Protected no claims, yay or nay?

[zetec]

Is nearly renewal time, I have always protected my NCB, cheapest policy I can find is £539 but because I made a claim last year protected NCB is a no no. Cheapest policy I can find that'll protect my NCB is £600. What is the general concensus on here regarding a protected NCB? Is it worth the extra cost?

As an extra bit of info my claim was for vandalism at my home address.

[MJK 24]

I've had two non fault claims in the last year where the 3rd parties have subsequently turned into liars and the cases are still ongoing.

Protected NCB was a lifesaver for me in this situation as my policy fell from £270 to £240 on the Elise whereas without it, I imagine there'd be a steep increase until the cases were settled.

I think the protected part is around £25 of my annual premium. I wouldn't be without it now, nor legal expenses cover which also has been a Godsend.

[philmots]

Do it, i'm on 3 years so can't do anything about it yet but my OH is on 5 and they're protected. I think it added £60.

[Cemesis]

A friend of mine had the following in 4 months (Focus ST).

1. Came out to find a massive dent in the rear quater of his car whilst parked in a supermarket car park. Claim
2. Courtesy Fiesta was keyed whilst ST was being repaired. Claim
3. Had the car back 2 weeks and was driven into a roundabout from someone trying to go left from the right lane. Denied trying to do it. Claim

He ended up loosing 2 years of his NCB. Its not about protecting if it you crash, its protecting it when someone hits you and then blames you.

[kambites]

You get what you pay for. On average it will work out about the same, either way. The insurance companies aren't stupid enough to let it be any other way.

Edited by kambites on Saturday 15th January 22:45

[Fatman2]

It's not worth it for me but my insurance is about £300 for each of my 2 cars. I've not paid into it for years now so have saved more than my premium would rise by if I had a fault claim (I believe it only wipes off 2-3 years of no claims).

What with all the naff drivers on the road it's probably worth buying it but I've not done so for such a long time I'm unlikely to now.

[pbickerd]

DO it!!

Last winter I was driving to work, icey conditions, 3 series bmw. Sticking to main roads only, side roads covered in ice. There was an accident on the main road so it was closed, police sent me down a side road which was down hill, car slid down into an embankment. £2500+ of damage, no claims gone

[zx10ben]

It all depends on how many years NCB you have, I have 10 and the other half has 15. Max you can use is 9, most are about 5 or 6. If you make a claim you loose 2 years, so I may just loose out a bit if I need the nine, but my other half can have three claims before her NCB are dented enough to affect her. So in answer to your question, if I was building them up, then yes, but if I already have a whole load then its not worth the money. My father in law has 33 years and he still insists on protecting them what's the point?

[pbickerd]

zx10ben said:

It all depends on how many years NCB you have, I have 10 and the other half has 15. Max you can use is 9, most are about 5 or 6. If you make a claim you loose 2 years, so I may just loose out a bit if I need the nine, but my other half can have three claims before her NCB are dented enough to affect her. So in answer to your question, if I was building them up, then yes, but if I already have a whole load then its not worth the money. My father in law has 33 years and he still insists on protecting them what's the point?

This is only half the story. You can have 100 years no claims but most compaines will also ask if you have had a claim in the last 3 or 5 years and penalise you regardless!!

[zx10ben]

pbickerd said:

zx10ben said:

It all depends on how many years NCB you have, I have 10 and the other half has 15. Max you can use is 9, most are about 5 or 6. If you make a claim you loose 2 years, so I may just loose out a bit if I need the nine, but my other half can have three claims before her NCB are dented enough to affect her. So in answer to your question, if I was building them up, then yes, but if I already have a whole load then its not worth the money. My father in law has 33 years and he still insists on protecting them what's the point?

This is only half the story. You can have 100 years no claims but most compaines will also ask if you have had a claim in the last 3 or 5 years and penalise you regardless!!

Which will still happen regardless of whether you have protected NCB or not.

[zetec]

zx10ben said:

It all depends on how many years NCB you have, I have 10 and the other half has 15. Max you can use is 9, most are about 5 or 6. If you make a claim you loose 2 years, so I may just loose out a bit if I need the nine, but my other half can have three claims before her NCB are dented enough to affect her. So in answer to your question, if I was building them up, then yes, but if I already have a whole load then its not worth the money. My father in law has 33 years and he still insists on protecting them what's the point?

In 18 years of driving I've never claimed before my claim last year, I have written proof of 9 years no claims. Say for example I didn't protect my NCB and had to claim I'd lose 2 years, so I'd still have 7 years NCB and that'd still give me maximum discount?

[zx10ben]

zetec said:

zx10ben said:

It all depends on how many years NCB you have, I have 10 and the other half has 15. Max you can use is 9, most are about 5 or 6. If you make a claim you loose 2 years, so I may just loose out a bit if I need the nine, but my other half can have three claims before her NCB are dented enough to affect her. So in answer to your question, if I was building them up, then yes, but if I already have a whole load then its not worth the money. My father in law has 33 years and he still insists on protecting them what's the point?

In 18 years of driving I've never claimed before my claim last year, I have written proof of 9 years no claims. Say for example I didn't protect my NCB and had to claim I'd lose 2 years, so I'd still have 7 years NCB and that'd still give me maximum discount?

In a nutshell, yes. It all depends on how many NCB your insurance company will deduct you, normally it's 2.

[dontfollowme]

It used to be a lot of insurers view 5 years as the maximum so even if you had 10 years claim free and then had a fault claim, you would revert to 3 years NCB.

[mybrainhurts]

Waste of time and money.

When you come to renew, all the insurer has to do after a claim is jack up the gross premium, so you're still paying more on subsequent renewals.

And, if you want to change insurer, your claim is going to affect the premium from the new insurer.

Paying for a protected bonus is a mug's game...

[Fatman2]

dontfollowme said:

It used to be a lot of insurers view 5 years as the maximum so even if you had 10 years claim free and then had a fault claim, you would revert to 3 years NCB.

Indeed.

Admiral and Priviledge only take 5 years as the max so 9 years counts for nothing more than 5 years to them. Any claim would knock you down to 3.

However this is still about 50% so may still be very beneficial.

[Deva Link]

Cemesis said:

A friend of mine had the following in 4 months (Focus ST).

1. Came out to find a massive dent in the rear quater of his car whilst parked in a supermarket car park. Claim
2. Courtesy Fiesta was keyed whilst ST was being repaired. Claim
3. Had the car back 2 weeks and was driven into a roundabout from someone trying to go left from the right lane. Denied trying to do it. Claim

He ended up loosing 2 years of his NCB. Its not about protecting if it you crash, its protecting it when someone hits you and then blames you.

How come he only lost 2yrs? He'd have lost that anyway with protected NCB as most only allow 2 claims in 2yrs. LV have guaranteed NCB where there's no limit on the number of claims.