Moving from Direct Line Car Insurance but they don't show over 9 years no claims discount

kaggi

I have been with Direct Line since at least 2015 and this year the premium this year has really rocketed so I decided to move. Many other insurers and comparison sites give the option to enter up to 20 years no claims discount but Direct Line have said they stop recording it after 9 years. They have confirmed I had 9 years no claims in 2015 onwards and there have been no claims made, so I think I should have at least 13 years no claims. However, they won't confirm this in writing.

Does this mean I need to put down 9 years no claims as this seems to be making a difference to the quotes I am receiving back?

lisyloo

I believe you need to put down 9.
I’m surprised it’s making any difference to your quotes.

Have direct line confirmed it in a chat (for which you can get a screenshot/transcript) or email or just over the phone?
If they won’t confirm I don’t see how you can claim more.

jackieblack

A lot of companies seem to stop at 9 years - in fact I'm not aware of anyone who does specify more - certainly none of the companies I've been insured with for the last dozen or so years...

kaggi

lisyloo wrote: »

I believe you need to put down 9.
I’m surprised it’s making any difference to your quotes.

Have direct line confirmed it in a chat (for which you can get a screenshot/transcript) or email or just over the phone?
If they won’t confirm I don’t see how you can claim more.

They confirmed it on the phone and said that if I had all the insurance paperwork going back to 2015 I could maybe put in 13 years but they wouldn't be able to confirm it which seems a bit odd.

kaggi

jackieblack wrote: »

A lot of companies seem to stop at 9 years - in fact I'm not aware of anyone who does specify more - certainly none of the companies I've been insured with for the last dozen or so years...

Maybe it is just the comparison sites and when I go to set up the insurance it won't make a difference, it just seems odd they stop it at 9 years when others have other options.

garth549

Don't worry about it. Generally you get very little extra discount for more than 5 years anyway. Usually only an extra 1% or so a year. Even if an insurers allows you to specify more than 9 years they may not give any extra discount for this.

eddddy

Try doing some dummy quotes (altered name, address, car details) with 9 and 13 years NCD - and see if it makes any difference.

Do you have an old renewal notice - say from 2015 - which still shows 9 years NCD?



(Although arguably, if the question is "How many years have you had a policy without making a claim?", 13+ years might be the correct answer.

But if the question is "How many years NCD do you have?", 9 years is probably the correct answer.)

lisyloo

So when you said it was making a difference to quotes what did you mean?

carolt2

kaggi wrote: »

I have been with Direct Line since at least 2015 and this year the premium this year has really rocketed so I decided to move. Many other insurers and comparison sites give the option to enter up to 20 years no claims discount but Direct Line have said they stop recording it after 9 years. They have confirmed I had 9 years no claims in 2015 onwards and there have been no claims made, so I think I should have at least 13 years no claims. However, they won't confirm this in writing.

Does this mean I need to put down 9 years no claims as this seems to be making a difference to the quotes I am receiving back?

Hi, I was in a similar situation earlier this year.
Was with direct line for a number of years but price increases with no claims made, I looked for a different provider.
I had a good number of NCB which was over the 9 years that they use for calculating premiums.
So when I was looking for quotes I put my actual ncb years in. Then phoned direct line to cancel renewal.
I requested in writing my actual no claims. Which was Made up of what I had when I joined direct line plus what I had earned while I was with them....
I told them that my new insurer would need this information.
They said that they could do this but only once the policy has lapsed and got past the renewal date.
They also said I could give my new insurer direct line contact number and they could confirm over the phone.
As they said they would, i received written confirmation of my actual no claims about a week after my policy lapsed

KaysGranny

I had the same issue a few years ago when I was moving from Direct Line.

I phoned them up and told them that I needed confirmation of my CORRECT ncb. They at first tried to tell me they couldnt send it out to me stating anything more than 9 years ( I went to them in 2013 with 11 years ) but I insisted and eventually they backed down and sent it.

Phone them up and be firm , but as other posters have already mentioned , it didnt actually make much difference to quotes.

Takmon

It's worth pointing out that the amount of NCD/NCB you have is always the amount that the last insurance company will confirm. You may have not had a claim in 20 years but that doesn't mean your entitled to 20 years NCD/NCB.

A good example of this was a few years ago now i was with Admiral and had a few 10 month policies in a row that gave 1 years NCB/NCD at the end of each 10 months. I was even able to use this when i moved to another insurer.