Car insurance

Andrea_Walsh

is it important that we have no claim discount protection and motor legal protection????
Please can someone help me??

mcjordi

legal protection will help you should you have a non fault accident it helps recover non insured losses (hire car etc if your not fully comp)
ncd protection depends on how many years you have.. depends on the extra amount but i personally would have it..

Hammyman

Andrea_Walsh wrote: »

is it important that we have no claim discount protection and motor legal protection????
Please can someone help me??

No claims discount: Are you a crap driver who runs into things? If the answer is yes, then you should. I've never had protected NCB, currently have the maximum NCB simply gained by not driving like a pillock and running into things.

Legal protection: ALWAYS. For on average £30, it gives you £10,000+ of legal expenses to sue the living hell out of an uninsured driver if they run into you.

Lum

NCD protection isn't just about being a crap driver who runs into things. It also protects your NCB if your car is stolen, is involved in a hit and run, is hit by an uninsured driver, is vandalised all of these are not your fault but would be considered to be your fault in insurance terms, because they can't claim the money back off someone else.

In all of the above situations, without the protection you'd lose 2 years NCD.

I would always get the protection, unless the underwriter is Equity Red Star as their NCD protection is worthless.

InsideInsurance

I dont get protection and over the years it has worked out to my benefit (approximated) but it would only take a couple of unlucky incidents to change all that.

Legal Expenses insurance is more questionable on motor. It covers getting your out of pocket expenses (eg excess or injury) back in the case of an accident which is not 100% your fault. Even in those cases it would cover your passengers cost of suing you for their uninsured losses.

There is an argument that if you were involved in a non-fault accident then you could simply use a no-win, no-fee solicitor and/ or a credit hire/ accident management company. This is true in cases where you exceed the small track claim limit (£1,000 of injury or £5,000 of other losses) but approach one of these companies needing to claim your £300 excess and £50 incidentals and none will be interested at all as they cannot add on any fees themselves.

Personally, despite handling claims for many years myself, do still buy it simply for the convenience even though I know I could do as good a job myself (if not better ) and the conditional funding solicitors being there for bigger claims.

JQ.

I have legal cover for the reasons outlined above.

I've never protected my NCD - it's insurance for your insurance policy. How far do you take it, should you get insurance for NCD insurance and then insure that insurance also. Personally, I take out insurance on things that I could not afford to replace - house burning down, me crashing my car into a Ferrari, £'000's of legal fees on car claim. I'm quite sure if I had a car crash and faced increased insurance costs of £100pa for a couple of years I wouldn't need to sell my kidneys. Seems to have wprked out so far in that I have full NCD and have never paid to insure it.

Lum

I guess NCD protection depends on how much the base policy is.

When I was paying £2200 to insure a car with 4 years NCD, that extra insurance was well worth it.

Money_saving_Martyn

JQ. wrote: »

I have legal cover for the reasons outlined above.

I've never protected my NCD - it's insurance for your insurance policy. How far do you take it, should you get insurance for NCD insurance and then insure that insurance also. Personally, I take out insurance on things that I could not afford to replace - house burning down, me crashing my car into a Ferrari, £'000's of legal fees on car claim. I'm quite sure if I had a car crash and faced increased insurance costs of £100pa for a couple of years I wouldn't need to sell my kidneys. Seems to have wprked out so far in that I have full NCD and have never paid to insure it.

Don't you take out car insurance because it's legally required?!

I was surprised when I found out (and please confirm/deny this) that you only lose a few years no claims if you have a claim. I used to think you lost everything and went back down to 0.

I've never understood NCD protection - surely if you're claiming you're a higher risk and I completey understand where the above poster is coming from about never ending insurance for your insurance!

That said, I do protect my NCD, mainly because I do a lot of haggling and one broker always match my best price and give free NCD protection to boot. Sometimes I even re-haggle to get that free somewhere else and managed to do that last year.

Legal expenses - I've always seen it as paying for a no-win, no-fee solicitor.

Many of the policies have a clause similar to this:

As a member of X, where there are reasonable prospects of recovery, X will take the necessary steps to recover any losses on your behalf, including pursuit of damages for personal injury and if necessary, appoint legal representative to reclaim your losses through the courts without any cost to you.

I can see the post I just read form the screen I'm typing this on, but someone mentioned defending you if the accident was your fault. I would double check that that was actually offered - most only seem interested in you if the accident is NOT your fault.

As for small claims (£300) excess - can't you just write to the other person's insurance company and ask for it? Isn't that all the solicitors would do?

Quentin

Money_saving_Martyn wrote: »

someone mentioned defending you if the accident was your fault. I would double check that that was actually offered - most only seem interested in you if the accident is NOT your fault.

If the accident is your fault, and the third party ends up taking you to court for their damages, then your insurer (who will be forking out the damages) will provide any legal representation that's required.

YorksClare

I had "legal expenses cover" and was knocked off my motorbike. The insurer - Equity Red Star - used Bankstone to handle the claim because I was "only third party fire and theft". Apparently, if I had taken out comprehensive cover they would have handled it themselves.

I was most definitely not at fault, the bike was a write-off and I was lucky not to have any broken bones. I did have concussion and several nasty bruises, not to mention sciatica and joint troubles (I have an underlying condition, not diagnosed until well after the accident was cleared up).

The "legal cover" seemed to be worth less than used toilet paper once it became clear that the other party was trying to slide out of the blame for hitting my bike as I crossed a boxed junction going straight ahead, while he turned right across me after his filter light had well and truly cancelled.

Apparently, despite £100,000 of "legal cover", hiring a solicitor to take it to court was not covered, only the call centre staff giving basic legal advice. The solicitor had to take out "after the fact" insurance on my behalf simply to ensure that his fees were paid, which I was annoyed about because it made me sound as if I had been uninsured before the claim. He claimed the cost of this insurance back off the other driver's insurance, no bother, but the principle still sticks in my throat.

"Legal cover" should be just that. A solicitor going to court is a legal transaction, and therefore should be covered. I will not use Equity again, or have less than comprehensive cover, or trust "legal cover", even though I buy it where necessary. If I ever have to use it again, I will be a complete pain in the backside until they blumming well pay out as they should!

Hammyman

Lum wrote: »

NCD protection isn't just about being a crap driver who runs into things. It also protects your NCB if your car is stolen, is involved in a hit and run, is hit by an uninsured driver, is vandalised all of these are not your fault but would be considered to be your fault in insurance terms, because they can't claim the money back off someone else.

However having protected NCD doesn't mean your insurance won't rise becuase of the claim, merely that you retain the same discount.

For example:
Insurance renewal without a claim prior to NCD being applied is £1000
Insurance renewal with a minor claim is prior to NCD being applied is £1100

You have 50% protected NCD. After the claim, you still have the same 50% NCD. However your insurance renewal will still be higher because of the cost due to the claim - you just get the same discount applied. So on renewal with your NCD after a claim, you'd not pay the £500 someone with 50% NCD and no claim would, you'd pay £550. AND THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE DO NOT REALISE. They think it means that your claim is not taken into account so you get a quote the same as someone who has never had a claim.

Thing is though, that protecting the NCD may have cost you £50 or more but the loss of 2 years NCD discount would possibly add less than the cost of the protection to the renewal quote.

Protecting your NCD only has value in the first few years where the discounts increase the most. Once you get above 3 years, the increase in NCD percentage is quite little compared to the typical 33% in the first year.

NCD protection is not done for the benefit of the insured. It is done purely as a money maker for the insurance companies.