No claims discount? Or not?

doodlez1612

My husband has had his own car since he learned to drive so has 15 years no claims discount. I had a break in owning a car for a few years so lost my no claims. When I got a brand new car a few years ago we insured it under his name as the no claims made a big difference and when he got a used car a few years ago we put it under my name to start building up mine, so I now have 3 years. 

He is now trading that in for a brand new car and we are trying to decide what to do for insurance.

So my question is, is it actually worthwhile us both building up no claims discount (as back up or something?) or having insurance in our own names for other reasons eg credit file? (We are joint on the house insurance) or does it make no difference so would you just stick with one for cheapness? (There’s only £40 difference in the quotes). 

Thanks 

TELLIT01

It makes sense for each of you to build up your own NCD.  We are in a similar situation where both cars are insured in my name with my wife as named driver.  I have historically driven both more than her, but a change in her job location means she will be driving one of them almost exclusively.  I need to speak to our insurer about changing main driver and/or putting the insurance in her name to build up her NCD.

Aretnap

Unless your husband has been running two policies on two cars at the same time, he will only have one no claims bonus, which he can only use on one policy at a time. So does the quote for the second policy reflect the fact that he has zero years NCD to use on that policy?

If not, your first move should be to recalculate the quote with no NCD and see if it's still £40 cheaper than insuring it in your name with your 3 years NCD. That might give you your answer without even having to consider whether you might need your own NCD in future. 

doodlez1612

Ah. No. He’s only ever had one policy. I didn’t realise that that meant he can only use his NCD on one policy. Thanks. 

That probably makes it simpler then.