Insurance - NCB and Death

Soldato
Joined
5 Mar 2003
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Nottingham
Hi,
A bit of advice please! Ok so my mum and dad have been on the same car insurance policy for 10+ years without a claim, with my dad being the primary person. Unfortunately two months ago he passed away, and after sorting funeral and all other paper work we're onto the car! So the car is in his name which we're going to sort out, but we need to renew the insurance in a few weeks time. My mum will now become the primary person, but I guess officially she has zero NCD. She's with Esure, I've had a look but couldn't find anything cast iron in terms of her starting off with 9 years NCD (max).

Anyone dealt with a similar situation? I've spoken with their home insurance, and they were happy to transfer the NCD to my mums new policy... So I'll ask the same, but wondering if anyone has any experience so I can at least go armed with something!

Cheers.
 
Sorry for your loss. Some policies let named driver build up NCD but the only way to find out is ring and ask them. If not as you already know it will start with zero NCD.
 
Sorry for your loss, sometimes insurance companies will offer discretionary NCB if she has accrued any herself.

Slightly different situation but I was named on my Wifes policy for 5 years when we only had 1 car, when I got my own car again Admiral allowed me the 5 years NCB due to 5 claim free years as named driver but normally you won't accrue it with them.
 
Admiral will usually let you transfer that bonus to them on a non-protected basis for the first 2 years.
 
Many insurers advice that you rotate the main driver when sharing an only car.

Sorry for your loss :(
 
Many insurers advice that you rotate the main driver when sharing an only car.

Sorry for your loss :(

Wouldn't that be fronting if they'd aren't the main driver?

Also it doesn't actually do anything beneficial by doing so either. Instead of having 2 years NCD you would have one each so pay more. Then when you have 4 years NCD you would have 2 each so paying a lot more.

So it would have zero real world benefit to switching every year
 
I've been a named driver on my wife's policy for 9+ years, got my own car and AXA allowed me to insure it using the same 9 years NCB. Once I get to the end of the year I can transfer anywhere with 10 years NCB.

if you explain it they'll be fine with it :)
 
If you stick with Esure, I doubt they'll be removing the NCD at renewal.

Phone them up change the policyholder and remove the other person explaining why.
 
Wouldn't that be fronting if they'd aren't the main driver?

Also it doesn't actually do anything beneficial by doing so either. Instead of having 2 years NCD you would have one each so pay more. Then when you have 4 years NCD you would have 2 each so paying a lot more.

So it would have zero real world benefit to switching every year

Not fronting if you are a couple as you could argue that you use the car equally, if you have more than one car there no need to rotate main driver.

The real world benefit is that if you don't use NCB for 2 years it disappears
 
Not fronting if you are a couple as you could argue that you use the car equally, if you have more than one car there no need to rotate main driver.

The real world benefit is that if you don't use NCB for 2 years it disappears

Yes but you are paying extra for that privilege so it makes zero real world benefit.

Basically if I have 5 years NCB and the wife has 0 and I'm the main driver my insurance is cheaper than if I have 3 years NCB and she has 2 years NCB.

Your paying more to do it that way.

So if I die in my scenario she now pays more but it would be roughly equal to what would have been paid extra by switching every year anyway. So zero real world benefit
 
Yes but you are paying extra for that privilege so it makes zero real world benefit.

Basically if I have 5 years NCB and the wife has 0 and I'm the main driver my insurance is cheaper than if I have 3 years NCB and she has 2 years NCB.

Your paying more to do it that way.

So if I die in my scenario she now pays more but it would be roughly equal to what would have been paid extra by switching every year anyway. So zero real world benefit

But if you ever intend to get another car she would have 0 NCD and have to pay through the nose. The difference between 3 & 5 years is negligable compared to 0 years.

With reference to the original post. When i worked for Direct Line group i'm pretty sure we used to let the spouse take on the NCD. But it has been 5 years.
 
So just phoned up and yeah she'll need to start at zero NCD which I think is fairly harsh; you've just lost your husband - here's a double premium (to be confirmed). Compare that treatment to mortgage where they basically said don't worry about repayments for 18 months and said even if she wouldn't be normally eligible for that product they will transfer it so long as she is comfortable with repayments.
 
But if you ever intend to get another car she would have 0 NCD and have to pay through the nose. The difference between 3 & 5 years is negligable compared to 0 years.

With reference to the original post. When i worked for Direct Line group i'm pretty sure we used to let the spouse take on the NCD. But it has been 5 years.

However you would at the start have 2 years at 0 NCB instead of 1. Then 2 years with 1 NCB instead of 1, etc, etc.

It makes zero real world difference.
 
So just phoned up and yeah she'll need to start at zero NCD which I think is fairly harsh; you've just lost your husband - here's a double premium (to be confirmed). Compare that treatment to mortgage where they basically said don't worry about repayments for 18 months and said even if she wouldn't be normally eligible for that product they will transfer it so long as she is comfortable with repayments.

It's pretty clear how insurance works and who gets and accrues NCB. Ignorance of the market doesn't mean you should be entitled to something you aren't. If they both wanted NCB they should have went with a company that offered them that. It would likely have cost them more to go with such company too so it's not exactly like they would have saved money by doing so.

I take it they didn't have life insurance? Should they also be entitled to that even though they didn't pay for it?
 
The difference is, you can only have one main driver. Both drove roughly the same. Neither dinged the car or ever made a claim. No one is asking for something for nothing... When you take out something like car insurance you don't think about the main driver passing.
 
I take it they didn't have life insurance? Should they also be entitled to that even though they didn't pay for it?
That's a ridiculous comparison that has no bearing on the OP. See below.

With reference to the original post. When i worked for Direct Line group i'm pretty sure we used to let the spouse take on the NCD. But it has been 5 years.

That seems perfectly reasonable, 2 drivers but only 1 earning ncb. The driver earning the ncb dies so the ncb passes to the other named driver. While I'm sure not every insurance company would do this (as noted in the op's response) it's an excellent 'gesture'
 
Sorry for your loss. As mentioned I'd call the insurance company and see whether it can be transferred across or copied on the new policy.

But something to keep in mind is that if it was in his name then the policy probably lapses on his death. So in the event of a named driver continuing to drive it, that named driver might be uninsured. So check that with the company too.
 
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