insurers threatening to cancel my policy

bazaarboy · 18 Dec 2019 at 14:14

Hi all,
my wife and I have had multi-car policies in the last few years, initially with Admiral until 2016 then Direct Line until last month.
Neither of us have ever had a fault claim.

In November the renewal quote for my wife was ok and she went with it. My quote wasn't so good and a different insurer (via a broker) was better so I went with them.

Direct Line then sent a confirmation of our NCB (11 years) showing my wife as the policy holder. They said that they can't specify me as having NCB. They recommended we write a letter signed by my wife saying she's happy to "transfer the NCB" to me. Needless to say the new insurer isn't happy and has given me 7 days to produce an NCB in my name.

Annoyingly prior to being with Direct Line we each had individual NCBs clearly recognised.

BTW: my renewal reminder in November from DL states I have 9+ years (its actually 11) and shows me as the named driver, though wife is policy holder.

What's the best course of action here? Nobody has claimed, but seems unfair that years and years of my NCB are simply lost.

cheers guys

bazaarboy · 18 Dec 2019 at 14:42

i had a web chat with DL, they seem to think individual NCBs are kept separate

grudas · 18 Dec 2019 at 14:46

very few companies give you NCB as named driver, only main policy holder gets it.

Heisenberg · 18 Dec 2019 at 14:55

Yeah, your NCB will be lost if you've been a named driver for that long

Maundie · 18 Dec 2019 at 15:00

Yeah I'd been named driver on my wifes policy for years as we only had 1 car, when I needed a car for work and had clear proof I'd been a named driver with no claim history I only got a token discount applied not the full 10 years of NCB the wife had accumulated.

bazaarboy · 18 Dec 2019 at 16:13

But what's weird is that we both had maxed out NCBs when we went to DL. And on top, we each had our own cars, my wife was not named on my car and I even paid extra to get NCB protection.
DL should have considered us both as separate policy holders....

adam cool dude · 18 Dec 2019 at 16:24

I was the same user but the NCD on my Admiral multicar policy was individual to each car. We now have 3 cars and have found multicar to be a load of rubbish now and a gimmick as I can often find cheaper individually.

One car is in her name and the other in mine. Question to OP is why didn't you do it like that as it seems both cars were in your partner's name with you as named driver on both?

GeX · 18 Dec 2019 at 18:30

D

Maundie said:
Yeah I'd been named driver on my wifes policy for years as we only had 1 car, when I needed a car for work and had clear proof I'd been a named driver with no claim history I only got a token discount applied not the full 10 years of NCB the wife had accumulated.

For this reason my wife and I alternative who is the policy holder and who is named driver

grudas · 18 Dec 2019 at 18:50

bazaarboy said:
But what's weird is that we both had maxed out NCBs when we went to DL. And on top, we each had our own cars, my wife was not named on my car and I even paid extra to get NCB protection.
DL should have considered us both as separate policy holders....

NCB expires after 2 years without use.. which is why hers still valid and yours isn't

Your own policy with ncb attached to that will still have it valid. But you can only attach ncb to one policy not multiple.. unless insurer is happy to "mirror" your no claims.

Kenai · 18 Dec 2019 at 18:59

Sounds like someone has screwed up when moving to Direct Line as they should be treating each person as an individual and just stacking a discount for the multi car thing.

We insure each car on a separate policy. So you can keep separate renewal dates and you won't need to worry about the cost of policies all renewing at the same time. Also, if other drivers in your household make a claim for their car, your no claim discount won't be affected.

Would suggest you look back at the policy names on your Admiral policies and then the first Direct Line policies, try and find where you've gone from a His and Hers arrangement to a Hers and Hers, which seems to be what they're telling you is the case.

TNGL · 18 Dec 2019 at 19:30

If anything, make sure you cancel before they do or that'll be something you need to declare.

Jumper118 · 18 Dec 2019 at 20:33

adam cool dude said:
I was the same user but the NCD on my Admiral multicar policy was individual to each car. We now have 3 cars and have found multicar to be a load of rubbish now and a gimmick as I can often find cheaper individually.

you say that but my insurance is miles cheap with multicar. it just depends on all the random factors the monkey throws at the price wheel.

muon · 18 Dec 2019 at 20:44

Kenai said:
Would suggest you look back at the policy names on your Admiral policies and then the first Direct Line policies, try and find where you've gone from a His and Hers arrangement to a Hers and Hers, which seems to be what they're telling you is the case.

This is what must have happened. Easy solution is simply to carry this on and add your wife to a new policy as she has two sets of NCD earned on two different vehicles.

Will have to cancel the policy where they are asking for proof as it is unlikely they will suddenly allow you to add your wife.

bazaarboy said:
But what's weird is that we both had maxed out NCBs when we went to DL. And on top, we each had our own cars, my wife was not named on my car and I even paid extra to get NCB protection.
DL should have considered us both as separate policy holders....

For it to be happening they must consider your wife the policyholder for your vehicle. The question is how did that happen. If you can genuinely blame DL then great, put in a complaint, they might not even know there is a problem with their system.

bazaarboy · 19 Dec 2019 at 02:47

Thanks guys will have to talk to as DL.
There'd be no reason or advantage to having just my wife as the policy holder, as my own NCB would be wasted unnecessarily.
Possibly this has happened in error and we didn't realise. Hopefully DL could simply act in goodwill and reinstate my own NCB - I mean it's not like it would represent a loss to them...

theone8181 · 19 Dec 2019 at 07:43

I cant understand how NCB can 'expire'. You've still not had a crash. Its ridiculous.

adam cool dude · 19 Dec 2019 at 10:17

theone8181 said:
I cant understand how NCB can 'expire'. You've still not had a crash. Its ridiculous.

But you cannot prove continued NCD either as you have not held NCD in your name for over two years.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 19 Dec 2019 at 12:19

theone8181 said:
I cant understand how NCB can 'expire'. You've still not had a crash. Its ridiculous.

NCD is the insurers way of discounting premiums for those showing an ability to avoid having major accidents where they are at fault.
What they basically say that is if you do not hold valid insurance for 2 years then they consider that you may well no longer be as safe as you were.

Company car drivers, or ex in reality, will often be given a NCD equivalent discount so whilst they technically may have lost or never earned NCD they may get a premium to reflect.

The easiest way to avoid issues are to make sure you insure something. An old moped is often the issue, although not all will consider a bike insurance NCD valid for a car.

If your a decent age, living in a sensible risk area, not trying to insure some uber car with no NCD there is a far chance your paying the minimum premium anyway or close, so the NCD is semi irrelevant to a lot of people.

Hades · 19 Dec 2019 at 12:29

bazaarboy said:
But what's weird is that we both had maxed out NCBs when we went to DL. And on top, we each had our own cars, my wife was not named on my car and I even paid extra to get NCB protection.
DL should have considered us both as separate policy holders....

But then you'd have two separate policies, not one multicar policy.

theone8181 said:
I cant understand how NCB can 'expire'. You've still not had a crash. Its ridiculous.

If that were the case then what's to stop someone changing insurers every year and if they have a crash they simply present an older NCD from before the accident to the new insurance company?

Kenai · 19 Dec 2019 at 12:34

Hades said:
But then you'd have two separate policies, not one multicar policy.

That's what DL multicar policies are in reality, individual policies with a discount applied. Somehow he's ended up with his wife having two policies with him as a named driver on his own car rather than him having one and her having one.

Hades · 19 Dec 2019 at 12:57

Kenai said:
That's what DL multicar policies are in reality, individual policies with a discount applied. Somehow he's ended up with his wife having two policies with him as a named driver on his own car rather than him having one and her having one.

A multicar policy is a policy where one policy holder has multiple cars.