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I have a doubt related to NCB letter. Please pardon me if it's already answered in any of the older posts.

Car in my hometown is in my dad's name and it's insurance renewal is within 4 weeks. Never made any claim in last 7 years. So, I'm thinking of getting an NCB letter (from National Insurance) and transferring it to a different company. Can I use this NCB letter when I'm purchasing a new car next month? (New car will be in my name) Otherwise, is it possible to get the NCB with my name in the first place?

I was wondering if this is possible as my dad's name also is present in my driving license and in many of the forms filled during the new purchase stupid: . Moreover, I'm the only driver of my dad's car as he don't drive.

Unfortunately no. The NCB stays with the owner of the car and cannot be transferred. The only alternative here is to buy a car in your dad's name and take the benefit of the NCB accumulated.

You can renew the present car Insurance with a different Insurer and will not need the NCB certificate for the same, you can mention the applicable NCB while buying the Insurance.

Thank you for the clarification. Other possible(?) option is to reregister dad's car & insurance in my name and get NCB. That seems to be overkill :) I guess I will have to go without NCB this time.

No sir, that's not an option as when you re-register, as per process they will issue an NCB in your dad's name for 50% discount and start a new policy on your name with '0%' NCB. There is absolutely no way to utilize the NCB on that car, in your dad's name in any other manner or for any other owner.

I sold my previous car in within 18 months of buying it and hence have a 20% NCB letter from the insurance company .

Now , the insurance on my new car is due for renewal next week . Is there any way that I can use the NCB letter from my previous car to reduce my premium this time ?

Yes , of course you can utilize the NCB from previous car while renewing the Insurance of your new car during renewals. All you need to do is forward the NCB certificate to the new car Insurer and claim it while renewing the Insurance. In any case, if you have already earned 20% as NCB for the new car in the first year, it would not make any significant benefit. Only if you had made any claim in the first year and not eligible for NCB, you could have put to use the previous car NCB to effect.

Any particular reason why the NCB was not used while buying the first year Insurance for the new car?

My fault here . I believed whatever the idiots at Pratham , Queen's Road told me .

I was told to take the insurance from them and that the NCB letter can be used in the second year . I was told I would get am additional 20% additional ( from my previous car ) over the 20% NCB that i would get in the first year if I do not have a claim :D

Now would be right time to expose the dealer's claim:D. You should give them a sound piece of mind so that they don't repeat their act with some other customer.

As the name change for the old car happened after i brought the new car, i would have to go through the option of claiming the refund on the new car insurance. However in my case, the insurance companies are the same. This is what has been advised.
a) I will get a NCB letter on my old car insurance.
b) The insurance company will issue a letter to the new owner to pay the difference amount and renew the insurance.
c) I can use the NCB to claim the refund on my new car policy.

The other option for b would be that i get the insurance transferred to the new owner name and pay the difference amount.

Had the following queries i.e.
a) Is the above understanding correct.
b) I am assuming that the difference amount that needs to be paid will be significantly less than the refund that i will get. Please confirm.

An additional query i.e.
The insurance company advisor mentioned that irrespective of the fact that the old owner claims or does not claims the NCB, the new owner will have to pay the no claim recovery amount as NCB is not transferable.

Please confirm.

a. The above understanding is correct.
b. If the new car is of the same or higher segment as that of the old car, the difference amount will be significantly less than that of the returns you can expect.

Depends on whether the new owner already possesses a better NCB than the incumbent owner. Eg: New owner might have 50% NCB from his previous vehicle although the old owner only had 20% NCB.

--Kalyan

Thanks kalyan_hyd for his response.

Also came across this useful link i.e.
http://www.policyholder.gov.in/Faqli...?CategoryId=78

I have few queries regarding the NCB. I recently sold my Corolla in Sept 2015 and obtained a 50% NCB certificate (Reliance Gen. Insurance) for the same. Now my BMW X3 insurance (HDFC ERGO) is up for renewal in Jan end and want to use this NCB against the BMW policy which already has 20% NCB on it.

But I'm getting different opinions of the same. My regular insurance guy said that HDFC ERGO won't be considering as they're getting into a lot of fights with the customers who already have some NCB on their current policy!

BMW guys at Infinity said that keep the certificate for 3 years and use it only once you've claimed on the current policy so that you don't lose your 50 % NCB in case of any future claim and lose only the NCB on the current one.

I really don't know what to make of all this. I recently transferred my NCB from my company owned vehicles without any hitch but this is turning out to be confusing.

Also someone recommended that give the NCB certificate after you've renewed your policy that way you'll get a bigger refund otherwise if you present the NCB certificate while renewing they'll short change you in discounts. But than most insurance companies insist on NCB certificate at the time of renewal only and don't accept it after the policy is renewed. BMW guy said you either present it while renewal or will miss the boat and be able to use it only next year!

Any inputs advice on the same will be great. Also now does one use NCB certificate if one wants to get the policy renewed online?

So, here is something weird that happened to me over the last few days of 2015. But a quick history to let everyone get a clear picture -

1. In August 2014, I sold my old i10 (5 year old) which had 50% NCB.
2. Bought a Hyundai Verna CRDi in Aug 2014. The insurance for 1st year was done without any NCB discount as my old car selling was not yet complete and I did not have NCB reservation letter yet. Ended up buying TATA AIG Insurance at approx 30k. including depreciation cover.
3. In Jan 2015, got NCB reservation letter of 50% from my old i10 (this was also from TATA AIG).
4. In Mar 2015, my Verna had a minor accident and got the repairs done on insurance claim.
5. In Aug 2015, during renewal of insurance for my Verna, produced the NCB letter for 50% from my i10 and got discount of 50% on own damage cost. Remember that, even though I had a claim in previous year, I still can get discount as I am producing NCB reservation letter.
6. In December 2015, I got a registered post sent to my home by TATA AIG, demanding that I pay back the 50% NCB that I received as I had made a claim in previous year in March 2015. If not they mentioned very politely that they will reduce the tenure of my policy.
7. Same day I called up customer care and after two call drops, I raised a complaint. But the customer care folks though very calm, had no clue on the registered post that was sent to me as that is taken care of by a different department.
8. Later I sent an email with scanned copy of the NCB recovery letter. And thankfully I also had a copy of the NCB reservation letter that I handed over to TATA AIG office in Koramangala, Bangalore. Explained the entire thing in mail and waited for response.
9. No response to mail for 2 days and then I called up customer care again. Got a standard response that I have to wait for 7 working days.
10. On Jan 9, 2016, I finally got confirmation that I dont have to pay back any amount. And they mentioned that their systems could not capture the NCB reservation letter I had submitted.

Now my questions are
1. I was direct customer - i.e. I went to TATA AIG office personally to buy my policy. I handed over all dcuments in person. What would have happened if I did not hold a copy of the NCB reservation letter that I submitted to them?

So a warning to one and all to get a signed acknoledgement from your insurance folks before handing over any originals.

Hi Satya

Produce the NCB reservation letter at the time of renewal. But ensure that you take an acknowledgment for handing over the letter from insurance office. I ran into trouble with this last week. Please check my post above for details.