NCB Reinstated - pleased but confused.

Regshoe

Afternoon all, I'm generally fairly well informed on insurance - but had something happen this week that confused me (in a good way mind).

Had an accident just under a year and a half ago - not my fault, but it was whilst going round a roundabout with no witnesses so hard to prove. I still maintain that the version of events from the other insurance company was contradictory, but in any case a few months back it was settled as 50/50.

When I put the claim in last year I lost my 1 years NCB that I had and obviously didnt get one for the year itself. I ended up renewing with the same company in January so I got a policy on the basis of zero no claims.

Then this week they sent me an email (followed by a letter) to say that I'd had my NCB reinstated (to two years) and that they would be issuing a refund for part of my policy this year (amounts to something like 20% plus of the policy) which obviously is great.

Question is why would I get my NCB back? (Not that I'm complaining - I'm just trying to work out in which cases you lose you NCB - I'd always assumed that any claim would lose your NCB).

Thanks
Jim

Quentin

Regshoe wrote: »

I'd always assumed that any claim would lose your NCB

It does, but if the insurer recovers all its costs from the third party, then it doesn't cost you any NCD.

Presumably you had to pay an excess when the repairs were done.

You could now pursue the third party's insurers to reimburse you your excess (and any other uninsured losses you had at the time).

Regshoe

Thanks for the quick reply Quentin. Does this mean that despite them telling me they couldnt pursue it further and had to settle at 50/50 they have in fact "won" against the other insurer?

Quentin

Looks that way. They don't reinstate NCB unless they have been fully reimbursed.

Quote

Regshoe wrote: »

Then this week they sent me an email (followed by a letter) to say that I'd had my NCB reinstated (to two years) and that they would be issuing a refund for part of my policy this year (amounts to something like 20% plus of the policy) which obviously is great.

You should check this, it does sound great but you should expect a refund of a lot more than 20% under normal circumstances.

Regshoe

Quote wrote: »

You should check this, it does sound great but you should expect a refund of a lot more than 20% under normal circumstances.

It looks like around 25%, it seems about right as when I renewed I did a few comparison searches without the accident (i.e. with 2 years NCB) and the refund I'm getting seems to put me about where these quotes were.

I got this as a response to my enquiry regarding my excess (they seem to have got a lot better with their comms recently - back when I first logged the accident I sent email after email and got nothing back, now they are getting back within 1 working day).

"
Thank you for your email.
With regards to informing your new insurer about this claim, you will need to tell them we settled it on a without prejudice Basis. We appreciate your cooperation with this matter. "

Any idea what the without prejudice means in this particular case? I know what it means in general - just wondering if this means I should get my excess back.

Also got in a separate mail:

"
Thank you for your email.
Your excess is an uninsured loss and as such it will be dealt with by our Legal Department. Please therefore forward the details to the following address:...."

So fingers crossed!