Protected 'No claims Bonus's

Ivor_Headache

Not too sure if this is the right place to post this.

I have just been reading another post on how to remove scratches from a bumper and that they did not want to lose their NCB by having the work done on their insurance, and one post suggested having it done on the insurance if it was 'protected'

Most insurers will protect your no claims bonus, usually for about 7.5% to 10% of the annual premium. What they fail to tell is that if you do make a claim, what in reality they do is increase your annual premium. So you still get your 40,50,60% whatever, but it on a much higher premium.

I found this out quite by chance when some clown hit me up the rear end, just before my renewal was due., even though he had admitted liabilty, when I got my renewal notice, my annual premium had been increased quite conciderably. ( Incidentally, I had never made any insurance claims prior to that incident). I telephoned my insurers, told them the accident was not my fault, and in any event I had 'protected no claims bonus'. 'Quite right they said, but we can do what they like with the premium.' I did get it reduced back to its normal level in the end, but I was intrigued by what my insurers had said, so I telephoned loads out of yellow pages. Every single one of them (when pushed) said well yes we would increase the annual premium if any claims were made against that policy!

So before you rush to protect your no claims bonus, ask your insurer how much they would increase your premium by, and you can then quite easily see if its worth doing.

Tony_H_3

If this was a recent accident Ivan_Headache you should be made aware that insurance premiums have been steadily increasing over the past 6 months or so. It's likely that your premiums have reflected the increasing price of premiums rather than affecting your NCD's.

System

Many years ago when I worked for the Pru, we were told its a No Claims Bonus not a No Blames Bonus.
nuf said

lisyloo

So before you rush to protect your no claims bonus, ask your insurer how much they would increase your premium by, and you can then quite easily see if its worth doing.

Yes but would the situation be worse IF you didn't have the protected no claims.
i.e. you STILL get the loading for the accident AND lose you no claims.

If this is the case then the protected no claims IS giving you a benefit and may be worthwhile.

or are you claiming that they only add the accident loading IF you have protected no claims.
Personally I think they would add the loading for a claim regardless of whether you have protected NCD or not meaning that it does have some value.
Whether it's worth the extra is of course a different matter.

Paul_Varjak

IVOR_HEADACHE:

I think all insurance companies are required to be notified in the event of an accident even if you make no claim on your policy. But a few scratches on a bumper would, probably, be ignored. This has always been the case for me.

If you do not report an accident and you have another accident they may not pay out on a subsequent claim! It is better to be safe than sorry!

When my car was written-off last year by an uninsured driver, my premiums increased upon yearly renewal. The majority of the increase was because of non-recovery from the uninsured driver (cannot remember how much now).

Had they recovered their losses, there would have been no increase in premium due to the accident and no loss of no-claims discount.

If I had an unprotected no-claims discount I think the basic premium would have increased because of the accident plus I would have lost some of the no-claims discount as well! So I still think that protected no-claims discounts are probably worth it.

In my case I queried the increase in my basic premium and they agreed to reduce the premiums as if they had made a full recovery of their losses from the other party - and the insurance documents were amended to reflect that. They did that because the guy who caused trhe accident died whilst in prison (which made recovery difficult) and because the Police messed up the investigation - they accepted a false address and false insurance details!

System

If involved in an accident that is not your fault and you are able to claim against another driver, as part of the claim you should include the increase in the premium that you will have to pay for the next three to five years.

If the other driver's insurance company argues, get quotes with and without the claim from them (the easiest way is to use the online quote services). They can hardly argue that you have not suffered a loss then.

Paul_Varjak

PMM:

I assume that if you have Legal Protection on your policy that they will attempt to recover this under the heading 'uninsured losses' - is that correct?

IvanOpinion

There is apparently another twist in the tail of 'no claims bonus protection'. It does NOT count if you move insurers. Therefore if you do not like the quote from your current insurer then you must declare the accident if getting quotes from other insurers who may or may not (who am I kidding??) take it into account.

Ivan