NCD destroyed is it correct

baz995

Hi all

I had a silly accident at Xmas during the really bad freeze, came out of my drive and the car slid on the ice and i hit another car, scuffing the paint on his rear passenger door. I did not make a claim as the damage to my car was £46 for a new plastic fog cover.

Got my renewal through and its gone up by a lot and they have removed 7 years of my no claims dropping me to 3 years!!

I phoned them and as i thought the other chap did make a claim, i asked how much for and can you beleive they paid out £2620, i cannot work it out as this is more than his car was worth? I enquired about my no claims discount and they said they only recognise 5 years max.

So before i rant off again as it has really flashed me up, my question is can they do this? I have a clean licence and no accidents for the last nine years, i did not have protected NCD as my wife arranged the policy for me whilst i was deployed overseas

Oscar_The_Grouch

Hi there

Here's how NCD works:

1 year claim free - 1 years NCD
2 years claim free - 2 years NCD

And so on until you get to 5 years (or sometimes as high as 7 with some companies). The thing is that when you have maximum NCD, it's at the limit.

Here's how claims work:

1 claim - step back 2 years (so you go from 5+ to 3 or 7+ to 5, etc)
2 claims - step back 4 years (so you go from 5+ to 1 or 7+ to 3, etc)
3 claims - Lose all NCD

There are variants, but that's the basic idea.

Now when you hit someone, you are liable for ALL costs associated with their claim, provided they are reasonable. A replacement door is around £600. If you got the door and clipped the rear wing, you can add another £500 to £600 (depending on how the bumper is). If the bumper is hit too, you've got another £400 there. Then you add in the front door too and you've got another £600 to deal with.

I'm not saying you did all this damage, but you can see how it mounts up. I reversed into a friends car. At first glance, I'd damaged the rear passenger door (not a scratch on mine) but I'd managed to dink the front door too. £1,200 later, plus the cost of a hire car at £40 a day whilst the car's in for repairs, soon racks up a big claim.

Then we add in the dreaded Credit Hire and Credit Repair!! This is where the repair costs and hire costs are covered by a third party firm who then charge a premium to the cost. There are agreed rates and the like, but you are looking at MASSIVE claims in some cases. Damage someones Mercedes and you've got £HUNDREDS per day for the hire car.

In summary - the claims team are right I'm afraid. Now look on the bright side: your insurers paid it rather than you so I bet you're glad you had the insurance!!

daveyjp

Don't concern yourself about not having protected NCB. Now you have your renewal notice start shopping around. I had a similar experience (joyrider hit car and ran off) and went to three years NCB. Shopping around I got cover for less than I had paid the year before with about 7 years NCB.

Even if you had protected NCB your base premium would have increased anyway.

adamc260

Oscar_The_Grouch wrote: »

Here's how claims work:

1 claim - step back 2 years (so you go from 5+ to 3 or 7+ to 5, etc)
2 claims - step back 4 years (so you go from 5+ to 1 or 7+ to 3, etc)
3 claims - Lose all NCD

There are variants, but that's the basic idea.

That's not strictly true.

Most companies only recognise up to 5 years, so if you have 7 years no claims bonus and you have 1 fault claim, it will step it back by 2 years, now because most companies only recognise 5 years for discount, you will be reduced to 3 years NCB.

Because imagen you have 22 years NCB, past 5 years most companies give no form of discount, you could keep claiming every single year untill you get back down to 5 with no real adjustment to your premium.

robchap_2

the the poster below not put out look i need to read full posts too

Quentin

robchap wrote: »

to the poster above maybe you should read all his post before you comment ?

You seem put out by adamc260's (correct) advice.

As far as going down the sliding scale for NCD is concerned, it makes no difference how many years claim free you have over 5 prior to a claim.

So even if you have more than 5 years (unprotected) NCD, any claim you make will put you back to 3 years at renewal.