How to decide whether protecting home insurance NCD is worth it

CaptainWales

Hi. I am currently with QuotemeHappy.

I have the option of buying NCD protection at renewal, but QMH won't tell me how much my current 7 years NCD has knocked off my renewal premium (either in £ or as a %). I asked them to recalculate my renewal premium using a 0 years NCD, so I could see the difference in the premium, but they refused.

How am I meant to work out whether it is worth my while buying NCD protection? If the discount is the same as the price I would pay to protect my NCD, then there is no point. However, without QMH providing me with ANY information, how am I as a customer meant to decide?

Anybody else had this experience with QMH or any other insurers?

I know they can never guarantee how much I would save when it comes to next year's renewal, but that's not what I am after here. What I am asking is what effect having 7 years NCD has had on my current renewal.

flaneurs_lobster

I think you have answered your own question.

How much is this NCD protection to cost, on what renewal quote?

MyRealNameToo

Most insurers won't tell you what the NCD is worth, if you are buying from an intermediary it gets more complicated because a quote for 0 NCD may come from a different insurer on their panel so you arent really comparing apples and apples.

Have you done a quote on their website with 0 NCD? This is only really relevant if you bought from a quote on their website initially but may give you some idea.

Most insurers NCDs arent worth anything close to the 70-80% that they were worth many years ago. It was always a bit silly as the vast majority have max NCD. These days most are closer to 20% at the maximum

In many cases NCD cannot take you below their minimum pricing so those who are very low risk may find their NCD is close to worthless because of the floor on pricing. A poster here previously claimed to have worked out their NCD was worth £5/year

CaptainWales

I didn't get a quote on their website initially.

When selling these type of add on's is there no requirement therefore for the insurer to demonstrate the value in that product? As a consumer there is very little information to help me make an informed choice about whether a financial product is suitable for my needs

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866548#Comment_81866548

Thanks to the Competitions and Markets Authority insurers are required to publish the average NCD percentage annually for private motor but there is no similar requirement for other lines of business. Obviously because its an average doesnt mean its the discount you are getting so you can't use those to calculate if its value or not.

NCD in home is much rarer and the application of it is much more variable than Motor is. Historically insurers relied on two different questions, how many claims in X years and how long have you continuously held insurance for.

There are general principles of products should represent customer value and the FCA has done reviews in the past - most GAP insurance was stopped from being sold two years ago because the concern that loss ratios were often 10% or less whereas Motor by comparison is often around 80% loss ratio.

The FCA hasn't ever looked at NCDP as far as I am aware, though did look at add ons generally in 2015 and updated some of the wordings on regs as a result.

CaptainWales

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866452#Comment_81866452

About £20 on a circa £300 policy