Claim-free years expire

Are you losing your claim-free years? If so, you’ll move down the no-claims ladder. Insurers use this ladder to determine how much of a no-claims discount you’ll receive on your auto insurance. The higher you are on the ladder, the greater your no-claims discount. So if you lose claim-free years and move down the ladder, you’ll end up paying more for your auto insurance.

Each insurer has its own no-claims discount program. You can find your insurer’s no-claims discount program in the policy terms and conditions.

The bonus-malus scale does not stop at 0; it can also go into negative territory. If you haven’t accumulated many claim-free years yet, or if you file multiple claims within a short period of time, you’ll end up with negative claim-free years. This is called a malus record. With negative claim-free years, you won’t receive a premium discount—instead, you’ll be charged a premium surcharge.

If your claim-free years aren't listed in the Roy database, you can prove how many claim-free years you have by providing a statement from your insurer. Insurers used to issue a cancellation statement. This statement indicates how many claim-free years you have accumulated.

For moped or scooter insurance, a cancellation statement is sometimes still issued because not all claim-free years are recorded in Roy Data. Such a statement may also still be relevant in older cases (prior to 2007).

Have you driven a leased car? With both personal and business leases, your claim-free years aren’t credited to your name. If you later take out your own auto insurance, you won’t automatically receive a discount. However, you can request a lease statement to show that you haven’t had any claims.

You must submit an original lease agreement for this. You can request this lease agreement from the leasing company.

After canceling a car insurance policy, your claim-free years remain valid for another 3 years with most insurers. If you want to use your claim-free years toward a new car insurance policy, you must take out that policy within those 3 years. After that, your claim-free years expire, and you can no longer use them.

You'll then have to start over in building up your claim-free years. That's not good for your premium, because you'll receive little or no premium discount when you take out a new auto insurance policy.

When your claim-free years expire, it means you can no longer use them to qualify for a premium discount on a new insurance policy. This usually happens when you haven’t had car insurance for several years—often after 3 years of inactivity.

To prevent your claim-free years from expiring, it’s important to take out car insurance again within three years. If you don’t have a car for a while, consider temporarily suspending your policy or talk to your insurer about options for retaining your claim-free years.

Once your claim-free years have been forfeited, they are generally permanent. In some cases, you can try to obtain an exception by providing a statement or proof of previous insurance coverage, but this depends on the insurer’s policy.

Yes, you can transfer your claim-free years to a new car insurance policy. Insurers retrieve this information from the central Roy-data database. Please note: if you’ve been uninsured for too long (usually more than 3 years), they may be considered void.

Yes, when you switch insurance providers, your claim-free years are automatically transferred via Roy-data. Just make sure your current policy is properly canceled and the information is accurately recorded so that you don’t lose any claim-free years.

If your car is suspended, your no-claims years do not expire immediately, but the three-year validity period remains in effect. So make sure you are insured again within that period to retain the years you have accumulated.