Our third-party driver insurance.
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Third-party driver insurance is a form of supplementary cover for personal liability insurance that can be taken out subject to an extra charge. Depending on the insurance company, it may also be called “use of third-party motor vehicles” or similar. It covers the costs incurred if you damage someone else’s car while driving it.

Third-party driver insurance makes sense if you occasionally borrow a car from friends or acquaintances. Typically, third-party driver insurance applies if you use the vehicle no more than once a week for a maximum of two months, or for up to one week at a time. 

This cover is aimed at people who want to remain flexible without worrying about costing their friend or acquaintance a lot of money in the event of an accident. These include:

• Young adults who use their parents’ or friends’ car but do not live in the same household
• Friends and acquaintances who lend cars to one another
• People who occasionally borrow a van for moving house or to purchase large items
• People involved in neighbourhood car-sharing schemes run without commercial providers

Sometimes, third-party driver cover does not make sense, such as in the following cases:

• Commercial car sharing (e.g. Mobility or other providers) is not covered by regular third-party driver insurance. This is governed by the insurance terms and conditions of the car-sharing company.
• Third-party driver insurance is usually unnecessary for family members living in the same household, as many car insurance policies already cover these people.

Third-party driver insurance covers loss or damage that you cause while driving another person’s vehicle. It generally pays for:

• The deductible from the vehicle owner’s comprehensive insurance
• The loss of the owner’s no-claims bonus – i.e. the increase in the insurance premium after a claim
• Repair costs for cars that do not have fully comprehensive insurance

An example from practice:

You scrape a wall while parking a friend’s car. The damage to the wall will be paid for by your friend’s liability insurance. The damage to your friend’s car will be covered by his comprehensive insurance, if he has this. In this case, your friend will have to pay the comprehensive insurance deductible, which is normally between CHF 500 and CHF 2,000. In addition, your friend’s comprehensive insurance will usually become more expensive after a claim (loss of no-claims bonus).

If your friend does not have comprehensive insurance, he will be left with the repair costs and may ask you to cover them. This is exactly where third-party driver insurance comes in: it pays the deductible, offsets the loss of the no-claims bonus or covers the repair costs if the car owner does not have comprehensive insurance.

Whether you are driving your best friend’s car, borrowing your neighbour’s van or riding your aunt’s motorbike – anyone who uses other people’s vehicles should have good cover. This is where third-party driver insurance comes into play.

Cover yourself with the “use of third-party motor vehicles” add-on to our personal liability insurance. The cover applies to vehicles weighing up to 3.5 tonnes – including motorcycles and caravans.

Your benefits at a glance:

• Cover for damage to the borrowed vehicle if no comprehensive insurance has been taken out 
• Cover for the deductible from the vehicle owner’s comprehensive insurance
• Offsetting of the owner’s lost no-claims bonus to avoid higher insurance premiums

If you use third-party vehicles or car-sharing services on a regular basis, you can extend the insurance with Allianz Premium third-party driver cover – with no limits on the number of journeys.

Questions about third-party driver insurance? Our advisors will be happy to help you.