Bonus-malus in Israel: how the hishtaknoot works

If you are looking for an exact equivalent of the French bonus-malus in Israel, the answer may surprise you: there is no single, regulated national coefficient like the French CRM. What the French-speaking community sometimes calls "hishtaknoot" is in fact a different mechanism, specific to the Israeli market: the claims history, which each company then interprets according to its own price grid.

How the Israeli system really works

In Israel, claims linked to car insurance (accidents, theft, property damage) are recorded in a database shared between insurance companies, which can be consulted in particular through the Har HaBituach platform, run by the Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority (Rashut Shuk HaHon). This database lets an insurer know, for a given vehicle or driver, which claims have been reported in recent years. The claims history report used for pricing generally covers the last three years, while the system may keep a trace of certain major claims over a longer period.

Unlike the French system, there is no single coefficient that automatically goes down or up by a fixed percentage after each claim-free year or each at-fault accident. Each company applies its own pricing model based on this history, combined with other criteria: years of driving experience, the driver's age, the vehicle model, safety equipment and the usual parking place. In practice, a driver with no claims for several years almost always gets more favourable terms, but the size of this advantage depends on the insurer chosen.

What raises or lowers your risk profile

Two logics combine in Israeli pricing. On one hand, the absence of a reported claim works in your favour from one year to the next: the cleaner your history, the better placed you are to negotiate a good premium. On the other hand, a claim in which you are held responsible weighs on your file for several years, with an effect that may be felt in the price offered by several insurers, not only the one with which the claim was reported, since the information remains visible in the shared database.

Some companies now offer plans that limit the impact of a small claim on this risk profile, for example by not recording it as a standard claim below a certain amount. These plans vary greatly from one insurer to another and are worth comparing before choosing a company, especially if you drive little or have a careful profile.

How to protect your history when you change insurer

This is the good news: contrary to what you might fear, changing insurance company in Israel does not necessarily mean starting again from zero. Because the claims history is recorded in a database common to the market, a new insurer can generally look up your claims past for a given vehicle or driver, rather than relying only on what you declare.

To secure this continuity, a few habits are useful when comparing offers or changing insurer:

If you notice an error in the recorded information, the first step is to report it directly to your insurer. If you get no satisfactory answer, you can turn to the Capital Market, Insurance and Savings Authority, which supervises the operation of this system nationally. Keep a copy of all exchanges and documents sent; this simple habit greatly eases the resolution of a dispute, should there be one.

This also explains why two quotes for the same driver and the same vehicle can show large price differences from one company to another: each insurer weighs your claims history and the other risk criteria differently. Comparing several offers, rather than renewing by default with the same insurer every year, often remains a good habit to adopt.

The special case of olim and newcomers

For people who have recently settled in Israel, this shared-history logic has a downside: with no claim reported in Israel, there is simply no local history yet to look up, good or bad. It is a different situation from that of an at-fault driver, but it can still translate into cautious pricing at the start, while you build this record locally. This point deserves to be anticipated and discussed with your insurer or broker as soon as you settle.

During this start-up period, each claim-free year counts double: it gradually builds your local history, while confirming to the insurer that your driving profile is stable. It is also during these first years that it is most useful to compare offers regularly, rather than staying out of habit with the first insurer chosen on arrival, because differences in treatment of the same profile can remain marked as long as a substantial local history has not yet been built up.

Each case remains specific, depending on your real history, your vehicle and the insurer consulted. The car insurance page presents the general workings of the Israeli market, and our team remains at your disposal via the contact page to analyse your situation before you choose or change company.