Building up a no claims bonus (also called a no-claims discount) is pretty simple. But things get a bit more complicated if you have more than one car.

Here’s everything you need to know.

What is a no claims bonus?

A no claims bonus (NCB) is a type of car insurance discount. It’s designed to reward drivers for not claiming on their car insurance.

The longer you don’t make a claim for, the bigger the discount is.

Every insurer will have its own rules for exactly how much discount you get. Most insurers will give you a no claims bonus after a year of claim-free driving. Then, for each year that passes, your no-claims discount will go up. Most insurers will probably cap this at around 15 years.

We have more information about how long no claims bonuses last here.

Can you use your no claims bonus on a second car?

Technically, you can’t use the same NCB on two cars at the same time.

So if you’re getting a 40% NCB discount on one car, you can’t automatically use that discount on a second car.

You can build up a separate no-claims discount on a second car. But you have to do it from scratch. It’s a pain, but those are the rules!

No-claims discount mirroring

There’s also something called ‘no claims discount mirroring’. This is where an insurer lets you ‘mirror’ your NCB across two cars on one multi-car policy.

But not all insurers offer it, and if they do, they usually only offer it to certain people.

For example, you’d probably have to be over a certain age and have a clean claims history.

It’s important to know that the ‘mirroring’ also applies to any claims you make on either car. So if one gets damaged and you make a claim, the claim will be marked down for both cars.

Why isn’t your NCB automatically shared on multi-car policies?

Even though a multi-car policy sounds like it’s one policy for all your cars, it’s not really.

It’s just a way of one insurer being able to insure all cars registered at one address. (Usually in exchange for a discount on your premium).

Each car is still treated like it has its own individual policy. So your NCB isn’t automatically applied to all your cars.

Can you transfer your no claims bonus to another car or insurance policy?

If you decide to change cars, you can transfer your no claims bonus to your new car. You can also do this if you decide to change insurers.

If you change insurance companies, your new insurer might ask you for proof of your NCB. (We can sometimes get your NCB automatically verified, but if not we’ll ask for proof).

You can read about how to prove your no claims bonus here.

It’s also important to remember that insurers set their own NCB discount rates. So even though you’re transferring the number of years of NCBs you’ve built up, you might not get the same amount of discount with another insurer.

Can you build up a no claims bonus on a company car?

There’s a bit of a grey area when it comes to no-claims discounts and company cars.

Some insurers simply say no, you can’t build up any no-claims discount with a company car.

But other insurers are more lenient, and will give you an NCB if you meet certain rules.

They’ll usually say you have to:

• Have been the only driver of the company car
• Have had no-claims with the car for a minimum amount of time (e.g. at least a year)
• Not be using the car anymore

They’ll normally ask you for a letter from your employer to prove all of this.

It’s worth bearing in mind that different insurers might have different rules around NCBs and company cars.

What happens to your no claims bonus when you make a claim?

What happens to your NCB when you make a claim depends if it’s an at-fault, non-fault or partial-fault claim.

(You can read about at-fault and non-fault claims here if you need more info.)

It also depends on what the claim is for. Some insurers let you keep your NCBs for things like windscreen damage and emergency treatments.

If it’s an at-fault claim, it’s highly likely your NCB will be affected.

You might not lose all of it though. Some insurers will reduce it rather than take the whole thing away. (So it might go from 5 years of NCBs to 3 years, or something like that.)

You’ll probably lose some of your NCBs for partial-fault claims too.

If another driver is at-fault and their insurer pays up for the claim, your NCB should be fine.

Some insurers offer an NCB protection add-on, which is kind of like insurance for your no claims bonus.

This is where you pay extra on your car insurance premium to protect your NCBs up to a certain amount of claims.

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