Potected NCB - are we being scammed?

My situation:

Beginning July 2007 renewed insurance with Churchill insurance for about £215. That's 7 years NCB, fully comp, protected NCB and legal cover.

3 weeks later had a fault claim - my first ever fault claim! (Visually minor front end damage to my car - slight crease in left wing, bonnet bit stiff to close. Damage to 3rd party's van was a bent rear door + possibly bumper). Insurer fixed everything up after I paid the £175 excess. I asked what would happen with premiums next year. They said that it would have no effect as I had protected no claims. I specifically said: "Whilst I'll still have my discount, will the base premium rise because of the claim." I was told a clear "No."

Few weeks ago went to use Confused.com to get a quote for this year and needed to find out cost of the claim. I phoned Churchill who quickly told me it was £2812. Surprised that it was so high - but doesn't really matter.

I plugged the details of the claim into the Confused.com form and out popped some quotes - ranging from around £207 for the base premium (protected NCB and legal cover on top) which strangely included £420 excess (when I requested £175). There were plenty around the £220/£230 mark, often with the legal cover extra. I'd put in £220 as my previous year quote I think.

That was nice I thought - only a small increase on last year after what was (in my opinion) quite a high claim for an own-fault accident.

Then a week or two later I got my renewal through from Churchill. £180 or so for the base insurance, £20 for the protected NCB and £20 for the legal cover - overall around £220 with the same £175 excess as before.

Whether my insurance would have dropped this year without the claim, or whatever - I don't care. The result for me is a < £10 difference in following year renewal on my insurance following a £3k own-fault claim.

This will now be the 3rd year I've been with Churchill as for the last 2 years, none have been able to beat their renewal prices.

Based on my experience, protected no claims is worth it. For £20 per year, in a 40 year driving career (I'm 29 at present), it would have cost me £800. Whereas, this one claim alone would have wiped off the (approx) 65% discount I get - costing me around £100 this year, slowly tailing off each year as I built up a discount again.

I'm sure others might disagree, but that's my experience.

D

The message from "Alhambra" contains these words:

I just assumed they'd claw the money back somehow and that any extra frills you paid for, like protecting your NCB were just some icing for them and wouldn't benefit you in any way. But that's 'cos I'm cynical.

That's quite impressive. Starting your driving career 11 years before you were born ;-)

:P I was suggesting the total cost over a projected lifetime, not saying I'd been driving for 40 years! ;)

D

With the protected NCB option I presume that you have to stick with the insurance company for the next year or more if you made a claim? So perhaps it's not such a good option!

I had a fault accident in 2003 - still don't think it WAS my fault ;-) - with Tesco and my subsequent premium didn''t increase at all. Protection did exactly what it promised to do.

However, it's crept up since and this year I have moved to M&S and have saved about £80 - with the accident details fully admitted - so perhaps they do gradually attempt to claw it back.

I've always believed that it pays to shop around regularly whatever you settle for.

Andy

Specifically asked my broker today about paying extra forPNCD. According to him, it's value depends upon the insurance Co. Some Co's do not load the basic premium, so you keep your NCD without any financial penalty for making a claim. They'll also discount claims made with another Ins Co upon transfer, if you had a PNCD policy with them.

So perhaps

It varies. My broker reckoned it could pay to check an Ins Co before paying extra for PNCD. Some just raise the basic premium following a claim, so although your NCD stays the same, your premium still rises. With such Co's paying extra for PNCD is a waste of money. Other Co's don't raise the basic premium, so having PNCD is worthwhile. Mike

I asked my Insurance company about this when getting a quote recently. I think to protect my NCB was about 10% of the policy cost. I asked how many years I lost if I had a crash, they said only 2 years off the NCB. I asked them to work it out with the 2 years knocked off and it worked out 20% more expensive. So I was paying 10% to protect me for a 20% loss. Plus as they ask if you've had a crash as well as what your NCB is, I'm guessing they would up my premium anyway. I cancelled my NCBP and promptly wrote my car off :D

Regards,

Tim

I would expect them to recalculate the risk to take account of any claims and convictions and then adjust the premium accordingly. For me a fairly hefty fault claim didn't seem to make much difference, but an SP30 conviction (in a different year) did.

The weird one was my last renewal. When I went to confused.com to do a sanity check one of the best quotes that came back was from my existing insurer, but the premium was about half what they were asking to renew the existing policy. When I queried them on this they told me they would call me back. The call never came, so I simply took out a new policy.

D A Stocks

They shouln't if you have PNCD, but it appears that some Co's do precisely that. Others don't, which is why it's worth checking before paying extra for it. I've had PNCD for as long as I can remember. Back when it was given free,once you had reached max NCD. The last three claims I made resulted in little or no increase in my premiums. Mike.