What happens when Feather won’t accept my application?

Reasons for rejection: Public health insurance in Germany

You might get denied public health insurance for a number of reasons. The most often situation we see is someone who isn’t employed full-time at a German company. Freelancers are the ones most often impacted by this rule, which forces them to get either expat or private health insurance.

Another reason people get denied public health insurance is that they’re too old for the system. Unfortunately, after the age of 55, getting on public health insurance becomes incredibly complicated. During retirement, even more rules apply. 

Reasons for rejection: Private health insurance in Germany

So, if you’re denied public health insurance, your first thought might be to switch to private health insurance, but there are reasons why someone would be denied coverage as well. 

For instance, you can be denied if your income is too low. A freelancer making under €30k per year would not be eligible for private health insurance with us. 

Even if your income is high enough, you might have a bad Schufa score which would lead to you being denied coverage. If you are denied coverage, you’ll need to request your information from Schufa holdings and then see what caused this to happen (explained in the article backlinked above). You can see if there is any incorrect information, if you missed any unpaid bills, or if your address was even listed twice with slightly different spellings leading to a lower reliability of your financial status. You generally won’t be able to reapply if you have a bad schufa, but we can sometimes work around that.

Pre-existing conditions like ADHD, extremely high or low BMI, asthma, mental illnesses, and diabetes will disqualify you from private health insurance, too. Even if your medical condition would normally be accepted under different circumstances like a higher tariff, a combination of several different conditions can lead to rejection as well.

If you’re finding it hard to get insured under public health or private health insurance, you can see if expat health insurance might be an option for you until you’re able to switch to public or private.

Reasons for rejection: Expat health insurance in Germany

If you’re not eligible for private or public health insurance, many people turn to expat health insurance as a last option until they can switch employers or reduce the risk they’re carrying or earn more money through extra freelancing jobs to get on private health insurance. 

While no one is denied expat health insurance (unless you’ve already been in Germany for more than 5 years), the embassy sometimes won’t accept the insurance. There are several reasons why this can happen:

• You’re pregnant
• You have a pre-existing condition that needs continual treatment
• The embassy is unfamiliar with the policy and needs to be provided with Anlage 6 (which you can request from us)
• You’re renewing your visa

A good rule of thumb is if you have a pre-existing condition that would require you to pay more than €300 per year in expenses, your expat health insurance won’t be valid for a visa application.

Reasons for rejection: Legal insurance, liability, and household insurance in Germany

If you were denied legal insurance, it means that your coverage was either canceled by your previous provider or submitted more than 3 claims in the past year. For liability or household insurance, this goes down to 2 claims. For household insurance, if you’ve submitted a single claim for more than €1,500 in the past year, we will deny your application.

Also please note that household insurance has multiple requirements for eligibility. First, the home you’re insuring your belongings in has to be your primary residence. Second, you have to insure all of the belongings in the home and not just yours.

To become eligible again, you’ll need to wait until you can answer 0 to the number of claims you have made in the past year. 

Reasons for rejection: Dental insurance in Germany

We don’t accept applications for dental insurance when someone is currently missing 3 or more teeth and needs to get them replaced, is planning major dental treatment during the application (your application will be accepted, but you won’t be able to make claims on these treatments), doesn’t have public health insurance, or lies during the application process. By lying during the sign-up without us noticing, we have the right to revoke any and all treatment received once we learn of this and cancel your insurance. If you are not insured under public health insurance, we also will not be able to accept your application.

To become eligible for dental insurance again, you’ll need to replace your teeth and go through your already planned dental treatments. If you lied during the application process, you may not be eligible. 

Reasons for rejection: Life insurance in Germany

Because life insurance has a high payout, the application process and the likelihood of becoming ineligible increases.  

You can be denied coverage because of your profession, lifestyle, or hobby. If you enjoy scuba diving or are a professional racecar driver, then you’ll be automatically denied since your risk of serious injury and death is too high for the carrier to take on. 

Another reason you may be denied coverage is if you have illnesses that require ongoing treatment. This could be potential treatment or daily medication related to high-risk conditions.

The last reason that you might be denied coverage is that you’re planning a trip to a foreign country with a high mortality rate for tourists (while balconing would fall into a hazardous lifestyle, areas where baloncing is practiced or balconing tournaments are held would be considered a touristic destination with a high mortality rate). 

Reasons for rejection: Bike insurance in Germany

There are a few very specific things that will get you denied for bike insurance. The first is if you have one of the following bikes: 

1. E-bikes purchased second-hand;
2. E-bikes that were not purchased from an official dealer;
3. E-bikes without an auxiliary motor for drive assistance;
4. E-bikes purchased more than six months ago at the time of the establishment of the insurance;
5. Carbon bikes, fully covered e-bikes, velomobiles, and dirt bikes;
6. Self-built and converted bikes (bikes, with converted parts with a total value of more than 20% of the purchase price);
7. E-bikes with payments pending;
8. Commercially used e-bikes;
9. E-bikes with a total purchase price of more than 10,000 EUR;
10. E-bikes already damaged upon entering into the contract;
11. E-bikes subject to registration and insurance;
12. E-bikes purchased by private individuals.

Want to know more about why we sometimes don’t accept people for our insurance policies? Feel free to comment below, and we’ll add it to the article for others!

You might have come across the term insured sum or coverage sum when applying for an insurance plan. Depending on the plan, you might have even had the chance to choose which insured sum you’d like to have (for example life insurance or household contents insurance). In this article, we go over the types of insured sum and how to know if you’re over or underinsured.

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