Is It Worth Paying for No Claim Bonus Protection?

pangwen on 08/05/2021 - 17:08

As per the subject title.

From what I can tell, it's always worth shopping around for comprehensive car insurance when renewal time comes. At the moment, I have a NCB rating 1, and some insurers offer "NCB protection", which means that they won't change my No Claim Bonus for the first claim I make in a policy year even when it was my fault/I can't identify the party at fault.

I don't think this will impact the NCB that any other insurer will offer me next year though, so why would anybody pay for this? The insurer is just going to increase your premium next year anyway, and over the last few renewal periods, I've always found jumping to a different insurer was better.

Automotive

Comments

  • Emerald Owl on 08/05/2021 - 17:31

    Depends. When doing quotes, input that you have had one accident and compare.

    • pangwen on 08/05/2021 - 17:37

      I have given it a go. The difference between one accident and zero accidents is less than the variability between insurers. For example:

      • Difference in quote for Insurer A (the one offering me the NCB protection) when I type in 0 accidents and 1 accident is around $200.
      • Difference in quotes between Insurer A and Insurer B (the 2nd cheapest one) when I type in 0 accidents for both is around $100.
      • Difference in quotes between Insurer A and Insurer C (the 3rd cheapest one) when I type in 0 accidents for both is around $250. Note that I had switched from Insurer C to Insurer A last year - Insurer C was the cheapest in a prior year.

      So while paying for NCB might save me on a renewal if I just stay with Insurer A next year, there's no guarantee that I wouldn't save even more by switching insurers (and the relative price order might change next year depending on how badly they want business).

  • AndyC1 on 08/05/2021 - 17:43

    Watch it as Allianz computer has had a number of issues in the lat 10 years where the the next year includes a claim and as such the premium quote went up and I had to call and they had to manually override the system. This has occurred once for my fault and once for not a fault… Go figure…

    It is work checking if the quote goes up by more than CPI as the computer algorithm may have changed so that the quote includes things it should not.

  • Emerald Owl on 08/05/2021 - 19:17
    +1

    What about the difference with no accidents with the insurer with the ncb protection (should be what you pay if you have one accident) and one accident with the insurer without the protection. Actually, a no claim bonus is generally a discount percentage. The protection locks in the percentage but the initial cost is higher after accidents.

    Anyway, remember that the insurers have different policies. Choice of repairer is the main difference. Agreed value vs market value, different excesses for under 25, etc.

  • Euphemistic on 08/05/2021 - 20:27
    -1

    The only way to reduce your insurance costs is not to crash. Paying extra ‘just in case’ is what they want you to do.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join