Is ncb a scam?

[bmwmike]

Havent had my own car for a couple of years so just been a named driver on the missus jalopy and as such my 14 years no claims is over two years old which limits me to admiral pretty much.

Car is unimportant but was getting quotes with them for £1200.

Tried Tesco car insurance and had to say zero NCB as its over two years old - all other details exactly the same except they found my club card which perhaps helped, but the quote for £550! I don t understand that at all but am not complaining.

I had always protected my ncb but at this rate I m not sure id bother.

Tldr
admiral with 14yr ncb £1200
Tesco with 0 ncb £550

Looking at the detail the base Tesco policy looks better than the admiral one too but not checked in detail yet.

Anyone else had better quotes with no Ncb? Pleasantly surprised and a bit confused

Edited by bmwmike on Friday 13th June 23:12

[Gad-Westy]

Have you tried the price comparison sites too? I’m getting less and less convinced that it makes any meaningful difference.

[Mr Tidy]

It definitely seem to be a scam these days.

Just go for the cheapest option and hope you never need to claim!

[josenguyen]

Sometimes insurers treat old no-claims as expired and basically start you from scratch, but Tesco seems to be giving you a big break even without counting your NCB. Maybe the Clubcard points or their pricing model just works in your favor. It’s definitely worth checking the policy details carefully like you said, to make sure you’re getting good coverage.

[BlueMR2]

Yeah, I lost 19 years ncb when I had a van and couldn’t afford to get a car to insure as well for a few years.

[Sheepshanks]

They seem to go more off your driving record, hence it’ll make a big difference if you lose some of your NCB due to a claim.

[tomsugden]

Admiral are ok until you need to make a claim, then show their true colours. I wouldn't touch them with yours.

[Cjr32blue]

Over the past ten years I've gone from one to 3 cars, all individually insured. Started with 0 no claims on the most recent 2 car purchases, the insurance price for both has never varied by more than a couple of quid a month either way even with increasing no claims discount. It simply does not exist and is purely based on your driving record.

[Composite Guru]

I know what is a scam. Protected NCB.
Have an accident, don’t lose your NCB but they just jack up the premium to compensate. You have paid for nothing.

[cliffords]

Composite Guru said:

I know what is a scam. Protected NCB.
Have an accident, don t lose your NCB but they just jack up the premium to compensate. You have paid for nothing.

Entirely agree. Son had a no fault accident,hit from behind whilst stationary. Protected no claims , policy renewal plus 40%. When questioned, he was told increasing due to his claim .
Other driver was uninsured, no licence and driving without owners consent .

[Tommo87]

Jasey_ said:

Misunderstood.

It's a protected discount.

You get the same 40% discount on your tripled premium.

You never know this may be the next misselling scandal

I guess the acid test is, how much ‘more’ the same person would pay overall if their NCD wasn’t protected.

[Sheepshanks]

cliffords said:

Entirely agree. Son had a no fault accident,hit from behind whilst stationary. Protected no claims , policy renewal plus 40%. When questioned, he was told increasing due to his claim .
Other driver was uninsured, no licence and driving without owners consent .

Unless his insurer had an uninsured driver promise, that would go down as an at fault accident.

[rlg43p]

My son recently bought a car before selling his old one. I spent ages trying to work out how to apply his NCB to the newer (higher prformance) car, whilst still temporarily covering his old car.

I the end the difference between insuring the new car with 5 years NCB Vs zero NCB was £900 Vs £800. The two quotes were from different companies, but one simply gave a discount based on his driving record.

[mintmansam]

I got a quote on a car hoping to mirror my NCB

I was told that wasn’t possible after agreeing to purchase the car

The price increase from 12 years NCB to 0 years NCB, £9 total , with the same insurer

I think it’s more likely any history you have of accidents and claims create the biggest “no claims” picture. Potentially making the NCB so important to users is a way of selling protected NCB and making people avoid claiming for smaller incidents

Interestingly the biggest oddity is the fact that ticking the box “not bought yet” and getting a future dated start date saved me £30 vs saying I had bought it. Wonder if this is a bit of trap to draw people into checking premiums for future cars , thinking they are cheaper to insure then when it’s time to insure (as your quote expired) once you’ve bought the car your stuck.

[Sheepshanks]

mintmansam said:

Interestingly the biggest oddity is the fact that ticking the box not bought yet and getting a future dated start date saved me £30 vs saying I had bought it. Wonder if this is a bit of trap to draw people into checking premiums for future cars , thinking they are cheaper to insure then when it s time to insure (as your quote expired) once you ve bought the car your stuck.

Supposed to be cheapest about 3 weeks out.

Someone mentioned on here saving £200 by delaying the start of his daughter’s car insurance by a couple of weeks.

[Rough101]

I wouldn’t pay to protect it, it’s the claims history they go on, it makes very little difference to the quote, although I believe it opens up access to a wider range of policies.

[Wacky Racer]

I have three cars all with over 9 years NCB.

Had full NCB on my motorbike, but then sold it five years ago, Bought another one last year, but had to go back to Zero, as they said there had been a gap of over two years. (Hastings direct)

Annoying.

[ChocolateFrog]

This topic gets well covered every couple of months.

Not a scam but also bks.

Just shop around every year if you want the best price.

[ARHarh]

I think once you get to a certain age probably about 40 it makes no difference. Most of the cost of insurance is based on risk. You can have no NCB due to claims or having a company car or similar. The risk for having a claim last year will be far higher than the risk for having driven a company car for the last 15 years claim free. Protecting no claims is a con, as if you have a claim they will ramp up your insurance whether you protected your NCB or not. When I last bought a a second car and had no NCB the cost saving was about 3% extra with no NCB. I was over 50 at the time though.

[Gad-Westy]

Sheepshanks said:

mintmansam said:

Interestingly the biggest oddity is the fact that ticking the box not bought yet and getting a future dated start date saved me £30 vs saying I had bought it. Wonder if this is a bit of trap to draw people into checking premiums for future cars , thinking they are cheaper to insure then when it s time to insure (as your quote expired) once you ve bought the car your stuck.

Supposed to be cheapest about 3 weeks out.

Someone mentioned on here saving £200 by delaying the start of his daughter s car insurance by a couple of weeks.

It does seem to make some difference but I did some experimenting last night as I just picked up a car this morning (0 NBC on it btw!). I could have delayed insuring it for a while so I tried different quotes at next day, 1 week, 2 week and 3 week delays. Price went from about £290 to £280 ish from worst to best. Think 2 and 3 weeks were about the same. I just went for the drive it now option for such a small difference but I guess it does at least pay to be organised about this in future.