First premium in private health insurance: due date, effect, consequences of late payment

The first premium is the one-off first payment when the contract starts. All further payments are subsequent premiums with their own rules. The legal basis for the due date is § 33 VVG. The real weight of the first premium, however, comes from § 37 VVG. As long as it has not been paid, the insurer can withdraw from the contract and does not have to pay for an insured event before the payment, provided it has pointed out this consequence.

The order at the start is therefore:

• wait for the declaration of acceptance
• have the start of cover confirmed
• make the first premium available

If you keep to this order, you have cover from the first day and avoid the typical gaps when you change systems.

The first premium is due at the agreed start of cover, but no earlier than fourteen days after you receive the insurance policy. It is usually collected by SEPA direct debit through the mandate you gave in the application. Most insurers also accept a bank transfer, but you should agree on this in advance. If there is a longer period between delivery of the policy and the start of cover, for example with contracts applied for early for the turn of the year, the first premium is only collected at the start, not at once. If a start date earlier or later than usual was agreed, the date in the insurance policy applies.

For a sense of scale, a 30-year-old pays a guide value of about €430 per month in a strong plan. The first premium equals the first payment period. The premiums mentioned are guide values.

If the first premium is not paid when due, the insurer has two options. It can withdraw from the contract as long as the payment is outstanding, and it does not have to pay for insured events that occur before the payment (§ 37 VVG). Both require that you are responsible for the delay. Freedom from liability also requires that you were informed of this consequence in text form or by a conspicuous notice in the policy.

Unlike the follow-up premium, the first premium has no statutory grace period. In practice, the insurer usually still sends a reminder first. Once you have paid in full, cover applies as normal, as long as the insurer has not withdrawn. A claim from the uncovered period in between, however, stays uncovered. This exact scenario, an accident in the week between a failed direct debit and the late payment, is the most expensive risk of the whole topic.

You give the SEPA mandate in the application, and it applies to the first premium and to subsequent premiums. If the first collection fails because there is not enough money in the account, return debit fees arise that the insurer may pass on to you. The payment then counts as not made, with all the consequences of § 37 VVG.

Not every insurer makes an automatic second attempt to collect, and you should never rely on it. In practice this means making sure there is enough money in your account at the start of cover and checking your bank statement after the first collection.

Around the start of cover and the first payment, we receive more detailed questions than at any other point of the application process. The pattern is this. The application has been accepted, the relief is great, and organizing the first payment gets lost in the move away from the statutory fund.

We recommend that new clients ask the insurer to confirm the exact direct debit date in writing after the policy arrives. This prevents returned debits and protects your cover from the first day. Leaving the statutory fund on the exact date and paying the first premium on time belong together, because both decide whether the move happens without a gap.

No. The first premium only becomes due after you receive the insurance policy and not before the agreed start of cover. An earlier payment speeds nothing up and creates no earlier cover.

No, waiting periods run from the start of cover, not from the payment. If you pay on time, you notice nothing of this. If you pay late, you risk losing your claim to benefits, and the waiting periods do not move.

There too, the first payment to the new insurer is a first premium with all the consequences of § 37 VVG. Only cancel your old contract once the new policy has been issued, and align the payment dates of both contracts with the switch date.