No-claims bonus rant

[steve69]

The insurance on my Motorhome came up for renewal recently. The motorhome policy is in my name and I have 5 years ncb. I renewed that with no problem.
I recently acquired a second vehicle (car) and approached insurers for a quote. This is where it gets complicated:

I hadn't changed my Confused.com details for the motorhome insurance so applied these details for the car. So far so good. I found an acceptable quote and proceeded to buy online. All went well until I read the part of the welcome letter from the insurer asking for proof of ncb. I telephoned the insurer to ask how they wanted this.
WELL!....How many of you knew that an accumulated no-claims bonus only applies to ONE vehicle?
To take out insurance on a second vehicle, you have to start with zero ncb!
I asked why this was the case as surely no claim is exactly that, regardless of how many vehicles you have. I also protested that I was not informed of this fact prior to buying. Apparently the info on confused.com needed to be changed to state zero NCB instead of the 5 years I had on there for the motorhome quotes. How many people know about this? The lady even said the insurer might only ask for proof of ncb AFTER a claim! Surely the insurance would be invalidated if you incorrectly stated the ncb as 5 years instead of the zero?
I corrected the info on confused.com to show zero ncb and the cheapest quote jumped by £200. Is this a rip-off or what?
Anyhow I managed to negotiate an increase of only £100 with the lady on the phone after she spoke to her boss about my complaint.
Just thought I should warn others about this if you don't already know.

 

[chatteris]

LV give me around 60% NCD if I add another vehicle, so I would say try another insurance company

 

[Camdoon]

Standard practice.
We still run 2 cars but when we revert to 1 we will alternate NCB's so that we do not run the risk of either of us, as the last one driving, having to insure without a NCD.
The other big issue is companies who only recognise 10 years NCD's so you have 15 years going in and 10 coming out. Ridiculous in these times.

 

[Tigger-Tim]

It's always been this way.

I used to run a motorbike. Incidents on the bike affect my car insurance (and vice versa) but the NCD is not transferrable between them. When I sold the bike and bought a little mx-5, I lost my NCD and had to start again.

Fortunately, my wife's insurer at the time (Aviva) gave me a decent deal.

 

[BikerGraham]

It’s always been that way. The NCB relates to the policy. I have 2 cars a motorbike and a motorhome. All separate policies and all separate NCB’s.
Many insurers though will give you a good will starting bonus when getting a second policy.
As also said what makes it worse is that a claim on any policy has to be declared on all policies at renewal and will affect the premium. Although May only affect the NCB on the policy of the claim.
Basically, they have you by the proverbial

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[Cherub]

Just ran this past hubby and he’s got protected ncb on all vehicles with NFU. We have 4x 4’s for winter and ordinary for summer.

 

[Howard B]

Have full NCB on car & bike, had to start from scratch on the van.
When I cliamed on bike insurance I had to declare on all my other policies for 5 years.

 

[dazandandrea]

Alot of insurers will take things into consideration if you talk to them direcct.
Its at their discretion as to what they will give you.
From what i have come across there are no fixed rules.

 

[RustyRuss]

I have 2 policies with Aviva, 1 policy has my wife’s car, 2 daughters’ cars, and our 2 MX5’s. You can only have 5 on a policy. My new Puma is on another policy with them, I harassed them until I got at least 5 years NCD on all 6 vehicles, saying I would take my business elsewhere, this despite the fact that at least 2 of the vehicles were new to the policy and the drivers had no NCD. All have multiple drivers, wives, boyfriends, mates. I pay the premiums but the main drivers, and therefore “owners” of the NCD’s are all named and can take the NCD with them if and when they leave the policy. The kids pay me by DD for their chunks of the premium. Works well. The MoHo is with CAMC insurers and I haggled to death to get a full comp policy for less than £300. The secret is to haggle and play one off against the others and organise it all with at least a week to go before you have too.

Cheers!

Russ

 

[Lenny HB]

Often works the other way with Motorhomes. If you have a car NCB the Motorhome insurer will mirror it.

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[The Wino]

I have 2 policies with Aviva, 1 policy has my wife’s car, 2 daughters’ cars, and our 2 MX5’s. You can only have 5 on a policy. My new Puma is on another policy with them, I harassed them until I got at least 5 years NCD on all 6 vehicles, saying I would take my business elsewhere, this despite the fact that at least 2 of the vehicles were new to the policy and the drivers had no NCD. All have multiple drivers, wives, boyfriends, mates. I pay the premiums but the main drivers, and therefore “owners” of the NCD’s are all named and can take the NCD with them if and when they leave the policy. The kids pay me by DD for their chunks of the premium. Works well. The MoHo is with CAMC insurers and I haggled to death to get a full comp policy for less than £300. The secret is to haggle and play one off against the others and organise it all with at least a week to go before you have too.

Cheers!

Russ

Aren't you worried about a claim by one of the other drivers on your vehicle's affecting the NCD?. We used to have the person who cared for our kids on our policy I was glad to get her off as she was a bit scatty.

 

[Sapper520]

AiB don’t give No Claims discount on MH’s.

We’ve got a car we share, and a Motorcycle each ( named rider on each other’s policies) all max No Claims but had no bearing when we purchased our first Van in September 2020.

Had a windscreen claim in 2016, which I had to declare on car, both motorcycle renewal’s and the new van policy until last year.

 

[Odd-no-more]

It is not fair that an accident in one vehicle will cost more for instance on another vehicle but NCB on that vehicle will not be used on a second vehicle. Yesterday I renewed my motorbike insurance, I had to declare that my wife had an accident in the car and because the car insurance is in my name it affected my bike insurance

 

[Derbyshire wanderer]

When I swapped my Discovery for a pick up, most insurers would not accept the 10 year plus protected bonus I had. I found a company that would mirror the discount as a goodwill gesture although they were still a good bit dearer than the previous Discovery policy. On renewal I then had proof of 10 year plus NCD for a commercial vehicle and could shop around again.
For a so called regulated industry, insurers are generally allowed to get away with all sorts of practices that are not fair to the consumer.
As said above, one bump means that all insurers need to be told. Fair enough, the driver is potentially a higher risk BUT having to start at the bottom for a second vehicle after proven years of lower risk is not right.

 

[MichaelT]

Comfort don't give any discount for NCB but they register it so you can take it with you if needed.

Recently we changed the main driver of our car to me from Mrs T so the NCB changed too and even though the policy is in my name and I pay for it she had to give permission.

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[The Wino]

I suspect we see the insurance industry as something it isn't! They really are gambling and asking for details to decide the odds so they can decide on a premium thats overall likely to result in a profit. Saying it's not fair is a bit like saying that casino's aren't fair because the odds favour the house.
If they applied NCB differently all that would happen would be a general small increase in premiums for everyone to give more NCB for some. There as far as I am aware aren't hugely out of scale profits being made and giving higher NCB would not result in less claims so premium rises would be inevitable.

 

[philann]

The question that is asked on insurance forms is “have YOU had any accidents or claims” this is regardless of which vehicle you were driving, so if you have an accident in a hire car, or works car for example you have to declare it and it may affect the NCB on your vehicles. A friend who was in the police lost some NCB when she bent her police car.

 

[HugoBNB]

LV give me around 60% NCD if I add another vehicle, so I would say try another insurance company

Another vote for LV. One of the best companies I have dealt with in many years across many fields. Best to speak to them though as opposed to doing it online.

 

[pappajohn]

Some insurers will 'mirror' an NCB from, say, a family car to a motorhome.....others don't offer any NCB on a motorhome policy....even if earned in its own right.

 

[The Wino]

Some insurers will 'mirror' an NCB from, say, a family car to a motorhome.....others don't offer any NCB on a motorhome policy....even if earned in its own right.

All that really matters as long as the cover is what you want is the final premium. Whether thats due to a NCB or a lower initial figure doesn't matter. Maybe the problem is some expect a company with a lower initial premium to match the NCB of another that has a high initial price but then gives a generous NCB ( a bit like a sale at DFS!!)
If they all charged the same the same ones complaining about NCB would say it's a rigged market.

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[Bailey58]

AIB mirror'd the NCB on the car to the motorhome and when I bought a second car (a late Merc) transferred the Full NCD from the then 15 year old Espace to the newer car then, I seem to remember, I started the Espace off at 20% discount.

 

[RustyRuss]

All NCD’s are protected, and a bump in one won’t affect any other NCD’s as they are “main driver/owner” vehicles

 

[Derbyshire wanderer]

All NCD’s are protected, and a bump in one won’t affect any other NCD’s as they are “main driver/owner” vehicles

Although that is true, a bump once declared up’s the starting price hence the increase in premium.

 

[Wack]

I've never paid to protect my NCB , on 5 vehicles I'd think the saving would be quite a lot , also it doesn't guarantee your premium won't Increase, just the NCB won't change , even with a claim logged against you changing companies with the reduced ncb will result in a similar premium to before.

 

[The Wino]

All NCD’s are protected, and a bump in one won’t affect any other NCD’s as they are “main driver/owner” vehicles

It might not affect the NCB but will affect the base premium before NCB so that the insurance cost will still go up

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