I’m hoping someone wiser can help me understand what’s going on here. So, the facts are:

– We have two cars.
– I am the owner of car A, partner owns car B.
– I am the named driver of car B, partner is the named driver of my car, car A. This is due to her being the one who needs the bigger car mostly.
– We have a multicar policy.

My partner had an accident while driving car B (the one she owns, but I am the named driver on). She was at fault. Throughout this, I have had no involvement with the insurers at any point. I have now received a letter from the insurance company telling me that I will lose my NCB.

I cannot understand why. They tell me that the insurance follows the car. When I asked if my NCB would be restored if I got rid of the car, they tell me it won’t. Even more strangely, it looks like my wife will have gotten off scot free. Good for her, but it sucks for me because this is my first year on the insurance!

No idea, but I recommend a chat with the financial ombudsman. They’re actually very helpful and have a lot of power to make insurance companies stop acting like dicks. They’d be my first port of call.

Who’s the policy holder of Car B?

Suspect its because you own the policy.

Thanks.

I thought the Ombudsman was a final resort type thing. I’ll write to the insurer in protest first and see what happens.

From admiral’s FAQ

“My boyfriend owns the other car registered at our address.”
That’s okay, if both cars are registered at the same address you can both benefit by insuring both your cars through us. And don’t worry you will each build up your own No Claims Bonus separately. If one of you is involved in an accident in your own car that won’t affect the other driver’s No Claims Bonus.
Verdict: Yes, MultiCar could be for you

So if your missus crashed the car she owned, that you’ve insured then it’s your policy that had the claim against it.

It sounds like you are the insured of both cars and your partner is the named driver on both cars,so now shes had a claim its affecting your insurance.

Ie your partner doesnt have an insurance policy of her own.

They tell me that the insurance follows the car.

This is why and it has always been that way. Otherwise it is unworkable:

– someone has an accident in your car and your insurers pay – do think then taking them off the policy as a named driver means that you should get your NCB back?

– you have maximum NCB for your car. If you buy an additional car, or several additional cars, should they also all get the same level of NCB?

When I asked if my NCB would be restored if I got rid of the car, they tell me it won’t.

What car would it be restored for? Are you expecting that you would then later be able to get another car to replace it which would then get the benefit of the restored NCB. It follows the car, and if you change the car it transfers over to the new car.

This is why I’ve always avoided multicar policies

Ime insurance co’s struggle to get the details right on one car . No way I’d stick all my eggs in one basket.

Start with basics. Your paper work says who is the main driver of the car that’s had the accident ?

This is why I’ve always avoided multicar policies

Ime insurance co’s struggle to get the details right on one car . No way I’d stick all my eggs in one basket.

Start with basics. Your paper work says who is the main driver of the car that’s had the accident ?

The OP’s multicar policy is working in exactly the same way as if the two cars were insured under different policies with different insurers.

I suspect that the OP is thinking that precisely because it is a multicar policy, it should be his partner’s car that suffers the loss of NCB, but it does not work that way. If it did, it would be abused by families insuring their children as the main driver of a cheap small car while allowing them to drive the parent’s Porsche, in the knowledge that the loss of NCB on the child’s car if it had an accident in the Porsche would cost much less than the loss of NCB on the Porsche.

When you say named driver do you mean ‘policy holder’ or ‘additional named driver’?

Sorry, my terminology is a bit crap.

I am the policyholder for car B, but not the owner. My wife is insured 3rd party as a named driver. I am fully comp on car B.

I thought if someone borrowed my car and had an accident, the external party would claim off the driver at the time’s insurance? E.g, like when someone who’s not a named driver on your policy, but has 3rd party insurance through their policy drives your car and has an incident in it, if that makes sense.

I guess the confusion is because I thought I’ve not made a claim on my insurance. I didn’t think I’d have to because I didn’t have an accident. My partner made a claim, but I thought it would be on her insurance, not mine?

If your policy holder your screwed. Insurance is right

That’s how I thought multicar policies worked – and that you just got a discount on both policies. However unless I’m misunderstanding that doesn’t seem to be how it is working for the OP.

Can you just clarify for us, your wife had a crash in car B which she owns, but you are losing NCB on car A, whilst the NCB on car B is unaffected?

Yeh if you take the multi car confusion away, for example.

I own my car and have my insurance with my mrs on it as a named driver.

If she has a fault claim driving my car under my policy it’s my NCB that’s affected.

I thought if someone borrowed my car and had an accident, the external party would claim off the driver at the time’s insurance? E.g, like when someone who’s not a named driver on your policy, but has 3rd party insurance through their policy drives your car and has an incident in it, if that makes sense.

The driving other cars extension is only minimum legal third party cover. If the borrower of your car is the person responsible for the accident and they have such an extension under their own policy and they are not insured as a driver under your policy for the car, then the extension would mean that their insurer would pay for the damage/injury they have caused to others, not for the damage to your vehicle.

Ah, it’s the “named driver” bit which is confusing – that’s a term usually used for the second driver on a policy. If the policy on car B is in your name (as now appears to be the case), and it was car B which was crashed, then it’s correct to lose the NCB on car B irrespective of who was driving (assuming the driver was a “named driver” in the normal sense, hence covered by the insurance).

Though you still seem a bit confused about how the insurance works – if your wife is named on the policy for car B, then she is presumably covered by the fully comp insurance on that rather than 3rd party.

It’s also worth pointing out that the “driving other cars” 3rd party cover you appear to be referring to normally has an exclusion for cars you own (to close another obvious loophole), so couldn’t apply to car B for your wife!

It’s your policy, in your name. You lose no claims.

Multicar doesn’t come into it.
The owner of the car is also not relevant.

Ouch.

I guess it makes sense that I’m the policyholder and insurance is essentially a bet. So in this case I’ve sort of “lost” the bet. I guess the claim made by the person my wife hit is on my policy on car B, which also covers my wife for 3rd party? I thought the multi-car thing made it so that I was insured, and my wife was insured, but just to different levels on both cars and we maintained independent NCBs as people, not cars.

@aracer
Wife owns car B which I’m the policy holder on. I own car A. Insurer has made no reference to car B at all, but I’m sure there’ll be a nasty sting come renewal time. She however, is paying the protected NCB charge, but I’m convinced that is a racket anyway.

Hopefully we can drop down to a single car household in the next year so it won’t be too bad.

Insurer has made no reference to car B at all

The insurer has made no reference to car B, the car that was involved in the accident, and the subject of the claim ?

Something else to be aware of…

If she drives a heap more miles/6 days a week in car B but you are the policyholder of B and you drive car A more of the time and she is the policyholder this MAY not go down well with SOME insurers if they work it out as i would expect them to weight the price of the policy and the NCD on the assumption the policyholder is the main driver.

It also makes sense for you as you just found out…

If she is driving B mostly, ask yourself which car is she most likely to have a prang in? So your NCD is attached to the car she is most likely to bend. Rethink time!

So yes your insurer appears to be right. And at renewal maybe it’s time to get your ownership/policy issues straightened out so you are carrying your own risks.

Given that it costs nothing to have the V5 changed then I’d be looking to get them in line with whoever uses the car most (yes, I know that the V5 does not register ownership but it’s the document most insurers treat as such)

Wife owns car B which I’m the policy holder on. I own car A. Insurer has made no reference to car B at all, but I’m sure there’ll be a nasty sting come renewal time. She however, is paying the protected NCB charge, but I’m convinced that is a racket anyway.

If the accident was in car B, then that is the car which will lose NCB, regardless of whether you or your partner own it or is the policyholder, so it does not make sense that the insurer “has made no reference to car B at all, but I’m sure there’ll be a nasty sting come renewal time”

I am the policyholder for car B, but not the owner. My wife is insured 3rd party as a named driver. I am fully comp on car B.

I am surprised that your policy provides different levels of cover for a vehicle for you vs your wife, since that will create problems. It would only make sense to me if your wife was a young driver or had a poor accident record etc. and the insurer only agreed to cover her to drive the vehicle (especially if it was a high powered vehicle) with restricted (third party) cover. Varying cover like that will likely lead to problems determining whether the vehicle has comprehensive cover if it is stationary and was either last parked by your wife or if she is sitting in the driver’s seat.

@nealglover

The insurer has made no reference to car B, the car that was involved in the accident, and the subject of the claim ?

Sorry, this should have been car A!

@garage-dweller
Duly noted! She uses my car most of the time and I drive her car most of the time, so we’re ok on that front.

I’m a bit gutted at losing my NCB because I’ve only just gotten a car after several years without one. Gives me a boot up the arse to get on with becoming a one or no car family I guess!

Sorry, this should have been car A!

Ah ok. Well that makes sense then. They wouldn’t make any reference to car A. As it not involved.

You are fine on the way you are insured. The main driver on each car is the policyholder of that car.

The owner (on the V5) is irrelevant to insurance and would never cause you any problems.

I went to reinsure my motorbike last year, then some weeks after I’d paid I got a letter asking for a few quid (£4 odd if I recall correctly) for an ‘Extra Premium’
So I rang up to pay, no point in worrying about such a small amount, but asked what this money was for.
A claim apparently.
I’ve never made a claim on my motorbike insurance, so was mystified.
The girl on the phone dug around for me and apparently this was for a ‘claim’ on our car made when a stolen car hit our parked car. We’d successfully claimed against the stolen cars owners insurance (you can do this if the thief is caught and identified) and it hadn’t cost us our our insurers a penny. This car was insured in my wife’s name…

So, despite the fact I can’t use my car no claims on my motorbike, I’m nobbled on my motorbike policy for a claim on a car that wasn’t mine (registered in wife’s name) against an insurance that wasn’t mine or even ours, when I wasn’t even the insured party, and I wasn’t in the car, which was parked up and locked!!!!

Bunch of robbing shysters.

Insurance for car A may also increase when you answer the question “have you or any driver of the car been involved in an accident…..”

@scotroutes
Good excuse to stop the wife driving my car!

@curiousyellow you still seem a bit confused how insurance works – I’d be incredibly surprised if your wife is only insured 3rd party as a named driver on your policy if you have fully comp cover. As mentioned above the multicar thing is essentially irrelevant when dealing with claims and the policy is for the car, not the person.

😆

@aracer
You’re right, this multicar thing is downright confusing for me. Another argument to not own more than one car!

@PP I had full NCB on my car when I was 23, asked about protecting NCB at renewal, but apparently I couldn’t as I was under 25 and so higher risk. Had my first ever insurance claim that year when my car was stolen, which doesn’t have any obvious connection with my age, lost my NCB. That cost me rather more than £4 👿

Maybe you should have just insured the car you own and kept things simple

You’re right, this multicar thing is downright confusing for me. Another argument to not own more than one car!

Or an excuse not to own a “confusing” multicar policy at least.

I have looked at them every year for long time now, and they have never once been even close in price to two separate policies.
(Both named one each other’s policies and covered fully comp to drive either car.)

Last year Admiral Multicar would have been £1240 for us.
We paid for two separate policies instead (Which was under £500 total)

Maybe you should have just insured the car you own and kept things simple

That would be fraud

As he’s not the main driver of that car.

And the insurance could be invalid due to supplying false information.

That’s not really “keeping things simple” is it.

(Plus, the ownership of the car isn’t the cause of any confusion really, the confusion is down to not understanding how insurance policies and NCD actually work)

The pithy, crowd pleasing answer is that car insurance is a huge racket and the insurance companies are cynical organizations that seek to screw every possible penny out of you.

I was told on a speed awareness course that insurance companies weren’t allowed to ask if you had attended such a course. When renewing my insurance I was asked if I had attended a speed awareness course and was told that if I refused to answer the question I would not be able to proceed. Then, of course, you get the warning that if you had made any inaccurate statements you would be uninsured.

Dealing with Insurance companies is just another thing that makes everyone’s life a little bit less happy.

Like has been said, anyone can insure a car, it doesn’t have to be insured by whoevers name is on the V5 but the main user has to be the policyholder.,

When I used to lease my cars, they were registered to the leasing company but insured by me.

Again, like has been said, it’s the policyholders NCD which is affected, not the Drivers. For example, my Mum had a bump in her works van a few years ago. It was a small company she was working for so they just had a policy to cover the 2 vans they had. The accident was Mum’s fault as she misread the lanes on a roundabout so the companies NCD was affected not her personal NCD. Mum still had to declare the accident when renewing her personal insurance and it went up a bit despite still having max NCD on her own policy.

To try and clear it up a little bit. A multicar policy is still two policies in essence insuring two cars each of which have a main driver and then named drivers.

Each ‘sub policy’ gains its own ncd and if one is involved in an accident then it is that sub policy that is affected.

Whilst I have never heard of a policy where the main driver is fully comp but named drivers are unless they’re driving under an extension on their own policy but either way it would still be a claim under the insured vehicle’s sub policy.

If you were to go off and insure the two policies separately then car A would still have its ncd (assuming out currently has one) and car b would not.

Note re: named drivers / main drivers etc. Insurance companies are rarely bothered where it is husband and wife (or partners) and don’t usually deem this as ‘fronting’. It’s where the named driver is a young driver under a policy where the parent is the main driver but really it is the kids car that they get upset.

@dannyh. It’s actually the speed awareness people who are on the make. Those courses are a nice little money spinner and they much rather get you on those than points on your licence and they have no right whatsoever to say what an insurer can and can’t ask.

As an insurer you are entitled to ask for any ‘material information’ they want to underwrite the policy. The fact a driver has been caught speeding, regardless of how that matter is dealt with by the authorities, is material information.

The police just tell you it won’t make a difference to your insurance to get you on the course. You may as well take the 3 points. It’s usually cheaper.

15 years underwriting experience so I’ve seen plenty of bad insurance practices but also the good as well.

@nealglover
Who is your insurer for separate policies? When I looked around the multi-car policy was the cheapest. I used comparison sites to check.

I will readily admit to being unaware of how the multi-car policy works and accept that it is quite likely that whoever the named driver on the policy for the car is fully comp. I’m just going off what I’ve been told by my partner which may well be inaccurate!

I’ve got no animosity towards the insurance company. I just wanted a clear explanation that a simpleton like me could understand. Unfortunately, I’m proving to be too much of a fool to “get it”, but you guys have cleared it up good for me 🙂

I was trying to figure out whether paying the excess and repairing the car was worth it. I’m looking at a bumper replacement for the rear bumper on a VW Polo. The parts cost comes in at what the excess costs. If my insurance is going to go up anyway regardless of whether I get it fixed, then I might as well pony up to fix it!

Luckily, I have excess insurance on my home policy, so it shouldn’t cost me anything in the short term. I’m not looking forward to renewal time though 🙁

here is the rub with fixing it yourself now that youve fessed up to the insurance company.. whether or not you make a claim is immaterial at this point they will raise your premium for the next three years in case you or any other parties make a claim based on this incident. happened to me when a bloke ran out in front of me on a roundabout.. i as an upright citizen told insurance co. about accident as bloke and his mates said they were going to sue etc etc no visible damage to either vehicle all his passengers claimed whiplash at scene.. my premium went up as it had a market for the next three years.. other driver ended uop been prosecuted for careless driving as he pulled out in front of me..