No Claims Bonus

Gourami

Hi all
I have always had no claims protection.
My question is this; is it worth the money? I had a slight bump last year where I hit my gate post and my premiums went up with the original insurance company and rocketed with everyone else.

Quentin

NCB protection only covers your level of no claims bonus - not your premium.

Any incident you have (whether or not a claim ensues) alters your profile and can push up your premium as you are considered more "riskier" after any incident.

If you can afford it, protected ncd is worth it. Had you not had it, your "slight bump" would have resulted in 2 years loss of discount on top of your premium hike, which would have been expensive!

davemorton

No heres another related question then. Say for example, I have 14 yrs NCB, and the maximum discount is 5 (or 7 yrs) discount. If I have a claim does it go down to twelve years {thus still getting full discount}, or to 3 yrs discount?? (If that makes sense?!?!)

Quentin

Yes, 5 years is the max for earning NCD.

One claim would mean 3 years NCD at renewal for unprotected NCD.

Gourami

Thanks, taking it out makes sense then.
A Much better answer than the erm,,, ah,,, well,, answer I got from the sales rep.

mchale

Gourami wrote: »

Hi all
I have always had no claims protection.
My question is this; is it worth the money? I had a slight bump last year where I hit my gate post and my premiums went up with the original insurance company and rocketed with everyone else.

Short answer: No

gordikin

mchale wrote: »

Short answer: No

Short question: Why?

mchale

gordikin wrote: »

Short question: Why?

As you have found out, you pay money to protect yr NCB, but yr premium still goes up if you claim, work out if you had banked all the extra money you have paid to Ins com, would you be better or worse off, I would guess you would be better off with the extra money in yr account

Quentin

Isn't that always the case with insurance if you never have to make a claim?.

When your premium goes up after a claim, with protected NCD the increase still gets the 65% discount knocked off it.

Thus a quick calculation of what the premium would have been had there been just 45 or 50% discount given (off the whole premium), together with calculating how much more it will be the following year as well (as it will take two full insurance years to reinstate the NCD, assuming no more claims!) should give a good indication of how much the saving has been.

Another claim in the two years following would drop the NCD back 2 years again without protection.

mchale

That's if you have a claim on yr policy, ask how many people have being paying to protect NCB for years & have never had to claim, as you know if the Ins companies push you to buy protection its in their favour

also have to disagree yr Ins goes up each year, I always search round for the best deal and I would say mine has stayed a similar price for the past 4/5 yrs

Quentin

Your premium would usually go up noticeably after losing 2 years NCD, and take a lot of shopping round to get it the same price as it was pre the claim.

But you are right - if you don't claim its a waste of money! Same thing could be said of TP v fully comp.