What about claims and no claims bonus?

Now, did you also know that you may not lose all your no claims bonus (NCB) if you come to claim. For non-protected bonus many people believe that by claiming they will lose their entire no claims bonus but generally this is not the case. The amount of no claims bonus lost for a fault claim on a non-protected policy is two years. So if you have four years no claims bonus then it would be reduced to two years. Another point to mention about no claims bonus is that there is a maximum level of discount you can receive, so it may be that a company offer maximum discount for five years no claims discount. So although you may have 9 years continuous claim free years, should you have a fault on a non-protected policy then you may well find your no claims bonus reduced to three years. The extra years are simply a record of your driving history and may well not offer any further discount. Different companies may well have different maximum no claims bonus levels so this could be four or perhaps 5 years.

Once you have achieved the maximum level you should then be able to protect you no claims bonus. If you have five years protected no claims bonus and you have a fault claim, your bonus level won't be reduced. However, insurance companies don't just base their quotes or premiums on the amount of no claims bonus you have, they will still look at your claims history. So although the following year you will still receive the same maximum discount on your policy due to the protection, your quote or premium may well be higher due to the new claim added to your policy. Insurance companies see policies with claims as a greater potential risk than claims free insurance policies.