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Insurance NCB being capped


Rich
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So it's that time again and I've got the Lexus and Honda to insure this month.

Both policies were with Hastings last year and the NCB letter says we have 9+ years. I would actually have about 16 years now and the missus 11 years.

We had this problem with Tesco as well and they only gave proof of NCB to what they use but did do a letter stating the correct amount. I will have to see if Hastings do the same.

Does anyone else have to do this when they leave an insurer? Why don't they just state how many years you actually have to save people contacting them!

As for the insurance the renewal on the Lexus was £60 more so I'll be looking elsewhere. 1st Central and One Call are coming out on top but reviews for their customer service aren't good. I'm looking at going back with the AA with £40 cashback.

I'm getting abit fed up of doing this every year now, are brokers easier to use? Although I'm assuming the policies will cost more.

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7 minutes ago, liner33 said:

Over 9 years makes no difference to the premium in fact I think its as low as 5 years before you hit max no claims discount

Yes 9 years is the maximum that most of them honour but I still think they should acknowledge the full number of years that you actually have.

What if you just left it at the 9 years and had a claim that reduced the number of years you have. If you had say 16 years then it wouldn't reduce it to below the 9 years after a claim.

What about protecting NCB, I've always taken that option but is it actually a con?

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I always protect my NCB but as you say nearly all companies and search engines only use it as 9+. Mine is due for renewal this month too, tomorrow is 21 days meant to be best time to look around price wise. My renewal has come back £90 for LV no claims or anything so will be changing.

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It's about £20-£30 more usually to protect from the quotes I got. The thing is if you do make a claim they'll increase the premiums anyway.

Is that a £90 increase on last year with LV? They're also one of the contenders for thia year depending on the quote via cashback sites rather than the comparisons.

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32 minutes ago, SMARTLY said:

Yes £90 increase on last year with LV :(

They all pull the same stunt now, lure you in with a cheap policy and hope you auto renew the next year.

Really wish insurance was the same as a classic policy. They don't use NCB and just give you a cheap price in the first place, then renewal price is literally a couple of quid.

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So I've been on Confused and CompareThe Market and the cheapest known company is GA ( part of Aviva ) and it's £70 cheaper than LV for same cover with Confused and £20 voucher :) CTM is £15 more.

By the way I have protected NCB, legal cover, windscreen cover and courtesy car on my policy - habit really.

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I always find the meerkat cheaper than any other comparison sites for some reason. But I dismiss Esure and a few other crap companies by default after their dubious practices in past years. Currently I use Axa as they're about £10 more than the cheapest, but they have an online portal where I can add / remove drivers, change registration number etc. with no charge and without needing to even speak to anyone. Direct line and many others charge £25 for policy changes.

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17 hours ago, Rich said:

Yes 9 years is the maximum that most of them honour but I still think they should acknowledge the full number of years that you actually have.

What if you just left it at the 9 years and had a claim that reduced the number of years you have. If you had say 16 years then it wouldn't reduce it to below the 9 years after a claim.

What about protecting NCB, I've always taken that option but is it actually a con?

It doesnt work that way and never has , max ncb is the maximum discount you can get , the amount of years without a claim may well be different but as it bears no relation to the price you pay OR the price you pay following a claim it is simply a number on a piece of paper 

 

There is NO benefit to having 10 years NCD or 20 years NCD

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Confused and Gocompare are always my cheapest ones. I had the Accord renewal through today with the same company as the Lexus, it was £7 more than last year! But we received £60 cashback on each policy and it includes breakdown. Getting cover without breakdown and then going back to someone like autoaid is still cheaper than renewing. I was looking at the AA and RAC earlier, their prices are eyewatering now! :blink:

Insurance is a pain as you can get quotes on comparison sites, then go through a cashback site with one of them and the price can vary quite a lot.

I've also got the home insurance to renew this week. The cheapest quote was with policy expert at £118 but their reviews are terrible. Even with £110 cashback I'm not tempted.

On 04/09/2020 at 11:36, liner33 said:

It doesnt work that way and never has , max ncb is the maximum discount you can get , the amount of years without a claim may well be different but as it bears no relation to the price you pay OR the price you pay following a claim it is simply a number on a piece of paper 

 

There is NO benefit to having 10 years NCD or 20 years NCD

So why do some companies give you the option to state more than 9 years NCB? The AA for example asks how many years you have and you can enter any number. If I accept the 9 years from Hastings I can't prove I have any more than that.

If you have 15 years with one company, make a claim and then lose 2 or 3 years you can move to another company with over 9 years NCB left. Yes you'll have to declare the claim so the premium will be more but the maximum discount should still apply. Whereas if you had under their maximum number of NCB the price would also likely increase even further.

I think I would prefer to have my full number of NCB whether it's just a number on a piece of paper or not. Once they're gone I'm not getting them back.

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The maximum is 9 years so if you lose 3 years ncd following a claim then you would have 6 , if you actually had 20 years without a claim YOU would still go back to 6 years since the most ncd you can accrue is 9 years*.  

*SOME insurers only give maximum ncd after 9 or more years but the industry standard is 5 years

If the numbers on the piece of paper matter to you then fine but they wont matter to anyone else and it wont make any difference on how much you pay once you reach max ncd

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Surely they can't do that. If you have 20 years and proof of that, then make a claim they can't just knock 14 years off.

We're renewing the Lexus with Hastings as they knocked £80 off the renewal price. With the breakdown cover included I can't find a better price for a company I want to go with. Hopefully they do the same with the Accord.

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On 08/09/2020 at 17:15, Rich said:

Surely they can't do that. If you have 20 years and proof of that, then make a claim they can't just knock 14 years off.

We're renewing the Lexus with Hastings as they knocked £80 off the renewal price. With the breakdown cover included I can't find a better price for a company I want to go with. Hopefully they do the same with the Accord.

Of course they can the maximum ncd is 9 years , you cannot build a greater ncd than that. If you claim your ncd is reduced unless you protect it. The years you have over 9 have no effect on your ncd

 

 

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I had a similar experience leaving Quoteline Direct - Wilsons group, or Bollington Insurance Brokers (that's all one co!)

They stated NCD as +9yrs for the last few years and this year they decided to change the way they do renewals, by adding an auto-renew process at 7 days before renewal date. Naturally I was dubious that this was actually a benefit to the customer in convenience in these trying times, so I checked the prices with the insurance co the had the "best price" for me. When I foudn out that going direct to that company was £100 cheaper on just the premium, and that the broker charges a £60 handling fee, they basically doubled the cost by using them. So, ten days before the renewal, I told them I did not want to auto-renew. "opt-out and keep it open?" they asked, yes, please - opt-out of auto renew, and I'll confirm before the actual date.

Next Day I get a text - don't forget, we will auto-renew for you... I called them immediately - please cancel the renewal altogether - you've blown it. I will arrange a policy elsewhere.

Next day, I get an email, please login and check your new documents!  FFS!! I called again - so - three calls, all very clear and guess what? they still took the money and I had to call again to get a refund that I'm currently waiting on. Absolute cheating swine.

I knew it instinctively - auto renewal = thieving bastards.

but apart from that they quoted Aviva at 290 +fee total 350, and I went to Aviva direct for 190. And I will tell anyone who will listen, avoid Quoteline / Wilsons / Bollington Brokers. they are twats.

 

oh yeah - NCD, I could count up to 16 years without incident and continuous cover, and Aviva actually reward up to 15. but the broker only provided 9years proof, so that's all I got. but it was much cheaper, so I'm alright with it.

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Wow, they sound extremely incompetent and you have confirmed what I thought that brokers are a lot more expensive.

I guess in time NCB will change so you can't earn more than 9 years with any insurance company, even on paper. It would save so much hassle and confusion. The AA allow you to state more than 9 years when getting a quote and also give you this amount when you leave. Yet when I left Tesco's they wrote me a letter stating how many I had cos only 9 year were on the original one they sent.

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Did my Lexus insurance the other day and ended up paying £70 more than last year - shopped around, used Confused and GoCompare and ended up with M&S with breakdown for £350 - the original quote was for £390. I tried getting a lower quote but in the end I accepted that insurance has gone up. Not sure why as most people are doing way less miles what with Covid and all....

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This isn't totally true:

Quote

We've received your payment and verified your 15 years No claim discount with your previous insurer. So you don't need to do anything else right now except enjoy the benefits of being a General Accident customer.

 

 

 

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On 11/09/2020 at 15:45, eddie said:

Did my Lexus insurance the other day and ended up paying £70 more than last year - shopped around, used Confused and GoCompare and ended up with M&S with breakdown for £350 - the original quote was for £390. I tried getting a lower quote but in the end I accepted that insurance has gone up. Not sure why as most people are doing way less miles what with Covid and all....

Wow, that's quite an increase. I know car crime and burglaries have increased in our area, maybe your postcode has a black mark against it.

Given the cars age maybe try looking at a classic/treasured policy instead. The MX5 is 21 years old and I've had that insured as a classic for 5 years, it's a lot cheaper and the best bit is you don't even earn NCBs so no messing about with transferring them. I also pay a little extra for an agreed valuation. I renewed it in June for around £220 with breakdown and it only increases by a few pounds each year.

On 13/09/2020 at 09:48, SMARTLY said:

This isn't totally true:

Why isn't it totally true?

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  • 1 year later...

So it's that time of year again. Cancelled the Lexus insurance as the car is going and was on the phone for 30 minutes with Hastings going through everything only for them to give me an even higher quote than the renewal once the claim had been added.

The missus needs to be a named driver on my car although she hasn't driven it for 3 years. The claim for the CAT has increased my premium by £40+, but it's the excess that is shocking. It's gone from £0 to £250+ with the majority apart from the AA, which is £100. Ridiculous that even a named driver can have that much of an affect with a claim. 

Before the claim I was going to go with Aviva for £215 and £0 excess. They now want £270 and £500 excess!! 😲

Back on the subject of NCB, Hastings have refused to do a letter stating the true number of years we have. I have 17 years but they will only state 9 or over. If I put 9 years in to the details the quote is £10 more expensive than with 17 years so it obviously makes a difference.

So what am I supposed to do to prove I have 17 years of NCB. What if I make a claim and they ask for proof. It's such a stupid system, wouldn't it be better if all insurance companies just honoured the same maximum amount of NCB.

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