Incorrectly Calculated NCB from previous insurer

boothuk

Hi,

I am just about to purchase a new insurance policy as I'm due for renewal in the next couple of weeks. I was under the impression I now had 5 years NCB, but the policy renewal (which serves as proof) from Admiral only states 4 years. I had just done a 10 month bonus accellerator with Admiral.

My history is as follows:

Renewal Notice

NCB Years

Insurer



03/02/2010

1

Direct Line



23/02/2011

2

Swiftcover



2012?



1st Central



05/04/2013

3

1st Central



15/01/2014

4

Admiral

I can't find correspondence from my 2012 purchase of insurance with 1st Central, whereby my policy should have included 2 years NCB starting in 2011 and renewing in 2012 should have been 3 years NCB.

I have 2013 correspondence from 1st Central (since I needed to write and get proof with this insurer, in order to switch to Admiral)

It is clear then that the problem lies with 1st Central incorrectly providing the wrong NCB on their exit letter, which has had a subsequent knock-on effect.

I'm usually very switched on with things like this, but I had a nightmare start to 2013 when I needed to renew and this has flown under the radar.

Is there any advise for restoring my correct NCB? Thanks.

boothuk

That table hasn't posted correctly, I can't post a link / image because I'm a new member, but it can be found at :

htt.p://s8.postimg.org/jsn1ble3p/ncb_table.jpg

InsideInsurance

You need to check with First Central to see what has happened there.

Presumably there was an insurer before Direct Line for you to have 1 year with them at the start?

Did you make any claims, eg for glass?

boothuk

Hi, previous to Direct Line, I have insurance history, however I had a crash on 5th January 2009 which reset my NCB. I don't remember who my insurer was prior to Direct Line and can't find any record on my e-mails. I may be able to find out tonight as I hold hard copies of my documents - may have been culled though with it being so long ago.

Edit: I have e-mail 1st Central explaining the situation and asking for it to be remedied. I have a document for renewal in 2010 from Direct Line though stating 1 years NCB. Trying to locate the 2 years NCB from Swiftcover, but only have an e-mail stating it at the moment.

Edit 2: Sorry, not made any claims whatsoever since January 2009.

londonTiger

it happens, my brother had his 12 years NCD reduce down to 9 for some reason.

Insurer was so uncooerative because they have nothing to gain from helping him out here. He left them and moved onto a new insurer so the previous insurer was uncoperative, putting him on hold for ages, saying call agan next week blah blah blah.

Constant chasing up, still got nowhere. In the end there's not much difference in discount from 9 years to 12 years NCB. So he just took the 9.

Looks like the problem is with 1st central. Which begs the question why didn't you get it resolved when you moved to Admiral?

InsideInsurance

londonTiger wrote: »

it happens, my brother had his 12 years NCD reduce down to 9 for some reason.

Insurer was so uncooerative because they have nothing to gain from helping him out here. He left them and moved onto a new insurer so the previous insurer was uncoperative, putting him on hold for ages, saying call agan next week blah blah blah.

Constant chasing up, still got nowhere. In the end there's not much difference in discount from 9 years to 12 years NCB. So he just took the 9.

Looks like the problem is with 1st central. Which begs the question why didn't you get it resolved when you moved to Admiral?

This one is easy to explain, traditionally NCD discounts only went up to 5 years. Computer systems were very expensive and so there was no point having a double digit data field for NCD given that anything above 5 was pointless.

Obviously these days data storage/ processing is very cheap and so the idea that this would influence design of systems seems odd but it did. Many insurers however still run archaic mainframes in the background and so the legacy of 9 years NCD remains.

If you look at a lot of quote and buy sites you'll see the NCD field only allows you to enter 0-8 then "9 or more" - some even cap at 5 or more.

I dont know of any insurer that gives any more credit for having over 9 years than they do for having 9 years but others have claimed their insurers do.