Car insurance policies question - no claims discount validity

didierdondo

Hi all, long time reader first time poster looking for some advice/answers on the following. Apologies in advance for the length of this but I'm a struggling to get my head round it, having not had to make any claims until (fortunately) less than two years ago in nearly 20 years of driving!

My wife and I share two cars between us that we both regularly drive, one in my name as the registered keeper and one in hers. The car insurance policies are also in the same names for each car.

On the policy in my name there are two claims, one from four years ago as a claim against me for being at fault in an accident, and one with my wife as the named driver from 19 months ago when some ridge tiles blew off the roof of our house in a storm and pierced the roof of our car in multiple places, requiring a whole new roof fitting. We are described as being at fault in both cases (which I can understand, even in the storm damage case). There are four years of NCD on the policy (renewed in August) and no protected NCD. We have been with the same insurer since the claim for the storm damage and have always had it on our policy.

On the policy in my wife's name there are no claims and their is 9+ years of NCD, and she has protected NCD that allows for her to keep the full 9+ years NCD even if two claims are made in the space of 12 months. We are about to renew this policy and are shopping around. The claim for the storm damage does not show on her renewal document (probably an honest mistake by my wife when renewing last year).

My questions are this:

• why do we still have the 4 years no claim discount on "my" policy despite the claim for storm damage? The insurers have known about it since it happened and we haven't changed any details with them having just accepted the renewal quotes for the last two years (prices they quoted were good unbelievably!)
• could my wife's NCD potentially be impacted by this on "her" policy despite it being a different car? The name that the storm damage claim is in is purely due to the fact that she rang and reported it as I was at work the following day (it happened overnight). There has since been another accident where my wife's car was hit by another car whilst it was parked (which is under her name on her policy renewal), but this was more than 12 months after the storm damage claim.

If anyone has any help/answers it would be greatly appreciated!

didierdondo

I should have added that the recent accident with my wife's car did not result in a claim being made (other party just paid for the repair as it was less than excesses), but it is still there as my wife rang the insurer to report the accident in case they didn't pay up.

born_again

Have you not declared your claims on your wife's policy? As they usually ask if either party has had a claim.

DullGreyGuy

didierdondo said:

• why do we still have the 4 years no claim discount on "my" policy despite the claim for storm damage? The insurers have known about it since it happened and we haven't changed any details with them having just accepted the renewal quotes for the last two years (prices they quoted were good unbelievably!)
• could my wife's NCD potentially be impacted by this on "her" policy despite it being a different car? The name that the storm damage claim is in is purely due to the fact that she rang and reported it as I was at work the following day (it happened overnight). There has since been another accident where my wife's car was hit by another car whilst it was parked (which is under her name on her policy renewal), but this was more than 12 months after the storm damage claim.

If anyone has any help/answers it would be greatly appreciated!

Insurance is always easier to talk in policy years rather than calendar plus NCD is not an industry standard and whilst there are trends there are plenty of exceptions too.  For example Direct Line now wont reduce your NCD if your vehicle is hit by an object or debris that isnt another vehicle or road user and so if you were with them and the promise was in place at the time then your roof tile incident wouldnt have reduced your NCD.

The claim "4 years ago", depending how the policies fit in the year, would have reduced you to 3 years NCD, the next two years claim free would have gotten you back to 5 years, the tile claim just over a year ago would have dropped you to 3 again and then last year being claim free its back up to 4.


The tile claim would normally go under your name as the vehicle was unattended at the time I assume. Some insurers will note it under who last drove the car though. It may be worth challenging your insurers as to why it's against her name. 

Her NCD wont be impacted on her car, nor if you had a 3rd car in your name would that ones NCD be impacted. However NCD is simply a discount and isnt a promise that premiums wont go up. Traditionally max NCD was between a 70% and 80% discount (some insurers its much less now) so if your underlying premiums go up £400 because of a claim then you pay an extra £100 on average as you still get the 75% discount off of it. 

As such she should have noted the claim on her own policy, wont impact NCD or the NCDP but may increase her premiums. Likewise if you are a named driver on her policy then you need to also be declaring your earlier claim with the same result.

didierdondo

born_again said:

Have you not declared your claims on your wife's policy? As they usually ask if either party has had a claim.

Not putting the storm damage to "my car" on the policy of the other car must just have been an oversight, or us thinking that because it was the other car it didn't need to be logged? I honestly can't remember but will definitely be on top of this from now!

didierdondo

DullGreyGuy said:

Insurance is always easier to talk in policy years rather than calendar plus NCD is not an industry standard and whilst there are trends there are plenty of exceptions too.  For example Direct Line now wont reduce your NCD if your vehicle is hit by an object or debris that isnt another vehicle or road user and so if you were with them and the promise was in place at the time then your roof tile incident wouldnt have reduced your NCD.

The claim "4 years ago", depending how the policies fit in the year, would have reduced you to 3 years NCD, the next two years claim free would have gotten you back to 5 years, the tile claim just over a year ago would have dropped you to 3 again and then last year being claim free its back up to 4.


The tile claim would normally go under your name as the vehicle was unattended at the time I assume. Some insurers will note it under who last drove the car though. It may be worth challenging your insurers as to why it's against her name. 

Her NCD wont be impacted on her car, nor if you had a 3rd car in your name would that ones NCD be impacted. However NCD is simply a discount and isnt a promise that premiums wont go up. Traditionally max NCD was between a 70% and 80% discount (some insurers its much less now) so if your underlying premiums go up £400 because of a claim then you pay an extra £100 on average as you still get the 75% discount off of it. 

As such she should have noted the claim on her own policy, wont impact NCD or the NCDP but may increase her premiums. Likewise if you are a named driver on her policy then you need to also be declaring your earlier claim with the same result.

Thank you, really useful answer and has made me understand it more/put my mind at ease (apart from the fact that the renewal will probably cost more now...off to check that out now!).

LightFlare

there is usually a question when taking out a policy along the lines of:

have you or any named drivers made any claim in xx years

Answering this falsely or dishonestly could result in cancellation of a policy and a very nasty marker that will make insurance very expensive in the future