Halifax Car Insurance - max 9 years NCB?

purplestar133

Just about to buy a car insurance policy with Halifax. I have 9 years no claims bonus and the Halifax terms seem to say that after a year with them, I will still have 9 years NCB as they don't increase NCB after 9 years. Is this common? It is about £40 cheaper than other insurers I'm looking at. I'm not sure whether it's worth buying this cheaper policy knowing that I'm sacrificing 1 year's NCB or pay more with another insurer who will add another year to my NCB after a year with them.

I also know that in about a month's time I'm going to need to pay an admin fee to change my address, so want to keep the premium as cheap as possible. I'm moving house but in the same postcode so I'm hoping that will mean just the admin fee and not an additional premium.

Do insurers stop counting NCB after 9 years or is this particular to Halifax?

rs65

Try quotes with 9 and 10 years and see what difference it makes.

Also try quotes for both addresses.

Use anonymous details though.

Aretnap

All insurers have a maximum number of years NCB that they'll give you credit for. Which makes sense really - is the fact that someone didn't have any accidents as a teenager really relevant to how safe a driver they are as a pensioner?

Traditionally the maximum was 5 years - they might have written a number larger than 5 in your renewal notice, but you wouldn't get any extra discount for it. As a marketing gimmick many insurers have started to trumpet the fact that they'll give you credit for up to 9 years - which often means that you get the same discount, it just takes 4 years longer to get it. Only a handful will quote you any lower for having >9 years, so the odds are that you'll find that there's little or no difference between having 9 years or 10 years in terms of next year's quotes.

purplestar133

Aretnap wrote: »

Only a handful will quote you any lower for having >9 years, so the odds are that you'll find that there's little or no difference between having 9 years or 10 years in terms of next year's quotes.

Thank you. I was hoping that would be the case!

I will just need to make a note that my NCB won't be going up by one next year as, by the time I come to renewal I will have forgotten this year's queries.

purplestar133

Well, I've just quickly gone back to my saved quotes on the comparison sites and put in 10 year's NCB instead of 9, keeping all other details the same to compare, and nearly all the quotes that have come back are the same as they were for 9 years. The only difference is that one insurer (who I'd never heard of anyway) has disappeared.

I don't suppose it's very representative of how the situation will be this time next year anyway. Every time I come to renew/buy a new policy, I am offered different insurers than last year. Sometimes the prices have gone up, sometimes they have gone down.