About to lose my no claims bonus

naepace

Hi, we sold our second car about 3 years ago as I started to cycle to work. For the past 22 months my wife has been the main driver on the insurance policy and I as a named driver. With hindsight it would have been sensible to alternate the main driver at renewal but I never intended on having a second car again.
However, I now do ! but won't be buying it until the New Year, possibly later (I'm being transferred by work) which will be over 2 years since I was last the main policy holder.
In order to keep my full no claims bonus can I just change the main driver on the policy ? or would I have to cancel the existing policy and take out a new one ? I have until December and just by doing a quick quote it will cost me thousands to build up my no claims from scratch.
Cheers in advance of any advice.
np.

Quentin

Not a recommendation, but aviva will accept NCD up to 3 years old

Changing over the status of named drivers won't work, as NCD is awarded to the policy holder.

InsideInsurance

You have to be the policyholder not the main driver to get the NCD. You therefore would need to cancel the policy but given the last time you were a policyholder is over 3 years ago you would have 0 NCD on this new policy and therefore still 0 NCD in your new car in a few months.

The only reason this would really be worth whilst is if your new car is likely to be more expensive to insure than your current vehicle in which case you'd be using the NCD you do have on the more expensive car by setting your partner as the policyholder.

scheming_gypsy

co-op also let you have 3 years https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3574479

naepace

Apologies for not making it clearer, I was last the policy holder 22 months ago and have been the named driver since. On a quick comprehensive quote for a £3000 fiesta, I would be around £3-400 more expensive a year without my ncb. It appears that cancelling our existing policy and taking out a new policy with me as the policy holder is the way to go, do you think my existing insurer would do this or is it a bit dodgy ?

scheming_gypsy

they'd be fine as they've had x months money out of you and will get another 12 months money from you.

scheming_gypsy

naepace wrote: »

Apologies for not making it clearer, I was last the policy holder 22 months ago and have been the named driver since.

tis ok we got that bit, most insurers don't accept NCD after 24 months but Aviva and Co-Op let you have 36 months 'rest' before your NCD is void. So you should be safe to hold out till it's due for renewal (if you wanted to)

Quentin

naepace wrote: »

Apologies for not making it clearer, I was last the policy holder 22 months ago and have been the named driver since. On a quick comprehensive quote for a £3000 fiesta, I would be around £3-400 more expensive a year without my ncb. It appears that cancelling our existing policy and taking out a new policy with me as the policy holder is the way to go, do you think my existing insurer would do this or is it a bit dodgy ?

If you only had the one policy, which is now in your wifes name, then you cannot use the NCD now on a second car.

Each policy builds its own NCD.