retaining no claims discount?

shaz4473

Hi, wondering if anyone can advise on this?  I sold my car just over a year ago due to working at home full time.  I currently have maximum protected no claims discount and realise that this will lapse if I don't take other insurance out before 2 years is up.   
The company I work for is offering a company car scheme and I don't know all the details yet but I think it includes car insurance.  Would this ensure my no claims stays in place?  The scheme is to lease a car for a period of time.
I have not leased a car before or had a company car so am not knowledgeable on this subject so any advice is appreciated.  thanks

Car_54

If the company car does include insurance, then you won't retain your NCD. However

1. The saving from not having to pay for insurance will almost certainly outweigh any discount you'd have had, and

2. When the time comes, many (if not most) insurers will accept proof of a claim free company car record, and give some discount. I got maximum discount a few years ago on the basis of a letter from my ex-employer's fleet manager.

flashg67

If your company pays for the insurance then your NCB will lapse, but if/when you insure yourself again in the future, some insurance companies will offer a discount, often on production of a letter from your company saying you've had 'x' number of years claim free driving, but it may not be the same as full NCB

Sandtree

flashg67 said:

If your company pays for the insurance then your NCB will lapse, but if/when you insure yourself again in the future, some insurance companies will offer a discount, often on production of a letter from your company saying you've had 'x' number of years claim free driving, but it may not be the same as full NCB

And the issue is that you typically cannot stack it and so if you only have a company car for a couple of years then you end up with a small psuedo NCD discount.

Do you have another vehicle? Couples etc when they decide to reduce the number of cars they have may decide to switch each year who's the policyholder and therefore keep the NCDs alive if they decide to go back up to 2 cars etc.

lemondrops69

Sometimes it depends on age as well. A work friend colleague, who is v old, think mid-50's, had a company car, then bought his own. After he had 1 years NCD he did a dummy quote, one with 1 year NCD and one with 18 years (ok max discount given is prob 6 years). 
The price difference between the quotes? None 

Ebe_Scrooge

lemondrops69 said:

A work friend colleague, who is v old, think mid-50's,

Mid-50's is "v old" ????  Reckon my time's about up, then :-(

Sandtree

lemondrops69 said:

Sometimes it depends on age as well. A work friend colleague, who is v old, think mid-50's, had a company car, then bought his own. After he had 1 years NCD he did a dummy quote, one with 1 year NCD and one with 18 years (ok max discount given is prob 6 years). 
The price difference between the quotes? None 

Dummy data always risks dummy results, quote manipulation is something insurers are hot on detecting and may intentionally make adjustments to price quoted because of it... ie they dont believe you have both 1 and 18 years NCD so ignore the 18 you said on the 2nd quote

Most insurers give maximum NCD at somewhere between 5 and 9 years, however you can find an insurer who uses Max 5 gives more NCD at 5 years than an insurer that uses Max 9 gives at 9 years. Some insurers have also introduced more complicated logic than the traditional linear progression for all.

You dont mention if he put his company car details into the system? Assuming they were more than 5 years then it could be giving the max discount anyway and so personal NCD of 1-18 years wont make any difference. 

scrappy_returns

I had a company car for ten years but could not accrue any "NCD" cos the company car wasn't specifically in my name (part of a huge fleet) but it was only me that drove it.

Sandtree

scrappy_returns said:

I had a company car for ten years but could not accrue any "NCD" cos the company car wasn't specifically in my name (part of a huge fleet) but it was only me that drove it.

No driver accrue's NCD on a company policy, what some insurers accept is a letter from the employer saying you've been driving their vehicles claims/incident free for X years. They then give you some credit for that time which may be "real" ncd or something similar to it.

shaz4473

Thanks very much for all the input here.

I had a chuckle at the v.old being mid 50's.  I have not reached the 50's yet but I would think I would be classed as old

Herzlos

I think unless you live with a partner and can just swap the main driver every year to maintain both NCD's it's just not worth doing anything else.

I had considered buying a banger to keep insured but realistically losing my NCD would mean my insurance premiums might go up by about £400/year, and I'd almost certainly pay more than that trying to maintain it.