Hi all i wonder if you can help.

i had an accident on boxing day 2009 which still hasnt been cleared up.

before the accident i had 9 years no claims discount.

my insurance has renewed since the accidend and it has doubled , when i phoned up and asked why they said it was down to the accident.

as it is still in dispute they have took some no claim discount off me.when i saked how much the girl said 2 years which leaves you with 3??

when i said that i had 9 years she said no we only recognise the first 5 years??

what has happened to the rest of my no claims then??

do i have 7 years or 3??

cheers

steve

ooops double post!

Most insurance companies have a 5 years max discount anyway so wether you have 5 or 25 years it matter very little. I have 18 years no claims but still made no difference after I got past 5, other than the annual rises for tax and the like.

As it was not your fault, eventually, as long as the insurance companies agree with you, you will get it returned. although, don’t expect it anytime soon.

5 years is the maximum discount level, so they happily ignore anything over that. I fell foul of this a few years ago and was knocked back from 6 years to 3, have protected my no claims ever since then.

Also, don’t assume that your premium won’t rise even if the NCD is protected.
Most companies will increase the base premium anyway, meaning that you still technically get the NCD, but you end up paying more anyway.

Most companies the way it works is

You start off with a base premium of £5k. Then as you answer the questions the price goes up or down depending on the risks associated with that question. Even something simple like if the car has an immobiliser or tracker fitted (most of the time tracker puts the price up).
Your no claims discount though as said earlier the maximum really is 5 years, as thats the most that companies will look at. So unless you protect your NCB (which is worth it – 2 fault claims in a 3 year period) you get stepped back to 5 years then 2 years taken off after that for the claim. But also as said if it comes back as a non fault claim then you go back to 9 years and they’ll refund the difference. BUT if its knock for knock you’ll still be back at 3 years.

Yeah its a right sting. Most comps accept and offer discount for more than 5 years NCD when you apply, however, they may only offer 5 years back when you leave! Thats why I always keep my proof of NCD letters when leaving comps.
Insurance have us by the danglies. Take car+mbike insurance. They wont accept NCD built up between the 2 policies, however, if you have an accident, they knock both NCD – it affects both policies!!

Also NCD wont prevent premium going up as stated above. You have to declare any accidents in the last 5 years.. gits. Unfortunately they prob have to be like this as of all the injury payouts nowadays – people can be so shortsighted. Rant over, and sorry to hear your bad luck

I had this happen to me after a prang while insured with Swiftcover. They only recognise 5 so I went from 6 to 3 instead of 6 to 4.
I now always ask how much NCD the company recognises before going with them – Elephant for example are goof for 9 yrs.

You sure about that? As far as I was aware Elephant/Admiral/Diamond (all the same folk) all work with 5 as the ‘real’ max too (even though you can put more on the quote/policy)

http://www.elephant.co.uk/policyDocs/EL51%201010%20Policy%20Booklet.pdf this seems to backup my theory

Quite, they certainly do have us over a barrel. I’ve quite a few years NCD and they often offer me a large discount but on moving companies several times I’ve been told I only have 5 (or 6, some say). I’ve had to throw my toys out of my pram several times over this as it DOES make a difference to some specialist companies (modified cars, kit/classics).

I don’t understand how the insurance companies in this country get away with so much nonsense, it’s a racket.

stumpy01, Admiral/elephant will only give you back 5 yrs NCD! Its because of them that I now save my proof of NCD.

I’m pretty sure Adrian Flux recognise more than 5 years.

I wouldnt trust adrian flux as far as I could throw them, as sharp practices go they’re one of the worst.

So unless you protect your NCB (which is worth it – 2 fault claims in a 3 year period).

Disagree.

As only your current company recognises the ‘protection’, and they can then charge what they want.

My wifes insurance doubled after a claim, she was ‘protected’. Other companies’ quote were ball-park – only reason we stayed was that the claim was still in progress (whiplash claim by the other drivers passenger… and no damage to my wifes’ car – go figure).

Hmmm, you’re probably right about Elephant. I’m only going on what the bloke told me when I rang up to enquire.

Don’t really understand how they can deny you the correct amount of NCD just because ‘they’ don’t recognise it.

Don’t really understand how they can deny you the correct amount of NCD just because ‘they’ don’t recognise it.

I’ve just had this with my m/c. No accidents/claims in the last 25 years yet only +5 years NCD. And its been +5 for many years now.

I don’t understand how the insurance companies in this country get away with so much nonsense, it’s a racket.

No, it’s business. Afaik, there isn’t a monopoly in the motor insurance industry and people have freedom of choice with whom they choose to be insured with. It’s up to the customer to take into consideration all factors in the policy before buying the policy.
The fact NCD is tapered as the claim free years increase is the reason why insurance companies don’t recognise > 5yrs NCD (esp. after a claim). Most insurance companies do recognise >5yrs NCD but anything above 5yrs is probably not used in the calculation of the premium.

Protecting NCD does preserve the years NCD but the declaration of the accident on your application will cause the premium to increase.

sorry to state the obvious but the fact that the claim is still open is one of the reasons you’ll get an inflated premium, and it will still be open on the Claims Underwriting Exchange (CUE, the big industry database they use to check claims history) so the other insurance companies will load the premium too

try to get the claim closed if you can… easier said than done I appreciate

No, it’s business. Afaik, there isn’t a monopoly in the motor insurance industry and people have freedom of choice with whom they choose to be insured with. It’s up to the customer to take into consideration all factors in the policy before buying the policy.

They are in a situation where any of them can easily organise price fixing, maybe not on an official way, but in the same way that butchers on the high street in Oxford will charge £3 per lb more for beef than in Wigan – they know that their captive market has to pay it. Occasionally one of them breaks ranks and holds its prices low, steals loads of the market, but since each sets its own goals on who it will insure and with what equation/risks, its rarely possible to find a good deal for your risk group.

The fact NCD is tapered as the claim free years increase is the reason why insurance companies don’t recognise > 5yrs NCD (esp. after a claim). Most insurance companies do recognise >5yrs NCD but anything above 5yrs is probably not used in the calculation of the premium.

Protecting NCD does preserve the years NCD but the declaration of the accident on your application will cause the premium to increase.

That’s irrelevant – some insurance companies DO recognise, and discount for, more years, especially in the more niche markets. If you have 9 years when you start the policy, they MUST give you the 10 when you finish in case you need it on another policy.

And of course there’s the raping you for two cars – no no claims on the second car (some mirror, but only the stupidly expensive ones making it pointless) when you can’t even drive two cars at once so it’s only a theft risk, and when it has minimal value how do they then charge more thn the value of the car? Farce.

superfli – Member
Take car+mbike insurance. They wont accept NCD built up between the 2 policies, however, if you have an accident, they knock both NCD – it affects both policies!!

Wrong. NCB can only be decreased on the policy you are claiming off and most car insurers don’t take bike accidents into account anyway.

b r – Member
My wifes insurance doubled after a claim, she was ‘protected’. Other companies’ quote were ball-park – only reason we stayed was that the claim was still in progress (whiplash claim by the other drivers passenger… and no damage to my wifes’ car – go figure).

At renewal you can change insurers and the company who are dealing with the claim will still carry on dealing with the claim. You don’t have to stay with them for the duration of the claim.

coffeeking – Member

They are in a situation where any of them can easily organise price fixing, maybe not on an official way, but in the same way that butchers on the high street ………

As on the other thread about car insurance you aren’t talking much sense, coffeeking.

You seem to be saying that insurers work like any other business? What a surprise. Have a proper look at the figures and you’ll see that the larger insurers make money, but really there’s not a huge profit in the industry. If a well established company could undercut all it’s rivals at the moment, still make decent money and pull in loads more customers, why wouldn’t they? Because the losses in car insurance at the moment are too high, so they need to charge the amounts they charge.

And of course there’s the raping you for two cars – no no claims on the second car (some mirror, but only the stupidly expensive ones making it pointless) when you can’t even drive two cars at once so it’s only a theft risk, and when it has minimal value how do they then charge more thn the value of the car? Farce

Have a think about what NCB actually is. Try the wording for a start.

NO CLAIMS BONUS/DISCOUNT. So for each year that you have a policy without making a claim, the insurer will give a discount. Simple, yes?

So why would anyone give you two sets of NCB when you haven’t actually built up the second set of discount yourself?

The fact that you want to own and drive two or more cars is irrelevant to the insurer as the risk of insuring you is still the same. And judging by what you said about the second car being stripped of the interior, I’m not surprised you are being hammered.

That’s irrelevant – some insurance companies DO recognise, and discount for, more years, especially in the more niche markets. If you have 9 years when you start the policy, they MUST give you the 10 when you finish in case you need it on another policy.

Read, digest, understand.
If you re-read what I wrote – I am stating most insurance companies (if not all) DO recognise substantially more than 5 yrs NCD. They just don’t use anything above the 5 yrs in calculating the premium.
So the fact you walk away with xx yrs NCD from your insurer doesn’t mean much to computerised premium rate calculators because > 5yrs doesn’t affect the calculated premium.

Read, digest, understand.
If you re-read what I wrote – I am stating most insurance companies (if not all) DO recognise substantially more than 5 yrs NCD. They just don’t use anything above the 5 yrs in calculating the premium.
So the fact you walk away with xx yrs NCD from your insurer doesn’t mean much to computerised premium rate calculators because > 5yrs doesn’t affect the calculated premium.

I did. But counter to your point, most of the companies I’ve been with have had to be double-checked to get my full NCD back as they were originally planning to return just their max.

Plus, what’s the industry standard -2 NCD years for a claim? How does that make any sense – if I don’t claim in a year I get 1 year. If I do I lose two?! WTF? And the fact that you can protect your NCD but still get stung for having claimed – really.

If you lay out the way the premiums are calculated you realise it’s a complete joke. You can see the insurance companies rubbing their hands. “I know, we’llgive a discount for not claiming, but that’ll cost us money, so we’ll charge for not taking points off if you crash” – great idea……but we’ll still charge more if you do crash anyway, making the NCD scheme utterly pointless.

if I don’t claim in a year I get 1 year. If I do I lose two?! WTF?

NCD is a privilege, not a right. Those are the rules – deal with it.

……but we’ll still charge more if you do crash anyway

you plough you’re car into someone/thing you become a higher risk, hence higher premium – this has nothing at all to do with NCD