No Claims Discount - can anyone help solve the riddle Please?!

harley_fat_boy

Hi there - can anyone help solve the riddle?

I'm facing a slight dilema re my no-claims bonus...

...in July 2009 it will have been 2yrs since I sold my car and we became a one car household....financially it made sense as I only live a couple of miles from my job and its no problem for me to cycle to work, and we both share the one car. I'm a named driver on my partners insurance and this is with Direct Line (I'm aparently earning ncd with that policy)...

....now, my dilema is this.....I had full ncd with my last insurer (never had a claim or points in 20yrs) and they told me that I had to insure another car within 2 yrs or I would lose all my ncd (I believe this is standard policy).....Now, the 2 yrs is coming up, I dont want to lose my ncd and although I'm accumulating ncd on my partners insurance I've only got 2 yrs worth........call me cautious , but I dont want to let my own ncd lapse as you never know whats round the corner and should anything happen to my partner/relationship (God forbid !!) or DL go bust or something I've lost all my ncd and will have to pay through the nose for insurance in future......(I plan to get another car next year when we're a bit better off financially).

I've checked with my old insurer's but they dont take any partial ncd accrued with another insurer into consideration
...ie 2 yrs no car = no ncd.

Apparently to insure a car you have to be the named 'owner' of the vehicle on the regestration doc.....we dont want to change ownership as this bumps up the No. of prev owners and I've already been told 'NO' by the 'boss' (!)

I dont want the expense of buying, insuring and running a car this year as we really have to batten down the hatches.
But ....My Question is.....to protect my ncd......would it be legal/legit for me to buy a cheap banger say with just a couple of months MOT n Tax on it....you know the sort, the owner knows its going to fail and just wants shot of it for a pittance (£100 aprox I've seen them for).....could i do this, get it insured then when the mot runs out scrap it and cancel the insurance???
A) Will this work to reset the ''2yr no car clock'' ??
Or.....do i have to insure for a whole year for this to work?
C) If so.....can I still scrap the car after say 2 months (as its not worth MOT'ing) but keep the insurance running for the year?

I know this sounds mad but even if the whole venture ends up costing me a few ££'s its got to be worth it rather than reverting to Zero ncd..hasn't it???

Many, many thanks for reading this.....and my total appreciation in advance for any replies

KR.....Debs

P.s. I actually Drive 7.5 t trucks for a living every day for Royal Mail.....but aparently this doesnt count either....hey ho!

custardy

tbh i would be tempted to insure it on any car
eg do you know anybody with a sorn'd car?
given your not driving it then its hardly going to be subject to a claim


ps RM driver,i woul double your premium

harley_fat_boy

Hi Custardy,

Thanks for your reply.....unfortunately i dont know anyone with a SORN'd, but then l thought it had to be reg'd in my name to be able to insure in the first place? I have had a couple of people tell me i could insure their car for them and I could put it in my name to do so.....but to be honest knowing my luck they'll go banger racing on my policy....if you get my drift.

Sorry to sound thick with all this!! But I dont really understand all the pro's con's of insurance and I'm probably missing something obvious....hopefully something will turn up before July.....cant say lottery win tho as I dont do it, LOL

KR....Debs

iceburn

Hi fatboy, I am actually in the same situation as you, my car insurance ended at the end of June 2007. I than took a seperate van insurance from that date. That has earn NCD in its own right but my other policy NCD will expire in June 2009, unless I use it.

From what I gather from my phone calls, is as follows

*If you take a out a policy and cancel within a year, it will not carry over, so afaird you need to keep it active for a year.
*You need to insure a car that is not scrapped.
*It does not need to be in your own name the car, but will limit some of the insurance companies you can use.
*To earn / keep your NCD you need to take out either Third Party, Third Party Fire and Theif, or Fully Compensive. Not just Fire and Theif.
*Now for me I just so happen last week was in the right place at the right time, when a person just brought a very expensive van, so old one said I can have for near giveaway price. (It is actually quite good.) So in the process of fixing some of its problems, and than might transfer the 3 year NCD onto that. Which will than be cheaper than the smaller van.
*One advantage of keeping the insurance going is that (well maybe not for you but for me at least) is that you earn one more year of NCD.
*You dont have to keep the car tax, you can actually have it untax and sorn but still have the insurance.


Just one idea, dont know would it work out cheaper, but how about you take a policy in your own name on your wife car?

mackemlass29

A lot of insurance company's will duplicate the ncb from one pol on to a 2nd one if claims and conviction history are minimal and there are no young drivers on the policy,so if your ncb does expire you could still get the full discount.Another option would be to transfer spouses car into your name using your ncb then back to her name using her ncb in another 2 years.

harley_fat_boy

Thank you both for your replies....I think I'll start making a few calls now. I'm intrigued about the different van/car ncd.....I live in a rural area and have either had a car or van....no ins co. have ever mentioned to me before that they were separate before I've just always transferred ncd between whichever type of vehicle i've had at the time.....I was thinking of getting an astra van next year as we have a nice saloon, so a van would a be more useful 2nd vehicle.
Oh and I've already had the NO from the 'Boss'! on insuring the saloon....didnt really want to do that anyway as having been a passenger ...well, lets just say its scary!! lol

cheers

iceburn

well it depends who you call, some do, some dont. For example morethanbusiness (have a look on their website) will only allow you to add NCD if it is a van policy you had before and earnt it on that. Maybe if one call up on phone they would..... Actually no they still dont cause I remember I did call them up and ask about it. But I still proceeded with them cause at least at the time, they were the cheapest by quite a bit even without the NCD at the time. And it seem was a bit of a blessing now since had a very small accident last year, hit a person bumper and to fill that small hole it seem cost £550.

Why not get a Vauxhall Dual LPG Combo? They are quite good vans, cheap to buy, cheap to insure/tax and cause they are dual - cheap to run as well. Plus have the space in the back for dogs/shopping/rubbish etc...