Hi,

Has anybody had any dealings with the insurance company Smile-Direct, good or bad. Their offer was the cheapest on comparison.ch and because I am going to buy my 1st car in Switzerland I was wondering other people's experience with Smile Direct. Thanks.
Cheers

They got some good reviews on the Swiss consumer TV programme regarding price. My niece works for them though, so I am biased...

Thanks for your feedback Snoopy. Any other opinions?

I'd be interested in some opinions too. They gave us a vehicle insurance quote Sfr. 600.- less than our normal insurer (National Suisse). The irony being, Smile Direct is a subsidiary of National

No one have given any feedback yet but trying my luck if any new experiences with this company can be shared

I use them. There have been pretty good as I stupidly scratched my car after having changed parking lots....and forgetting I was now next to a post. Spoke to the body repair shop, spoke to smile and the rest was taken care of between the 2 of them. Friendly, helpful and no issues about not paying etc.

We went with Smile in the end and although we haven't had to make any claims, they were pretty easy to deal with in setting up the policy etc. I even had to change the policy slightly as the leasing company insisted the same individual's name was on the vehicle papers and the insurance policy. Very swiftly and easily done.

They are good, backed by a big group but everything is online so it you want a personnal touch with visit from a rep they are not for you, but if you want to save money, they certainly are !

I'm with them, and I've been very happy so far. I pay 450.-/year for my Ford fiesta with a partial casco.

They are easy to reach online or by phone, and their prices are VERY competitive.

Thanks for pointers - good timing for me, also looking at insurances.

There's one aspect of car insurance I'm unclear on: if I decide to grab a car from the lot, how do I arrange insurance for the drive home? Is there some kind of grace period from dealer to home garage, do insurance companies arrange the contracts with short notice on phone (or presumably, in the case of Smile, online), or am I supposed to know beforehand that it's a 8 liter V12 instead of a 0.9 eco car and set up accordingly?

There is certainly no "grace pèeriod" the car is either insured or not. You cannot just walk in, buy a car and drive off here, you will need to go to Service des Autos to get your number plate and ghuess what ? In order to get you number plate you need the exact cars papers' (Grey card) which indicated the specification of the vehicle, and just to make sure you don't do something stupid like drive without insurcance, with no insurance, no plates.

You chose your company, Smile in this case, you chose you car, you phone Smile who will issue an insurance ticket DIRECTLY to Service des Autos electronically, you go to the Service des Autos, annouce yourself, hand over the old, cancelled grey card and they check all is in order and give you plates.

Usualy the garage where you buy from organises all of this for you, at a cost of course, and it takes 2-3 days max, although you can walk in youreself and do it, takes about 10 minutes, no appointment needed

Ha... I would not go with them, they quoted me 900CHF more than my current insurer and also 700CHF more than a swiss person with the same data. Simply changing my nationality from EU to Swiss reduced my premium by 700CHF. Talk about an Ausländer Tax...

I used to be with them, they're cheap and good, I never had any issues with them.
I just switched to allianz24, they were a bit cheaper and smile wouldn't match their quote. I think those two are the cheapest around.

FYI: Allianz24 is now called ELVIA.

thanks for feedback im also looking at a change

They Quoted 621 chf for full casco of new Honda Civic Executive worth 32800 chf and for driver with Polish passport... Is this suspicious or what? Excess 300 and 1000.

Something is broken there i'd say.. way too cheap

Yes it was...It reverted back to Swiss nationality. BTW: it's so funny that with the moment you get your Swiss passport you cease to be public enemy number one on the road. Even if the process takes you 10 years of staying in CH and not having a single traffic offence Insurance mafia...

smile.ch changed their contracts and put the fee up 10% for next year! In comparison, my health insurance is going up 3.16%!

It's the only car insurance that puts you on 40% as their lowest level, so it can give you an internet discount of 10%, which then brings you on the 30% level you are with anybody else.
Actually it might be worth checking if the 10% is only of the 40% level amount. In fact, now that I thought of this, I'm quite sure I'll find out it is.

I can now have as many accidents a year as I like - there will be "Bonusschutz" on all accidents. I badly need that, after all my last accident was in 1995, why didn't I realize how terribly under-insured I have been? Because I'm such a dumb person, they force this on me now. (Hmmm, no choice, this might be a good insurance for English people. )

I always had a "Bonusschutz" for one case a year - after all that's what accidents are about, the not knowing if it will happen or not - but unlimited?
Oh, if you're a newbie to them, you still can get what I had and at a lower price of course.

It takes this internet-insurance (that's what THEY call themselves) 3 (three) days to reply to an email. Well, reply .... it was some blabla standard mail where I guess the name is entered automatically in the salutation (this feature microsoft invented for word in the ..... 80-ies?) that did not answer my demands but told me what I already knew anyway.
Maybe that should score them a point for consistency as - mentioned above - they consider their clients on the dumb side.

However, they will lose me - I got months to check out competition for other insurances I have with them - and I can't tell anybody how they behave when one actually has a case as I never had one in for ever - but before you fall for a newby-price they offer in the first year, get more info on them.

However, stay out of my way in 2019, I might get reckless.

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