Company car, no claims proof - they won't give me it?
Discussion
Are companies required to provide proof of no claims to ex-employees, if they are approached? The reason I ask is I have 5 years no claims from a company car, and having recently left the company (under a bit of a cloud) they are now dragging their feet about providing the proof. I don't know who they used for car insurance and obviously no policy details. I wondered if there's anything I can do to make sure I get this proof from them?
If it is a large fleet policy they had, then you won't specifically have been named as an insured - the policy would cover any vehicle, and any driver (obviously meeting set critera eg no drivers under 25, no high performance cars etc). If that's the case the Insurance company will not be issuing you with a NCB proof. What your ex company can do however is issue you a letter stating you had a company car for x years with no reported claims. Some private car insurers will allow you a discount for this.
They're not required to do so, no - as EK993 says, you probably weren't a named-driver on a policy and even if you were, only policy holders/car owners get NCB as a rule, not additional drivers...
Most companies will give a quick email/letter to confirm you were insured to use company vehicles for a period of X months/years and had no accidents in that time - if yours won't, it's just them being
y...
What you'll probably find is that insurers offer 'promotional' discounts to ex-company-car drivers as a way of getting your business - often they won't even ask for proof (Direct Line took my word for it and gave me a 40% discount).
Be warned tho - these promotions don't necessarily offer a transferrable NCB (e.g. after 1 year they say you have 1 year's NCB). In year 2, DL wanted MORE from me - so I just went elsewhere with my 1-years-NCB.
Best bet is to call insurers directly and chat to them - ignore brokers (not in their interest to do your legwork for you).
Most companies will give a quick email/letter to confirm you were insured to use company vehicles for a period of X months/years and had no accidents in that time - if yours won't, it's just them being
y...What you'll probably find is that insurers offer 'promotional' discounts to ex-company-car drivers as a way of getting your business - often they won't even ask for proof (Direct Line took my word for it and gave me a 40% discount).
Be warned tho - these promotions don't necessarily offer a transferrable NCB (e.g. after 1 year they say you have 1 year's NCB). In year 2, DL wanted MORE from me - so I just went elsewhere with my 1-years-NCB.
Best bet is to call insurers directly and chat to them - ignore brokers (not in their interest to do your legwork for you).
Edited by johnpeat on Wednesday 8th June 17:49
RobbieB said:
I don't know who they used for car insurance and obviously no policy details.
I'm surprised that you don't know - didn't you get sent a copy of the Certificate every year to keep in the car?Anyway, chances are it was done through a broker - my letter came from them.
Insurance companies attitudes vary anyway - some won't accept the no claims or incidents letter. I went to LV= and they'll give a 50% introductory discount anyway (although we did already have a car insured with them so that might be the reason) but they accepted my letter with no queries.
Steameh said:
Makes me wonder when I finish my degree and possibly get in to company car ownership, would this sort of this be easier if you were to insure a cheap second throwaway car just to keep NCB building for if and when you need it.
Insure tax mot lost value of the car. Pointless.
Welshbeef said:
Insure tax mot lost value of the car.
Pointless.
Assuming you were to insure a cheap snotter, there would be no reason to tax it. Pointless.
Plus if you were to eventually get a weekend car would it not make sense?
I dont know because I dont know if you can mirror company car NCB on private policies.
Like I said, I havent experienced this yet, hopefully after next year though assuming i graduate, I will be in a situation to get a company car.
Given their fondness for warning customers that they share information with other insurance companies and the police, I don't know why insurers need physical proof of NCB. Surely they can simply check their all-knowing databases and determine whether or not a customer has claimed.
The practice of requesting proof via post and then forwarding the bit of paper to another company seems rather outdated. Most of them only seem to offer discounts on NCBs up to x years or more, so they wouldn't need vast amounts of historical data to verify your NCB.
The practice of requesting proof via post and then forwarding the bit of paper to another company seems rather outdated. Most of them only seem to offer discounts on NCBs up to x years or more, so they wouldn't need vast amounts of historical data to verify your NCB.
I'm pretty sure that cars which are SORN have to be declared as-such to insurance companies and policies on them DO NOT gain NCB - and they can easily check the car's tax status.
Insurers are moody about letting people rack-up NCB on more than one policy (hence why only primary drivers get it, usually) - and you need to bear-in-mind that if you have an accident in ANY car - company car, hire car, works van or whatever - that you're required to tell all your insurers about it and that it will affect future premiums even if it doesn't directly hit your NCB.
A lot of people think the question "have you had any claims or accidents" means "in the car on the policy" - and it doesn't.
Insurers are moody about letting people rack-up NCB on more than one policy (hence why only primary drivers get it, usually) - and you need to bear-in-mind that if you have an accident in ANY car - company car, hire car, works van or whatever - that you're required to tell all your insurers about it and that it will affect future premiums even if it doesn't directly hit your NCB.
A lot of people think the question "have you had any claims or accidents" means "in the car on the policy" - and it doesn't.
RobbieB said:
and having recently left the company (under a bit of a cloud) they are now dragging their feet about providing the proof. I don't know who they used for car insurance and obviously no policy details.
I wouldn't hold your breath waiting, surely you had a copy of the insurance certificate with the car, most companies insist on it.Best bet, find the broker they use and ask them, although they may kick you back to your former employer.
The Crack Fox said:
Ari said:
The letter needs to come from their insurers and has to be quite specific about certain facts.
I went through this a couple of years ago.
I went through this about 10 years ago, the company secretary simply typed a 2 line letter saying I had never had an accident or claim, and the insurer was happy with it. I went through this a couple of years ago.
johnpeat said:
I'm pretty sure that cars which are SORN have to be declared as-such to insurance companies and policies on them DO NOT gain NCB - and they can easily check the car's tax status.
Insurers are moody about letting people rack-up NCB on more than one policy (hence why only primary drivers get it, usually) - and you need to bear-in-mind that if you have an accident in ANY car - company car, hire car, works van or whatever - that you're required to tell all your insurers about it and that it will affect future premiums even if it doesn't directly hit your NCB.
A lot of people think the question "have you had any claims or accidents" means "in the car on the policy" - and it doesn't.
Actually I don't believe that's true. I have a trade policy for the cars and a fleet policy for the taxis both with Tradex and my car policy is on max ncd but the taxi one has had a couple of fault claims in the last couple of years (not involving me) and they have no bearing on my car policy.Insurers are moody about letting people rack-up NCB on more than one policy (hence why only primary drivers get it, usually) - and you need to bear-in-mind that if you have an accident in ANY car - company car, hire car, works van or whatever - that you're required to tell all your insurers about it and that it will affect future premiums even if it doesn't directly hit your NCB.
A lot of people think the question "have you had any claims or accidents" means "in the car on the policy" - and it doesn't.
When the taxi policy was with a different company, Tradex were not interested in what had happened on the taxi policy as although it's my policy it was not me driving.
It did not even make a difference when I had a knock in the taxi some 7 years ago although I did of course inform them.
Edited by M5 Russ on Thursday 9th June 11:54
Risotto said:
Given their fondness for warning customers that they share information with other insurance companies and the police, I don't know why insurers need physical proof of NCB. Surely they can simply check their all-knowing databases and determine whether or not a customer has claimed.
The practice of requesting proof via post and then forwarding the bit of paper to another company seems rather outdated. Most of them only seem to offer discounts on NCBs up to x years or more, so they wouldn't need vast amounts of historical data to verify your NCB.
yeah madness they cant keep the ncb on a database , makes me wonder if any made up letter would get acceptedThe practice of requesting proof via post and then forwarding the bit of paper to another company seems rather outdated. Most of them only seem to offer discounts on NCBs up to x years or more, so they wouldn't need vast amounts of historical data to verify your NCB.
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