Worth protecting 14 years NCB?

Kitsi · 13 September 2017 at 11:49AM

Hi there,

I took out a new car insurance policy yesterday with Direct Line. I have 14 years NCB which I have always protected despite not making any claims in years. I've noticed that when comparing insurance many companies cap NCB at 5 or 9 years. I asked the guy on the phone why this was and he replied 'some people have 40 yrs NCB so we'd practically be insuring them for nothing'.

With this in mind is there actually any point in protecting my NCB and trying to build it up as anything above 9 years doesn't count for anything?

I paid about £28 yesterday to protect my NCB but I will ask for a refund if its not going to be worth my while.

warehouse · 13 September 2017 at 11:52AM

Try inputting an insurance quote with zero NCB and see the difference.

For £28 it's worth it.

unforeseen · 13 September 2017 at 12:17PM

Just to be pedantic, you don't have 14 years of NCB. You have 14 years of no claims. Subtle difference.

As far as an insurance company is concerned, in the event of an attributable claim your NCB will drop from their maximum which is normally 9 years or thereabouts. So any claim will drop your NCB to 6 or 7 years

paddyandstumpy · 13 September 2017 at 12:22PM

unforeseen wrote: »

Just to be pedantic, you don't have 14 years of NCB. You have 14 years of no claims. Subtle difference.

As far as an insurance company is concerned, in the event of an attributable claim your NCB will drop from their maximum which is normally 9 years or thereabouts. So any claim will drop your NCB to 6 or 7 years

Just to be even more pedantic (and correct); when you have more than 5 years NCB you'll still drop to 3 years when you have a fault claim.

Quentin · 13 September 2017 at 12:24PM

Often you will find that when you have a claim (with unprotected NCD), 2 years is deducted from a maximum of 5 - irrespective of how many years NCD you had at the start of the policy.

So if you had, say, 10 years at the start, you only have 3 after a claim to use a renewal

Aretnap · 13 September 2017 at 2:17PM

paddyandstumpy wrote: »

Just to be even more pedantic (and correct); when you have more than 5 years NCB you'll still drop to 3 years when you have a fault claim.

To be super-pedantic it depends on the insurer; as a counter-example AXA will leave you with 4 years if you make a claim having had 6+ years. (Linky - page 13)

But yes with the majority of insurers you will not have more than 3 years left after a claim, however many you started with.

Worth protecting 14 years NCB?

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