Do I Have Any No Claims?

Stephen_Leak

Due to changes in personal circumstances, I now have to get car insurance in my own name for the first time in my life. I passed my test on 1 November 1976, but I have always been the named driver on my wife's policy.

Does this mean that my 30.5 years of careful driving (I've had a couple of accidents, but I was always the "target"!) count for nothing?

Also, is there any optimum and recommended level of voluntary excess?

newlywed

Ring the company that your wife insures with and ask if they will give you any discount for insuring with them because of being named driver?

My insurance company don't seem to advertise it but sent a leaflet through saying they would do this

lisyloo

Does this mean that my 30.5 years of careful driving (I've had a couple of accidents, but I was always the "target"!) count for nothing?

Absolutely not.
Your age. Lack of claims and convictions will all count towards a lower premium.

I would first start with your wifes insurers. They may take account of your named driver "no claims".
This does not mean they will be the cheapest, so also shop around.

Also, is there any optimum and recommended level of voluntary excess?

I would say go for the maximum you can comfortably afford.
"self-insurance" is usually cheaper than paying the profits and plush ofices of an insurance company, so only insure things you can't comfortably afford not to. Of course it depends how "comfortable" you want to be.
So essentially no, there is no optimum level, it's a personal thing to do with peace of mind and your attitude to risk.

Stephen_Leak

newlywed wrote: »

Ring the company that your wife insures with and ask if they will give you any discount for insuring with them because of being named driver?

My insurance company don't seem to advertise it but sent a leaflet through saying they would do this

Unfortunately, I cannot do this, because of the way they handled the transfer of the direct debit when I changed current accounts. My new bank wrote to them, but they only cancelled the DD with the old bank (joint account) and didn't set it up with the new bank (in my name only). When I noticed and queried this, they said that they didn't receive the form. I cannot do business with a firm that lies to its customers.

olly300

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

Unfortunately, I cannot do this, because of the way they handled the transfer of the direct debit when I changed current accounts. My new bank wrote to them, but they only cancelled the DD with the old bank (joint account) and didn't set it up with the new bank (in my name only). When I noticed and queried this, they said that they didn't receive the form. I cannot do business with a firm that lies to its customers.

Then you won't be doing business with a lot of firms, insurance or otherwise, as they all "lie" to their customers about not receiving letters, emails or phone calls that is until you tell them you are going to take them to the regulator. :mad:

Get a quote from the firm as you can then use it to beat down quotes from other companies.

Stephen_Leak

olly300 wrote: »

Then you won't be doing business with a lot of firms, insurance or otherwise, as they all "lie" to their customers about not receiving letters, emails or phone calls that is until you tell them you are going to take them to the regulator. :mad:

Get a quote from the firm as you can then use it to beat down quotes from other companies.

Fair point. OK, they lied to me. Until such time as any of the others do the same, they are on sufferance.

This still doesn't help me with what to put in the boxes, when doing Martin's system.

lisyloo

I don't think you should get too hung up about using your existing insurer.

You age, lack of convictions and accidents are all very important so don't think that NCB is all important.

It's quite likely that the cheapest company will be a different one anyway.

What particualar boxes are you referring to?

If you mean NCB then you have 0.

Stephen_Leak

lisyloo wrote: »

I don't think you should get too hung up about using your existing insurer.

You age, lack of convictions and accidents are all very important so don't think that NCB is all important.

It's quite likely that the cheapest company will be a different one anyway.

What particualar boxes are you referring to?

If you mean NCB then you have 0.

I wasn't. Its just that, after 28 years in customer service (during which on many occasions I had to refuse to lie to customers), they "crossed the Rubicon" the instant they did that.

They weren't coming up as the 3 cheapest ones on my first trawl through the comparison sites anyway. I contacted them anyway, and they didn't make any allowance anyway, just a standard introductory NCD.

So, working through the "boxes", protecting my NCD as it builds up would appear to be cost-effective in the long run.

My next headache is the level of voluntary excess - especially as "Parkers" has just given the value of my car as just £750!

I'm going home now, before the day gets any worse!