insurance not accepting NCB

bimma

a friend of mine had 1 years NCB earnt on a 1.0 car

he then sold that and upgraded to a 1.9 tdi audi a3

the insurance company which quoted him said they wouldnt accept the NCB as it was earnt on a 1.0 car ...
this is the first ive heard of such terms being imposed regarding ncb
he still bought the insurance as he was struggling to get insured on that car elsewhere....with the assumption that although they wouldnt honour the discount they would still state "2 years NCB" after the insurance expired

now his insurance is due again...but instead of the renewal stating 2 years NCB. it only states 1 year.
Surely they cant just ignore 1st year ??
and what is the best way around it..
he is getting quotes by stating 2 years NCB...
he has proof of his 1st year and proof of this 2nd year but problem is most recent renewal only states 1 yr NCB

he actually has 2 yrs claim free.
how to tackle this?
can insurance companies do this?

forgotmyname

Your friend has gotten the facts wrong or missed something out.

The new company have given him the 1 years no claims because he has been with them for 1 year with no claims.

They may offer a discount equivalent to 2 years but he only has one.

mattk_180

Seems to me that your friends assumption was wrong.


They said they would not accept his 1 year NCB yet he went ahead with the policy anyway. Sound to me like he therefore accepted a quote with 0 years NCB. Fast forward to renewal, 1 year later and he now has 1 year NCB.


Unfortunately he is now in the situation where he has 2 separate lots of NCB and in most cases, 1 plus 1 doesn't equal 2.


He's either going to have to continue on 1 year or find a broker that will be able to place a policy with 2 years using the 2 different letters. He certainly shouldn't take out a policy based on 2 years without explaining the situation otherwise it's going to get a lot more difficult for him.

bimma

But can an insurance company refuse to accept a no claims bonus on the reason that "it was earnt on a 1.0 car"...surely theres no restrictions on engine size of car... a no claims bonus is valid if earnt on a private car policy in the name of the person claiming bonus discount.

if the above is true then is there a valid complaint to take up as to no justified reason for not accepting bonus...if so who with....independent ombudsamn?, consumer complaints?

rudekid48

Did your friend actually have a policy that ran for a full year? It sounds more like the car was changed mid-term and the current insurer would not cover the new car....

bimma

yes it did. he had a policy on a 1.0 yaris. insured with mulsanne insurance which earnt him the 1 year. it expired then he sold that and bought the audi a3. he insured the audi a3 with a new insurer (insure your motor).
when he rang up to purchase the policy he told me the operator advised him that they wouldnt accept the bonus as he had earnt it on a 1.0 car and this was a 1.9. now his insurance is due to expire on 13/09 and wants to renew the audi with the hope of using 2 years not 1 year

Hence im surprised because ive been driving 17 years and i was under impression that as long as the NCB was in persons name, within 2 years, and on a private car,. it was valid and acceptable
first ive heard of the ncb being accepted/not being determined on the size of engine it was earnt on?

I will be ringing his current insurer today to clarify but i think they conned him out of a year...in which case would like to know if there is a case for complaint and how

rudekid48

Insure Your Motor are a broker. Here's what I think has really happened -

He bought a policy for the Yaris from Insure Your Motor that was underwritten by Mulsanne. He changed his car and Mulsanne would not insure the Audi so the policy was cancelled (before the renewal date) meaning that he did not complete a full year and therefore did not get the 1 yr NCB... Insure Your Motor then set up a new 12 month policy with a different insurer - hence the reason that he now only has 1 yr NCB.

bimma

i dont think this is correct
He has a letter confirming 1 years NCB from the yaris i.e mulsane insurance.
so the policy expired

He is saying that insure your motor refused to accept that 1 years bonus based on the reason that it was earnt on a 1.0 and the audi was 1.9and at the time he didnt have many other options but to go with insure your motor due to being a new driver and not familiar with insurance procudure ( he should have mentioned this at the time really)
which appears to be a riduculous reason...they have refused a years ncb purely to make more money off him

I will be ringing insure your motor next 30 min or hour and il update very soon as to what there reasons are.
if the reason is as above i.e being earnt on a 1.0 then this reason is not valid ...am i correct (want to be armed with facts)
and who can i pressure them with re complaints wise...say i will be complaining to consumer rights or who?

Quentin

As you are not the policyholder then you have no line of official complaint.

Your friend bought the policy knowing that his NCD wasn't acceptable to the new insurer.

So what is the complaint??

takman

bimma wrote: »

i dont think this is correct
He has a letter confirming 1 years NCB from the yaris i.e mulsane insurance.
so the policy expired

He is saying that insure your motor refused to accept that 1 years bonus based on the reason that it was earnt on a 1.0 and the audi was 1.9and at the time he didnt have many other options but to go with insure your motor due to being a new driver and not familiar with insurance procudure ( he should have mentioned this at the time really)
which appears to be a riduculous reason...they have refused a years ncb purely to make more money off him

I will be ringing insure your motor next 30 min or hour and il update very soon as to what there reasons are.
if the reason is as above i.e being earnt on a 1.0 then this reason is not valid ...am i correct (want to be armed with facts)
and who can i pressure them with re complaints wise...say i will be complaining to consumer rights or who?

There is no one you can complain to the NCB system is entirely controlled by the insurance companies and they decide on the rules. They can refuse to accept any NCB they want and issue it however they want to. For example in the past i have got 1 years NCB from 10 months insurance. Other companies give NCB to named drives, some companies limit the number of years they will give at the end of a policy no matter how many you had when you started.

But as stated above your friend chose to accept the insurance based on the fact they would not take into account their 1 years NCB. If they were not happy with this then they could have chosen another insurance company who would accept them.

If they didn't use a comparison site to find the cheapest then the best thing you can do is to help them do this now to get the best price for their next years insurance with the NCB they have.

Aretnap

NCD is not really anything more than a marketing gimmick. In days of yore it was essentially a loyalty bonus, and you'd only get it if you stayed with the same insurer year after year. Over time insurers started to accept each others' NCDs, not because they were under any moral or legal obligation to accept them, but because it's a good way of poaching each other's customers. (Same reason why Tesco might offer to accept Sainsbury's money off vouchers from time to time).

There are therefore no set in stone rules about when an insurer has to accept another insurer's NCD, or even whether they have to accept it at all. I've never heard of an insurer refusing to accept NCD because it was earned on a lower spec car - but if they did it's not obvious what rule they'd be breaking.

Certainly if they told him at the start of the policy that they wouldn't accept his NCD, it was quite a stretch on his part to assume that they'd credit him with it at the end of the policy. I can't see much mileage in a complaint about the fact that they haven't credited him with a NCD which they explicitly told him that they wouldn't accept in the first place.

Best option now might be to get on the phone to some insurers, explain his situation and try to find one willing to accept evidence of two separate NCDs of 1 year each - assuming he still has his renewal note from a year ago.