Check your insurance policies guys,

[r1flyguy1]

Just a quick note to check your policies to see if you are covered as requested.

Called Bennetts to renew my policy to find they had already taken the money (states 2 days before due) I was sort of ok with this until i asked to confirm the policy details which should be exactly the same as last year with no changes. Then i found out they did not included NCB protection which I specifically stated i wanted and have included for the last few years.

Apparantly, they didn’t include this last year either and when I vented my frustration they stated that they could see i had previously had protection of my NCB but “ The underwriters are no longer opearting as they once did and to get in touch with them for ammendments is impossible” WTF

Suffice to say when i asked them to just include protection on the new policy they could not obtain a quote, again WTF.........

I have no idea why and lad on the other end of the line couldnt explain either....

15+ years NCD, insured with bennetts for last 4 years and they cant offer a quote with protection on the NCB. But can without it !!!!!

As i say, check your policies guys, theres some sneaky st going on at Bennetts

[vonhosen]

You can surely cancel within 14 days for full refund & go elsewhere.

[Lee540]

Not sure I get the point of protected NCD.. if you have a claim, still going to show as a claim on your file..

I've never had it..

[r1flyguy1]

vonhosen said:

You can surely cancel within 14 days for full refund & go elsewhere.

I have done, its the fact the conversations are recorded and i always cover my NCD yet they disclosed they failed to do so last year and it was going to be the same this year had i not clarified the renewal plus they cant quote for cover with protection.

How many other bikers do not have protection on their NCD and bennetts have omitted this even if requested it to be included. And how many policies have been sold knowing they cant provide a quote if its protected or the numpty omitted it in error.

[r1flyguy1]

Lee540 said:

Not sure I get the point of protected NCD.. if you have a claim, still going to show as a claim on your file..

I've never had it..

The protection allows you a couple of claims before it starts affecting your premiums. Apparantly

[vonhosen]

r1flyguy1 said:

Lee540 said:

Not sure I get the point of protected NCD.. if you have a claim, still going to show as a claim on your file..

I've never had it..

The protection allows you a couple of claims before it starts affecting your premiums. Apparantly

It means your NCB discount part won't affect the premium, the accident/claims history part still will.
If you don't have the NCB then you'll get two hits on the premium (NCB discount reduction & accident/claims history).

[vonhosen]

r1flyguy1 said:

vonhosen said:

You can surely cancel within 14 days for full refund & go elsewhere.

I have done, its the fact the conversations are recorded and i always cover my NCD yet they disclosed they failed to do so last year and it was going to be the same this year had i not clarified the renewal plus they cant quote for cover with protection.

How many other bikers do not have protection on their NCD and bennetts have omitted this even if requested it to be included. And how many policies have been sold knowing they cant provide a quote if its protected or the numpty omitted it in error.

Didn't you check the docs you received last year to ensure NCB protection was included?
I do.

[croyde]

I had to cancel a policy within 14 days and I still got hit with an admin charge.

It was in the terms and conditions.

It was roughly half the premium.

[vonhosen]

croyde said:

I had to cancel a policy within 14 days and I still got hit with an admin charge.

It was in the terms and conditions.

It was roughly half the premium.

FOS said:

Annual insurance policies - cancellation rates


In some circumstances, regulatory rules require ‘cooling-off’ periods for contracts. We would expect firms to make particular provision for these periods, as it is important that cancellation rights are not restricted by unfair charging practices. For example, the Insurance Conduct of Business rules require insurers to allow a cooling-off period of 30 days for pure protection contracts. If a customer decides to cancel the contract during this period, insurers are not entitled to charge anything.

[sjtscott]

OP at least you got a quote - I was quietly declined coming up to renewal - only found out when I called them to ask why they'd not emailed/contacted over the renewal price.
Basically they told me to go away because I have a Zone 2 East London postcode and no garage. I've done nothing wrong had any claims or bonus points to affect things on my side. Other brokers/underwriters were the same refusal to quote or stupid price after its referred to the underwriter.

On the other tips I go through my insurance schedule/docs with a fine tooth comb. Each and every insurer/broker always seems to mess something up somewhere I have to get confirmed/corrected on the phone - I do however do this before policy inception date. Again I've had issues with requesting/ticking the protected NCB option and it just not being applied on the policy but have caught it early - they've also had to honour premium quoted because of their mistakes too before.

[r1flyguy1]

I feel for you sjtsscott

Mine was just a renewal based on the last 3 years id been insured withe the same company and just stated no changes and same policy requirements with the inclusion of prtoected NCD but for some reason they didnt tick that paticular box and left it off the policy.
Luckily ive had no issues just annoys me if the price of last years policy was based on all the info and cover i requested.
They are quick enough to take your money but 7-10 working days to give it back is taking the piss as usual.

[r1flyguy1]

croyde said:

I had to cancel a policy within 14 days and I still got hit with an admin charge.

It was in the terms and conditions.

It was roughly half the premium.

My policy hasnt started yet. They take the money 2 days before its due.

[ccr32]

vonhosen said:

croyde said:

I had to cancel a policy within 14 days and I still got hit with an admin charge.

It was in the terms and conditions.

It was roughly half the premium.

FOS said:

Annual insurance policies - cancellation rates


In some circumstances, regulatory rules require ‘cooling-off’ periods for contracts. We would expect firms to make particular provision for these periods, as it is important that cancellation rights are not restricted by unfair charging practices. For example, the Insurance Conduct of Business rules require insurers to allow a cooling-off period of 30 days for pure protection contracts. If a customer decides to cancel the contract during this period, insurers are not entitled to charge anything.

If I recall correctly, this is just 'advice' that insurance companies should follow, rather than something written in to legislation. I say this as I have also been stung in a very similar way before, though can't remember if it was Bennets or another well-known three-lettered motorcycle insurer.

In my situ, I had insured the bike and said yes to the internet quote/phone call follow up with the details given at the time, but when I received the policy docs there was a part that I wanted, had selected online but hadn't gone on to the policy. They then couldn't add it for anything less than an exorbitant amount of additional money, so I cancelled the policy well within the cooling off period. They then attempted to charge me an administration and cancellation fee that exceeded what I would receive back the annual premium I had paid, pro-rated for the time I had it (about 7 days) but decided to "do me a favour" and waive the additional charge.

When I latterly pointed them to this particular piece of advice per the FOS quote above, they (eventually) told me it was just that and not something they had to follow. The ombudsman also said something similar when I then took it to them.

Ok, so we were only dealing with relatively small sums of money in my case (think the annual premium was £80) but still, fking shysters the lot of them as far as I am concerned. And even more so that they basically acknowledge this and continue to get away with it. And yet because we are all (I hope) law-abiding citizens, we all just have to continually bend over and take it as the easy targets we are, unlike all the less scrupulous and far-too-difficult-to-pursue-and-catch scrotes out there.

[Dog Star]

My view - and I've seen other views that echo mine - is that NCB and by inference protected NCB are total scams.

I'd like Gavia's opinion on it.

If you have an accident you'll get an increased premium because of loss of ncb and an increased premium due to having had an accident/tet etc. The latter seems to have a far higher effect than the former. If you have a claim you'd be better off just changing companies - I wrote off a brand new Mercedes in 2016. Next year I changed company and it was cheaper (a lot cheaper) than before I crashed.

[Gavia]

Dog Star said:

My view - and I've seen other views that echo mine - is that NCB and by inference protected NCB are total scams.

I'd like Gavia's opinion on it.

If you have an accident you'll get an increased premium because of loss of ncb and an increased premium due to having had an accident/tet etc. The latter seems to have a far higher effect than the former. If you have a claim you'd be better off just changing companies - I wrote off a brand new Mercedes in 2016. Next year I changed company and it was cheaper (a lot cheaper) than before I crashed.

This is a tricky one to explain fully, but I’ll have a go.

NCD is a discount off the final calculated premium for you. This calculated premium starts with a standard base premium, this base premium is the same for everyone and then it goes up and down, either in fixed £ amounts, or percentages based on loads of different factors. The biggest ones are age, postcode, vehicle, claims history, but there are tons of other ones and some that interlink too.

A simple example below

Base premium £100
Age - 40 reduce by 20% now £80
Vehicle R1 - increase by £50 now £130
Postcode - Manchester M8 increase by 50% now £195
Claims history - none no impact

Obviously the numbers are made up, but it gives you an (simplistic) idea of what happens.

From that you then apply the NCD usually this has a maximum of c70% so with full NCD you could be paying just £58.50 (£195*30%).

If you claim though then two things happen. Firstly your calculated premium is affected, as the last line on the initial calculation needs to take account of that. Secondly, your NCD will reduce by an amount, usually 2 years on a policy with 5 years Max NCD. Let’s try to avoid all the arguments over 19 years NCD and similar as that just confuses the issue.

The amount that your NCD will reduce is stated on your insurance schedule and very clear. What you should see is that it reduces by a small amount for the first claim though, as NCD is earned in decreasing chunks I.e. the first few years earn loads of NCD, then small amounts for years 4 & 5.

This means that protecting your NCD can be a waste of money if you’ve not had any claims, but definitely worth doing once you’ve had your first claim. The problem is that you can’t insure your NCD part way through a year, so you have to hope you don’t have two or more claims in one policy year.

In terms of changing companies, what you’ve suggested can’t be guaranteed, so I wouldn’t rely on that.

The biggest impact on your premium is the claim, not the loss of NCD, although this is dependant on the myriad of rating factors (age & vehicle will be the two biggest though) too, so the two can get quite close to each other in terms of impact.

If you have protected your NCD then that protection will be valid across all other insurers too.

Hope that makes sense. I’m happy to answer questions on this, but for those who just want to have a rant (not you Dogstar), then I’ll ignore it.

I’m not answering the usual NCD on car / bike vs claims on all, as I’ve done it to death previously.

Forgot to add. NCD is a marketing gimmick that’s run out of control, but everyone seems to be obsessed with it more and more in recent years. Classic policies don’t have it, nor do commercial policies, and nor do many other specialist policies.

r1flyguy1 said:

The protection allows you a couple of claims before it starts affecting your premiums. Apparantly

Sorry, but that’s completely wrong. Your premium will be affected by most claims, whether your NCD is protected or not. What will happen is that you will retain the full No claims discount off your premium, rather than a slightly reduced NCD.

[Dog Star]

I had no idea that protection was transferrable now - for sure it wasn't back when it was becoming "a thing". I might re-evaluate my view on it now then.

[Gavia]

Dog Star said:

I had no idea that protection was transferrable now - for sure it wasn't back when it was becoming "a thing". I might re-evaluate my view on it now then.

It’s always been that way, certainly as far back as I know, so from mid 1980s onwards. It’s transferable in the sense that if you had x years NCD protected and had a claim, then you’d still have x years NCD at renewal when you’re looking to shop around.

[black-k1]

Gavia said:

Forgot to add. NCD is a marketing gimmick that’s run out of control, but everyone seems to be obsessed with it more and more in recent years.

That's one way to look at it. The other way is that it's to "reward" customers who have had insurance over a longer period and have not claimed. There's a difference between those who have claimed, having no claims history and those who haven't claimed. In your simplified example above, without no-claims bonus, the "risk" level of a brand new, never before had insurance, customer is the same as a customer who has had insurance for the last 5 years and not claimed.

If having insurance and claiming increases your subsequent risk, so must having insurance and not claiming reduce your subsequent risk!

[Gavia]

black-k1 said:

That's one way to look at it. The other way is that it's to "reward" customers who have had insurance over a longer period and have not claimed. There's a difference between those who have claimed, having no claims history and those who haven't claimed. In your simplified example above, without no-claims bonus, the "risk" level of a brand new, never before had insurance, customer is the same as a customer who has had insurance for the last 5 years and not claimed.

If having insurance and claiming increases your subsequent risk, so must having insurance and not claiming reduce your subsequent risk!

It’s an overly simplistically model, I did say that. However, the “reward” isn’t a reward as such but was supposed to reward loyalty to an underwriter when a broker was renewing a policy. The fact brokers then arranged for it to move between underwriters as long as you stayed with them and it then developed tokother brokers honouring it if you loved to them and the rest his history.

What could happen is rather than it being a defined amount it could’ve been more bespoke.

[poo at Paul's]

Has anyone had to provided proof of NCB when moving insurer in the last few years? Used to be common, but now less so i cannot remember the last time I had to. And this is regardless of swapping NCB across bikes, so not like they can pick up from previous insurer either!

Seems like they just trust us!