Loss of NCB

Stef9uj

I have been driving for 18 years and for 16 of them I have held fully comprehensive insurance, and my first 2 years as an additional driver on my mums policy.

After building up 7 years NCB I began working as a private hire driver so my NCB didn’t carry over as apparently they don’t from a domestic car insurance. I was a private hire driver for 6 years so I accumulated 6 years NCB. I then changed jobs and reverted back to a domestic car insurance. I was informed if I didn’t have insurance within 5 years I lose my previous 7 years NCB. And obviously my private hire NCB didn’t carry over either. Meaning 13 NCB which I built up was just wiped off.

It’s been 4 years since that’s happened and this year was my first year having a fault accident. Because I didn’t have protected NCB, my insurer wipes off 2 years of my NCB on top of not giving me 1 further years NCB this year due to my accident. 

I have now only got 1 years NCB after all these years and my insurance is ridiculously high. More so than my first year of driving.

Can someone please tell me how I can contest this?

DullGreyGuy

In short... you can't 

Even if you could you'd only be on 3 years NCD which in the modern scheme of things isn't much different from 1 years. 

In hind site when you transferred from Hire & Reward to Personal you may have found an insurer that would have given you credit for those prior years. It may have been their premium was still higher than the one you took as most insurers give an introductory discount for good risks with no NCD and so it would come down to a choice of a higher NCD but higher premium with a hope next year when you have a wider choice of insurers it'll be better or lower premiums now with no NCD recognition because no one knows what will happen in the next 12 months. Obviously you dont have a Time Machine so cannot go back to revisit decision and get alternative quotes for a policy incepting 4 years ago. 

Kim_13

There doesn’t seem to be anything to contest. They may have given you poor advice (the norm is for NCB to be wiped is 2 years I believe) but it wouldn’t have put you in any better position now either way.

In hindsight it may have been better to get a second car and insure that so that you didn’t lose the initial 7 years NCB when your main car was insured for private hire, even if that car went nowhere most of the time.

Very few insurers recognise more than 9 years NCB, just marking it as 9+. Therefore someone might have 20 years NCB, have one accident and suffer a deduction from 9 years, leaving them with 7 at best, even though they would still have full NCB (as full is defined as the 9) if every year of NCB accrued and not expired/lost was required to be recognised.

Stef9uj

Thank you both for taking the time to read my post and respond, it’s much appreciated.

I just can’t comprehend why going from normal car insurance to a private hire one and vice versa doesn’t carry over. I understand the increase in premium because the risk of an accident is greater due to the amount of time spent in the road but that’s it. I shouldn’t have to own another car in order to keep hold of my NCB but in hind sight had I known I may had considered it.

DullGreyGuy

Stef9uj said:

I just can’t comprehend why going from normal car insurance to a private hire one and vice versa doesn’t carry over. I understand the increase in premium because the risk of an accident is greater due to the amount of time spent in the road but that’s it. I shouldn’t have to own another car in order to keep hold of my NCB but in hind sight had I known I may had considered it.

You're just too late to question it. 

NCD ultimately makes no logical sense and is a construct of the marketing department not the actuaries. If you wanted to judge risk you would ask about all incidents and claims over all time plus how long you have been insured. Why would the risk change if you paid for NCD Protection? Why are you more risky because most of the time you were a named driver when you drove the car 49.9% of the time? If your spouse dies and you take over insuring their car as well as yours why are you back to 0 NCD on their former car despite the fact you've driven it for 20 years?

From non-personal to personal there is a notable proportion of insurers that now will recognise non-standard NCD like company car, commercial, overseas etc. I introduced such recognition for a prior client 15 years ago but remember its the marketing department so our renewal notice would have said you have 1 years NCD plus 6 years credit for other driving in the hope that most our competitors would say you only have 1 years NCD and ignore the other bit. We introduce ND NCD at the same time and equally put it on letters in a way we hoped no one would else accept. Ultimate that was our competitors choice not ours. Initially many wouldn't so it was good at creating lock in.

With the vast majority of people having maximum NCD most insurers have realised the 65-70% discount is a bit silly when it's the norm. Whilst some do maintain the old scales the majority do not publish what discount you are getting. There are some on here who've done a quote with 20 years NCD and 0 years but a clean record and found the price difference is £5 (though with the premiums they were quoting thats still a 3-5% discount which would be more material on a higher premium)