Is it worth paying to protect 4 year no claims on car insurance?

gingerstar61

Finally I've built up a 4 year no claims bonus and have had an excellent quote from Tesco- one that cannot be beaten on any comparason site or by those few other companies I've tried.

However, to protect my no-claims it's going to cost an extra £90! Yet I've heard that if you get to 5 years, it won't cost much at all.

I was just wondering, is it worth paying out the extra cash?

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The general reason it's more expensive to protect 4 years rather than 5 years NCD is because your premium will stand to increase more by losing unprotected NCD from 4 years as opposed to 5.

I would encourage anyone to protect NCD if they have the opportunity, and they can afford it. You only have a modicum of control over claims you may need to make, and you've worked hard to earn it so why not protect it?

It's one of those questions which is, essentially, impossible to answer.

Is it worth having comprehensive cover as opposed to TPFT?

Can you afford not to protect your NCD?

stator

Remember that protecting your NCD doesn't also protect your premium. If you make a claim, even with your NCD protected, they will increase your premium; just not as much as if you were unprotected.

Personally I don't protect, I think it's a bit of a rip off. The amount of money I save by not protecting my NCD I think will be more than the cost if I lose my NCD.

However if you couldn't afford your premium to increase by say 100% then you may want to protect the NCD.

Jon_B_2

Protected NCB is a complete and utter scam yet people still pay for it.

I lost 3 years NCB when I wrote off my vehicle in December last year and proportionately my premium went up by a £100 with 0 NCB.

If I had protected NCB, I still would have had to pay that because like someone else said, protecting a NCB only preotects your No Claims status, NOT your premium.

Since when has an insurance company acted in a policyholders interest? My Dad learned from this when his premiums went up by £100 and still had to pay £50-odd to keep an absolutely meaningless NCB.

Save £90 and go buy yourself some bubble wrap to wrap the car under, would be £90 better spent.

lisyloo

If I had protected NCB, I still would have had to pay that

I don't agree.
You had to pay for loading PLUS loss of NCB.
If you are protected you pay for loading ONLY.

So whilst I agree you have to pay for loading and it's a good point, you don't also have to pay for the loss of NCB, so it is NOT equivalent.

If you can afford it then get it.
If you can't don't.

Quentin

Jon_B wrote: »

Protected NCB is a complete and utter scam yet people still pay for it.

I lost 3 years NCB when I wrote off my vehicle in December last year and proportionately my premium went up by a £100 with 0 NCB.

If you only had one claim in the year, then you will only have lost 2 years NCB - though none gets awarded for the year in which the claim is made.

Normally you cannot protect your bonus level till you have 4 or 5 years. When you have 5+ years bonus, then its value is much more than the 2 years you "lost", and well worth protecting if you can afford the extra.

raskazz

Jon_B wrote: »

Protected NCB is a complete and utter scam yet people still pay for it.

Sorry, but if you actually look at the evidence (instead of relying on biased anecdotal evidence) then the evidence shows that you are wrong.

rev_henry

To find out if its worth doing, you'll have to put quotes through for if you had had a fault accident and lost all NCB, and if you had the same accident and lost none as its protected. If the difference is more than £90 then its probably worth it. Although it will only actually be worth it (you will only 'save' money) if you have an accident this next insurance year, iyswim.

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Anyone who actively advocates leaving NCD unprotected doesn't know what they're talking about.

Also, the advice give by the above poster is virtually useless. A claim is likely to step your unprotected bonus back two years. So in order to calculate the additional costs involved in making a claim you would need to know what is going to happen to insurance rates over two separate renewal dates. If you have that time machine, use it to find out if you're going to have an accident, don't waste your time spending pointless hours in the realms of the hypothetical.