Protected no claims?

MidlandsGlory

Hi,
I usually tick the protected no claims box on car insurance but I  just realised that it may be unnecessary?.
I end up changing insurers on all our policies every year anyway as other insurers are always vastly cheaper than the renewals offered us.

Therefore the protected no claims becomes of no use because its specific to your current insurer and of no consequence to your new one?

If we were to have an accident, we would be tied to that insurer from then on to keep using the protection and they could charge us as much as they like.
I suppose you have to weigh that against starting a new policy elsewhere without any no claims discount.
But the article on MSE about this says even the insurer your with the protected no claims will hike you insurance anyway (before apply NCB)

I don't trust being tied to an insurer, I have just had a renewal quote arrive that is double last years price. A quick look around and I can get a different policy for within 20% of last years price.

Ayr_Rage

New insurers will accept your old NCD when you move (with proof if requested) and there is normally an option to protect that with the new company.

I think you are somewhat confused.

sheramber

Your exisiting NCB  will be honoured by your new company.

Protected NCB  applies to the year ahead so you apply it for it each year with whichever company you are insuring.

MidlandsGlory

Hi, sorry I seem to have confused people.

Yes I know my NCB will be accepted by my new insurer.

But my protected no claims only applies to the current insurer, the protection is basically just another insurance policy that protects you against the price rise caused by losing your NCB - with your current insurer that you took the protection with.
It doesn't 'erase' the actual claim from existence which the new insurer will still take into account on quoting.

The protection only applies within the original insurer its not 'transferable'

BarelySentientAI

It protects the number of years NCB that you can tell the new insurer that you have.

That does provide some protection against an increased price from a new insurer, as "1 claim with 7 years NCB" is usually cheaper than "1 claim with 3 years NCB".

DullGreyGuy

MidlandsGlory said:

Hi, sorry I seem to have confused people.

Yes I know my NCB will be accepted by my new insurer.

But my protected no claims only applies to the current insurer, the protection is basically just another insurance policy that protects you against the price rise caused by losing your NCB - with your current insurer that you took the protection with.
It doesn't 'erase' the actual claim from existence which the new insurer will still take into account on quoting.

The protection only applies within the original insurer its not 'transferable'

You have 5 years NCD
You have no previous accidents/claims
You have a fault claim

If you have NCDP then you can go to your new insurer saying you have 5 years NCD and a fault claim
If you dont have NCDP then you go to your new insurer saying you have 3 years NCD and a fault claim

Ignoring the cost of the NCDP itself then clearly scenario 1 is going to get you a better price than scenario 2. The thing is though that NCDP isn't free and so is the cost of NCDP exceeding the amount your saving by having the higher NCD?

In my day our NCD scale was:

5 years - 65%
4 years - 60%
3 years - 50%
2 years - 40%
1 years - 30%

NCDP cost 10% so effectively 5 years went from 65% to 55% meaning it was slightly better than having the 50% of 3 years. However... how many years have you paid for NCDP and not made a claim to save 5% in the future if you do make one?


NCD has evolved a lot since my day and in many insurers its no longer a simple system, ours changed slightly such that 5 years was 70% if you were over a certain age but they have gone way beyond that now. A recent poster on here were concerned about insuring a new second vehicle with 0 NCD and was wondering about transferring their 5 years  NCD from their other vehicle but found out the Max NCD less than £10 difference to the premium. 


So the value of NCDP is the same whether you switch or stick... as you say its an insurance on insurance almost and so like any non-compulsory insurance you should balance the cost with the risk its offsetting. 

sheramber

But protected NCB only protects the NCB.


Both your existing policy and the new one will take the fault claim into account when working out your premium.