Lost Insurance NCB after coming off Car Lease scheme

[rolexer16610]

Would appreciate any advice or pointers from anyone who has been in this position.

In 2016 I sold my car and took out a 2yr lease of a new car through the NHS Lease scheme. I renewed the car & the lease in 2018 and that’s due to expire in April 2020. Plan is to buy a car privately when the lease finishes.

Because I stupidly let my full No Claims Bonus elapse after 2 years (I didn’t realise) it means I am starting again with zero no claims bonus despite having 20 years plus of accident free driving according to my previous insurer.

Has anyone been in a similar position? Is there a way around this? Any sympathetic insurers who would take a view etc? We do have another car if multi car policies are best option.

Many thanks in advance.

[senwar]

I had similar after 2.5yrs on a company car scheme. No one would accept my previous NCD - 25yrs.


I ended up going with Aviva who gave me a new policy with 2yr NCD increasing to 4yrs at end of year 2 (this coming April). Interestingly I did some quotes back when I got my car and putting 15yrs NCD or none showed very little difference in some companies. Found that bizarre

[Suds]

I would have thought your previous insurer would be sympathetic if you had been with them a long time?

[SuperVM]

A lot of the more specialist insurers are generally better for this sort of thing. I don't have experience of the over two year lapse issue, but I have had insurers give me quite a few years of NCD on a second policy. From memory A-Plan perhaps?

[rolexer16610]

I would have thought your previous insurer would be sympathetic if you had been with them a long time?

Unfortunately not, I’ve tried a couple of times

[chrisb]

Try NFU.

[jacinabox]

Another for NFU...I hadn't realised that I had two lots of NCB expire after two years, all the mainstream insurers wouldn't accept the 20+ years of NCB. Tried NFU and they gave me 60% straight away - did have a home policy and another two cars insured with them which may have helped.

Allways found NFU easy to deal with and no silly out of country call centers to deal with; give them a go.

[rolexer16610]

Thank you very much for the suggestions, I shall follow them up.

[Stringer]

Thank you very much for the suggestions, I shall follow them up.

You are in a very common scenario.

This sort of situation occurs all the time with Company Car users who have driven for years under their Employer’s Commercial Motor Fleet Policy, and when leaving their employment find they have no personal NCB.

Albeit this is an NHS scheme, but the principle remains the same.

You need to:

1) Contact the organiser of your NHS Scheme
2) Ask them to issue you with a Driving Experience letter
3) The letter should be on their letterhead paper
4) It should confirm your name & confirm dates between which you were insured under the scheme
5) And finally, details of any claims attaching to you whilst driving, both fault & non-fault
6) Shop around until you find a Personal Lines Car Insurer willing to accept the letter as proof of NCB
7) Some will be picky, but you will find one to accept it
8) They may not allow a full transfer equating to number of years under the NHS Scheme
9) Most will give an introductory 1 or 2 years’ NCB at least

Your main problem could be finding someone of common sense & a helpful disposition to assist. Your line manager might know the best contact (again, if they can bothered to try).

If you do a quick ‘google’ you’ll find others have succeeded in doing this.

Indeed, the ‘Lincolnshire Community’, ‘Leeds Community’ & ‘Southern Health’ NHS Lease guides all explicitly state the above as being a course of action open to leavers.

Even if hardly anyone has probably ever read the agreements to know they exist.

As I said, your biggest battle will be finding someone helpful to be bothered to help you, and then an Insurer with common sense, but perseverance will see you right.

At least written proof of no claims will give you the best fighting chance with your new Insurer.

[stefmcd]

Great post.

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[SuperVM]

You are in a very common scenario.

This sort of situation occurs all the time with Company Car users who have driven for years under their Employer’s Commercial Motor Fleet Policy, and when leaving their employment find they have no personal NCB.

Albeit this is an NHS scheme, but the principle remains the same.

You need to:

1) Contact the organiser of your NHS Scheme
2) Ask them to issue you with a Driving Experience letter
3) The letter should be on their letterhead paper
4) It should confirm your name & confirm dates between which you were insured under the scheme
5) And finally, details of any claims attaching to you whilst driving, both fault & non-fault
6) Shop around until you find a Personal Lines Car Insurer willing to accept the letter as proof of NCB
7) Some will be picky, but you will find one to accept it
8) They may not allow a full transfer equating to number of years under the NHS Scheme
9) Most will give an introductory 1 or 2 years’ NCB at least

Your main problem could be finding someone of common sense & a helpful disposition to assist. Your line manager might know the best contact (again, if they can bothered to try).

If you do a quick ‘google’ you’ll find others have succeeded in doing this.

Indeed, the ‘Lincolnshire Community’, ‘Leeds Community’ & ‘Southern Health’ NHS Lease guides all explicitly state the above as being a course of action open to leavers.

Even if hardly anyone has probably ever read the agreements to know they exist.

As I said, your biggest battle will be finding someone helpful to be bothered to help you, and then an Insurer with common sense, but perseverance will see you right.

At least written proof of no claims will give you the best fighting chance with your new Insurer.

That's a very useful post. One thing that has also occurred to me is that some of the price comparison sites (comparethemarket for example) have a tick box for experience on someone else's policy. This might give you an idea which insurers will be more helpful.

[rolexer16610]

You are in a very common scenario.

This sort of situation occurs all the time with Company Car users who have driven for years under their Employer’s Commercial Motor Fleet Policy, and when leaving their employment find they have no personal NCB.

Albeit this is an NHS scheme, but the principle remains the same.

You need to:

1) Contact the organiser of your NHS Scheme
2) Ask them to issue you with a Driving Experience letter
3) The letter should be on their letterhead paper
4) It should confirm your name & confirm dates between which you were insured under the scheme
5) And finally, details of any claims attaching to you whilst driving, both fault & non-fault
6) Shop around until you find a Personal Lines Car Insurer willing to accept the letter as proof of NCB
7) Some will be picky, but you will find one to accept it
8) They may not allow a full transfer equating to number of years under the NHS Scheme
9) Most will give an introductory 1 or 2 years’ NCB at least

Your main problem could be finding someone of common sense & a helpful disposition to assist. Your line manager might know the best contact (again, if they can bothered to try).

If you do a quick ‘google’ you’ll find others have succeeded in doing this.

Indeed, the ‘Lincolnshire Community’, ‘Leeds Community’ & ‘Southern Health’ NHS Lease guides all explicitly state the above as being a course of action open to leavers.

Even if hardly anyone has probably ever read the agreements to know they exist.

As I said, your biggest battle will be finding someone helpful to be bothered to help you, and then an Insurer with common sense, but perseverance will see you right.

At least written proof of no claims will give you the best fighting chance with your new Insurer.

Very grateful for this and all of the other excellent advice, thank you. Will follow the leads & tips up.

[Mj2k]

Admiral were good to me when I was in a similar position a few years back. I could prove no accidents from my employer to cover the period of time without personal insurance.


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[IAmATeaf]

When I opted out of the company car scheme I got a letter from the car management company which stated the number of years of claim free driving. I then used that with Churchill who gave me a years NCD for every 2 years of claim free driving quoted on the letter.