Currently, the price foreigners in Switzerland pay for their car insurance often depends on their country of origin. But this could soon change.
Under a new proposal to be submitted to the parliament during the Spring 2025 session, car insurance premiums would no longer be based on drivers’ citizenship, age or gender.
This change would bring Switzerland into line with regulations already in place in the European Union.
Currently (and for many years), young foreigners, especially nationals of certain countries, pay significantly more for their Swiss auto insurance.
Drivers from Kosovo, North Macedonia and Turkey, for instance, pay up to 74 percent more than the Swiss, according to a study by Comparis consumer platform.
The online comparison tool examined the premium gaps between Swiss drivers and those from the eight largest foreign populations in the country.
The result: young people from Kosovo have to pay the most, regardless of the model of the car they drive, ahead of those from North Macedonia and Turkey.
“Nationality is an important criterion for insurers in calculating the probability of a claim, even if it may seem unfair,” explains Adi Kolecic, mobility expert at Comparis.
Insurance companies justify this system by pointing out that it is based on statistics: in determining premiums, they take into account criteria such as age, driving record, car type, and, yes, also nationality.
All these factors influence the probability of an accident, and data indicates that certain foreigners are involved in more accidents than others.
“If statistics show that people who hold a certain citizenship tend to make more claims or be involved in more incidents than people of other nationalities, those statistics may influence the premiums charged,” according to Moneyland.
Just how much more do foreigners pay?
As an example, Comparis took a (fictional) 20-year-old foreigner driving in Basel or (for French drivers) Geneva.
While people from the Balkans and Turkey say 74 percent more than the Swiss of the same age, the gap decreases depending on nationality.
Therefore, a Portuguese will pay 24 percent more than a Swiss, a Spaniard 20 percent, an Italian 17 percent, a French 5 percent, and a German 3 percent.
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But that’s not all
Comparis also looked at premium differences for 42-year-old (and therefore more experienced) foreign drivers.
The gap narrows with age: people from the Balkans and Turkey pay 54 to 55 percent more than Swiss drivers of the same age, while Italian, Portuguese, Spanish drivers pay between 12 and 17 percent more.
Germans are best-off: their auto insurance costs 1 percent less than the rates 42-year-old Swiss have to pay.
(Much also depends on the make of the car — the more expensive the car, the higher the premium, though it is the same for Swiss drivers as well.)
How much is this in money?
Compared to an average premium for a Swiss driver (1,912 francs a year), people from Kosovo pay 3,178 francs, those from North Macedonia 3,169 francs, and people from Turkey 3,127.
That is much higher than insurance rates for drivers from the EU — ranging from 2,304 for the Portuguese to 1,910 for Germans.
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While this practice is not illegal in Switzerland — unlike in the European Union — some call it discriminatory.
For Mustafa Atici, president of the migrant section of the Social Democratic Party, this practice “is pure discrimination. Thousands of people have to pay more without ever having caused an accident”.
He conceded that many young immigrant drivers may be more often involved in crashes, “but punishing everyone who has the same nationality is not fair”, he said.
