Insurance bonus accelerators

R.C.Anderson

R.C.Anderson

R.C.Anderson

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Are they worth doing?

Whilst having another look through insurance prices for the car I'm about the buy, I came across Bell (part of admiral) who do a 10 month bonus accelerator for ~15% less than the 12 month policy.

Although this is slightly more than 10 months worth of an annual policy, it should work out cheaper for the next year with a year's worth of no claims, so the slight increase of premium over the 10 months (we're talking about £25 here) would make the rest of the premium far cheaper.

So theoretically, it sounds like a good idea, but practically, is it worth doing? Do other companies accept the 10months as a year of no claims happy enough, or are you stuck with whatever price you get for the renewal? If I stick with the original insurer for another year, and end up with 2 years no claims (from 22 months), are other companies ok with that, or would they only see it as 1 year (i.e. I would be stuck with the original insurer to get all my years no claims?)

I also saw ensleigh do a 6 month accelerator which isn't transferable (they specifically say so), but they won't insure me anyway, so there no point considering that!

tl;dr: What are you opinions/experiences with ncb from 10 month bonus accelerator policies?
 
As far as I'm aware (my brother had one of these, not me), at the end of the 10 months, if you were to transfer then Bell would say you had 1 year's worth of NCB. Although I think after about 2 years he said it wasn't worth it, because by then you'll have 2 years of NCB.
 
Very useful for first time/younger drivers as the NCB savings are very high. If your annual premium is £300 then it's less worth it.

I'm currently on a 10 month with Diamond (which was somehow cheaper than the other EUI Ltd insurers) which is handy as I lost my NCB in Dec 2012, and my premiums are still about £850 as I'm 21, and have a Z4. Some NCB should save me a fair bit.

I've not had an issue with transfers on the two years I'd previously accrued (was on a 10 month when I first started driving).
 
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I did it for my first 3 years of driving, cheaper premiums in order to build up my NCB was the primary objective.
Despite what other insurers claim, they're transferable to new policies because it states one year accumulated per 10 month policy - telling that to Direct Line once on the phone made them go pretty quiet!
 
I used to work in insurance some years ago so this could be out of date, but when I did work there it was as follows.

- You need to be insured for a whole year to get a years NCB. That's the simple fact
but,
- Some other insurers will accept transfer of accelerated NCB, they do not have to
- A lot will depend on the paperwork issued as to whether after switching a couple of times it becomes unclear you have had an accelerator. (I have heard of insurers issuing a 10 month no claims at the end of an accelerated "1 year" policy, and others that issued a 1 year.
- The risk is that you have more no claims than the years you have been driving (since passed test), if you didn't buy a car straight away then you won't even have this apparent issue. You can of course also have insurance as a provisional licence holder, building no claims before you passed your test.

As ever its one of them risk vs reward situations. Technically some insurers could void your policy, they rarely do this, but in a major accident situation they do go through everything with a fine toothcomb, if it turns out you have misrepresented the truth then that's when your issues come.
 
Took this as a nudge to get in contact with an old friend who I have been meaning to catchup with. (senior underwriter at one of top uk insurers)

His response.

Most UK insurers are now accepting transfer of accelerated NCB. But you should as a best practice advise them whilst seeking quotes as its not 100% acceptance. Endsleigh have a good student accelerator, 1year NCD after 6 months, 2 years after 18 months.
Should advise to get online quotes, then ring best one and advise the transfer includes accelerated NCB if they ok, may have to ask for a new quote, then take out the online one. Also advise that for a few drivers its better to start with a 12 month for a year or two if this will get the renewal after birthday, still some big age discount price points so worst you can have is insurance renewing just before birthday when young.
 
When I used the Admiral/Bell/Elephant bonus accelerators, the renewal form came through and stated 1 year NCB. There was nothing stating that this was acquired over a 10 month period.
 
My partner got the best one I have seen from Esure. We had one car insured by me and her as a named driver. When we got the second car her NCB was to old to use. They had a scheme that matched my full NCB after the first year.

I was very skeptical but it is up for renewal and the renewal notice does indeed state she has the same NCB as me.

Great thing is it doesn't hold us to Esure as I believe renewal schedules can be used as proof of NCB.
 
I did this with Norwich Union when I started back in 2003, for 2 years, and then they bumped my renewal up even though they had no reason to. When I looked at switching, both years were not accepted by the other companies, meaning that I just had one normal year of NCB (12 out of the 20 months) and the other 8 months got written off.

Waste of time if you ask me.

I have also lost 2 years NCB simply from not having a car for every month in a 2 year time frame around 2008 which I think is absolutely stupid; and on a quote when I say I have been driving 10 years but only have 8 years ncb it makes me look like I have had 2 claims in my first 5 years, as they only ask you if you have not claimed within 5 years, when infact I have claimed only once in the whole 10 year period which was Q4 2012!
 
Well it seems like in general, it works out for the better, but obviously with a slight risk of it not being accepted...

I'll have another look into how the price actually differs between a 10 month accelerator, then a 12 month policy, and 2x12 month policies.

For reference, however, my premium drops by almost 1/2 when I change my details to how it would be 1 year from now (1 year ncb, a year older, 1 year of owning car etc) so it might work out better...
 
Well on further investigation, it seems to cost less than £100 difference to get 12 months of insurance through direct line, than it does to get 10 months insurance through bell/admiral, so even if the 10 months of ncb counts as 1 year when I renew, it's still more expensive per month to get the accelerator...
 
Don't know about anyone else but NCB makes very little difference to prices anyway. Years licence held and claim history are by far and away the most important factors.
Unless you're a new driver with an astronomical premium then I'd say no.
 
Clarkey said:
Don't know about anyone else but NCB makes very little difference to prices anyway. Years licence held and claim history are by far and away the most important factors.
Unless you're a new driver with an astronomical premium then I'd say no.
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That's the problem though, the best quotes I've been getting have been from about £1300-£1500, and if I changed everything for 1 year's time (assuming I don't claim) the best quote dropped below £800. (I didn't look to see how much was changed if I didn't have the years no claims)
 
R.C.Anderson said:
That's the problem though, the best quotes I've been getting have been from about £1300-£1500, and if I changed everything for 1 year's time (assuming I don't claim) the best quote dropped below £800. (I didn't look to see how much was changed if I didn't have the years no claims)
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The difference between 0 and 1 might be something significant, for me going from 3 to 1 made no real difference. YMMV.

Anyway, the real test is how much is the total cost for 24 months using both regular and accelerator schemes. More than 24 months I can't see there being any benefit the accelerator ones are more expensive.
 
86JR said:
What car is it and how old are you, £1500 seems a bit steep unless you are 17?
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I'm 22, and it's insurance on a Lexus IS250. Had my license for 2 years, but never had a policy.

Clarkey said:
The difference between 0 and 1 might be something significant, for me going from 3 to 1 made no real difference. YMMV.

Anyway, the real test is how much is the total cost for 24 months using both regular and accelerator schemes. More than 24 months I can't see there being any benefit the accelerator ones are more expensive.
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Yea, that's how I was working it out (well, the per month price of 22 months, vs the per month price of 24 months) And there wasn't really much difference. But with Direct Line, quoting me about £1250, it's far better to go with a year with them to begin with!
 
Funnily enough I came across this problem today.

I've always used the 10month policies in the past as the admiral group have always been the cheapest for me anyway.

However, my sister turned 17 ten months ago. She had a bonus accelerator while on her provisional. The ten months are now up and her renewal came back pretty expensive, I searched around online for her and found a cheap quote from endsleigh who are underwritten by Zurich. It turns out there was a problem as I was claiming she had 1 NCB while they were stating that it was impossible as she has only 17 for 10 months.

They refused to take her NCB into consideration even though I explained that the certificate stated 1 years NCB, apparently their underwriter does not accept the bonus accelerator policies.

Quoted her again with zero NCB and it was an identical price, over £400 cheaper than her renewal. She's lost a years NCB if she decided to go with them now but the next cheapest quote was £200 more.
 
I found them useful for a quick return to NCB after losing some in a car park bump and more importantly moving the insurance away from the tax renewal/MOT to make things a little easier financially :)
 
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