The Association of British Insurers and Insurance Fraud Bureau have warned consumers to avoid fraudulent websites claiming to sell no claims bonus certificates. One website claimed to offer a certificate valid with hundreds of insurers for 18 years according to the Insurance Times which broke the story.
Car Insurance Blog has searched the net and cannot find any such sites so we have to assume that the IFB has dealt with them.
A quick reminder about no claims discounts and bonuses….
NCD or NCBs as they are known in the industry are awarded by the insuring company for each complete year that you have bought a policy and either made no claims or had no claims brought against you. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances of the claim were or whether it was you fault or not…. a claim is a claim and if one is made against your policy you will lose a percentage of your no claims discount. This will vary from insurer to insurer, however the first claim you make on the policy will cost you the most as as a percentage loss when you come to renew or go elsewhere.
NCDS are car specific – if you own two cars you will need to build up NCDs on both policies.
If you renew elsewhere it is usually possible to transfer your existing claims record ie NCDs to the new car insurance companny. You will usually have an invite to renew document that states how many years bonus you have earned. If you change policies mid term to a new car insurance company you will likely lose your NCD for that period.
This will be car specific and will need to be passed to the new insurance company as proof.
If anyone is tempted to obtain fraudulent NCB documents, you will be caught. All Car Insurers have access to the Claims Underwriting Exchange, CUE, the centralised claims database which has been going for over 25 years and holds records of all car insurance claims!
