FAQs

Normally if you make a claim on your car insurance policy you will move back down the NCD scale – usually 2 years, but sometimes more.

The exception to this is if you can prove that the accident was not your fault – then your insurer may agree NOT to move you down the scale. However, proving that a claim was Non-Fault is not always straightforward – you will usually need to prove to your insurer that you have recovered your uninsured losses (e.g. your excess, the cost of any replacement vehicle or any additional travel costs you incurred) from the Third Party Driver who caused the accident.

In the event that the Third Party Driver was uninsured it will be nigh on impossible to recover these costs, so some insurers have added an Uninsured Driver promise to their policy to say that you won’t have to pay an excess, and you won’t lose your no-claims discount if your car is hit by a driver who isn’t insured. You’ll still have to establish that the accident is not your fault though, and the driver of the other vehicle is identified and is not insured (see more on this in the next FAQ).

The paragraph above may help some people, but nevertheless moving down the NCD scale that you’ve worked hard to climb up is generally bad news – especially for younger drivers where the difference between full NCD and zero NCD could be over a thousand pounds!

Therefore to protect drivers from this big fall, most insurers offer NCD Protection. This costs you additional premium (typically in the 15-25% range so its not cheap) but it gives you the reassurance that if you do have a claim you will remain on the NCD level you’ve reached and won’t move down the NCD scale. (There’s usually a limit of 2 claims per insurance year before your NCD will be affected).

NCD Protection can be a very useful addition to most annual car insurance policies. Bear in mind though that’s it’s not a guarantee, the insurer can still increase your premium at renewal irrespective of your NCD position and whether it’s protected.

A no-claims discount (NCD), sometimes called a no-claims bonus, is a car insurance discount recognised by insurance providers. It’s a count of the number of years you haven’t made a claim on your car insurance policy.

So for every year you drive without making a claim on your policy, you gain extra no-claims discount. The benefit of NCD usually plateaus at five years, but some companies offer further discount for six or more years. The amount of discount this qualifies you for tends to vary from insurer to insurer.

The main types are :

• A Compulsory excess : this is the amount that the insurer applies to all policies of your type and which can’t be removed.
• A Voluntary excess : this is an amount you choose to pay in order to reduce your premium. It is important to note that the Voluntary Excess applies in addition to the Compulsory Excess. So in the previous example where repair costs are agreed at £1,250, if the Compulsory Excess was £500 and you had agreed to take a £300 Voluntary Excess (to keep your premium reasonable) then the Insurer would pay £1,250 – £500 – £300 = £450.
• Young Driver excess : most insurers apply additional compulsory excesses if the driver at the time of the claim was under 25.

Other excesses : check your individual wording to see if there are any other excesses which apply in your individual circumstances. Common examples include :

• a No Traceable Third Party Not Excess, which you would have to pay if your vehicle was involved in an accident and you re unable to provide the details of the Third Party driver involved.
• a Non Selected Repairer Excess : insurers prefer you to take your vehicle into one of their Selected or Approved Repairers. This is a network of garages, specific to each insurer, where the insurers have pre-agreed standards of service (and rates of labour). In order to encourage you to take your car to one of their network members, some insurers will increase your excess if you choose not to.
• a No Photo Excess : it sounds bizarre but some insurers, particularly temporary insurance companies, will increase your excess if you are unable to provide a photo of the vehicle prior to the damage taking place!

An excess is the amount you must pay when you make a claim on your policy.

In other words, it’s the amount you agree to contribute towards the cost of a claim, with the insurer covering the remaining amount.

So if your vehicle is damaged and the cost of repair is agreed at £1,250, then if you had no excess the amount the insurer would pay would be £1,250.

However if your policy had a £500 excess, the insurer would only pay £750 as you’d have to pay the remaining £500 yourself.

There are 3 types of motor insurance :

• Third Party Only (TPO)
• Third Party Fire And Theft (TPF&T)
• Comprehensive (sometimes referred to as Fully Comp)

The cover provided by the 3 different types is :

• Third Party : this is the minimum cover required by law in the UK. It covers you against costs that arise as a result of injuries you cause to other people or damage you cause to their property.
• Third Party Fire And Theft : provides the Third Party cover outlined above, plus protection for your vehicle being stolen or damaged by fire.
• Comprehensive : includes the cover above plus accidental damage to your vehicle.

Even if you do not use your vehicle you are still required to insure it, unless you officially register your vehicle as off the road (SORN). You can find information on how to do this here.

Yes : if you want to drive a vehicle on UK roads you must have motor insurance.

Individuals working collectively to protect one another against changes in fortune is as old as civilisation. People throughout the world and throughout history have developed different organisations and structures, such as the Roman colleges and Anglo Saxon gilds, to guarantee mutual protection in wealth and adversity.

Motor insurance in the UK is believed to date back to 1896, with policies based on those previously used for horse-drawn vehicles. The first motor insurance based on variable premiums depending on the horse power, age and type of vehicle was introduced by the Red Cross Indemnity Insurance Company in 1906.

The basic idea of insurance is the pooling of resources in order to minimise the risk and impact of loss.

In other words, in a population who are all exposed to risk, many people pay an affordable amount in order to cover the losses of the unfortunate few. Without the benefit of insurance, these losses would have a significant impact on those members of the population who suffer them.