Are car insurance companies scamming us all? Through number of no claims years?

Michael_Campbell

Hi all.

A question which to my knowledge seems to be unanswered, even by Martin L.

I first took car insurance in 2000, and I've never made a fault claim. So for my no claims years do I enter 14 years? My insurance is with Aviva, and their website / ins cert etc state 5 years plus.

So when I renew my insurance when it is new, do I enter 14 years, or 5 years, because if they ask for proof I can only show 5 years now? I certainly do not have all 14 insurance certs and corresponding renewal notices. For savvy money saving people who change insurance companies most years for savings in price - this will be the same case.

In my opinion the regulator should force all insurance companies to show the full number of no claims years.

I'm sure a difference of 5/14 years would make a fair difference to my renewal price. Please help, my insurance renewal is coming up.

[Deleted User]

Aviva should be able to confirm the full 14 years, even if they don't consider them all when calculating their own premiums.

forgotmyname

Have you found an insurer that offer a cheaper premium for more than 9 years?

I tried on one of the comparison sites a few years back and it make zero difference putting 9 years or anything upto 30 years.

InsideInsurance

The majority of insurers only give a discount for up to 5 years

A minority give discounts up to 9 years (however some give less for 9 years than others do for 5 years)

I dont know anyone who gives additional discount for more than 9 years but of cause marketing messages and reality are very rarely strongly linked.

The idea that insurers have to record accurate NCD is a very noble cause but who is going to page the 100 million+ pounds it would cost to enforce this? Many insurers systems backends are ancient mainframes. Back when their systems were new the difference between storing and processing a two digit number and a 1 digit number was massive. How systems were built back then were different too, everything was hard coded and poorly documented. To change anything therefore you have to trawl through millions of lines of code to find everywhere its referenced as a 1 digit code.


A slightly different example, one client wanted to be able to offer car insurance with the offer of 15 months cover for the price of 12 (rather than the norm of 12 months for the price of 9). After a lot of speaking to IT they came back with an estimate of £40m with a 30% confidence factor that they had identified everywhere that a policy lasts 12 months had been hardcoded. Times that by the number of motor insurers in the company and you get the idea of the potential costs.


With NCD I dont know any insurer who wont on request do the leg work to actually correctly confirm your NCD based on the number you proved you came with + the number of years you were with them. At present doing this manual task is much cheaper than trying to rebuild all insurers IT systems

Quentin

DELETED USER wrote:

Aviva should be able to confirm the full 14 years, even if they don't consider them all when calculating their own premiums.

How can they do this?

All aviva can confirm is the number of years the op proved to them when first taking out the aviva policy plus the subsequent year(s) as an aviva policyholder.

InsideInsurance

Quentin wrote: »

How can they do this?

All aviva can confirm is the number of years the op proved to them when first taking out the aviva policy plus the subsequent year(s) as an aviva policyholder.

Your second statement is what they are asking for. At the moment you get a quote from many insurers and all you can enter its 9+ years or 5+ years and so your renewal comes through with the same rather than 25 years or whatever the "real" number is

OnanTheBarbarian

Maybe this is urban legend, but is there s statistic that, on average, a motorist will be involved in a smack every 7 years?

So would somebody who rocks up with say 10 years NCD under their wing potentially be viewed as a more risky prospect because statistically "you're overdue an accident" compared to somebody who has say 5 years NCD?

dunstonh

So when I renew my insurance when it is new, do I enter 14 years, or 5 years, because if they ask for proof I can only show 5 years now? I certainly do not have all 14 insurance certs and corresponding renewal notices. For savvy money saving people who change insurance companies most years for savings in price - this will be the same case.

Enter what you can prove. Ideally, you should keep copies of your past insurance policies to be able to show your history if required.

In my opinion the regulator should force all insurance companies to show the full number of no claims years.

That information is something you know. Not them. This is why they ask for copies to prove it. It would be nice for them to have it but they dont.

I'm sure a difference of 5/14 years would make a fair difference to my renewal price. Please help, my insurance renewal is coming up.

Anything above 5/6 is really just a marketing thing. It is actually very common for a company that offers say 10 years NCD to have a lower NCD than those that only do the industry norm of 5/6.

It sounds good on the adverts when they say they will give drivers 10 years no claims discount but if the discount applied is less than those that give 5/6 then it is meaningless. e.g. a 70% discount could be the max on a 5 year provider but the 10 year provider may only get to 70% in year 10 or may not even get to 70% at all.

InsideInsurance

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

Maybe this is urban legend, but is there s statistic that, on average, a motorist will be involved in a smack every 7 years?

So would somebody who rocks up with say 10 years NCD under their wing potentially be viewed as a more risky prospect because statistically "you're overdue an accident" compared to somebody who has say 5 years NCD?

:rotfl:

Life is not so fair

NCD is a small element of luck (hit and runs, uninsured drivers, vandalism, fire etc), a small element of money/sense (realising its cheaper to do a small fix yourself and being able to afford to privately pay it) and a significant amount about how you drive/ where you live/ where you park etc.

Its simply not logical to think a thief is going to decide to try and nick the guy who lives in the middle of nowhere's car because its only fair that he gets done once every 7 years rather than nicking one of the cars on the rough estate where a car goes missing every week or two.

Ok, you could argue that those that have never been in an accident or had their car damaged could become cocky and take unnecessary risks but after 40 years of not claiming its more likely they are a safe driver, living and parking in sensible places and not just exceptionally lucky

[Deleted User]

Michael_Campbell wrote: »

Hi all.

A question which to my knowledge seems to be unanswered, even by Martin L.

I first took car insurance in 2000, and I've never made a fault claim. So for my no claims years do I enter 14 years? My insurance is with Aviva, and their website / ins cert etc state 5 years plus.

So when I renew my insurance when it is new, do I enter 14 years, or 5 years, because if they ask for proof I can only show 5 years now? I certainly do not have all 14 insurance certs and corresponding renewal notices. For savvy money saving people who change insurance companies most years for savings in price - this will be the same case.

In my opinion the regulator should force all insurance companies to show the full number of no claims years.

I'm sure a difference of 5/14 years would make a fair difference to my renewal price. Please help, my insurance renewal is coming up.

Hi Michael

I'd be happy to look into this for you and confirm your full No Claims Discount entitlement. To do so can you please email me at social@aviva.co.uk with your

Full name
Date of birth
Post code
Policy Number
MSE Username (So I can link your email to this post)

I look forward to hearing from you

Kind regards

Dave Hyam
Aviva Social Media Team

jackieblack

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

Maybe this is urban legend, but is there s statistic that, on average, a motorist will be involved in a smack every 7 years?

So would somebody who rocks up with say 10 years NCD under their wing potentially be viewed as a more risky prospect because statistically "you're overdue an accident" compared to somebody who has say 5 years NCD?

In that case I'm overdue several accidents :eek: