Protected No Claims – Is It Worth It?
No claims discount (NCD) or No Claims Bonus (NCB) is arguably the most influential factors when it comes to rating your insurance policy, resulting in big discounts from insurers – up to 70% in some cases.
It is a discount which a driver accrues for every year they do not make a claim-free, reaching a maximum level after 5 or 6 years. General practice see’s insurers show the maximum as 9 years.
Most insurance companies will offer a 30% discount if provided with proof of 1-year claim free driving and can offer up to 65% or 70% discount if the maximum discount is applied:
- 1 year no claims: 30% average reduction
- 2 years no claims: 40% average reduction
- 3 years no claims: 50% average reduction
- 4 years no claims: 60% average reduction
- 5+ years no claims: 65% average reduction
So what happens to your No Claim Discount if a claim is made against your insurance?
Your insurance company assess if you are at fault and if so they will meet the cost of the damage caused by you. If it is decided that you are “at fault” – to blame for the incident – then this will have an adverse effect on your no claims discount.
In the event of a claim against you, typically insurers will pull back some of the bonus you have accrued but not all of it. In most cases, however, you can protect your no claims bonus if you have accrued over 4 years. Meaning you will not lose the bonus if you make a claim.
The cost for protecting your no claims bonus differs from one insurer to the next however on average you can expect to see a 5-6% increase to protect.
Insurers will consider various driving experiences as proof: mirroring your driving experience from a second car, company car experience, named driver experience and foreign driving so dont despair should you not have direct NCB to apply for your vehicle insurance.