No Claims Discount for Named Driver?

Cloth_of_Gold

Someone has been a named driver on another person's policy for many years, not owning their own car. The policy holder has full NCD as neither they nor the named driver have had an accident or claim for well over 10 years.  If the named driver takes out insurance in their own name, are there any companies who will give them any NCD based on their being a named driver or will they have to start from scratch?

Roger-D

My experience, they have to start from scratch with their own. I think it's the same between holding both a car and a bike licence. The one isn't transferable to the other. Except of course if you lose your licence, then it applles to both.

Aretnap

NCD is a loyalty bonus which you get for renewing your policy (albeit it doesn't work very well as a loyalty bonus anymore because insurers will always offer to match the NCD that their rival is offering you to renew), so it is generally only applicable to the policyholder.

They're are a few insurers who will offer a "named driver no claims discount" as a marketing gimmick, to people who have been a named driver on one of their policies, and who also takes out their policy with them. Unlike "proper" NCB it tends not to be transferable from insurer to insurer. If your insurer is one of those who offer it, you will probably know about it because they tend to make sure a song and dance about offering it.

I don't think there's any insurer who will offer NCB to an entirely new customer simply in the strength of having been a named driver on a different insurer's policy.

400ixl

Start with asking the insurer they are currently with if they will do any sort of introductory offer.

uss_tish

 Churchill and they provided me with a NCD cert. when I moved to another provider

mgfvvc

Some insurers may give an "introductory NCD". Google might help a bit with that, but a broker might be best placed to help.

Cloth_of_Gold

Thanks for ll the comments. I recall that years ago (late 90s) I had been a named driver on someone else's policy who had a full NCD and when I bought my own car Norwich Union gave me a NCD based on being a named driver on a policy with no claims. That was so long ago though that I didn't know if that was common then and if it was, whether it still was, or even possible now.

DullGreyGuy

Cloth_of_Gold said:

Thanks for ll the comments. I recall that years ago (late 90s) I had been a named driver on someone else's policy who had a full NCD and when I bought my own car Norwich Union gave me a NCD based on being a named driver on a policy with no claims. That was so long ago though that I didn't know if that was common then and if it was, whether it still was, or even possible now.

Wasn't common then, still isn't now. Ultimately NCD is not an industry standard thing, there is no universal agreement on how it operates but there are common practices. Some companies give their staff discretion so for example the recent widow(er) getting their deceased spouses NCD or someone escaping an abusive relationship but they aren't obliged to and not everyone will. 

Direct Line formally introduced NDNCD circa 15 years ago but everything on the renewal letter etc made it clear it wasn't traditional NCD basically in the hope that only DLG brands would accept it and so NDs branching out into their own policy would buy from their brands to harness the NDNCD. It worked initially but other companies could make their own choices if they accepted the NDNCD or not... of the handful of non-DLG brands that did it was technically favourable to using it with DLG as it instantly became real NCD that you could use anywhere whereas stay with DLG and next you'd have 1 years NCD and still 3 years NDNCD after the first renewal again making you stick with the brand. 


NCD doesn't really make sense given 90% of people are on maximum discount, whilst some insurers still give 65%-70% discount for max NCD others have adjusted their pricing given its the overwhelming majority and the discount is now only worth a few percentage points. One person here recently reported switching from 0 NCD to Max NCD made less than £5 difference on a £250 premium.