​Last year, following the bankruptcy of City Insurance, the leader of RCA with millions of policies, the prices of compulsory car insurance increased significantly, which is to be expected even now, after the collapse of Euroins. Therefore, RCA prices are temporarily frozen, but there is a little-known option in the law that allows you to find out if you are an insured risk group, in which case you can get an RCA a little cheaper.

The only legitimate solution to being able to get a slightly cheaper RCA is to check if your insurance companies consider you a high risk insured. In this case, you can contact the Bureau of Motor Insurers (BAAR).

Following a statutory formula, BAAR will calculate the high risk RCA premium in your case and assign an insurer to sell you RCA insurance at a level that is lower than market selling prices.

More than 71,000 policyholders received lower prices at RCA last year and this year

HotNews.ro asked BAAR to report how many drivers (individuals or legal entities) made such requests last year during the bankruptcy of City Insurance, and this year, taking into account the withdrawal of the authorization to operate from Euroins, the former RCA leader with almost 2.8 million of valid policies.

BAAR’s responses show that there are more than 71,000 policyholders who have been categorized as high-risk policyholders and have been assigned to an insurer:

• “In 2022, 60,814 applications were registered for classification as high-risk insured persons, 54,729 – in the category of high-risk insured persons.
• In 2023, until 04/09/2023, 19,664 applications were registered for inclusion in the category of high-risk policyholders, 16,341 – in the category of high-risk policyholders. All those who qualified as high-risk policyholders were singled out.
• The allocation of insurers is made in accordance with the following algorithm given in the procedure on the BAAR website: one RCA insurer to one high-risk insurer, in the order in which the RCA insurers are listed in the BAAR bylaws, starting with the first and ending with the last in that order.”, This was reported by BAAR representatives to HotNews.ro.

The only legal gate for those who will have higher RCA prices

ASF officials admitted to the government after the meeting where the RCA price cap was approved that some drivers, especially from big cities like Bucharest, will be charged higher prices than the RCA base rates from March 7, 2023.

• Reason: the loss frequency in cities like Bucharest is higher than in other areas, and insurers take the area into account when determining the final RCA price, unlike the base rate, which does not take this factor into account.

The only legal loophole for policyholders who notice they have high RCA rates is to find out if they are high risk insured, in which case they can contact the Bureau of Motor Insurers (BAAR) , which will calculate the premium risk and assign an insurer to sell you the RCA at a price close to the base rates.

What does insured high risk mean?

• A high-risk insured is a driver who, after renewing an RCA policy (without direct settlement and without other caveats and additional coverages), receives at least 3 quotes in a 12-month period from different RCA insurers whose total prices (net insurance premium + broker or insurer distribution fee ) are 36% higher than the current reference rates associated with the risk segment to which each is a part.

The premium for high risk in RCA is calculated according to the formula:

• Base factor for the vehicle X factor N (36%) X factor for the bonus-malus class you are placed in

Next, HotNews.ro will show you how to find out if you are insured with a high risk and what steps you need to take to get a lower price at RCA.

Step 1. Find out what the RCA reference speed is in your case

Take the case of a 42-year-old driver from Bucharest who has a bonus class B4 and drives a 1700cc car.

According to the ASF chart, people aged 41-50 years who drive cars with a cylinder capacity of 1601-1800 cmc have a reference RCA 1356 lei.

We remind you that the RCA reference rate is not the selling price practiced by insurance companies, but is only indicative and is calculated for class B0 and for 12 months.

Step 2: Calculate what the high risk RCA premium would be in your case

Once you know what the base rate is, see how much the baonus or malus class is in your case.

In the example above, the bonus class B4 means 80% of the amount starting from B0.

See here for more information on how bonus classes are calculated.

Now we have all the data to apply the high risk premium formula:

• 1356 lei (base rate) x 1.36 (factor N) x 80% = 1475 lei.

This is the high risk RCA premium, which is the RCA price you can get if you are high risk insured and apply to BAAR.

Step 3: See what RCA offers you get from insurance companies

The final step is to check if you are indeed high risk insured and for this you need to request an RCA quote, preferably from an insurance brokerwho will send you detailed documents with these offers which you can then send to BAAR to confirm that you are covered for high risks.

We turned to the online platform Pint.ro, where after entering all your identification and car details, you can get a simulation with RCA prices.

If you simulate today, the offers you will receive will start the next day, so the offers you see below are for April 12, 2023.

In the case mentioned above of a 42-year-old driver from Bucharest, class B4, with a 1700cc car, RCA prices for 12 months are between: 1416 lei (Grawe) and 2286 lei (Omniasig).

Generali does not even have an offer for 12 months, but only for 6 months, at a price of 1542 lei.

As you can see, this driver received only one offer at a price lower than 1475 lei, which is a high risk premium, the rest were much higher.

• Since there are at least 3 offers from different insurers that exceed the level of 1475 lei, this means that this driver is a high risk insured and can contact the Bureau of Auto Insurance (BAAR).

The procedure is very complex: what documents you have to send to BAAR

The Office of the Motor Vehicle Insurance Company outlines on its website the steps you need to take if you have high risk insurance. The procedure is complicated, so we advise you to start collecting documents early. Here are the steps to follow:

Log in to the BAAR application for the registration of high-risk insurance cases, available at https://public.riscridicat.ro, and fill in the data required for the application, to which you attach the documents required for processing, namely:

1. Proposals for RCA insurance policy for 12 months (minimum 3, from different insurers);

Proposals must meet the following conditions:

• – be created for the same pricing criteria, more precisely for the same person (insured/user) and the same vehicle, the identification data of which must be clearly displayed in the offers;
• – contain a proposed premium rate consisting of the total insurance premium calculated for a 12-month insurance period, obtained by adding the insurance premium less distribution costs with the distribution costs associated with the sales channel used by the potential policyholder, without service direct calculation and without other additional points/covers;
• – contain the insurance premium after deducting distribution costs, calculated for the insurance period of 12 months, without the direct settlement service and without other additional items/coverages;
• – be calculated for the same Bonus/Malus class, clearly indicated in the offer;
• – be valid, therefore contain the date of issue and the date until which the offer is valid, or the date of issue and the period of validity;
• – contain the offer code assigned by insurers; the code appears on offers issued by insurers (directly or through insurance intermediaries) and indicates that they have been verified and accepted in terms of the correctness of the data and the price offered.

IMPORTANTLY: Quick price calculations/simulations carried out on various online platforms are not offers on the basis of which inclusion in the category of high-risk insured persons is analyzed, as they do not contain all the mandatory information mentioned above.

2. A copy of the vehicle registration certificate for which insurance is requested; strictly for cases where quotes received from RCA insurers are for registration/registration of a vehicle, in the absence of a registration certificate (voucher), a vehicle identification card (CIV) can be presented along with a document proving the right of ownership or use (example: sales contract, leasing contract, etc.);

3. A copy of the document certifying the identity of the owner/user of the vehicle – a natural person for whom insurance is required;

4. A copy of the registration certificate in one of the statutory registers of the owner/user of the vehicle in respect of which the request is submitted, if it is a legal entity, respectively:

• certificate of registration in the Trade Register, in the case of companies

or

• a certificate of registration of a legal entity without property designation, if it is about companies and foundations (register of companies and foundations, etc.),

5. A copy of the tax registration certificate of the owner/user of the vehicle in respect of which the request is submitted, if he is a legal entity registered with the tax service, other than companies, associations and/or foundations (for example: a form of professional activity of a lawyer). , notary, personal medical, civil society, etc.);

6. A copy under the authority of the conditional representative, if the request is made by a person who is not the policyholder (for example, a brokerage firm).

The program can also be accessed by sending an email to: [email protected], which will automatically return a message with the link provided above.

Solving the request takes a maximum of 20 days from the moment of data entry

After entering the data and relevant documents in the application available at https://public.riscridicat.ro, or after receiving them by fax or mail, the decision takes a maximum of 20 days (activities from points 1 and 2 below), during which:

• BAAR checks whether your request is acceptable and will notify the result of the check within 5 working days;
• If you are classified as a high risk insured, BAAR places the claim on the general list on the electronic platform from where RCA insurers can voluntarily collect it within a maximum of one working day from the date of listing and you will be notified by BAAR of the insurer that has taken on itself your requirement;
• If the request is not accepted, the high risk platform will automatically assign an RCA insurer on the business day immediately following the deadline above and BAAR will notify you of the allocation;
• The high-risk policyholder has 10 working days from the time of notification of distribution to apply to the insurer for the conclusion of the RCA insurance contract.

Carefully! If the application is incomplete and / or not accompanied by all the necessary supporting documents, even if it has passed the verification contained in the application, their retransmission is considered a resumption of procedures, the 20-day period begins from the date of retransmission.

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