I had a bump last week, the classic drive in to the back of some one at a roundabout.

No damage to my car but quoted £500 to hers. My excess is £250 and I have protected no claims, and no other claims.

So would you put on insurance or pay up the £500.

Does protected mean I dont have to mention the bump at renewal etc?

1st off, I’d ask for another couple of quotes for her damage

SHe has, all between £490 and £600

Given there was another car involved and you have protected insurance, I’d go through insurance just in case they suddenly decide they have personal injuries.

We just had a bump but no other cars. Was going to cost double what the excess was so went through insurance. Its protected like yours and happened about 4 days before renewal! No change to renewal quote as protected…our insurance specifies 2 strikes no change to policy, 3 strikes and lose 3 years no claim iirc.

I was considring how it would be affected if we changed insurance company: most insurers ask when quoting if you have claimed in the last 3 years so we have to declare that although technically we still have our 8 years NCD 😕

Protected means you can make a stated number of claims without losing your bonus.
If you don’t mention it at renewal, you’re in breach of the terms and if they find out they could refuse to pay any future claim.

Insurance companies treat a bump you could claim for as a claim, whether you actually claim or not.

As tempting as it is to stump up the cash, I just wouldn’t trust anybody these days to not come back at you! If you go legit you’re covered!! If it was damage to my car and no one else involved then I’d probably pay up that amount as my excess is 400!

So basically your no claims protection that you pay an arm and a leg for is only worth anything if you stay with the current insurer for 3 years?

If you swap insurer and notify them of the claim then surely they just wack up the cost? or do they honour the fact you paid a load extra money to another company and not charge you more….. just getting synical and wondering why I bother paying more for protected no claims

Insurance companies treat a bump you could claim for as a claim, whether you actually claim or not.

This ^^ Either way, there will be a loss against you.

In the compensation culture world we live in, you need to go through your insurance company. Once a family member or friend plants the whiplash seed etc in her mind, things may spiral out of control.

Out of curiosity who’s idea was it not to go through the insurance route? If it was her, that may indicate that she doesn’t have insurance!

Is there a time limit on informing your insurer btw? Our policy specifies you have to inform them within 48 hours regardless of whether you’re claiming or not.

If it was her, that may indicate that she doesn’t have insurance!

You can check if a car is insured here:
http://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

Definitely go through the insurance route. A small knock is unlikely to affect your premiums too much next time round. Let the insurers deal with it, you never know how these things will play out.

I did a check on premiums ie same details this year and next. With noy claims was £150 less than with 1 claim!

Back to the main question though, is the protected no claims transferable ie if I put it through with current insurere now, and then in August switch insurance co’s, will they honour the fact I have no claims protection and not charge me extra ?

Why would they? You’ve effectively paid protection money to one company, but nothing to the new company. Doesn’t make business sense.

Exactly thats my thoghts too, so basically protected no claims is a waste of money…

Just googled some stuff as well and some insurance co’s even load your premium if you have protected, bascially they say your an increased risk so load you, but not as much as if you didnt have protected !

That doesn’t surprise me, if you think you’re likely enough to crash to pay an extra 200 quid, then you probably *are* more likely to crash…

The protected bit applies to the current policy. When you change insurance cos you have a level of no claims to transfer. You can then opt to protect within the new policy.
Of course the killer is that they will load the premium based on how much you’ve cost in payouts over the past 5 years and then ‘discount’ this according to the bonus you have accrued.
Swings and slides innit!

So effectively they’re not offering you any discount, they’re just taking your money and saying they have.

….and charging your more so that you stay with them at next renewal if you make a claim

The protected NCB simply means your NCB won’t be reduced providing you don’t exceed the specified number of claims over a period. If the OP makes a claim now, he will still have his original NCB when his insurance expires in August and he will still be entitled to a discount on his insurance renewal quote. Of course, if he makes a claim now, his renewal quote would go up in August (by ~£150 apparently) but that should be after the discount is applied. If the OP made a claim and didn’t have protected NCB, the renewal quote would go up by more than £150. The NCB will be still be transferable to another insurance company but they may take previous claims into account when protecting it.

Back to the original question: Since the repair is £500 and the excess is £250 then the OP is only going to save himself £250 if he makes a claim now. However it appears the OP will be paying more than this in increased renewal quotes over the next few years. It’s tempting to suggest that the OP should try and resolve the matter without making a claim but he will have to make sure that the third party agrees to this and that no one else has reported the accident. If a whiplash claim is made at a later date, the OP is stuffed.

So effectively they’re not offering you any discount, they’re just taking your money and saying they have.

The bottom line is that you pay what they think the risk is.

Sum – when you word it like that its logical. Your insuring against loosing a years no claims discount, not your premium going up the next year, which is how I think people perceive it.

Its a win win for the insurer basically.

and dont forget that if anyone tells the insurance company of the accident but you dont go down the insurance route it will still affect your renewal as you have an accident logged. Worth bearing in mind.

Basically treat insurance companies like mushrooms wherever possible

As others have said protected no claims is a nice money maker for the insurers but I’m surprised no one had mentioned that your excess will only be for a claim for damage to your own car. For a third party claim then there will be no excess to pay.

You are missing one point – the excess only applies to damage to the insureds vehicle. The 3rd party claim will be paid in full.

Have any of the protected NCB critics ever actually had it? When I last changed insurance companies I got my full NCB transferred despite having had a claim covered by protected NCB in the previous couple of years (haven’t changed insurers for a while either – current company keeps being the cheapest, and the last couple of years my renewal has been cheaper than a new quote!)

How many people where in the other car the one you hit, expect them all to make claims for whiplash either in weeks or months they have 3 years to claim, and then youll have to to explain to the insurance company why you diodnt notify them of an accident.

Ive put it through insurance. Not having to pay excesses makes it cheaper to claim and take a hit on renewal