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.