To claim or not to claim

clueless1

I have 11 years no claims protected. I have a cracked windscreen and excess is £100. Should I claim on insurance or not worth it?

What happens when I apply for insurance in the future?

1) Will I lose x amount of years or do I just not gain a year, therefore I would stay at 11 yrs ncd?

2) Can I still protect my NCD on future policies?

3) I know the insurance will always ask if you have ever made a claim, so therefore, I will have to answer yes to this question in future. But does it make any difference that this was not a accident related claim?

flashg67

Check your policy, most/many won't count glass as a claim that reduces the NCD, although you should admit to it if asked.

Protected NCD should mean you can claim 'x' number of times anyway without reducing your NCD. But this doesn't mean that the premium that your discount is based on won't still go up..

InsideInsurance

All insurers have their own rules so you'd need to check with your current insurers and to be fully belts and braces, those insurers you'd be considering going to.

As a rule of thumb, glass claims dont impact existing NCD. Some wont award another years discount in a year that you make a glass claim but many still do. That said, most insurers only count up to 5 years NCD and I dont know any that give anything for over 9 years so if you're on 11 you are fairly safe there and being on 12 wont make any difference.

Some insurers do load premium for glass claims, many don't. I had to do a late declaration of a glass claim which happened between buying a new policy and that policy incepting and no loading was applied.

More commonly, if you have had multiple/ exessive number of glass claims then some insurers will exclude glass cover with an endorsement.

As to if its worth it or not? That depends on the cost of your windscreen -v- the excess and potential premium increases. I know the cost of replacing mine is well over a grand

Hoof_Hearted

If you decide to get it done yourself, shop around. Autoglass, the market leader, are hideously expensive.

clueless1

Qoute: As a rule of thumb, glass claims dont impact existing NCD. Some wont award another years discount in a year that you make a glass claim but many still do. That said, most insurers only count up to 5 years NCD and I dont know any that give anything for over 9 years so if you're on 11 you are fairly safe there and being on 12 wont make any difference.


I have always paid to protect my ncd which increases the cost of my insurance. So, if for example, maximum claim is 5 years, is it still worth me paying to protect my ncd? I have gone 11 years without claiming and I am not planning on any futher claims. But if I dont protect ncd and then do need to claim in future, I wouldnt lose all my ncd so losing a couple of years will still keep me above the maximum years counted right?

I am just trying to keep costs down so I just want to know it it is worth paying to protect ncd over x amount of years?

longtimelurkersam

I had to get a new windscreen in my T4. From what I am reading and seeing online, insurance companies only seem to be going way with regards to “claims/incidents” and I did not want a windscreen claim on my file just in case something changes (I have 3 vehicles and 3 policies so would have to declare on each). I had a pretty reasonable excess of £90 and just went on to that wonderful social media site Facebook and asked my mates if they knew a windscreen fitter. Voila 5 minutes later I had a choice of 3 independents and the cost was I think £160 so I just went direct to the one that was nicest to me on the phone. If you are in Swanley/Dartford/East London area I can recommend someone who will come to you.

Stoke

Don't do it.

Go private or even DIY using a kit from the bay.

Aretnap

clueless1 wrote: »

I have always paid to protect my ncd which increases the cost of my insurance. So, if for example, maximum claim is 5 years, is it still worth me paying to protect my ncd? I have gone 11 years without claiming and I am not planning on any futher claims. But if I dont protect ncd and then do need to claim in future, I wouldnt lose all my ncd so losing a couple of years will still keep me above the maximum years counted right?

I am just trying to keep costs down so I just want to know it it is worth paying to protect ncd over x amount of years?

Most insurers will treat more than 5 years of NCD as being 5 years for all practical purposes. So if you have 5 years NCD and make a claim you'll have 3 years at next renewal... and if you have 11 years NCD and make a claim you'll also have 3 years, not 9, at next renewal. Protecting it means that in both cases you keep all your existing NCD... at least up to a certain number of claims in a year. So there is a real benefit to doing it. Whether it's worthwhile depends on what you're paying to protect it, how much extra you'd be paying with fewer years and, importantly, how likely you think you are to make a claim.

InsideInsurance

clueless1 wrote: »

But if I dont protect ncd and then do need to claim in future, I wouldnt lose all my ncd so losing a couple of years will still keep me above the maximum years counted right?

I am just trying to keep costs down so I just want to know it it is worth paying to protect ncd over x amount of years?

Generally, again, if you have a "fault" claim (not glass) with unprotected maximum NCD you will step down to 3 years NCD even with those insurers that recognise up to 9 years.

The progression of NCD percentage discount is not linear and varies by insurers. It tends to be more complex now but historically it used to be:

1 year - 30%
2 years - 40%
3 years - 50%
4 years - 60%
5 years - 65% or 70%

For those recognising up to 9 years it'd be:
1 year - 30%
2 years - 40%
3 years - 50%
4 years - 60%
5 years - 66%
6 years - 67%
7 years - 68%
8 years - 69%
9 years - 70%

As to if NCD Protection is worth it? Thats up to you and how risk adverse you are as effectively its another insurance policy. I dont bother with it but I've had 2 theft claims and 1 AD claim in 18 years of driving

molerat

A WS claim increased my quotes by around £1.