No Claims Discount Query

numanoids

Hi all,

First post here so...Hi!

My wife is in the process of obtaining quotes for car insurance and she has discovered that her current insurer will only honour 5 years no claims discount on her policy despite the fact that we believe that she had more than this when she joined them and as a result of spending this time with this insurer, she has actually lost a few years no claims discount in the process.

Another insurance firm has said that they will give us a great price if we can provide evidence of the no claims discount we had beforejoining the current insurer, and evidence of no claims during the time with the current insurer.

Two things:

• Should we have any problems obtaining previous proof of no claims discount from the previous insurer?
• Does anyone else think this whole scenario is fishy and its basically a case of the insurance industry adopting new tactics of miscalculating and mis-charging careful drivers?

Thanks for everyone's time - not naming and shaming just yet as unsure if this is allowed!!

Cheers

Numanoids

tinkerbell84

Vast majority of insurers class 5 years NCB as the maximum.

It's not a fiddle.

raskazz

Obtaining proof should be simple as long as there are no outstanding issues on the policy. They will almost certainly have recorded the amount of NCD you brought to them and the number of years accumulated during your time on cover with them.

Nothing fishy about it at all. Max NCD is usually given at 5 years, although some give maximum at 4 years (Saga, I think), and some give maximum at 6 or even 7 years (although the extra discount between 6 and 7 years is tiny, maybe 2% or so). It depends on the particular insurer's underwriting criteria.

There is of course a maximum NCD because a year of claim-free driving over 5,6,7 years ago is no indicator of future risk.

numanoids

Raskazz,

Thanks - hopefully this company will be able to pull that information, we have asked already for them to provide this kind of information but haven't had a response as yet, however their website indicates that they only provide evidence of a 5year NCD therefore I'm unsure if they will provide anything other than this unless I start demanding information under the Data Protection Act.

Does anyone know how long insurance companies are obliged to keep active access to old policies for as the other option is to contact the previous insurer to ask for evidence of the NCD we left with before joining the current insurer.

I think I just feel that with no standardisation across the industry, depending on which way you go seems to result in a more expensive policy.

Thanks

V_tricky

Hi,

Firstly, I think you are allowed to name and shame - so long as your post isn't libellous - you can certainly state the facts of their terms & conditions, and give your personal opinion on those T&C's.

This subject was discussed in a RECENT THREAD HERE which you might find interesting.

numanoids

V_tricky,

Thanks for the response, my apologies that I didn't pick it up before and for starting a new thread as such, however one of the contributers to the linked thread effectively has the same issue:

The point samw is making is that he went from the AA who recognise 9 years to the RAC who use a max of 5 years, then to another which will recognise 9 years but RAC renewal only states 5 so this is all they would credit him with. Therefore his premium would be higher than it should have been. Luckily he can get AA to confirm he did have 9 years the year before.

This is effectively the same position we are in.

I will name details now and give more information

Swiftcover are our current insurer, they have quoted a renewal of £385 approx and state that my wife has "5 or more years NCD".

Swinton Insurance have quoted us £421 based on 5 yrs NCD as per Swiftcover's renewal, however when explaining that she has more than 5 years, more like 8, Swinton are able to quote us £336, a saving of £85 - quite considerable.

We've been with Swiftcover for 2 years, hence I'm concerned that if I go back to our Previous Insurer, Tesco, they may not have those details immediately available.

To quote from swiftcover's FAQ about NCD:

"With Swiftcover.com your no claims discount entitlement will be equivalent to our maximum discount of 60%. As with most insurance companies, 5 years is the maximum amount of years no claims discount we will accept to give you a reduction in your premium. If you provide your proof to any other insurance companies they should accept this as being the most NCD you could have earned and will discount your premium accordingly."

I've marked should in bold, as in our case, should is not applicable.

Swinton have given us an excellent quote and we would like to take them up on this, but we are not going to be able to due to this lack of agreement on the definition of how NCD is calculated, and are going to lose out on a great price.

Thanks for the replies anyway.

Numanoids