The claims history certificate does not contain your bonus-malus. It contains the list of your accidents over five years, with a liability box for each, and the new insurer turns that record into a level on the 0-22 bonus-malus scale. In other words, a mistake in the record becomes a mistake in the premium.
A record of facts, not a score
Many drivers picture something like "level 7, good customer". That is not what it is.
The certificate traces every accident of the last five years with the insurer that issues it. For each claim it states the date, the driver involved, the amounts paid, the status of the file, the liability (engaged, shared or not engaged) and any bodily injury. Levels, premium percentages and personalisation belong to each company. Our guide to the bonus-malus in Belgium explains the scale; here we look at the document that feeds it.
The same record can therefore produce two different levels at two insurers. The reading varies, the facts do not.
How do you get it, and how fast?
There are three entry points, and the quickest is not the one people expect.
- When you cancel: the insurer attaches it or sends it shortly after the contract ends.
- On simple request to your insurer, who in principle has 15 days to send it.
- Online at carattest.be, with the electronic ID card, for immediate access.
Beware of a fragmented history: if you had several insurers over five years, you need one certificate per insurer, not one in total. For a company car, the employer supplies the driver's named certificate.
Why is it worth more than a simple proof?
Because it is the item the new insurer uses first to establish your driving past, and it reads it without you. Nobody will ask you to comment on line 2. Line 2 will speak for itself.
The thesis here is simple: checking the certificate is the most underrated price lever on the Belgian market. People spend hours comparing premiums and not five minutes rereading the document all those premiums rest on.
Three lines that cost money
In a record, not every line weighs the same. Three classifications do most of the damage.
| Line of the record | What it should say | Frequent error to look for | Effect on your level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Car park scrape, other party identified and accepted liability | Liability not engaged | File still "open", fault not closed | None, if the classification is corrected |
| Collision with shared liability | Shared liability | Counted as full fault | Up to 5 levels too many, depending on the insurer's grid |
| Glass breakage or theft | Claim with no fault effect | Filed with at-fault claims | Unjustified malus, to be removed |
The figures below are an illustrative example: percentages vary from one company to another. Take the indicative scale from our bonus-malus article, where level 11 is 100% of the reference premium and level 16 about 135%. On a reference premium of €600, shared fault counted as full fault moves a driver from 100% to 135%, that is €210 more per year. Over the five years the claim stays visible, the bill reaches about €1,050, for a line one letter could have fixed.
Does the insurer never get it wrong?
The objection is serious: the certificate is generated by the insurer's system, and a system should not err. In most cases, indeed, the record is accurate.
But a record reflects the state of the file on the day it is issued. If the other insurer has not yet accepted liability, if a recovery is pending, if a settlement was adjusted afterwards, the box may show an outdated situation. A file that ended in your favour six months earlier can still appear as "open" with provisional liability.
An important nuance: the system does not err out of malice, it errs out of delay. That is why checking makes sense at exactly the moment it is possible, before signing a new contract.
What happens to an accident after five years?
It drops off the record. The window is rolling: a September 2021 accident will no longer appear on a certificate issued in October 2026. This changes the right moment to move. A driver whose only fault dates from five years and a few weeks ago is better off waiting for the next issue, where the contract allows, than signing with a malus that has just expired. Conversely, someone with a very recent fault gains little by waiting: the line will stay readable for years.
Two precautions. The date that counts is the claim date as the insurer recorded it, not the payment date. And the new insurer may ask questions covering a longer period on its own form, which has nothing to do with the certificate: answer accurately, or you put the contract at risk.
Must a claim be reported to appear on the certificate?
Yes, and this is where the small-repair trade-off makes sense. Damage you settle yourself, without reporting it, does not exist for the insurer and so does not appear on the record. A reported claim, even closed without payment, may still leave a trace depending on how it was handled.
Do not hide anything when you take out cover, though: the duty to disclose the risk remains, and an inaccurate answer on the questionnaire can have consequences described in our piece on forfeiture of cover. The right reflex is not to confuse "not reporting a small dent to my insurer" with "answering falsely to a precise question from the new insurer".
The ten-minute check
Before handing your certificate to a new insurer or a broker, set it beside your own memory and go through these points:
- Every accident in the period: is it really yours, with the right date and the right driver?
- The liability box: does it match the real outcome (accident report, letter from the other party)?
- "Open" files: are they really still open?
- No-fault claims (glass, theft): are they properly distinguished?
- The whole five-year period: is it covered, with one certificate per successive insurer?
If a line is wrong, write to the issuing insurer with the documents and ask for a corrected version. If the answer is unsatisfactory, the company's complaints department, then the Insurance Ombudsman (the Belgian out-of-court body for insurance disputes), offer a free review. The sector's claims-handling code of conduct is published by Assuralia, the insurers' trade body.
If I switch insurer, who reads what?
The new insurer reads the certificate, interprets it with its own grid, then quotes a premium. Neither it nor you benefit from a wrong document: it prices badly, you overpay. A broker can help you spot a doubtful classification and negotiate the reading of an ambiguous line, which is part of the duty of advice. What the choice of intermediary really changes is covered in our direct insurer or broker comparison.
Verdict: a page to reread before every signature
To see how each company prices a history, our ranking of the best car insurers in Belgium is a starting point. Then frame your needs with the quiz and move on to the offer comparison. This site informs and compares. It is not an insurance intermediary and gives no individual recommendation. In Belgium, intermediaries are supervised by the FSMA, the financial services authority.
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Grégory conseille des automobilistes belges sur leurs contrats d'assurance depuis plus de dix ans. Il décortique les formules RC, mini-omnium et omnium, compare les compagnies du marché belge et traduit les conditions générales en langage clair. Sa règle : aucune recommandation sans avoir lu les exclusions.