Everyone wants to have cheaper car insurance, don’t they? While the price of every car insurance policy is based on a number of different factors - including information about the vehicle itself as well as the named driver or drivers - there are ways you can get cheaper car insurance.
One of these is quite straightforward. If you’re a careful driver, that can have a positive effect on the price of your car insurance. How can you show that you’re a careful driver? There are two main ways.
No claims discount - NCD
If you can build up your no claims discount (NCD), you may be entitled to getting a discount on the price of your car insurance. If you record a number of years without making a claim on your car insurance that should reflect in your premium. If your car insurance provider can see that you haven’t been involved in any accidents or incidents - that you haven’t made a claim for, at least - they will consider you a safer and more careful driver than someone who has made a claim.
In terms of risk, a careful driver with a history of NCD should be considered lower in comparison to a driver without the same record. But, it’s unlikely that having one or two years of no claims is going to make any difference at all. NCD will differ from insurer to insurer, but you’ll need at least five years. If it’s ten years, you’re likely to benefit from cheaper car insurance. At the RAC, drivers with 9+ years of NCD might be able to get up to 65% off the price of their car insurance.
If you change insurance providers, you can take your NCD with you - though your new insurer will usually ask to proof of your no claims. Proof of no claims is sometimes included in your renewal letter or notice, which is sent to you. If not, you can contact your outgoing insurer to request they send it on to you.
You might decide to take out No Claims Discount Protection, which means that if you do need to make a claim, you can do so without losing your NCD. If you’ve built up 9+ years of NCD, it would be annoying to lose it because of one claim - especially if you were involved in an accident that wasn’t your fault.
Black Box Insurance
Another way of demonstrating that you’re a careful driver is by taking out Black Box Car Insurance. This is especially useful for young and new drivers, who might not have been driving for long enough to build up a lengthy NCD.
Black Box Insurance, which is also called telematics, uses data to assess driver performance, monitoring situations such as speed, braking and cornering. Performance is regularly reviewed, and if analysis shows you’re driving carefully and safely, it can result in a discount at renewal time.
As the driver, you’ll be able to check your score online to see how you’re getting on. The black box monitors driving constantly, so if someone else also drives the car, their performance will also be rated.
So, as well as driving carefully being important from a safety point of view, it can benefit you financially.
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