NCD on 'Home' Insurance???

Biggus_Dickus

My son recently received his annual ‘Home’ (Buildings & Contents) insurance renewal quote from Admiral but it’s not very competitive.

He’s had the policy continuously with Admiral since July 2017 and hasn’t made any claims in that time.

Looking at the ‘comparison’ sites one of the questions they all ask is how many years NCD for ‘contents’ and ‘building’ insurance do you have. The answer in our case should be 4-years to both questions.

However, Admiral don’t appear to offer NCD on Home Insurance policies (see pic) and as a consequence we will have no easy way to prove the 4-years claim-free period,...as such it then increases the cost of the quotes on the comparison sites as we’ll be forced to enter ‘0’ years NCD.

We’d like to get the new policy sorted today (Sunday) but can’t contact Admiral as they are closed, bless them. We’ve searched through all the policy documents online and the only reference to ‘claims’ is in the ‘Home Proposal Confirmation’ as per pic below.

Is it usual for ‘Home’ (Buildings & Contents) insurance companies like Admiral not to  offer NCD?...the Admiral policy is due to auto-renew on Monday July 12th unless we cancel it.

All advice gratefully received.

 

 

 

 

 

Sandtree

Most home insurers don't have a concept of NCD but instead ask how many continuous years of insurance have you had (a question not asked for Car insurance) and any claims in the last 5 years.  NCD will not automatically equal the number of years of claim free insurance as it may depend on rules on breaks (car insurers normally allow 2 years) and NCD protection allows a claim to occur and NCD not to reduce.

Its not Admiral that you need to speak to but if you declare any NCD then you need to speak to the new insurer BEFORE buying to advise your current insurer doesn't offer NCD and if they are happy to consider your claim free period as NCD.

Biggus_Dickus

@Sandtree  many thanks for the reply;

..the price comparison  sites do indeed ask a standard question about claims  and losses in the past  5-years but they don’t ask if you’ve held continuous cover in that period,...in addition they also ask ‘how many years NCD do you have?’...and that is the question that we can’t answer because, as you rightly point out, Home insurance companies don’t have an NCD concept as such.

It’s also virtually impossible to contact the ‘on-line only’ insurance companies to ask their advice on how they’d view a new customers ‘answers’ regarding NCD.

‘Quotemehappy’ for instance is only contactable ‘online’,...and even then you need to be a policyholder to contact them,...and I can’t purchase a Policy until I can get answers to my NCD questions! ...it’s a quandary.

I’d hate to be in the position of taking out a new policy only to find it being cancelled a short time later due to my inability to provide adequate proof of NCD if they asked for it.

I’d no idea that changing ‘Home’ insurance companies would highlight an issue like this.

Perhaps our only option is to forget the cheaper ‘online’ only companies and opt for a dearer policy from a company that has a helpdesk which is staffed by humans!...that seems to be the only way we’ll get a definitive answer to the NCD question;...and that question is very simple:

“Your website asks ‘how many years NCD do we have'  but how do we answer that question when we have no documentary evidence to prove it?”

 

 

  

 

Sandtree

Aggregators ask a common set of questions for the 100+ insurers, brokers and other intermediaries that list via their site. As a consequence you'll get a lot of questions and options of answers that the underlying entities aren't interested in or have to remap to a different option. Its one of the key reasons why the aggregators say to recheck the answers on the insurers own site before buying... unfortunately many don't and we get the occasional posters here who've come unstuck as a consequence.

In the first instance click through to the likes of Quote Me Happy and see if the NCD question is actually there or not. If I look at a new business quote directly on their website there is no mention of NCD

Biggus_Dickus

@Sandtree,...thanks again for your helpful input.

The Quotemehappy website makes no reference to NCD as you say;...they just ask for the number of continuous ‘claim free years’. However it varies depending on the website;...Tesco Bank home insurance website specifically asks for the number of NCD years, not the number of continuous ‘claim free years’!

The price comparison websites  ask a standard question about claims  and/or losses/break-ins/burglaries etc in the past  5-years but they don’t ask if you’ve held continuous insurance cover in that period, or any insurance cover for that matter. I assume the answer to the separate question about NCD is used to give the customer a reduced premium if said customer has held continuous  home insurance without making a claim. Ostensibly the same as Motoring policy NCD, albeit that Home insurance companies don’t issue formal NCD and never refer to NCD in their paperwork.

It’s all a bit wishy-washy, imo,...but there we have it.

Why refer to it as NCD?...they should just call it ‘continuous claim free years’. When we answer the NCD question (4-years in our case) we’re are making the assumption that we’ve actually had a ‘discount’ applied,...which may or may not be the case. We’ve had 4 ‘continuous claim free years’ but the comparison sites, and indeed some of the Home insurance websites themselves, don’t ask that question.  

I haven’t bothered with Confused.com....I’m confused enough already.

rs65

Biggus_Dickus said:

It’s all a bit wishy-washy, imo,...but there we have it.

Why refer to it as NCD?...they should just call it ‘continuous claim free years’. 

Its two separate questions

Have you had any claims in the last 5 years
How many years NCD

Just answer as asked which, for you, is presumably
No
0

Biggus_Dickus

@rs65 many thanks for the reply.

 Absolutely,...it is indeed 2 separate questions but that has never been the issue;...it’s the anomaly of why they specifically ask for the ‘number of years NCD’ when NCD apparently doesn’t actually exist anywhere on Home insurance policies.

Unlike Motoring policies they don’t offer formal ‘NCD’ on Home insurance policies so why do they ask you how many years ‘NCD’ you have? Defies logic, imo.

We have 4 continuous ‘claim free years’ on consecutive Home policies so I'm just going to enter 4-years under the NCD section and see what happens. If we enter '0' NCD years the premium increases considerably.  

I'll speak to the insurance company before I make a payment just to make sure that the 4-years NCD answer is acceptable. If they reject my 4-years then we'll need a rethink. 

Sandtree

Biggus_Dickus said:

Unlike Motoring policies they don’t offer formal ‘NCD’ on Home insurance policies so why do they ask you how many years ‘NCD’ you have? Defies logic, imo.

Because a minority do consider NCD in Home insurance.

You ultimately have to remember how aggregators work... if Direct Line went to any aggregator and said they were finally willing to list on them but only if they asked how often you vacuum then that question would be on the website before the meeting ends.

The general concept with insurers websites have always been the more questions you ask the more people will abandon the process. Its therefore always been a tension between underwriting who want to ask hundreds of questions and marketing who ideally would ask just payment details. Aggregators are slightly different, people accept a longer form in exchange for 100 quotes at the same time.

Aggregators therefore have more questions and more options because big names state they won't play if these things aren't present. Everyone else has to decide what they do with the extra information and how they map options they don't consider. For "Where do you park your car at night" we had three options of garage, driveway or road. The aggregators however suddenly gave us "residents car park" and "public car park" so we have to remap to the options we have or expand our options.

Hence as stated, you always need to check when you click through as to what the answers now show as.

So after mentioning Quote Me Happy I am guessing they weren't actually the cheapest quote? You don't need to find the cheapest quote with a real call centre, you could stick with the one that when you click through NCD isnt a question... or do something crazy like buy on value rather than price.

Biggus_Dickus

@Sandtree :  once again many thanks for your sage guidance. Very much appreciated. As for your final sentence re value/price you’re absolutely spot on of course. 🙂