Car insurance in Chile 2026: what it costs and which insurers lead

Updated November 7, 2026. Chile has two kinds of car insurance: the SOAP, mandatory to obtain the vehicle registration permit, and voluntary car insurance, which covers damage to your own vehicle, theft and liability. According to the CMF, insured vehicles by region and company, as of June 2026 there were 2,284,327 vehicles with damage insurance, the highest in the series, and two companies held more than half: Bci Seguros (31.1%) and HDI (25.6%). This guide gathers what the CMF publishes: how many cars each company insures, how much is paid in premiums, how long repairs take and the SOAP price by insurer.

General insurers report to the CMF every half-year how many vehicles they cover against damage, by region. After Bci Seguros and HDI come Sura, Zurich and Consorcio. Over the last year, Consorcio added 12,871 vehicles and Zurich 25,582, while BNP Paribas Cardif lost 12,131.

Source: CMF, insured vehicles by region and company, June 2025 and June 2026. HDI includes the former Liberty, with which it merged in 2024. The CMF notes the data is provided by the companies and may be revised by them.

The Metropolitan region holds 1,375,823 of the vehicles with damage insurance, 60.2% of the total, followed by Valparaíso (199,535) and Biobío (145,921). Aysén, with 7,267, has the fewest insured cars.

The number of vehicles with damage insurance hit a low of 1,995,937 in June 2023 and has since risen to 2,284,327 in June 2026, an increase of 14.4% in three years, according to the CMF series. In the last half-year alone, 54,460 vehicles were added. In the same period, the CMF counted 88,991 insured vehicles with a claim, 3.9% of all insured vehicles (Pauta Financiera calculation).

It helps to distinguish the three types of coverage in the statistics. Physical damage pays for repairing or replacing your own car, including theft in most policies; liability covers damage the driver causes to other vehicles, property or people; and SOAP covers people injured or killed in an accident, regardless of fault. The first two are voluntary and sold together in the typical policy; the third is mandatory.

Leadership changes by region. Bci Seguros ranks first in 9 of the 16 regions and reaches 46.4% of insured cars in Los Lagos; HDI leads in Arica y Parinacota, Valparaíso, O'Higgins, Maule, La Araucanía (36.7%) and Los Ríos, and in Magallanes the leader is Sura, with 22.9%, just above Bci (22.8%). Zurich ranks third in five regions, including the Metropolitan region, and Sura in ten others (Pauta Financiera calculation using the CMF, insured vehicles by region and company, June 2026).

The CMF does not publish an average price per policy, because the price depends on the car, its year and value, the municipality, the deductible and the driver's record. It does publish the total paid: in the first half of 2026, direct premiums for physical damage to vehicles were US$647 million, virtually unchanged from a year earlier (+0.1%), and vehicle liability premiums totaled US$66.8 million (-24.8%), according to the CMF, Insurance Market Financial Report, June 2026. Vehicle damage accounts for 24.3% of all general insurance sales, second only to earthquake and tsunami (25.4%).

As a rough benchmark, dividing that half-year premium by the vehicles insured as of June gives about US$283 per vehicle per half-year, close to CLP 261,201 at the CMF's exchange rate of CLP 922.21. This is a Pauta Financiera calculation, not a price: it mixes private cars with corporate fleets and high-value vehicles. Many policies are priced in UF, so their peso value rises with inflation; we explain it in what the UF is and how it is calculated.

Source: CMF, Insurance Market Financial Report, June 2026, table 11 (thousands of dollars at the June 30, 2026 rate of CLP 922.21).

Under Circular 2236, insurers report to the CMF the time each stage of a claim takes. In the first half of 2026, 88,991 vehicles had a claim with repairs; from the claim report until the car was ready for pickup took an average of 51.6 days, the best figure in four years, and 29.8 days until it entered the shop. Insurers have 4,627 partner repair shops, 31.9% of them in the Metropolitan region (CMF, repair times, first half of 2026, via Diario Estrategia). The CMF publishes the detail by company and by damage size on its platform.

The SOAP (mandatory personal accident insurance) is annual and required to obtain the registration permit, under Law 18,490. It covers people, not damage to the car, and the coverage is the same at every company: what changes is the price. In the CMF, SOAP prices as of 09/09/2026 spreadsheet, SOAP for a car ranges from CLP 5,990 at HDI to CLP 13,990 at Mapfre, and for a motorcycle from CLP 56,790 to CLP 120,000. All reported prices are for online sales.

SOAP is bought once a year, usually before March, when private cars' registration permits expire. Those paying by card can check the interest-free installment offers for November for voluntary insurance, which is usually paid in monthly installments.

• Deductible: the share of damage the policyholder pays; a higher deductible lowers the monthly premium but raises the cost of each claim.
• Coverage: own damage, theft, third-party liability and roadside assistance; not every policy includes all of them.
• Shops and timing: the CMF publishes by company how long repairs take and how many partner shops each has in the region.
• UF pricing: many policies are indexed to the UF, so look at the annual total, not just the first installment.

Insurance is only one cost of owning a car: fuel also weighs, and it depends on oil prices, as we reported in what happens to gasoline after the oil slump.

Is car insurance mandatory in Chile?

Only the SOAP is mandatory, as a requirement for the registration permit. Damage insurance is voluntary, although a lender financing the car may require it.

Which company insures the most cars in Chile?

Bci Seguros, with 709,543 vehicles as of June 2026, followed by HDI with 585,021, according to the CMF.

Which is the cheapest SOAP in 2026?

For cars, HDI's, at CLP 5,990 online, according to the CMF spreadsheet as of September 9, 2026. Coverage is the same at every company.

How long does an insurance repair take?

51.6 days on average from the claim report until the vehicle is ready, in the first half of 2026, according to the CMF.

This information is journalistic and educational, not financial advice. Check the conditions and the total cost (CAE) with the institution before signing up.