Protected No Claims Query

[Mouse1903]

Hey all, I was with Quote Me (Un)Happy for the last 2 years and my renewal came in, which I cancelled as they wanted £90 to change my address which is literally a few streets away.
Anyway I find a quote online and pay for it in full, assuming 9 years no claims. My certificate from QMH comes in with 8 years which I queried, since I had protected no claims.
Now am I being thick, as I assumed protected no claims meant you don’t lose them and they increase each year as usual? I didn’t think that if you make a claim you lose that year. Is this an error on my part?
I will now have to tell my new insurance who may choose to bump the price up by something I wouldn’t have paid in the first place, and there are probably cancellation costs too which I wouldn’t be happy about.
Have I any leg to stand on, given QMH gave me 14 months of hell after 6 attempts to get my car fixed?

[eybic]

iirc, protected NCB just means you don't lose ALL of it should you need to claim.

[Zoobeef]

You are protecting the no claims bonus you already have. You won't get the extra year if youve made a claim in that year if it was a fault claim.

[zb]

If you cancelled before the end of the full year had elapsed, you do not get that years worth of NCB.

[xRIEx]

The maximum discount is usually up to 4-7 years; check to see if the new company will charge anything different before spitting your dummy.

[Mouse1903]

Hey guys, they are wanting £83 extra for the privilege, or £90 to cancel. Anyway around this? How can they justify such a huge increase?

[onesickpuppy]

I never can understand how paying a small additional premium to company A to 'protect' your no-claims bonus can ever carry forward to company B or C when you move? It just stinks of scam to me.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

So in effect you're saying that if you have protected bonus and have a fault claim, they will adjust your top line which they wouldn't have done had you had a fault claim but not had protected, so that at the renewal following the claim, you end up paying the same premium anyway, regardless of whether you had protected or not.

Have I understood your point correctly? And if so, have you got any evidence for this assertion?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I'll take that as a No then. You don't have any evidence. It's just your hunch.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

My experience is that what you say doesn't happen.

EG Twin brothers with identical cars renew their insurance. Brother A pays £385 with 65% prot bonus. (£1000 less 65% + 10% prot ncb fee) Brother B pays £350 (65% ncb, no protection).

Both have a fault claim, and insurers have increased their rates by 10% that year.

Next renewal, Brother A pays £1100 plus 10% load for claim, less 65% ncb plus 10% prot ncb charge, so £465.85

B pays £1100 plus 10% load for claim, less 40% ncb (or whatever their step back is), £726.

The problem arises when brother B doesn't exist. Brother A paid £385, now his premium is up to £465.85. "I've got protected ncb but the swines still increased my premium, and when I phoned them, they even admitted they charged me extra because I had a claim. It's all a scam and it's not fair."

That's the reality of protected bonus.

[kambites]

My experience after experimenting with quotes for fictional people has been much the same. I think no-claims bonuses work exactly as you'd expect them to from the name, I've never been able to detect any anomaly in the systems of the insurance companies that I've used - a NCB is simply a percentage reduction on the premium generated by risk analysis by the insurer in question.