Protected No Claims Bonus? Scam?

rossyman69

hi last year i renewed my car insurance to another company(MCE insurance) got a decent price i thought when i put my partner on as a named driver , fully comp with no claims protection(6 years),break down cover the works.Anyway to cut a long story short my partner had 2 bumps in this year,1 has been dealt withpaid £350 excess,says £250 on policy,other is still pending from may ive been told.the policy was round £1100 last year just got a renewal of £4025:eek: with same insurer.When ive questioned this ive had no satisfactory reply just passed on to somebodyelse or they just hang up.:mad:.sent renewal but mention of no claims bonus,nobody wants to seem to answer my questions on this matter,get told they will look into it but no reply...6 days till renewal what should i do.any ideas please peeps??

pitkin2020

pgilc1 wrote: »

??????

How is that relevant to the original thread?

I stand by my statement in its original context - the O/P couldnt grasp that protecting your no claims bonus doesnt prevent the insurance company weighting your insurance against you if you do have an accident.

That has always been the case. That isnt a 'scam'.

Its not a scam but at the same time it is very misleading. The insurers make a big fuss about NCB meaning you get discounts on your insurance. To most people NCB is all about your discount entitlement, when in reality they are nothing but a pretty number that has very little effect on your insurance as your insurance is based on the obvious things like car, address etc but your always asked about previous claims which even if you have protected NCB and have had a claim will still increase your premium.

Another OP gave a prime example when messing with the figures, it would cost £120 extra to protect the NCB but if they have a claim they will still see an increase. Lets say over 10 years you have no claims, after 5 years you start to protect your NCB, total cost in year 10 £600 just to protect a number!!. Come year 11 with your protected NCB you still see an increase in premium and its cost you an extra £600 over the last 5 years to get that increase. Maybe you'll get a £200 increase for not protecting your NCB but thats still a huge saving over the long run.

Wig

rossyman69 wrote: »

hi last year i renewed my car insurance to another company(MCE insurance) got a decent price i thought when i put my partner on as a named driver , fully comp with no claims protection(6 years),break down cover the works.Anyway to cut a long story short my partner had 2 bumps in this year,1 has been dealt withpaid £350 excess,says £250 on policy,other is still pending from may ive been told.the policy was round £1100 last year just got a renewal of £4025:eek: with same insurer.When ive questioned this ive had no satisfactory reply just passed on to somebodyelse or they just hang up.:mad:.sent renewal but mention of no claims bonus,nobody wants to seem to answer my questions on this matter,get told they will look into it but no reply...6 days till renewal what should i do.any ideas please peeps??

Who is the Insurer?

Is the £350 excess the result of your voluntary excess £250 + £100 compulsory excess, still if it says Total excess = £250 on the schedule then you should complain to the insurer and then to the ombudsman as to why you paid £350.

The increased premium is because of the accidents, you will have to change insurer. And get quotes with/without him on the policy.

You need to read the policy on "Protected No Claims", my own one says 3 or more claims in the last 5 years and you lose your protection..... What does yours say?

Had you had any other claims prior to these two claims in the last 5 years?

When you've answered these questions we will be able to help.

Heinz

Homest John in the Saturday Telegraph has been saying for ages that No Claims Bonus/Discount protection is a waste of money because insurers have got wise to how they can get you in the event of a claim - by simply increasing the premium because you've had a claim whilst still insisting that your NCD has been protected and the increasse was going to happen anyway.

I never bother with it (or so-called 'Legal Protection').

seanp_14

bigjl wrote: »

Your NCD is still there so they have done nothing wrong, my protected NCD is till 9 years but my premium went up this year by about 30%.

This isn't a scam, this is a national phenomenum, all our insurance costs have gone up.


The windscreen replacement shouldn't have affected your premium so I would look into that, however you have a protected discount, not protected premium, you get a reduction on the insurance quote, if this was 60% last year and is now still 60% then there is no issue to complain about, though under my insurance you go from 60% to 62.5%, yours will be similar.

Your biggest mistake is going for the renewal premium given by your current insurer, that is your fault not theirs.

My renewal premiums for my car and my wifes car where excessive, they wanted an extra £300 on hers, with no fault claims.

They wanted an extra £500 for my car with no claims.

I shopped around, using a price comparison website and got the cars insured ofr almost the same as last year.


There is no scam here that I can see, but feel free to point out something I may have misunderstood in your post.


Though a first post rant seems to be par for the course on here these days.


If you check carefully you will realise that your protected NCD is actually a premium that you pay to Insure your NCD.


I think the OP has completely misunderstood how NCD and protected NCD actually works.


And as far as the wondscreen claim putting up your premium, I have a feeling that the person you spoke to in the phone put that forward as a possible reason for your increased premium when you where having a moan up, rather than anything confirmed in writing.

I have only claimed for a windscreen twice and it made no difference either time, even though both where very expensive screens, one was a heated screen on a MK2 Mondeo, the other was a screen for a 2004 Subaru Legacy that was 6 months old at the time and no pattern part was made, so they had to buy it from Subaru for about £700, ouch!

i aldo have paid extra for the last 5 years to protect my no clasms bonus a few months ago i had a bump wich cost £500 to repair £350 of which i paid myself via my excess i just had a renewal quote which is for over £500 which is £200 more than last year on phoning my insurer i was told on the phone that the excessive rise was due to the accident i had and claimed for i pointed out i had paid extra for protected no claims i was told my no claims discount of over 9 years was still intact i am aware policies rise due to cost of living rises etc but to nearly DOUBLE is due to the accident i had so i do beleive that protecting your ncd is a rip off and i will not be paying the extra any more i worked out that if i had not protected my discount even the drop back to 40% would not have doubled the price with any company

paddedjohn

seanp_14 wrote: »

i aldo have paid extra for the last 5 years to protect my no clasms bonus a few months ago i had a bump wich cost £500 to repair £350 of which i paid myself via my excess i just had a renewal quote which is for over £500 which is £200 more than last year on phoning my insurer i was told on the phone that the excessive rise was due to the accident i had and claimed for i pointed out i had paid extra for protected no claims i was told my no claims discount of over 9 years was still intact i am aware policies rise due to cost of living rises etc but to nearly DOUBLE is due to the accident i had so i do beleive that protecting your ncd is a rip off and i will not be paying the extra any more i worked out that if i had not protected my discount even the drop back to 40% would not have doubled the price with any company

But what you are forgetting is the regardless of ncd you are classed as a greater risk due to your accident so your premiums rise.
Say for instance you had a no fault claim and your insurance is £1000 per year and you have 60% ncd then you will pay £400 per year PLUS the extra they add on due to them seeing you as a greater risk. If you lose your ncd by not protecting it you would be paying £600 per year PLUS the extra they add on due to them seeing you as a greater risk;)

thenudeone

seanp_14 wrote: »

i worked out that if i had not protected my discount even the drop back to 40% would not have doubled the price with any company

Of course it would have, because your claims history now includes an accident that wasn't in your claims history last year.

"Protected NCD" means just that - your NCD years are not affected, but your driving / accident history has changed.
It's not a guaranteed premium for life.

Accidents = higher insurance premiums

If you think it's a rip off, what do you think the quotes would be from other companies be after declaring the accident but with a LOWER number of years NCD?

raskazz

Heinz wrote: »

Homest John in the Saturday Telegraph has been saying for ages that No Claims Bonus/Discount protection is a waste of money because insurers have got wise to how they can get you in the event of a claim - by simply increasing the premium because you've had a claim whilst still insisting that your NCD has been protected and the increasse was going to happen anyway.

I never bother with it (or so-called 'Legal Protection').

Honest John has proved time and again in his articles that he is somewhat far from being an expert an insurance matters, to say the least. Protected NCD as an option has never been claimed to protect the premium you pay from increasing as a result of an accident. It does what it says - protects the level of NCD that one had previously acquired. All things being equal, if one has a claim in the previous policy year, the resultant increase in your net premium will be less than it would have been had the NCD not been protected.

If you run a model taking ALL relevant factors into account including premium inflation and the typically higher excess that applies to a policy for protected NCD, you do find that it is actuarially worth taking protected NCD for all but those with the very lowest claim frequencies.

raskazz

mikey72 wrote: »

So, as an underwriter, why do you want to sell it?

If underwriting is making a loss overall, why are you pushing a product that will further excarberate losses?
Would it not be better to remove it entirely, and let premiums naturally increase for higher risk drivers?

It appears that I didn't respond to this at the time.

Firstly protected NCD has become a market norm so as an individual insurer, to unilaterally withdraw it as an option would immediately alienate a large part of your potential and existing customer base. Co-ordinated removal by the whole industry would be anti-competitive.

BTW I never said that the product "exacerbates losses" at all. What I said was:

"If you actually look at it scientifically instead of applying sweeping knee-jerk comments with no basis in fact, then you would see that protected NCD is worthwhile for all but people with abnormally low claim frequencies (less than one every ten years)."

That is not equivalent to saying that offering it will worsen your loss ratios - as the selection of protected NCD in itself will interact will all other variables in the model (e.g. people who select it may naturally be risk averse which can lead to an underwriting improvement).

mikey72

Always shop around at renewal, you can normally beat your renwal offer by a good margin.