens it.

From there, time works for him: one notch fewer per claim-free year. After five clean years he reaches degree 6 (about −23% on the reference scale); it takes a good decade to touch the floor of degree 0. Some insurers shorten this path for careful profiles, or take account of years spent as a named driver on a parent's contract — a detail that can save several entry degrees. We detail this case in our dedicated guide to young-driver car insurance.

How can you recover or lower your bonus-malus?

The only sure route to lowering your degree is time: each calendar year without an at-fault claim removes a notch, mechanically, with no step to take. No payment and no manoeuvre resets the counter artificially — be wary of any promise to that effect.

You can nonetheless act on three legitimate levers. Avoiding declaring small claims you can settle yourself preserves your degree (see the calculation below). Comparing scales across insurers, since they have been free since 2004, lets you land on a softer grid at an equal profile. Finally, some contracts offer a "protected bonus" or "first claim not penalised" option that neutralises the climb from a first accident: useful if you start from a very low degree you want to ring-fence.

How do you keep your bonus-malus when switching insurer?

Your record follows you thanks to the claims history certificate, a document your current insurer must give you free of charge on simple request. It lists your claims of the last five years and acts as a passport with your new company, which rebuilds your degree from it.

Without this certificate, the new insurer can treat you as a profile with no history and deprive you of the benefit of your claim-free years. The reflex, before you cancel: request the certificate, check that it correctly mentions your "clean" years, and pass it on to the chosen offer. It is a formality of a few minutes that can be worth several hundred euros of premium.

Should you declare a small claim or pay it yourself?

It is a calculation, not a matter of principle. Since an at-fault claim pushes your degree up five notches and raises your premium for several years, a small dent can cost more declared than paid out of pocket. Conversely, a heavy claim should always go through the insurance.

The method: compare the repair cost with the cumulative premium surcharge over the years the malus will apply. A €400 knock that would push you up five notches and add €200 a year to your premium for three or four years costs, declared, far more than paid directly. Be careful, though: never conceal a bodily-injury claim or one involving a third party, and bear in mind that the insurer can uncover an undeclared claim via the shared database.

Which Belgian insurers should you compare on the bonus-malus effect?

The players that come up consistently on the Belgian market are AG Insurance, Ethias, KBC, Belfius Direct (ex-Corona Direct), P&V, Yuzzu and AXA. None applies the same scale since the 2004 liberalisation: at an identical degree, the percentages and the speed of the climb after a claim differ from one company to another, and that is precisely where the premium gaps open up.

The useful reflex: give your actual degree (the one on your claims history certificate) to each insurer, and compare the premium obtained at identical cover. The criterion-by-criterion detail is in our ranking of the best car insurers, and the offers go side by side on the comparator.

Method and sources

The degrees, coefficients and rules cited refer to the historic reference scale used in Belgium before liberalisation; they serve as a common benchmark but do not replace each insurer's own grid, nor a personalised quote, which depends on your profile, your vehicle and your postcode. The legal framework and the abolition of the mandatory character on 1 January 2004 draw on the information published by the FPS Economy and by the financial education body Wikifin (FSMA), as well as on the explanations of Belgian insurers themselves, notably P&V. No insurer pays to appear in this article, and no link on this page is an affiliate link: we cite, we do not sell.

In summary

The bonus-malus is a degree, not a cover: it drops one notch per claim-free year, climbs five notches at each at-fault claim, and multiplies your base premium between 54% (degree 0) and 200% (degree 22). Since 2004 it is no longer mandatory, which makes comparison decisive: each insurer applies its own grid to the same profile. Keep your claims history certificate, calculate before declaring a small claim, and let time bring your degree down. Run a premium simulation on your actual degree, and the full ranking will give you the insurer-by-insurer detail.