# Insurance Ombudsman Advice



## okcharlie (Jun 29, 2010)

Hi there.....just wondered if anyone here ever had any experience with using the Insurance Ombudsman to settle a discrepancy. My problem is regarding to a No Claims Discount that i am owed by a previous insurance company. Basically they only allowed me 3 years worth of bonus when i had 5 years plus at the time of my policy with them. Through getting my previous insurance company to prove that i had indeed 5 years plus of no claims prior to going with them they have acknowledged the mistake but have only offered me a small amount of refund. I'm sure that a policy costing more than £2500 a year should equate to more than £55 for 2 years bonus. On asking them for a breakdown of how they got to this figure i am told that it is not available and that this is the amount that i am owed - end of. Doesn't sound right to me.

Regards


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## Nanoman (Jan 17, 2009)

So...

You took out insurance and told them you had 3 years.

You then realised you should have 5 years.

So you proved 5 years and they aren't offering a refund as much as you would expect?

Is that right?

Or...

Is it you had a previous insurance policy where they only gave you 3 years NCB so now you're trying to get the additional cash equivalent to what you paid if you had 5 years which is what you had?

To me something doesn't add up. Did you agree to the quote and use the insurance for a year now you want additional backdated discount?


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## okcharlie (Jun 29, 2010)

To make it clearer.........

I have had no claims for the past 20 or so years and every renewal i get asked by the Broker/Insurer have i still got those years of no claims. The answer is yes. 

So i go to this particular insurer for a quote - and they ask me all the relevant questions and i inform them of my years of No Claims. Great -we get a quote all is fine and dandy and we take a policy out with them. Same all over again the following year - all good with the quote happy days.

Two years on now and my circumstances have changed where i don't have a premises to cover. Insurer says sorry we can't give you a quote on that basis this year as we don't cover non premises clients - that's fine we start to get quotes elsewhere.

Find another Insurer - get a good quote reminding them about my years of No Claims - all good.

10 months into that policy - get a random letter through the post saying i owed my Insurer x amount of pounds due to not having enough years of No Claims.

What, How can that be????

Turns out the other Insurer worked my policy out on the basis of having only 3 years No Claims. When the current Insurer did a random check with the other Insurer to see if I was telling the truth it raised a query.

So - letters back and forth proving i did and always have had all these years of no claims proved i was right. So i am now told that i was overcharged for the insurance policy during the 2 years and that i'm due a refund.


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

If you had a motor trade insurance, some companies only have a maximum NCB scale of three years, so even if you have 10 years NCB, the will only provide proof of 3years. 

This is easily solved by the insurer confirming they received proof x years NCB at inception, that there have been no claims and that their maximum scale is 3 years, so the NCB will be x years plus the number of years you have been with the insurer, despite them evidencing just 3 years. 

Mind you, this doesn't quite tie in with you getting a refund though. 

Actually, thinking about it, if you have received a refund then it makes sense that there has been a mistake on your NCB. However, the premium difference between 3years and 5years may only be a small amount on a combined Motor Trade policy.

As you had a premises, the £2.5k you paid is likely to be a combined price for Road Risks, liability, material damage (tools, equipment etc), vehicles at premises, BI etc. so you may find that only £1/£1.5k or so of the £2.5k premium actually relates to the road risks premium to which NCB applies. Couple that with fact that MT NCB is often on a much lower scale (ie 5 years could equate to a 40% discount, as opposed to car insurance which can see 65/70%), then the % difference between 3 and 5 years could only be say 10%.

£55 still seems a bit low, unless someone is taking an admin charge somewhere along the line, which in my opinion shouldn't be taken as full refunds if premium should be given for NCB allowance, especially if it is a mistake.

The Broker should be able to clarify what is going on though. It is difficult to comment on a forum when there are so many variables that could apply.


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