Making a motor insurance claim

No, you do not need to make an insurance claim for all incidents, it’s up to you whether you want to claim on your insurance or pay for any damage to your vehicle yourself.

Depending on the level of excess you have on your policy, for some smaller repairs it may be cheaper to pay for the repairs yourself rather than claiming and paying the initial excess cost.

If you’ve had insurance for a number of years without having to make a claim, you may also have built up several years of No Claims Discount (NCD). This could potentially be more valuable for you to keep so that you benefit from the NCD discount on your insurance premium overall.

What happens to your NCD will depend on the type of claim you’re making.

If you’re claiming a non-fault claim where recovery can be made, or for repair work, for example to a chipped windscreen, then it is unlikely to affect your No Claims Discount, you will just be required to pay any relevant excess.

If you’re claiming a fault claim or a non-fault claim where recovery can’t be made your NCD will be affected as shown below:

• If you have 5 or more years NCD your NCD will reduce to 3 years
• If you have less than 5 years your NCD will reduce by 2 years

If you have 4 or more years NCD, we may be able to protect it for you for an additional cost. This means that if you make a claim during the year we won’t reduce your NCD unless you are unfortunate enough to make 2 claims over a 3 year period. 

If you find yourself in the unfortunate circumstance where your vehicle has been stolen, call the police and file a police report immediately. You will be provided with a ‘crime reference number’.

Once you have a crime reference number, contact our claims helpline for further support. The following information would be useful to have to hand:

• Your full name, address and date of birth
• Your crime reference number