Guaranteed no claims bonus

Tharweb

It's that time of year when my car insurance is due for renewal. I face the same dilemma every year and thought I'd ask on here to see what you think.

I have 19 years no claims, obviously I want to protect this, so I tend to go for insurers that "guarantee" my NCB. Most insurers offer "protected" NCB which allow a number of claims in a certain period of time but I only know of a few that do "guarantee" your NCB, Liverpool Victoria/Frizzell, More Th>n, Eagle Star/Zurich. (I do realise that the guarantee only applies if you stay with the same insurer after your claim). The only downside is these policies are (obviously) more expensive than "un-guaranteed" ones.

My current insurer Liverpool Victoria has quoted £387. Are far as I can tell my current insurer Liverpool Victoria offer a very good policy, unlimited third party liabilty and legal costs, guaranteed courtesy car(not subject to availability) and £5000 each for personal accident benefits.

Following someones post on here I found that I could insure through the Post Office "protected" (which allows for two accidents in three years) for £315 less the £50 cash back they are currently offering, so it would cost £265, £120 cheaper than my current insurer but I don't like taking risks.

So my question is...are these "guaranteed" policies worth it?

marble

It's tricky to work out whether it's worth having guaranteed NCB. As you said, guaranteed NCB ties you in to one insurance company (since most others won't recognise the NCB as you should have lost it).

Have you tried any others that offer guaranteed NCB? I think the best thing to do is to ring up Livepool-Victoria and tell them you are thinking of swapping due to the £120 difference. Chances are that they will make you a better deal (if they haven't already discounted you) of about 10% and you can stick with them.

If you don't like taking risks, stick with them ... going to protected rather than guranteed is a risk!

Al

losgiganteskid

Personally, I don't rate protected or guaranteed policies - they may seem utopia on the surface but if you have a couple of claims the insurer will merely impose a premium loading, sure, they still give you the max bonus, but one cancels out the other - and you are paying an increased premium for the privilege. The first insurance company to adopt a true GUARANTEED policy was NIG (National Insurance and Guarantee Corp) now part of Churchill.

Just taken out my policy with Lloyds TSB (Churchill) Comp NO EXCESS No protected and no Legal Expenses - premium was about £7 cheaper than existing insurer but then got a whopping £70 CashBack buying through https://www.greasypalm.co.uk/r/?l=373815 can't be bad !! :T

Tharweb

losgiganteskid wrote:

Personally, I don't rate protected or guaranteed policies - they may seem utopia on the surface but if you have a couple of claims the insurer will merely impose a premium loading, sure, they still give you the max bonus, but one cancels out the other - and you are paying an increased premium for the privilege.

This is the bit I don't understand. How can they charge you more for making claims, is that not the point of these policies?

marble - I did try the other "guaranteed" policy insurers to check what they came up with and they quoted within a few pounds of LV. I haven't asked LV for a discount, partly as I haven't actually received my renewal in writing yet, lost in the post, the policy is due to renew on 11 Jan!!

DNKPets

Premiums are worked out based on the info that you give. Age, location vehicle etc. If you have made a claim then your premium will go up. You will still have for example a reduction of 65% but the premium before the reduction is applied will be higher.

What should happen if you do not protect your no claims is that your premium will go up because you have made a claim and you will lose some of your no claims as well. So you are stitched up twice.

Hope this makes sense. If I am wrong then please feel free to correct me.

ArchieB_2

More Than are the only ones to provide a Gteed Bonus that also promise not to load the premium however many claims are made.

If you are happy to be tied in (this only applies if you do make a number of claims) then go there. 2 ways to look at it - if you have not claimed for so long then the chances are you won't claim so go for the cheaper option (still with the correct cover though). The other view is that you are due a claim after being OK for so long so you better go the gteed route.

At the end of the day it's how you perceive risk.

Savvy_Sue

I might be wrong about this, but if you've protected it and then change insurers I think you get the benefit of the max rather than what you're really entitled to. But I might be quite wrong about this.

impy78

Tharweb wrote:

guaranteed courtesy car(not subject to availability)

This promise from insurance companies laugh....

EVERYTHING is subject to availabilty; if there are no hire vehicles available, then they can't provide one...

I have fallen foul of this...

Tharweb

ArchieB wrote:

More Than are the only ones to provide a Gteed Bonus that also promise not to load the premium however many claims are made.

Do you know for definite that they are the only company? I found this

We’ll let you protect your Maximum No Claim Bonus for Life, no matter how many claims you have to make, as long as you remain eligible. And as your premium won’t go up just because you make a claim, you‘ll enjoy low cost cover each year

which pretty much confirms what you say, not that I didn't believe you , but can't find similar on Liverpool Victoria 's web site. I can ask them but these type of questions always seem to throw them.

I did do a quote with More Than which came out a fiver cheaper (woohoo) but the exceess was £150 instead of £100

Sorry for large font

BenL

Who are you insured with at the moment??

Do you documents state 19 years NCD??

Most companies go to a max of 7 years NCD.

Anything over that does not matter.

If you have your 19 years or 7 years and crash you will step down 2 years for each "at fault" claim down to 5.

Run a few quotes through online quote systems and see how much difference there is between you for max NCD they allow or 2 years below that.

You haven't claim so far in 19 years so its quite fair to assume you won't in the future but you can never tell.

The difference between 65% discount and 50% discount may not be big enough to warrant the protection of the NCD.

Ben

Tharweb

BenL wrote:

Who are you insured with at the moment??

Do you documents state 19 years NCD??

Most companies go to a max of 7 years NCD.

Anything over that does not matter.

If you have your 19 years or 7 years and crash you will step down 2 years for each "at fault" claim down to 5.

Run a few quotes through online quote systems and see how much difference there is between you for max NCD they allow or 2 years below that.

You haven't claim so far in 19 years so its quite fair to assume you won't in the future but you can never tell.

The difference between 65% discount and 50% discount may not be big enough to warrant the protection of the NCD.

Ben

I'm with LV at the minute.

No, docs don't show 19 years, partly because I have been with many different insurers in the past but like you say the max they tend to use is 7. When asked how many years no claims I had I used to say "maximum" and they always used to ask me how many years, so I have gone back to telling them the actual years. I know I haven't claimed for that long. One company I did a quote with did give the option of going up to about 20 years (can't remember which?) but this didn't reduce the premium any.

I would fiddle around with the NCD information like you suggest but I am a bit wary of showing conflicting info as they check each others systems don't they? But I do see what you are getting at.

I do realise that even if I had 19 years or 29 years, I would still be reduced down to 5 or whatever if I had a couple of claims...that's exactly why I have taken these so called guaranteed policies out since they became available.

Think I'll probably stick with LV...have to decide by close of play tonight,