Does being a NAMED driver on vehicle Insurnce gain 'NO Claim' Bonus?

bridge41

I am a mature lady, and named driver on our car insurance. Will I be able to show 'NO CLAIM' history, should I wish to purchase my own vehicle at some future date, or, does the Insurance have to be in my name to qualify?

gatita

Glad you asked that question Bridge! I am in the same position as you.
I have the nasty feeling that if you are not the main driver for over 2 years, you lose all your no claim history. I HOPE i am wrong.

InsideInsurance

There are two elements.... a claims history and a no claims discount

A claims history everyone has including named drivers

A NCD is owned by the policyholder and the named drivers traditionally do not have their own NCD (from being a ND, they can have an NCD from previous or other policies where they are the PH)

That said there are a number of insurers that offer things like "ND NCD", mirrored NCD, introductory NCD as incentives either to win your business or retain your business. In many cases these aren't transferable to other insurers and so does effectively create some lock in.

If you have been a PH and then stopped having your own policy and only been a ND on someone elses pol then the NCD you earned as a PH is valid for, typically, 2 years after which it is then lost.

The one irritating thing about NCD is there is no industry standard, though a lot of common practices, and so whilst I speak in generality there is nothing to stop an insurer doing something totally different for its new customers from tomorrow.

gatita

Thank you for that information Inside....talk about complicated grrrr
Would it make any difference if for example my husband was the main driver for 2 years and me as the named driver, then after the 2 years, HE was the named driver and I was the main driver?

vaio

swapping would mean that you both build NCD and both retain it and is a good idea if you move from a car each to a car between you.

As you seem to be going the other way then I'd have though that a broker could get an introductory discount to reflect your driving history, alternatively, your current insurer might well "mirror" your ncb onto a second policy

thenudeone

Generally - NO.

But some insurers will offer named drivers an NCD, and brokers may be able to find a good introductory discount.

smjxm09

When I got married we both had cars and two sets of NCD. We went from two cars down to one car and just alternate the policy each year so we both keep our full NCD.

We will probably never go back to being a two car faimily but if one of us dies then at least the remaining person has a discount already in place.

mintymoneysaver

I wish I'd realised that a few years ago. We have had the NCD in my name for the last few years, me thinking I was being moneysaving as it would be cheaper for me as a woman. We're now at the stage where we're going back to being a two car family and my husband now has no NCD.

InsideInsurance

Assuming you are doing the proper thing of declaring who the main driver is then who the PH is and who the ND is should make no difference at all if everything else remains equal. What many do is put the female as the PH which is therefore by default the main driver and "forget" to correct that which may reduce the premium but also would be insurance fraud (aka fronting)

Until relatively recently there were some insurers that did NCD mirroring when you went from being a one car two driver family to a two car family but they tended to have fairly sexist rules in terms of the female driver had to be the one without the NCD and the new second vehicle had to be in the "wife's little runabout" category of vehicle

kevin52

I was a named driver on my next door neighbours car, just for emergencies. A year ago I bought a car and stated that I was a named driver on another car. When it came to renewal last week I ran a quote, again as a named driver. My neighbour then told me that she had removed me as a named driver. I ran the quote again and it increased my premium by about £10 - £15.

bridge41

Hello All

Thank you so much for the informative and helpful discussion. Much appreciated

Bridge41