Customer’s nine-year-old no-claims bonus is reduced to two years after an accident

What happened

Andrew complained that his no-claims bonus was reduced from nine years to two years after an accident. The insurer explained its maximum no-claims bonus entitlement was four years, so it had reduced Andrew’s no-claims bonus to two years. It referred to a table towards the back of its policy document.

How we helped

We investigated the complaint, and found that Andrew had declared nine years no-claims bonus when he bought the policy. This was also reflected within his policy documentation. We didn’t think it was clearly explained that the insurer’s maximum was four years, and Andrew probably would have bought a different policy if he’d known.

Putting things right

We said the insurer should provide Andrew with a letter saying he came to it with nine years’ no-claims bonus and that he only had two years due to its maximum entitlement being four years.