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No claims bonus: protect or not?

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Old 13 November 2000, 12:42 AM
  #1  
chiark
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Hi all

I have found insurance for 799 quid for my car, including 1500 quid's worth of ICE cover, which is cheapest by over 100 quid.

However, to protect my NCB, it will cost an extra 100 quid.

I have 7 years, and am wondering if its worth it given that it doesn't really protect your NCB, and if I do have an accident without protected NCB I wont lose all my NCB.

Advice? Is it worth 100 quid or not?

Cheers,

Nick.
Old 13 November 2000, 02:29 PM
  #2  
Jerome
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I would say it is worth the £100. If you don't go the protected route, sod's law dictates you will have several claims in a short space of time and lose it all.

Jerome.
Old 13 November 2000, 05:56 PM
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Yex
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Chiark,

Hopefully a quick piece of maths will give you a clue as to why I protected my NCD when offered, I'll use your £799 as a start point.

You have 7 years NCD which should give you a 65% discount: (799 / 35) *100 = 2280 gross premium.

If you have a claim this year you should lose 2 years NCD which will bring you down to a 45% discount at renewal.

Your renewal, based on the same gross premium as this year, as if they would , would be £2280 less 45% discount = £1254.

It would appear you are paying £100 to protect against £455 of premium increase if you have a claim in the current year.

If this is pants I'm sure Rum will put it in a more "insurance balanced viewpoint", but it made sense to me to protect my NCD a renewal.

Regards

Yex
Old 13 November 2000, 08:07 PM
  #4  
MTR
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Chiark,
Remember my modified drivers door at Northern Meet 4?

The insurance went up from £644 last year to £1726 after that claim for this year.
That figure then dropped to £880 after the claim was settled, without Bonus protection.
I opted to pay an extra £146 to protect my bonus.
Insuring my insurance!!!

What Yex hasn't pointed out, and I have very recently discovered from personal experience is, not only do you lose £400+ no claims for each claim, but your insurance company slap on an unspecified LOADING, bigger for bigger claims.
Write off a 20K car and it would probably be a sizeable increase.

In my case somewhere about £440+, which was scrubbed after the claim was settled in my favour, luckily prior to renewal time, just.

I won't try and calculate all the exact pertcentages for you, just that with one claim against me, Policy was £1726, claim settled £880, difference of +£846 or nearly DOUBLE the payable premium, after claim was settled.

As you can see you don't lose 20%, the policy is almost 100% more expensive in this instance, and I wasn't even sat in my car!!!

If you cop for another claim before the following year, EEEEEK!!!

According to my company, they told me ALL insurance companies will load your policy after a claim, wether they are willing to state this or not, and you cannot protect yourself against this. But you can lessen considerably the TOTAL increase by protecting the NCB.

For the record, in my case, without NCB protection, it would appear that if I make an own fault claim of less than £1000, I would be better off paying to fix my car myself, as I have £250 excess to find, and my policy will most likely jump +£850, and every year for the following 3/4/5 years depending on the company, I have to confess to having made an insurance claim, and again pay the loaded premiums.

MY ADVICE IS PAY IT.

Oh, and just to conclude the dear lady that reversed into my car, with the comment 'there isn't normally a car parked there' proceeded to get her car fixed, only to reverse into a great big builders skip 3 weeks later, that her husband had delivered to their house while he flagged the drive. Apparently, she has reversed into 3 stationary objects, causing significant damage each time, 3 times in the last 12 months.

Cheers MTR
Old 13 November 2000, 09:10 PM
  #5  
chiark
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Cheers for the basic lesson in maths here guys!

You're right: it's stupid not to by the look of it, and I'll just be tempting fate if I don't...

Looks like I need to make a phonecall tomorrow.

MTR: can't you get this woman sectioned for her own good?
Old 13 November 2000, 11:57 PM
  #6  
Rum*
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As far as my company is concerned, we would always recommend you protect your bonus as soon as you can. I agree with the above comments ....and by not protecting and having a claim it is not just the following renewal that is affected, but the one after that and really the one after that! so the £100 is well worth IMHO.

Rum
Old 14 November 2000, 08:38 AM
  #7  
Rum*
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Chiark,

Give me a call this morning....0113 250 0377

Tom

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Old 14 November 2000, 03:38 PM
  #8  
chiark
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Tom: already have done

Well, the saga continues. All the renewal guff arrived in the post this morning with the following statements hidden away:
Old 14 November 2000, 09:45 PM
  #9  
Scooby Doc
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Nick

I too have a car from Holland which seems to be the least of the difficulties. I changed vehicle part way through my current policy and wrote a cheque for the additional premium. When I renewed my current policy in June (for a Golf GTi 8V) I phoned a total of 47 insurance companies. The 45 was the best quote but only by £50 over the 14th! The end result was still a premium that was £150 more than the previous year. You can understand the motivation for the 47 phone calls but I am not sure that it was really worth the not inconsiderable amount of time and effort.

What frustrates me is that there must be insurance companies out there who suit your risk profile: the car you drive, the area you live and your accident/conviction record. As a humble member of the public it is trial and error. My labour of 47 insurance quotes was fueled by pure anger! The insurance industry has us over the barrel. I'm off to sign up with privilege. They don't require a tracker - don't get me started on that load of crap. And then they try and trip you up with the small print.

I am advised, interestingly that phoning in the morning will get you the best quotes. As insurance companies are less likely to have reached their daily target than they are in the afternoon then this is when yo wil get the best deals.

Frustrated with full NCB (protected)

Martin
Old 15 November 2000, 11:24 AM
  #10  
chiark
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Interesting point about the afternoon and morning thing. I phoned early afternoon and was told "take it out now and I can do it for X", where X was a tempting figure.

So I took it out there and then.

The quote on their website was better, but the website doesn't allow any modifications at all and told me to phone up for details.

Ho hum.

Regarding the car being an import: only one company said that they wouldn't cover it. A very, very snotty kid on the phone told me that "no one wants to touch 'em", despite the fact it's a UK spec car. I refrained from telling him to go and stuff his copy of Max P*wer up his ...
Old 16 November 2000, 03:49 PM
  #11  
chiark
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Oh, it gets better

On a whim, after seeing a post in General, I just phoned Axa Direct.

I'd discounted this lot as my renewal notice that came from hill house hammond, underwritten by Axa Insurance, was 1204 quid.

Anyhow, Mods < 5% no problems, EU import no problems, business use, protected NCB, 250XS = 768 quid!!

Very, very, very happy bunny. God bless Melissa at Axa Direct!
Old 16 November 2000, 10:54 PM
  #12  
RON
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Chiark
I had never had protected ncb until I got my Scoob, and I had never had a claim (in 15 years of motoring) I've had my car 8 months and I am now dealling with two claims, both happened on the same day, and both were not my fault, as I have pncb, I still have full ncb. Fior what it's worth, my money says do it!
You never know!
Ron.
Old 16 November 2000, 10:59 PM
  #13  
sport special
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Cool

I love AXA Too

They are they only company that will protect your NCB if you have 3 years.

As I am only 22 they did my a great deal on my sport.

750 quid

Excellent

Paul
Old 17 November 2000, 08:47 AM
  #14  
chiark
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Forgot to mention this snippet of info. If you take insurance out on the phone, you have a 14 day "cooling off" period, where you can cancel the insurance for a full refund if it is not suitable for your purpose.

That's what happened to the privelege cover that I had...
Old 17 November 2000, 11:26 AM
  #15  
Scooby Doc
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Nick

Give me that phone number and I'll try my luck

Cheers

Martin
Old 17 November 2000, 11:27 AM
  #16  
Scooby Doc
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Nick

Give me that phone number and I'll try my luck

Cheers

Martin
Old 17 November 2000, 11:32 AM
  #17  
Scooby Doc
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Another thought

Precisley what you describe. I am with What car insurance at the moment and am insured with Royal Sun Alliance. Approaching Royal Sun Alliance Direct was one of the most expensive quots I had had.

When phoning around I used a 2 year old copy of the yellow pages - it was amazing how many small companies had been swallowed up by larger insurance companies.certainly decreased the competition slighlty. Are the insurance companies running a monopoly?

Martin
Old 20 November 2000, 08:48 AM
  #18  
chiark
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