How many claim-free years count for NCB?

Pennypincher10

I'm in dispute with my car insurer. They say that there is a different level of NCB for 8 years rather than 9 years. I thought NCB only went up to 4 years. What are other peoples experiences?

InsideInsurance

Insurers can write whatever rules they want with NCD as it is not an industry wide standard.

Traditionally the discounts used to max out at 5 years however some insurers would keep counting years after this as during a fault claim they only deducted 2 years from the total years NCD rather than dropping you down to 3 years (ie if you had 13 years NCD and had a fault claim theyd move you down to 11).

That the moment there are several insurers that dont max out their NCD until 9 years.

Likewise in the old days insurers discounts used to simply depend on if you were above or below 60 years old - over you typically got an extra 5% discount on the max level. Now a days the actual discount applied is much more complex.... most insurers will only discuss how many years discount you have and not the actual percentage discount they are deducting

fozzeh

InsideInsurance wrote: »

That the moment there are several insurers that dont max out their NCD until 9 years.

Names please! I am coming to 8 years now, moving out of the 18-25 bracket and want to not get shafted again this year.

keith1950

Hi, generally 5 years gives you the maximum NCD of 65-70 %, some insurers give extra years discount but this only equates to an extra 1% or so per year up to 9 years.

This is pretty academic however as insurers who only give 5 years often give lower quotes than insurers who give 9 years.

One particular company who claim to give up to 90% for carefull drivers ( AXA ) usually give me quotes way above those that only use up to 5 years.

However even if you have say 9 years, if you have an at fault accident then you usually lose 2 years from 5 years leaving you with 3 years. The loss of 2 years is not deducted from your 9 years but from the 'normal' maximum of 5 years.

Quentin

fozzeh wrote: »

Names please! I am coming to 8 years now, moving out of the 18-25 bracket and want to not get shafted again this year.

Going from a 25 to a 26 year old doesn't do much to your premium, but you do get away from the extra compulsory discount usually applied to the under 25s.

Just shop around for the best deal, irrespective of how high a company goes with its NCD (as already advised)!

InsideInsurance

fozzeh wrote: »

Names please!

You are falling for the tricks!!!!

Some insurers will pay up to 70% discount for 5 years NCD where another insurer may not even pay 70% discount for 8 years NCD.

NCD is not a standardised thing, each insurer decides what discount they give for each value of NCD. Now a days insurers tend to have more complex calculations of what discount you receive.

mikey72

keith1950 wrote: »

Hi, generally 5 years gives you the maximum NCD of 65-70 %, some insurers give extra years discount but this only equates to an extra 1% or so per year up to 9 years.

This is pretty academic however as insurers who only give 5 years often give lower quotes than insurers who give 9 years.

One particular company who claim to give up to 90% for carefull drivers ( AXA ) usually give me quotes way above those that only use up to 5 years.

However even if you have say 9 years, if you have an at fault accident then you usually lose 2 years from 5 years leaving you with 3 years. The loss of 2 years is not deducted from your 9 years but from the 'normal' maximum of 5 years.

Axa don't, they take it from the nine years, and they're also the cheapest for me.
Shop around, they all have different rules.

Spiderham

As has been said, insurers can pretty much do whatever they like for NCD rates and penalties for claims. Depending on the number of years you've built up they will offer a discount maxing out somewhere. As has been said they generally knock you back 2 years for a fault claim, although with many insurers despite going above 5 years for NCD levels will peg back to 3 from anything 5+ following a fault claim.

The full details of how their NCD works should be in their policy wording.

@OP if you've declared 9 years NCD and only have 8 I really would just take it on the chin and pay the increased premium, otherwise you could end up in a world of pain if they seriously go down the non-disclosure route. Out of interest, how has this discrepancy come about? As in how have you ended up with a discrepancy between what they have recorded and reality?