"No claims discount" on home insurance

ericonabike

I've insured through M & S for the past several years andf the renewal has just come through. It's expensive, at a shade under £600 but it includes my 'stable' of bicycles which would cost a lot more to insure separately. I noticed though that it includes 'no claims discount protection' for a no claims discount of > 5 years. I rang to find out more about the discount and was told 'we don't have that information'. The protection figure is £45 a year. I tried to explain how I couldn't make an informed choice about this if I didn't know how much it was saving me, but as I was getting into my stride the line went dead! Possibly a coincidence...As it had taken me a long time to get through in the first place I decided to contact them by email or post instead, But before that I wondered if anyone else had come across this issue?

Just_Some_Guy

£600 seems a lot but if you have many high value bikes then £600 isn't too bad

NCD Protection is worth it if you have a claim as it will save you a fortune in premium increases. If you don't claim maybe it offers you peace of mind (or maybe it's just a waste of money). What you really want is a crystal ball!

You need to understand how NCD works before you can understand what NCD Protection is about. NCD is like snakes and ladders. Have a year without any claims and you go up a step and get a bigger discount (unless you're at the top already in which case you just stay there). If you have one claim you go down two steps. If you have more than one claim you go down to the bottom. NCD Protection means you can claim (within limits) without going down the ladder. If you have NCD Protection then you still get claims loads, so NCD Protection means your premium goes up less after a claim.

For car insurance NCD protection is a no brainer as claims are quite frequent and you stand to lose a lot of discount (you can get 90% discounts - lose it all and your premium goes up by a factor of ten, and that's before the claims loads). On home it's a bit harder to say because claims are quite rare and the discounts on offer are not as generous. In your case, with your stable of easily nickable bikes, you are more likely to claim than most people which makes it that much more attractive for you.

Your insurer can tell you what your NCD position is - how many years you have and how much of a discount that gets you. You can also ask for how much discount you get once you've earned more NCD (I wouldn't be surprised if there are no more discounts after 5 years). And also how much discount you'll lose if you go down the NCD ladder. Once you have all that, you can then decide whether you think it's worth it.