Protected No Claims Discount - Are drivers penalised when making a no fault claim?

Jim_Skelton

Hello,

I would like to raise a question regarding protected no claims discounts on motor insurance policies.

I have a 12 year protected no claims bonus. I made a claim one year ago on my vehicle where a tree fell on my motor. This was clearly a non fault claim.

I have now gone to take out a new insurance policy and have been told that my premium has risen because a claim was made on my policy.

Please can anyone explain what the point is of having a protected no claims policy if I am still going to be penalized for making a non fault claim?

Thank you in advance.

Jim

Quentin

You have to disclose all claims when applying for quotes, whether or not they are "fault" claims.


(From what you say you had a fault claim - unless your insurer got recompense from a third party)


Your protection will have "kicked in" and you won't have lost any NCD over your claim.


Your protection applies to your NCD, not your premium, and your fault claim will cause a premium loading as you have found.

Aretnap

The point of having protected NCD is that it protects your NCD. It doesn't protect your premium from any and all things that might cause it to increase.

How it works is something like this:

Your base premium is £1000. You have 5 or more years NCD, giving you a 70% discount. You therefore pay £300.

You make a claim. Your base premium goes up to £1200 to reflect your claims history. You also see your NCD reduced to 3 years, or 50%. Your new premium is £600.

You make the same claim, but you'd protected your NCD. Your base premium still goes up, but you keep your 70% discount, giving you a new premium of £360. Your premium has still gone up, but not by as much as it would have done had you not protected your NCD.

Incidentally in the world of insurance a "fault" claim is one where your insurer paid out money and was unable to recover it from anyone else. For most accidents this does roughly correspond with "blame", but it does mean that things like a tree falling on your car, having your car damaged by a hit and run driver, or having your car stolen all count as fault claims - you may not be to blame, but there is nobody else for your insurer to recover their money from so it comes out of their own pockets.

forgotmyname

Unless they claimed from the tree or its owner it would have been a fault claim as mentioned above, fault = did they get their money back or not, not actually whether you were at fault. Silly but thats the wording.

Because of that claim your are deemed a higher risk and likely to make more claims soon after. Well thats their excuse anyway.

So instead of getting 50% off your £500 premium your now deemed a £1000 risk and get 50% off that instead.