Norwich Union 4 years claim bonus removel

[sharongina]

Hi

Can any one give me any advise, I had been with car insurance for years and paid for the 4 years protected claimed bonus which I assumed would be protected for life. In one year I had three claims and was told I now have 0%years claims bonus now which means my car insurance has shot up from £450 a year to over £1000 a year and I am limited to what car I can buy and had to change my car because of this.

I was never told at any point that if I have x amount of claims I would lose this, and if I knew the last claim was minor, I would have paid myself to protect my bonus, I thought it was protected for life, I have even been told by a different insurance to write into them, which I did and they didn't reply.
can anyone help me on this situation, as it was all done over the phone and they never sent me any information when I added the protected bonus on my insurance.

[cazzaswfc]

I'm also with Norwich union ( and have previously worked selling car insurance so I also know a little). To be fair to them, the details of the protection is included on your car insurance schedule. No claims for life is something that's relatively new and not all companys offer this. The majority of company I've being insured with offer similar cover ( ie 2 claims in a certain period and then lose your bonus)

One thing I would check is that they have calculated your Ncd correctly, if you've made 3 claims then 2 of these should be covered under your protection and the third claim dropping you down the scale i.e normally to 2 years ( if you made a prior claim before insuring with them than the 0 may be correct as you could have used one of your lives under the protection)

I think you may have to put this down to experience and remember to read the paperwork in detail next time. ( trust me after working for a few insurance companys I do this EVERY time)

With Norwich union you can only add PNCD at inception or renewal so you should have received a schedule/motor insurance cert etc.

[sharongina]

Hi
Thanks
I had actually been with norwich union for about 5 years before this, no accidents just a bad spell at once, I was told by a different insurance to write to them as it seemed incorrect to remove all my 4 years bonus, but no reply from them, should I write to the insurance ombudsman?

[cazzaswfc]

Hi

Have you phoned and queried this already? it could just be advisor error,

I've just read one of Norwich union directs policy booklets and I was right in what I thought.

As you have made 3 claims the first 2 should be covered under your protection, the 3rd means your ncd is reduced on a scale, you should have 2 years ncd left. The only way you can be reduced to 0 is

if you/any other driver named have made a claim already in the last few years.

I'd call them first and query, use the tel no on your renewal documents, from my experiance the renewal advisors are well trained in sorting stuff like this out as they are targettted on retaining business.

[Trojan1401]

Hi,

I agree with Cazz on this.

Generally PNCD will allow up to 2 claims to be made within a 2 or 3 year period without loss of NCD. However, some insurers may reduce to nil if 3 claims in one policy period. Depending upon the NU policy, they may have different variations.

A call to NU should clarify ( UK not Mumbai !!!! ).

One thought though, if the 3rd accident was minor, do you know the costs. It may be worthwhile repaying them the outlay to preserve your max NCD. I would only do this though providing no Third Party involved.

[Darkangelsdelite]

To be fair it looks about right. The general rule for NCD stepback is 2 years per claim. So PNCD would have given her her "an extra life", therefore 1st fault claim, no stepback, 2nd fault claim stepback from 4 to 2 years, 3rd fault claim, stepback from 2 to zero. It should all be explained in your policy wording. There's usually also a clause where if you make 3 fault claims in one insurance year, you lose all your NCD.
You mentioned some of the claims were only minor, The only advice i can give you is to speak to claims and see how much they paid out for each claim, if its only a small ammount, you can re-emburse them this and that would then give you at least 2 years of your NCD back. Obviously you need to compare what they paid out to the price increase for your renewal, by the looks of your post its increased by around £800 so if any of the claims are for less than that, it might be worth it. Also it would take you less time to build your NCD back up again.
Anything else i can help with, feel free to ask.


DA

[Trojan1401]

DarkAngel

Great Minds.....

[Darkangelsdelite]

Originally Posted by Trojan1401

DarkAngel

Great Minds.....

lol! would appear so mate.

[sharongina]

Thanks for all advise I am going to quiry this, will let you know outcome!

[xrchris]

NU Directs policy states the following

No Claims Discount will remain protected at the
maximum level, during any three-year period
from the date protection commences unless the
following occurs:
a. There are two claims. In this situation the No
Claims Discount will remain at the maximum
level but protection against further claims
during the period will be lost.
b. There are 3 claims. In this situation the
protection will be lost and No Claims
Discount will be reduced by 2 years on our
No Claims Discount scale.
c. There are more than 3 claims. In this
situation the protection and all No Claims
Discount will be lost.

Note – If you have made a claim with any
previous insurer during a 2 year period prior to
taking out this policy, (a claim for this purpose
is any which would have resulted in loss of your
No Claims Discount were it not protected), this
claim will be counted in points a, b and c
above.

Therefore if you have only had 3 (non-recoverable) claims in the last 3 years you are entitled to at least 2 years NCD.