Car insurance NCD - claim reduced NCD, finally closed after two years - how to get NCD refreshed?

mrklaw

wife had a claim back in 2024 and what should have been simple has been dragged out by the other party. Even when AXA accepted her side of things, they didn’t close the case down as they were being refused payment from the other party.

anyway - finally got confirmation email that the case is closed, and ‘her NCD is unaffected’

But since then, she’s moved to Aviva who reduced her NCD because of the pending claim. We’re now tryign to get them to update - but they’ve refused the email from AXA as it doesn’t state the number of years NCD.

Checking back on emails, she had 9 years at renewal prior to the claim. When she left, the email states 3 years NCD so I’m guessing that was due to the ongoing claim? If we contact AXA next week, should they still be able to issue an NCD certificate even though it would be in the past? eg saying ‘as of May 2024 when this policy expired, the policyholder had 9/10 years NCD’ ?

IOWJJBTM2025

There is no harm in trying to get AXA to give updated proof of NCD. At least you will have a record for the future.

Have Aviva agreed to reduce the cost of your current policy if you can show 9 years instead of 3 years NCD?

In my experience with insurance - if you want to make a change to an existing policy there are admin fees which can end up costing more. We swapped our car last year and the cost to change the existing policy was far more than starting a new policy including the loss of a full years additional NCD.

My son was hit from behind two years ago while he was stationary with his handbrake on. The other car paid out in full. The car was written off. We got him a replacement car and on his next insurance search he noticed the difference between answering the question the "have you been in an accident in the last 3 years" - Answering "yes" and "no" made a difference of over £100 more. I told him that he had to tell the truth otherwise his insurance could be void. Understand Insurers believe he is now a bigger risk simply because he has been involved in a claim, even though it was totally not his fault.

I know people that have had minor scuffs and rather than messing around with insurance companies have just paid for the work to be done privately because of the fear of possible future premiums increasing.

mrklaw

they haven’t said yet - but if not we have indicative quotes from the meerkats showing a notable drop in cost so we’d just switch at that point (but we’d still need the proof)

luci

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6667617/car-insurance-ncd-claim-reduced-ncd-finally-closed-after-two-years-how-to-get-ncd-refreshed

AXA should be able to provide proof of NCD no matter how long ago. Aviva used to state your NCD as “more than 5 years” rather than the standard 9 years+ other insurers stated. I had joined them with 10 years NCD. It was a few years after I left them that I asked them to confirm the number of years I’d had when I joined them. I got a letter confirming that. I now have proof that I have 30 years+ NCD.

Although most insurers only state 9 years+ at the end of the year, some comparison sites give 25 years+ as an option to select.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81993464#Comment_81993464

It is up to Aviva if they want to back date the NCD or not, technically it was 3 years at the inception of the policy per the original proof of NCD. Certainly with my prior employer the system would automatically update a customer's NCD had they stayed with us but we wouldnt/couldnt update the NCD if they had joined us from elsewhere, the only option we would offer would be to cancel the current policy, waive the cancellation fee and offer a new 12 month policy based on the higher NCD but there was discretion for the advisor if to do this and especially over the waived fee.

It's certainly a consideration as if its prudent to move whilst there is an ongoing claim but that ship has sailed.

mrklaw

If Aviva wanted to do that, but the updated NCD was valid, we’d just go with another insurer. The actual rate differences aren’t big - Aviva quoting £380, compare the market averaging around £340 with us using an example of 9 years NCD.

request in with AXA although wife got bounced around 4 times before they agreed they’d send a certificate of NCD. I’m not confident they actually got what was being asked but lets see.

luci

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81996100#Comment_81996100

I think I emailed Aviva. I can't recall phoning them. I seem to remember getting the advice to contact them and the email address from someone on here, but it was many years ago.

luci

Edit - I've just checked. I contacted 5 previous insurers asking them to confirm the number of years NCD I had at inception and received confirmation from all of them.

Aviva stated that they only apply a discount up to 5 years.

mrklaw

bouncing around the phone yesterday. they sent through 3 years NCD with a fault claim. I literally got an email from them a week ago saying the claim had been settled and all costs recovered and our NCD was unaffected.

on the phone again, looks like I need them to reopen and update the claim.

edit: woman on the phone really helpful, contacted the claims team, they updated, now waiting for a refreshed NCD proof with the claim closed.

mrklaw

well they sorted it. eventually.

Got a good CS person on the line yesterday. ‘oh sorry the authority to talk to you it was a different department’….and then she went off and pulled it from that department - nice.

then she confirmed the letter that said the claim was closed, and saw that was not reflected in the account. she said she may have to transfer me to the claims people and put me on hold. Came back after a few mins and said ‘we don’t need to transfer, I sorted it with them, they opened and changed the account, closed it again, and I’ve requested a revised proof of NCD’

that came through this morning - 6 years. Contacted Aviva they updated their own records to 8 years NCD and revised their renewal down to £330 which we took up with them.

phew!