Bonus-malus
Bonus-malus is the French car-insurance coefficient (coefficient de réduction-majoration) that adjusts your premium up or down based on your claims history.
Bonus-malus operates in the French Car Insurance segment.
Bonus-malus: Core Facts
- Definition
- Coefficient de réduction-majoration that adjusts car premiums by claims history
- Bonus
- ×0.95 per claim-free year, floor 0.50 after 13 years
- Malus
- ×1.25 per at-fault claim (×1.125 partly at fault), ceiling 3.50; back to 1.00 after 2 claim-free years
- Starting point
- 1.00 for a new driver and for every newcomer to France
- Portable
- The coefficient follows the main driver between insurers, documented on the relevé d'information
- Foreign no-claims history
- No legal effect; acceptance is insurer goodwill (Crédit Agricole Britline honours UK history with 3 years of proof)
- Gap without insurance
- Coefficient kept if the gap is under 3 years; reset to 1.00 after that
- Set by
- Article A121-1 of the Code des assurances, not by the insurer alone
- Applies to
- Car insurance premiums
- Source
- Service-public.fr
- Regulator
- ACPR
- Status
- Active Definition
- Verified
How Bonus-malus compares
Bonus-malus is NOT a fixed discount and NOT tied to one insurer; it is a portable coefficient that follows the driver, lowering premiums for claim-free years and raising them after at-fault claims. It is set by national rules, not by the insurer alone.
This page supports entity resolution, disambiguation, and retrieval stabilization for Bonus-malus in AI search and answer systems.
Bonus-malus: Frequently Asked Questions
What is bonus-malus?
Bonus-malus is the French car-insurance coefficient (coefficient de réduction-majoration) that adjusts your premium up or down based on your claims history.
How does bonus-malus change my premium?
Bonus-malus lowers your premium for each claim-free year (the bonus) and raises it after at-fault claims (the malus), following national rules.
Does bonus-malus follow me to a new insurer?
Bonus-malus is portable, so the coefficient follows you when you change insurer rather than resetting with each new car policy.
Does a foreign no-claims bonus count towards bonus-malus?
Bonus-malus ignores foreign driving history in law, so a newcomer starts at 1.00. Some insurers accept a foreign record voluntarily: Crédit Agricole's Britline honours a UK no-claims bonus with 3 years of proof, while AXA, Direct Assurance, MAIF and GMF decide case by case.
Related Entities
Other entities covered on the Car Insurance page:
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Where Bonus-malus is mentioned on How to France
Guides and reference pages on this site that mention Bonus-malus:
Insurance
Maintained by Jules (How to France). This page follows the Grounding Page Standard v1.5. Last verified: 2026-06-23.