yungjamie

Hi Peeps,

Was involved in a bump, mainly cosmetics, but the bodyshops estimate was more than the cars worth. Insurance is via my fathers trade insurance policy with me as named driver on all the vehicles. Prior to the bump,father had max. no claims bonus as we have never been involved in accidents. Excess on the imports is £750. It has come round for renewal and after all the wrangling with the Insurance Company over the claim they have pushed the premium up by about 40% and 'stepped back' our no claims bonus to zero because of the bump. spoken to the brokers and they said that the Insurance Company can take all the no claims bonus away if they want to and the brokers are powerless to do anything about it. There is nothing documented in the policy booklet that they could do this. Spoken to friends and they say that normally they will deduct possibly 2 years off the max.no claims bonus that we have, or is it just because it is a trade policy? I would appreciate any info. on this subject.

Thanks. Jamie

maclean2

Hi - stepback NCD where you only lose 2 yrs NCD is common with private car policies but with commercial vehicle and motor trade policies you generally lose all the NCD if you make a claim.

HTH

yungjamie

I would have thought that we should have been told of the situation of the complete loss of the N.C.D. in the event of a bump. If not by the insurers then by the brokers. The brokers have said that we could have protected the bonus but we were never even told about this. Bit of a warning to others really if anyone has a traders policy.

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

They would have asked you about protected no claims more money for them.

The warning is that cheaper cover isn't always better cover and if you are running a day to day car on a trader policy you are risking quite a bit as you'll have to build up the no claims again.

Have a look at getting a proper policy for your car and build up some no claims so it is worth protecting.

5t.

yungjamie

like I have said, we have never been offered protection on our max. bonus otherwise would have taken it up. At the end of the day it should be up to our brokers to advise us of options, we pay him the money not the insurers. there is nothing in the policy booklet mentioning 'stepping back' and loosing all our max no claims bonus in the event of a claim or anything about protecting our bonus. We have numerous vehicles. Having never made a claim until now and then to be clobbered like this on renewal just stinks. There must be an unwritten law somewhere that says trade insurers can do what they like. Am I correct in thinking that the policy booklet should give you all information regarding the insurance you take out or am I missing something? Our premium are not 'cheap'

Jamie

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

It should be in your policy book yes so make sure the rule on claims is in there somewhere. I'm not as sure on a trader policy but i would have thought protected no claims is a definate for them and if they didn't offer it why no one asked i'm not sure... ?

Not saying the policy would have been cheap but to get a trader policy i know you need to buy and sell several cars a year and you can cover several vehicles. Since you only build up one no claims bonus insuring 5 scoobies on one policy is a lot lot cheaper than using 5 different policies, 4 without any no claims bonus. For arguments sake you'd be looking at £5000 for insurance.

Insurance Ombudsman (i think it is now part of the Financial Services Authority) will help if you can show that you didn't sign up to the zero no claims element of the policy.

caveat emptor and all that.

5t.

yungjamie

Read the policy booklet front to back five times in case I missed something about stepping back and wiping out what was effectively 9 years bonus with this Company. there is nothing in there whatsoever regarding this. I have written to the brokers asking for explanations why we were never asked to protect the bonus and such drastic measures as to loosing all bonuses. Whilst we have been with this Insurance Co. have paid over £15k in premiums in 5 years and they paid out £4k on our claim. Also thanks for advice of ombudsman. If no joy via broker will write to ombudsman. Will post any info. I receive.

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Good luck. I only said "ombudsman" to an insurer once and they coughed up. Have a look at How to Complain for some more advice.

You can send copies of any letters you send to your insurer to the ombudsman so they can see what is going on. Don't forget to tell the insurer you are doing it.

And side point, make sure you put losing not lOOsing on the form

all the best 5t.