Can a insurance company reduce my no claims even if I haven't claimed?

SPalmer78

I recent existed the renewal for my car insurance and they have reduced the no claims bonus I had to 7 years. I joined them with 13 years no claims bonus and have not had any claims. I contacted the company to inform them of the error and they told me they only go up to 7 years, but they accepted the 13 for a quote for the policy originally. Where do I stand, I've changed car and the difference in prices between 7 years and what should now be 14 years is considerate (£200+)
Anyone have any ideas where I stand?

Linda's_Man

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do. I have just had a similar experience. Two years ago I insured with SAGA having received a very good quote. I renewed again with them last year as they again were the cheapest I could find. Going through the process of getting quotes this year I found Tesco car insurance would save me approx. £100 when I ticked the box for 9 years + NCB ( I actually have over 14 years). However, when I received my proof of NCB from SAGA they state they only 'admit' (an insurance term) to 6 years NCB on their policies. I got on to Tesco and explained the situation and they told me there was nothing they could do as they were legally required to accept SAGA's statement and SAGA (as do all insurance companies) have the right to set the limit on NCB's. This resulted in the Tesco premium going up by over £50. In the end I used Argoscompare.com and got a quote from Hastings which saved me £50 (similar to the Tesco premium) on the SAGA premium but I will get a £30 Argos gift voucher after a qualifying period of insurance i.e total saving of £80 on SAGA's renewal.
The moral is, you have to check what each insurance company sets as its maximum declared NCB at the end of the year not how many years you need to get their full NCB at the quote stage. This is how companies trap people into staying with them. I have now signed up for 'Tart Alert' so that I have plenty of time to shop around next year.
Hope this makes sense.

keith1950

Hi, if every year you make photocopies of your renewal notices you can then provide a 'paper trail' of proof. Even if this shows , as an example , that you had 11 years then 7+ years , this proves you have not lost any NCB due to claims because generally if you have 11 years and make a claim then the two year reduction would be taken off 5 years to give you 3 years. So if you have proof that it has always been above 5 years you should be ok. It has always worked for me anyway.This year my renewal said 7+ years but I sent the previous years renewal as well showing that I went to them with 10 years. ( Hope that makes sense to someone .)

dunstonh

Typically, NCDs to to around 6-7 years. Although some companies go beyond that internally. It's one of the things you need to check when you shop around. Otherwise if you go from a company that shows 12 years of NCD to one that maxes out at 7 years then you potentially lose some years. However, as keith1950 says above, if you keep an audit trail you can get them back if you later move to another one that does accept more years of NCD.