Protected No Claims Bonus

Your no claims bonus rewards you for driving safely. It does this by providing a reduction on the cost of your car insurance based on each year you don’t make a claim. 

Once you have four or more years of no claims bonus on your car insurance, we’ll give you the opportunity to protect it. By paying a little extra on your premium, you’ll be able to make a claim without reducing your no claims bonus.

The more years you go without a claim, the greater the bonus you'll receive – up to a maximum of nine years.

However, after four years you can sign up to protect your no claims bonus. You could then make as many as two claims on your car insurance in any three-year period without reducing it. 

Please note that whenever a claim is made on your policy, your price or excess may increase at renewal.

Our no claims bonus is only attached to you as an individual and can only be used on a single car.

If you own more than one car, each car earns its own No Claims Bonus. When you insure more than one vehicle, you'll have to declare the level of No Claims Bonus you've earned for each vehicle.

If you then have an accident with one vehicle, only the No Claims Bonus on that vehicle will be affected. It will not affect the level of No Claims Bonus on the other vehicle.

If you have more than one vehicle, but only one No Claims Bonus, you'll have to declare which vehicle you wish that No Claims Bonus to apply to, when buying your policy with us. The other vehicle will then have to earn its own No Claim Bonus going forwards.

Please note, if you’re involved in a minor accident and choose not to pursue a claim, the other party may still make a claim against your policy. In this instance, we may not allow your no claims bonus until we are confident no claim will be made.

Your no claims bonus can help you make a significant saving on the cost of your car insurance policy. And that saving will increase with every year you don’t make a claim. 

Below are two tables clarifying the benefits of protecting your No Claims Bonus compared with leaving it unprotected:

*Note: in the tables above a claim is where we have made payment for any loss, damage or injury to a third party or where any costs for damage to your car cannot be, or have not yet been, recovered.

A no claims bonus applies when you haven't made a claim from one year to another. So, if you make a claim, and the accident was your fault, you could lose your discount. This could even happen when you’re not responsible - for example, if your car was stolen or vandalised.

You wouldn’t necessarily lose all your discount. It may just be reduced to a lower level – for example, from four years to two years. And if the damage was caused by an uninsured driver, your discount won't be affected, provided the conditions of our Uninsured Driver Protection policy are met.

With a Protected No Claims Bonus, you won’t lose your discount unless you make more than two claims in three years. The tables above show how this works.

Any time you buy a new car or switch insurance provider, you can take your No Claims Bonus with you.

Switching your policy to John Lewis is simple. You can get a quote online or contact us.

If you buy a new car to replace an existing one on your policy, the No Claims Bonus applicable to the old car automatically transfers to your new car.

Please note, if you purchase an additional car, it will have to earn its own No Claims Bonus. This is unless you have a No Claims Bonus that hasn't yet been used for a car you sold within the last two years.

Unless requested, we won’t require you to provide proof of your no claims bonus from another provider.

At renewal you’ll be issued with a renewal notice. This will state how many years No Claims Bonus you’ve earned on that policy at that point. This will be based on:

The No Claims Bonus transferred when you purchased the policy with us

The length of time you have been insured with us

Any reductions applied for any claims made