Cancel Car Insurance in Germany (2026)

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To cancel car insurance in Germany, the cancellation has to reach your insurer by 30 November for the usual calendar-year contract. It has to arrive by then; posting it on the day is too late. Miss that date and the contract renews for another full year of Kfz-Versicherung, unless one of the special cancellation rights below applies to you.

Before anything else: do not cancel without a new policy in place. Driving without insurance is a criminal offence in Germany (§ 6 and § 30 PflVG). Compare car insurance in Germany first, in English, and cancel the old contract afterwards.

Key Takeaways

• Deadline: your cancellation must arrive by 30 November. In 2026 that is a Monday, so there is no weekend extension this year.
• If the premium goes up without better cover, you can cancel within one month of the notice, at any time of year (§ 40 VVG).
• Get the eVB number for the new policy first. The new insurer will usually cancel the old contract for you.
• Ask for your SF-Klasse certificate. Insurers keep the discount on file for a limited number of years, and the exact period differs by insurer.
• If you leave Germany: deregister the car, have the contract ended, and request the § 5c PflVG claims-history certificate.

The 30 November deadline

Most German car insurance contracts run from 1 January to 31 December. The insurer's terms set a one-month notice period, which German law allows for contracts of this kind (§ 11 VVG allows notice periods between one and three months). One month before 31 December is 30 November, the date Germans call the Stichtag.

Where cancellations go wrong:

• The letter must arrive by 30 November. The postmark does not count. Post it three to four working days early.
• If 30 November falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the deadline moves to the next working day (§ 193 BGB). In 2026 the 30th is a Monday, so plan for the 30th itself. Our German-language deadline calculator (Fristrechner) shows the exact date for your contract.
• Contracts that started mid-year end one month before their own anniversary. The date is on your insurance certificate (Versicherungsschein).

What happens if you miss the deadline?

The contract renews for another year. There is no statutory grace period; a late cancellation is accepted only as goodwill, and you cannot count on that. You stay with your current insurer until the next 30 November, unless a special cancellation right (see below) applies earlier.

How much that costs depends entirely on the gap between your current premium and the lowest comparable offer. The only way to know is to run the numbers: a car insurance comparison in Germany takes a few minutes and shows what the same cover costs elsewhere.

How to cancel car insurance in Germany, step by step

Step 1: Get new insurance first

Using an uninsured car on public roads is prohibited by § 6 PflVG, and § 30 PflVG makes it a criminal offence: up to one year in prison or a fine if you do it knowingly, and up to six months or a fine of up to 180 daily rates (Tagessätze) if you were careless. There is no grace period, not even for a day.

So the order is always: new policy first, cancellation second. Sign up online and you receive an eVB number (elektronische Versicherungsbestätigung), the seven-character code that confirms the new cover. You can get an eVB number in minutes.

Good to know: most new insurance policies come with a 14-day right of withdrawal (Widerrufsrecht, § 8 VVG), starting when you receive the policy documents and the withdrawal notice. If you change your mind within those 14 days, you can step out of the new contract without giving a reason; if cover has already started, the insurer may keep the premium for those days.

The shortcut: let your new insurer handle it

When you take out a new policy before 30 November, the new insurer normally offers to cancel the old one for you. The service is called Kündigungsservice; German insurers usually provide it free of charge, and you tick a box during sign-up.

If you go this route, sign up by mid-November. The new insurer needs a few working days to send the cancellation and have it arrive in time. If the service is not offered, or you want proof in your own hands, write the letter yourself.

Step 2: Write the cancellation letter in German

Write the cancellation in German. It needs:

• Your full name and address
• Policy number (Versicherungsnummer)
• Licence plate (Kennzeichen)
• The date you want the contract to end
• A request for your SF-Klasse certificate
• Your signature

A ready-to-copy template is below. If your goal is switching rather than simply leaving, our guide to switching car insurance in Germany explains the handover to the new insurer.

Step 3: Send it so you can prove it arrived

Registered mail (Einwurf-Einschreiben, or Einschreiben mit Rückschein with a return receipt) from any Deutsche Post branch is the safe option. The signed return card is your proof of delivery if anyone later disputes the date.

An email is also valid for most contracts. For consumer contracts concluded on or after 1 October 2016, the insurer's terms cannot demand more than text form (Textform) for notices like a cancellation (§ 309 no. 13 BGB), so an email that states your name counts (§ 126b BGB). Ask for a read receipt or a reply confirming receipt. If your contract is older, check its terms; when in doubt, use registered mail.

Step 4: Get written confirmation

The insurer should confirm the cancellation and the end date in writing. If nothing arrives within two weeks, follow up (again in a way you can prove). Keep copies of everything.

Step 5: Request your SF-Klasse certificate

Ask your old insurer for a Schadenfreiheitsrabatt-Bescheinigung, the document that records your claim-free years. Without it, a new insurer may start you at SF 0, and the discount you built up over years is gone. Under § 5c PflVG the insurer has to issue a claims-history certificate within 15 days of your request and, in any case, when the contract ends.

Car insurance cancellation letter template

Copy this German-language template and fill in the brackets:

For a special cancellation after a premium increase, replace the paragraph that starts with "hiermit kündige ich" with this one, so the letter does not mix an ordinary year-end cancellation with an extraordinary one: "Hiermit kündige ich den oben genannten Kfz-Versicherungsvertrag außerordentlich (Sonderkündigungsrecht nach § 40 VVG) zum Zeitpunkt des Wirksamwerdens der Beitragserhöhung vom [date of the increase notice]."

Special cancellation rights (Sonderkündigung)

Certain events let you cancel outside the 30 November deadline. The main one is a premium increase: if the insurer raises the premium without improving the cover, you can cancel within one month of receiving the notice (§ 40 VVG). The other triggers are set out in the insurer's terms (AKB) and in the VVG.

Premium increases are common at the turn of the year. For 2026 the GDV, the German insurers' association, calculated higher type classes in liability insurance for around 5.9 million drivers and lower ones for around 4.5 million (GDV, 9 September 2025). If a letter from your insurer announces a higher premium, check whether it qualifies as a Sonderkündigung trigger. The one-month clock starts when the letter arrives.

One exception: a higher premium caused by your own claim (a downgrade in your SF-Klasse after an accident) does not give you a special cancellation right. Only increases the insurer imposes on its own count. The German-language Sonderkündigungsrecht guide has the details and letter wording for each case, and the Verbraucherzentrale explains the consumer-law side.

What to do if your insurer ignores you

You sent the cancellation on time and nothing comes back. First, send a follow-up (registered mail again) that quotes your original cancellation date and the return-receipt number, and give the insurer 14 days.

If there is still no answer, contact the Versicherungsombudsmann, Germany's independent insurance ombudsman. The procedure is free for consumers. For disputes up to €10,000 the ombudsman's decision binds the insurer; above that it issues a recommendation. You can also complain to BaFin, the financial supervisor, which checks whether the insurer followed the rules but does not decide your individual case.

Cancelling when you move abroad

If you leave Germany, do this in order:

1. Deregister the vehicle at the registration office (Zulassungsstelle) and hand in the plates. Our car registration guide covers the office visit.
2. Tell the insurer. Ask for the contract to be ended because of the deregistration, and ask whether anything is still owed for the current period.
3. Request the § 5c PflVG claims-history certificate. It follows the EU standard form and shows your claim record. German insurers must treat a certificate issued anywhere in the European Economic Area like a domestic one and may not charge you more because of your nationality or previous country of residence (§ 5c (3) PflVG). The EU directive behind § 5c asks the same of insurers in other EEA states; how many discount years they credit for your German record is still their pricing decision.
4. Collect the refund. The insurer returns the unused part of the premium once the contract has ended. Ask when the refund will be paid.

If the car stays registered in Germany, it needs German liability insurance no matter where you live (§ 1 PflVG). Some insurers' terms exclude policyholders who move their permanent residence abroad. Read the AKB before you go.

Your no-claims bonus (SF-Klasse) when switching

The Schadenfreiheitsklasse (SF-Klasse) is your no-claims discount ladder. Each claim-free year moves you up one class, and each class means a lower percentage of the base premium. The exact percentages are set by each insurer in its own table, so two insurers can price the same SF class differently. Our German-language SF-Klasse explainer shows how the ladder works.

How to transfer your SF-Klasse

• Within Germany: the new insurer requests your record from the old one, or you hand over the Schadenfreiheitsrabatt-Bescheinigung. The class carries over.
• From abroad to Germany: certificates from EEA countries have to be treated like German ones (§ 5c (3) PflVG). For records from outside the EEA (USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and so on), German insurers decide case by case; ask whether a claims-history letter from your previous insurer, in German or English, is accepted.
• Time limit: the discount is not kept forever. HUK-Coburg, for example, says it reserves the SF class for 7 years as a rule and still takes over the record after a break of up to 10 years (HUK-Coburg, Schadenfreiheitsklasse). Other insurers have their own limits, so ask your old insurer for its rule.

Common mistakes foreigners make

1. Missing 30 November. Another year with the current insurer, whatever it charges.
2. Cancelling without new insurance. A criminal offence under § 30 PflVG. Get the eVB number before you cancel anything.
3. Forgetting the SF-Klasse certificate. Without it, the new insurer may put you at SF 0 and price you like a first-year driver.
4. Stopping the payments instead of cancelling. The contract does not end because you stop paying. The insurer can hand the debt to a collection agency (Inkasso) and it can end up in your SCHUFA record.
5. Emailing a cancellation for an old contract without checking the terms. Text form is only secured by law for consumer contracts concluded on or after 1 October 2016. For older contracts, registered mail is the safe route.

Does switching actually save money?

Usually the point of cancelling is a cheaper policy. What you pay depends on the vehicle's type class, your region, your SF-Klasse, your annual mileage and the cover you choose, and insurers weigh these factors differently. That is why the same driver and car can get noticeably different quotes from different companies.

Run a comparison with your own details. You can compare car insurance offers in Germany in English; if the numbers work out, the quote already includes the eVB number you need to switch. If you are thinking about a different car as well, our overview of cars in the low type classes in Germany shows which models are priced lowest by insurers.

What to do now

• Check the end date on your Versicherungsschein. For calendar-year contracts, work backwards from 30 November 2026.
• Run a comparison and take out the new policy first. Let the new insurer send the cancellation, or use the template above.
• Ask the old insurer for the SF-Klasse certificate and keep the written confirmation.

FAQ