Today I was offered this product where for an, allegedly, small premium your insurance excess is protected. I did not follow it up is excess is to me one of the things you need to try and avoid, and in the worst case live with.

The thing that makes me wary was that I have protected NCB but when a car drove into mine in December 2015 my premium shot up on renewal the following November as the claim took 15 months to settle. In fact, the increase was significantly more than if I had lost 20% NCB and makes a nonsense of the concept. In some ways I feel the regulator needs to review car insurance as premiums are nothing as clear as when I started on the road (motorcycling first) and my local broker had books from various companies listing insurance groups and premiums vs age for each group before changes for NCB or any loading.

Protected NCD only protects the % discount - it doesn't protect the premium, never has. and of course that goes up after a claim.