No Claims Bonus Shock

Mind_the_Gap

Apologies if this has been covered before, but I thought I'd share a lucky escape I've just had with regard to car insurance.

Was insured with Liverpool Victoria for years, up to Aug 25th last year - accumulated the maximum no claims bonus (9 years). Sold car as no longer needed, shared husband's car but not as main driver; my own policy ended on Aug 25th 2010. and obv. wasn't renewed.

Just bought new vehicle, rang LV to insure it - discovered that if your no claims bonus is 'more than 12 months old', it is cancelled and you start again from 0. Fortunately - and by complete chance - I was inside this cut-off point (by one day!) so got a large reduction on my premium, (as you would expect to, with 9 years' no claims bonus). LV's quote was best and they've been good in the past over adding and removing my kids as drivers, so I wanted to renew with them - but the 'one year' rule is ridiculous. Do all insurers do this?

Why should your insurance risk increase to the level of a new/accident-prone driver's, simply because it is twelve months + one day since you were last insured in your own name? I could accept a sliding scale (e.g 10% reduction in ncb for every year not insured in own name), but to wipe it all out in one fell swoop after just 12 months smacks of a money making racket, to me.

Any views?

System

I think you would find that each insurance company has their own procedure for how they handle NCD during a break in your driving experience.

I agree with you tho. it does seem wrong to simply remove the whole discount after a break of just 12 months, especially when you consider that the discount is for not making a claim (the clue is in the name) and hence should not be directly related to driving experience.

InsideInsurance

Most insurers will honour an NCD for 2 years rather than one but ultimately each insurer has its own rules.

In a system that is still fairly sexist you will also find a number of insurers that will mirror a husband's NCD onto a wife's new vehicle assuming the wife has been a named driver on their husbands policy.

malc_b

I'm surprised at 1yr I thought it was 2yrs. It's been this way for ages. Back when we only had one car my wife and I used to insure on alternate years to keep our NCDs valid.

luci

InsideInsurance wrote: »

In a system that is still fairly sexist you will also find a number of insurers that will mirror a husband's NCD onto a wife's new vehicle assuming the wife has been a named driver on their husbands policy.

OK it was many years ago, but Royal and Sun Alliance actually mirrored my NCD for my hubby when we changed from one car to two.