Although this will initially increase your insurance premium, it may work out better for you in the long run.
Your no claims discount will only accrue 1 year at a time, but if you are at fault for an accident, your no claims discount will be reduced by 2 years at a time.
So you may have been driving safely for 4 years but if you cause a car accident in the 5th year, your no claims discount will be typically reduced by 2 years if you have NOT protected your no claims discount.
However, protecting your no claims discount normally means you can have 1 fault claim in the current year or up to 2 fault claims within the 3 preceding years before losing any no claims discount.
That means in the scenario above, at the policy’s next renewal, if you did NOT protect your no claims discount you would be quoted a premium based on 2 years NCD. Whereas, if you DID protect your no claims discount you’d be quoted a premium based on 4 years NCD (not 5 years though because you didn’t get through the 5th year without a fault claim).
Some insurers will not allow new drivers to protect their no claims discount, but some will so it’s always worth checking!
