Protected no claims - worth it?

dazz25

dazz25

dazz25

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Joined
23 Jul 2007
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1,423
Hi all,

Just wondering what your opinions are on protected no claims? I have 16 years at the moment and the insurance company want around £70 to protect them this year. I'm under the impression that if I was involved in a fault claim then I wouldn't lose them all and I would technically have 'max' no claims.

I can see the benefit of protecting say 5 years no claims as losing 2 would increase premiums a fair bit. But unsure on whether it's worth it on the amount that I have.
 
£70 extra seems a lot. Think it's normally about £20-30 to protect mine. Might be worth shopping around a bit.

It's been worth it at that pricefor me as I had a claim a couple of years ago. Bare in mind you still get penalised for declaring incidents/claims regardless of if your ncd is protected.
 
At 16 years NCD, I would say its fairly pointless. The difference in quote cost between even 10 years and 16 years is going to be tiny compared to any increase from a declared Claim.

Protected NCD makes more sense for younger/newer drivers where the initial few years of NCD make a lot more difference.
 
King4aDay said:
£70 extra seems a lot. Think it's normally about £20-30 to protect mine. Might be worth shopping around a bit.

It's been worth it at that pricefor me as I had a claim a couple of years ago. Bare in mind you still get penalised for declaring incidents/claims regardless of if your ncd is protected.
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Usually the case for me so I just add it on but for some reason this year the price has risen quite a bit. Same with the quotes as well :mad:
 
NCD maxes out at 5 years I think. You might lose 2-3 if you make a claim. But even with it protected the premium still rises, so seems pointless.
 
Armageus said:
At 16 years NCD, I would say its fairly pointless. The difference in quote cost between even 10 years and 16 years is going to be tiny compared to any increase from a declared Claim.

Protected NCD makes more sense for younger/newer drivers where the initial few years of NCD make a lot more difference.
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Exactly what I was thinking! A fault claim wouldn't put me below ten years anyway...unless i'm wrong about this.
 
When you make a claim you only loose about 3/4 years, at 16 years you would have to loose about 12 years before you noticed any increase in your premium, I would not bother bother, spend it on alcohol and drugs instead
 
Nasher said:
NCD maxes out at 5 years I think. You might lose 2-3 if you make a claim. But even with it protected the premium still rises, so seems pointless.
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7 Years for most of the insurers I've used.

dazz25 said:
Exactly what I was thinking! A fault claim wouldn't put me below ten years anyway...unless i'm wrong about this.
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2 Years NCD deducted for a claim (based on the couple of claims I've had to make)
 
Haze said:
When you make a claim you only loose about 3/4 years, at 16 years you would have to loose about 12 years before you noticed any increase in your premium
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I've never had to claim ? has anyone here ?
even though I have 20 odd years with no claim, all companies I've used you select the >9 option ? without providing evidence of 20, just last years renewal letter itself.

I'd assumed if I claimed, I might have to find 20 years of renewals to prove I'd had no accidents, but rather,
on the renewal letter, following year, if I did not have PNC, it would then show max NCD limit - 3/4 years ie 9-3 = 6, and with 2 claims, down to 3 years, which might impact premium.
(.... so I thought anything greater than 9 was meaningless.)

Like others, have never had more than £10-15 for the protected no claims.


edit: ->

thread here that concurs with what I suggested -
if your'e with a company that has a 5+ years maximum recognised and have a couple of 2 point accidents, no PNC - you're down to 1 year NCD, even if you had 20.
with admiral https://www.admiral.com/magazine/guides/car-insurance/how-the-no-claims-bonus-works 9->5 ncd change would be a 10% premium hike
 
Last edited:
jpaul said:
I've never had to claim ? has anyone here ?
even though I have 20 odd years with no claim, all companies I've used you select the >9 option ? without providing evidence of 20, just last years renewal letter itself.

I'd assumed if I claimed, I might have to find 20 years of renewals to prove I'd had no accidents, but rather,
on the renewal letter, following year, if I did not have PNC, it would then show max NCD limit - 3/4 years ie 9-3 = 6, and with 2 claims, down to 3 years, which might impact premium.
(.... so I thought anything greater than 9 was meaningless.)

Like others, have never had more than £10-15 for the protected no claims.


edit: ->

thread here that concurs with what I suggested -
if your'e with a company that has a 5+ years maximum recognised and have a couple of 2 point accidents, no PNC - you're down to 1 year NCD, even if you had 20.
with admiral https://www.admiral.com/magazine/guides/car-insurance/how-the-no-claims-bonus-works 9->5 ncd change would be a 10% premium hike
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This. Different insurers have different percentage scales but there's a limit to how much they'll discount a premium by.

I have 20+yrs claim free driving under my own insurance but it's stated as 9yrs.

I protect mine because if I have a fault claim there will be a premium loading anyway, so at least I'll get the max discount from a higher premium rather than the double whammy of a smaller discount from a higher premium.
 
dont assume you only lose 2-3 years NCB and therefore move from say 16 years -> 13/14 years - please check your T/C for your policy.

I "had" 12 years NCB and I had my car stolen. My NCB went down to 2 years. This was with Equity Red Star. I think the argument was that the max no claims is at about 5 years, so anything above that is moot. lose 3 years NCB with the claim, so I'm now at 2...

The policy document had a table:
ersncb.png


So, please check the policy before writing off the protected NCB.

(I also asked for protected NCB and thought I had it, until my claim when I found it was removed when I asked them to price match a 3rd party quote... "happy" was not a word I would describe to find these 2 issues out in the same phone call... So, I'll now avoid Adrian Flux and Equity Red Star...)
 
Admiral (as it was mentioned earlier):
What happens if I make a claim?
It depends what the claim is for; payments for windscreen damage or emergency treatment fees won't affect it. Likewise, if the accident was the other person's fault and we recover all the money from their insurers, you won't lose your Bonus.

Even if you do have to claim for an accident that was your fault, you could still keep some of your NCB. If you make one claim during your insurance period, you'll lose two years of the Bonus.

So, if you have five or more years NCB, it will reduce to three years at renewal.

You'd still get a discount off your premium, and it wouldn't take so long to build it back up.

If you make two claims during the period you're insured for, you'd lose four years' Bonus, and if you made three or more claims during the period you're insured for, you'd lose them all.
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So, that means 10, 16 or 20 years NCB drops to just 3 with a claim...
 
interesting posts ...

whilst the protection is not too expensive <£20, I'll hang on to it too, to preserve >9, in the case of accidents,
I think ncd is also a useful/recognised currency, switching from one company to another, as I've done most years, searching for the good deal,
with a reduced ncd, you might options limited.

I don't understand, the original posts £70, whether there is a new tactic by the insurance companies ?, of course you've got to consider the total cost, when comparing, if they've made the premium cheaper, and hiked the protection, because, they get people through the door, then see through it.
 
Yeah, therein lies the problem, just because you have say 15 years, without protected NCB that may drop to anywhere between 3-7 depending on what their maximum discount is set at, say 7 years would drop to 5 in the event of a claim. If you have 15 you've just wiped out 10 years.

For the cost of protecting it I know i'd be purchasing it. But then maybe I'm the mug? Too many gimps on the road these days who are without insurance or think they're the next f1 driver or drift king...
 
Armageus said:
At 16 years NCD, I would say its fairly pointless. The difference in quote cost between even 10 years and 16 years is going to be tiny compared to any increase from a declared Claim.
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Armageus said:
7 Years for most of the insurers I've used.
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If 7 years is max then having "16 years NCD" is just a theoretical number, as you'll always remain at 7 despite having continuous no claim driving years.

Edit: As Derek points out, your theoretical years NCD actually drops down to the max that the insurance company recognise, so if an insurance company only recognises 5 as max, then they take a few years off for a claim, you could be back down to 2 years NCD despite having 30 years no claims driving prior to a claim. It's basically just another insurance con.

If you've got an insurance company that will recognise as close to your claim-free years, then it may not be worthwhile protecting them.
 
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