Car insurance NCB - to protect or not to protect?

I don't see the point in protecting what so ever. The base premium goes up after a claim, you only protect the discount level.

Also, you can not switch to another insurer at the end of the year - they don't care about your protection level. On the Z, I have it insured with Churchill, and every year I need to take a new policy out as the web quote is cheaper then the renewal quote by a substantial margin. So renewal = £500, web quote = £400. Take the web quote, and your "protection" has gone anyway as it is a new policy. Take the renewal, you pay more.

Do the figures and see that it does not pay to protect.
 
pvr said:
Do the figures and see that it does not pay to protect.
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This hasn't been the case for my wife though - her insurance was £550 per annum. She then had two accidents in 6 months and her insurance was £1100; that was the cheapest after looking around extensively. Had she been protected, her NCB would still be intact at 5 years. She lost 4 years of that due to the accidents. If she had been protected she would have had a 6 year NCB at the time of renewal and instead of £1100, her quotes would have been in the £550 region again. I reckon it does pay to protect!

I had an accident as mentioned in my previous post and it would've knocked a couple of NCB year's off had I not had my NCB protected and my insurance would have been more no matter where I went. I change my insurance provider every couple of years and protect each time simply because with 10 years NCB I get quite a saving.
 
You sure about that? They ask for both NCD + any accidents. Whether you are on 6 years NCD or not, it does not matter when calculating a premium. I would like to be proven wrong though as I have deliberately never protected it as I did not see any point after asking the fine detail about it.

I.e. the premium is calculated on the risk, i.e. the number of accidents etc, so it would have gone up no matter with protection on the NCB or not. Obviously, if you stay with the same company, and accept the renewal (i.e. the higher price rather then opening a new policy with the same company), then the NCD % would still apply indeed. 1 accident = 10%, 2 = 20% I think?

So in your protection example, premium year 1 = 1000. Protection = 100 or so, total premium 1100.

2 accidents = 40% loading of the base premium, so brings it to 1400 + 100 protection = 1500 premium. Remove protected discount = 300, so total = 1200

Total spent 2 years = 2300.

No protection example:

Premium year 1 = 1000, total premium = 1000

2 accidents = 40% less NCD, so say premium goes from 1000 to 1400 or thereabouts. Renew as a new quote and get it for about 1300.

Total 2 year cost = 2300

Rough figures, but that is what it came down to when I had a look at the way Churchill works with protection. The usually forget to mention that the BASE premium rises, so your protected discount % remains the same, but the premium goes up no matter what, but the impact is softened somewhat.
 
pvr said:
You sure about that? They ask for both NCD + any accidents. Whether you are on 6 years NCD or not, it does not matter when calculating a premium. I would like to be proven wrong though as I have deliberately never protected it as I did not see any point after asking the fine detail about it.
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I can only offer my own and my wife's personal experiences. If I hadn't had NCB Protection my premium would have gone up considerably. I switch insurance companies often and despite an accident 4 years ago have not paid more. That's not to say my insurer then didn't push up the price a bit at renewal but I simply switched to another insurer quoting an intact high NCB and the price was just as good as before.

If my wife had Protected NCB she would have paid £550 a couple of years ago but instead had to fork out £1100. If she had maintained her 6 year NCB and not lost it, even with the two accidents, her insurance would have been around £600 - she checked. So she paid £500 more immediately and then last year not much less as she rebuilds her NCB!
 
You mentioned you quoted the intact NCB, did you not have to report the accident though?
 
pvr said:
You mentioned you quoted the intact NCB, did you not have to report the accident though?
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Different insurers have different policies on accident history - some ask for just 3 years, other 5 and some 10 :o
 
pvr said:
You mentioned you quoted the intact NCB, did you not have to report the accident though?
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You do, usually for up to three years in my experience. Thereafter they are not mentioned any more. My current policy with Admiral for example is clean as they are only interested in the last three years. Accidents will generally have an impact come renewal time but much more so if you have only a couple of years of NCB compared to 8 or 10. Having an accident reduces your NCB as we know and the affect isn't just for one year but until you have built up the NCB you had before the accident. The cumulative cost can be quite a lot depending upon personal circumstances. Of course, not having an accident ever is the cheapest policy! :D

Each to their own, but with a Z4M I'm taking no risks on very high quotes. I pay less than my wife ever did - not just now - and I don't want to jeopardise that. True that I may not have an accident in the next 10 years and the extra £90 per year will seem to have been thrown away but I'll be relieved to have paid the premium if I am unfortunate as that saving can be wiped out quickly on a luxury sports car.
 
pvr said:
I don't see the point in protecting what so ever. The base premium goes up after a claim, you only protect the discount level.

Also, you can not switch to another insurer at the end of the year - they don't care about your protection level.
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Hmmmm. I've got/had protected no claims for a few years now, I wouldn't be without it.

This happened to me -

Nov 07 - crash into back of someone at 5mph, all my fault. Insurance pays for damage. premium is £2166 with 70% NCB ie £650
July 08 - new premium after having accident is £2500 with 70% NCB ie. £750

Premium with no or reduced no-claims bonus would have been £2500 x max 30% NCB ie £1750, then effect of following year, etc, etc.

So whatever way you look at it, without protection I would have been substantially worse off. And at the end of the day, if your current insurer raised your premium too much after an accident, then you can switch no problem, and keep whatever level of NCB you already had.
 
My insurance shows a 10% drop in NCB after 1 claim, so the premium would be £1000 in year 2 (minus protection = £900). year 1 would have been £550 without protection. Total year 1 + year 2 = £1450.

You paid £1400, so in effect you are £50 better off if you protected it (and did not switch insurance companies in between). With the second year online quote being cheaper, it would not make any difference (at my insurance company that is)
 
pvr, it seems unusual that you only drop 10% between accidents, not really much incentive to protect it, so I understand why you don't think it's worthwhile.

Currently insured with Admiral, their policy is (in years no claims up to 5 max) -

1 claim in period -

5 goes to 3
4 goes to 2
3 goes to 1

2 claims in period -

5 goes to 1

Anything else leaves you with zero no claims.
 
Ok, Churchill is different in that aspect then as you drop 10% for 1 accident.
 
pvr said:
Ok, Churchill is different in that aspect then as you drop 10% for 1 accident.
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I see where you are coming from then, a 10% drop is not much at all. :)

I'm with Admiral now - they were about £300 cheaper than Churchill in my case so even with Admiral's most expensive option of Guaranteed NCB Protection I'm still £150 better off. Next year Churchill might be cheaper - I've noticed every year I get dramatically different quotes from the various insurers, one year they are cheap, next expensive and so on.

By myself, my Admiral quote for my Z4M was £520-something as I recall, incl P. NCB. But my wife's accidents meant adding her to my policy saw it rise to £650! Admiral were also the only insurer that would allow me to have protected NCB given that my wife had two accidents within a 6 month period 18 months ago or so. When I was looking at getting a 3.0si the best quote was from Norwich Union at £441 incl. protected NCB. A-Plan had been my preferred insurer but they couldn't match Admiral this time around. Next year I'll shop around again, no doubt. :)
 
You got a quote before buying the car :? I just bought the car then said 'oh better get a quote, hope it isn't too much!' Had to chance company to Admiral, but it was worth it :D
 
I had to drop my wife off the insurance on the M as she had a SP30 4 years ago (36 in a 30). She would load the premium by £150 because of that. Did not seem to make a lot of difference on her X5 though, which is insured at Churchill as well.
 
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