No no claims, am I right to feel grumpy?

gus59

All,

Having driven for 25+ years and not had any insurance claims against me for the past 22, how do I now find myself with no no claims? Pretty easily it turns out.

For years we had 2 cars, me and the wife always named driver on each others cars, 6 years ago I started commuting by train so we got rid of my car, but still named driver on hers, 4 years ago I started driving to work again but by now wife was working from home so lazily car insurance stayed in her name, but informed insurance I was principle driver and commuting etc, then 3 years ago the wife was diagnosed with cancer, 2 years ago I was made redundant, 1 year ago we got a motabilty car as she could no longer get in/out of ours.

Now, the cancer has run its course and Cath passed away 2 months ago and motability car went back, and I bought a cheapish 2nd hand car. Now the insurance fun starts.

Worked through the comparison sites, Allianz comes up cheapest, so I pay £190 for year upfront. They then hassle me for no claims proof, I give them the letters from Motabilty and Privilege showing no claims against my name, and after a call when the call centre supervisor says they'll honour the no claims, yesterday I get a letter saying they'll cancel the policy. So again I go onto sites and this time I don't claim any NCD history, and cheapest comes up as Privelege, so I think £270 not as bad as I feared, so I try phoning them up to see if they'll lower it as my letter is from them, but again they won't accept their own letter or the motability one.

So my questions are:-

a) Am i right to feel hard done by, by the insurance system?

b) any idea how much of the premium am I likely to get back from Allianz?

c) In this day and age with the insurance companies dealing with other all the time about fraud, etc, how come they can't identify you as a safe driver?

Angus

scotsbob

If I understand all that correctly, you had no policy in your name.

Therefore you could not accumulate any bonus.

skipness

I am puzzled, as I thought that Privilege does offer the opportunity of a named driver to pick up their own ncd.

agrinnall

I'm sorry for your loss.

I think you have lost any no claims record that you had when insurance was in your name, normally if you are not the person insured then your record is wiped after 2 years and you have to start again, although it's possible that some insurers may reduce it progressively over a longer period.

a) Yes, probably, but that's the way it is.
b) As the insurer has cancelled you should get a pro-rata return of the premium, so if you've had 2 weekd cover you should get 50 weeks back, although it's possible there may be an admin charge too.
c) The industry method of identifying safe drivers is the NCD system, you have zero NCD therefore in their eyes you are an unknown risk.

You might have a case for a complaint against Allianz if they told you that they would accept the proof you have and then refused it, but I'm not sure what result you would get.

The other issue is that now Allianz have cancelled the insurance you have to answer "Yes" to the question "Has any insurer ever refused or cancelled insurance?", which is likely to add to your premiums.

arcon5

Well the higher price seemed pretty good ---- however you've now had a policy cancelled and thus have to answer yes to that very special question insurers ask during quote time. This may see your premiums quadruple.

If I was you I'd get on the phone to the insurer cancelling the policy and see how much they would charge based on the new information and see about having the policy reinstated. You can cancel yourself then if you so desire and will escape having to answer yes to the question 'have you ever had a policy cancelled or any special terms imposed'

JJ_Egan

Motability named driver then you contact RSA as per your Motability cover note and ask for a letter of your past history .
You use the comparison sites and find a price you like then ask them do they accept the RSA letter as proof of no claims and many do .
Thats what Motability advised me when the contract was terminated and that's what i have done as the named driver .Both Co Op and Direct Line said they would accept this claims history letter .

gus59

All,

I hadn't thought about the ticking yes box for cancelled insurance, thanks for flagging that guys.

I've got a letter from RSA dated 9 June 2014 saying I as named driver have 1 year 1 month claims free and 2nd letter from privilege for previous car dated 29 May 2014 saying since 01/05/12 to date I am claim free as a named driver.

Angus

Aretnap

NCD is really better understood as a marketing gimmick than as a way of identifying safe drivers. As originally conceived in the dim and distant past it was a way for insurers to encourage their customers (especially the good ones who didn't make claims) to renew their policies year after year, and the idea was you'd only get it if you stayed with the same insurer. But that meant soon enough that if insurers wanted to attract new customers they had to offer to match their competitors' NCDs - a bit like Sainsburys might offer to accept Tesco money off vouchers when it fancies poaching some of Tesco's customers. So all the new insurer is really doing is offering to match the discount your old insurer would have given you had you renewed, and if you're not renewing there's no incentive for them to match a discount which you're not getting from someone else.

That's the theory anyway. In practice NCD has been uncomfortably crowbarred into the system insurers use to assess risk, but many of it's oddities (like the fact that it follows the policyholder rather than the main driver, or the fact that it doesn't apply to claim free years on a company car policy) stem from the haphazard way it was developed. Arguably it would probably be to everyone's benefit if insurers just scrapped it and moved to a different system... but nowadays people treat their NCD as if it's the most valuable thing they've ever owned (you can even get insurance for it) so whoever was first to do that would immediately lose all their business. And getting together to agree a common pricing structure might not go down too well with the competition commission...

Meanwhile some insurers will take a flexible approach and offer you credit similar to NCD for claim free years on a Motability or company car policy, but it's a bit haphazard and not all do. If you go to a good local insurance broker (not Swinton) with your letters, they may be able to find you a good deal. Price comparison sites are good for the 90% of people with fairly normal circumstances, but brokers are often better if there's anything out of the ordinary about your situation.

It wold also be worth making a complaint to Allianz (and then the Financial Ombudsman if necessary) about the fact that they said they'd honour your pseudo-NCD and then didn't and try and get the cancellation expunged from your record as it has the potential to cause you more problems in the long term than the lack of NCD does.

InsideInsurance

skipness wrote: »

I am puzzled, as I thought that Privilege does offer the opportunity of a named driver to pick up their own ncd.

They do, as a named driver on one of their policies. By the sounds of it the OP was a ND on a Priv policy, that then was terminated and replaced by a Mobility policy (RSA) which would have ended the NDNCD and the OP is now looking to get new insurance. If the RSA policy hadnt existed then Priv would have allowed the NDNCD to be used on a new business policy for the OP if done before the existing one was ended. Unlike NCD, NDNCD entitlement ends as soon as the parent policy ends.

Clearly a complaint needs to be raised as the cancelled policy is going to have a much greater impact than and NCD will have.

Some insurers may take sympathy and offer to transfer the NCD into your name but you have no "right" to it and so need to be lucky and get a sympathetic call centre agent. This is highly unlikely to happen whilst you have the cancellation against your name

AdrianC

skipness wrote: »

I am puzzled, as I thought that Privilege does offer the opportunity of a named driver to pick up their own ncd.

Any such "opportunity" it merely a marketing goodwill against one of their own policies. It certainly won't be portable across the industry like "proper" NCB - which expires when it's been unused for two years.

The policy hasn't been cancelled for underwriting reasons, it's been cancelled for pricing reasons. I wouldn't have said that needed declaring.

InsideInsurance

AdrianC wrote: »

The policy hasn't been cancelled for underwriting reasons, it's been cancelled for pricing reasons. I wouldn't have said that needed declaring.

The OP says the insurer cancelled it which therefore wouldnt be a "pricing" reason but effectively a fraud issue - customer claimed they had X years but sent in incorrect evidence.

Normal practice, assuming you dont suspect it is fraud, would not have been to cancel the policy but contact the customer advising their proof of NCD was unacceptable and unless acceptable proof was given in Y days then the premium will increase to £Z to represent 0 NCD.

The customer often will then contact and say they arent happy with the price and so the customer themselves cancels it not the insurer.