Parliament's approving a law making it much easier to switch insurers. Now, this must be done by registered mail and at least three months before the insurance company itself tacitly renews the contract. The deadline will be dropped, and cancellation will soon be possible online.
The Insurance Ombudsman receives almost 1,000 complaints a year about difficulties in cancelling insurance contracts. Customers often encounter surprises. Sometimes, when people decide to cancel a travel insurance policy, they suddenly get the answer that the cancellation deadline has expired and they therefore have to pay an extra year.
These practices are now coming to an end. The Economy Select-Committee has approved a bill stipulating that customers can cancel their contract at any time, free of charge and without having to give account. This can also easily be done digitally using the Itsme app. Only if the contract hasn’t yet run for a year, a two-month notice period will continue to apply.
Same rules as in neighbouring countries
"Today, you have to move heaven and earth to switch to cheaper insurance. Like in Germany, the Netherlands and France, everyone should be able to cancel their contract after one year. At a time when our purchasing power is under so much pressure, you should be able to choose the cheapest insurance that suits you best," Flemish socialist co-sponsor of the bill Melissa Depraetere says.
Insurance Ombudsman Laurent de Barsy is also pleased: "This is a good thing for consumers. Belgians often stay with the same insurer for a very long time, I think that will change now. People will switch much faster, especially with regard to car and cancellation insurance, because the thresholds are being lowered lowered."
Fire and debt balance insurance are often part of a package, in a home loan, for example. Cancelling a contract will be more complicated and may still impact on the loan, the ombudsman warns.
Will the changes also affect the price of insurance?
"That remains to be seen. In our country, there is already quite a lot of competition on the insurance market, but it is possible it may now become even more intense. In France, a similar change in the law made insurance cheaper."
2,500 euros a year on insurance
Possibly good news, then, because insurance is also subject to inflation: fire insurance became almost 11 per cent more expensive this year and the price of car insurance also went up by up by 5 per cent. In 2021, Belgians spent an average of just over 2,500 euros a year on insurance.
Insurers themselves are moderately positive about the change in the law. "A number of changes were needed to the law. Several insurers were already doing it, but it is good that it is now also in the law that customers can cancel their contracts online," says Barbara Van Speybroeck, spokesperson for Assuralia, the insurance industry's umbrella organisation.
"The three-month notice period was there to reduce the risk of customers remaining uninsured between contracts. This has to be monitored properly and will involve a lot of extra communication with customers."
It will be at least another year before the regulations actually come in. After the law is voted on in a full session of parliament and published in the Official Gazette, a one-year transition period will first follow.