I have just been told by my insurer that the policy I took out with them in May 2010 is invalid as I told them I had 7 years NCB and they are saying this is not the case. I actually own 3 bikes and each are insured under a separate policy.

My most recent purchase was in October this year and I arranged cover online. They contacted me to request proof of my NCB so my wife faxed them a copy of the current policy for my first bike (insured with a different company). A few days later my wife took a call from them about the policy - obviously they could not discuss it with her but she explained that it was she who had sent the fax and said if it had not been recieved she could fax it again - she also pointed out that I already had a policy with them on my second bike so perhaps they could check their records and find what they wanted from that? They said they would look into it and call again.

Another call a few days later asking for me to contact them urgently. Apparantly it is not possible to carry a NCB from one policy to another unless that policy has expired. Therefore, despite them having accepted my NCB as 7 years without query back in May they immediately cancelled my policy (without any refund). As I use that particular bike to get to work I had to immediately rearrange cover (at a much higher cost as it is now calculated as having 0 years NCB). I also had to pay an extra £95 to keep the most recent policy (again with 0 years NCB).

When I asked why I had not been requested to prove my NCB back in May I was told 'We only ask for proof on a percentage of policies'.

I have spoken to a number of friends and colleagues about this and not one of them had any idea that it was not possible to declare a NCB on more than one policy. I would be interested to hear other people's points of view on this.

You can only use the NCB once. If you have more than one bike, you have to build up separate entitlement for them.

Most people that own more than one vehicle are aware of this. For those that don't and have used NCB entitlement that they don't have, they will have a nasty experience in the event of a claim.