No Claims Bonus (NCB), also known as NCD or No Claims Discount, is the discount that you can earn for not making a claim. These discounts are determined by the number of years that you have not made a claim for. No claims bonus is available with some insurance providers in the United States but this discount is more prevalent in the other areas of the world, such as the UK.

There is also protected NCB where the insured may pay an additional premium to his or her insurance carrier so that the NCB is not stepped back in the event of an at fault claim. This benefit is variable but only applies to the existing insurer, and is usually available only when maximum NCB has been accrued.

If you are without insurance for a period of time, due to not renewing your policy, going abroad, taking your car off the road, etc you can lose your no claims bonus. In the US it varies by state and insurance company depending upon their guidelines.

For instance some insurance companies in the US define the NCB as a discount allowed to an insured in accordance to a scale determine by the insurance company, a certain percentage off the basic premium if no claim is made under or submitted against the insured's policy and also provided the vehicle is insured continuously for a period of 12 months with the same Insurer.

Different insurance companies though have different guidelines. In the UK there are no hard and fast rules on the time limit of not being insured and when a person would lose their NCB it is up to the insurance provider to decide. If you have been uninsured and are trying to get a motor insurance policy now you may want to try doing so through a previous insurer since they may look more favorably at your previous no claims bonus.

As a general rule you would lose your NCD if you have not been a policy holder for 2 or 3 years. We have heard with many insurance companies in the UK you will forfeit your no claims after 2 years of not having private insurance.

Keep in mind even if you have been on someone else’s policy for a few years instead of having your own it does not entitle you to have your own no claim bonus or discount if you start your own policy. Although your driving experience will be taken into account, this does not normally extend into you having a no claims discount when you take out your own policy.

If you have been insured under a fleet or company vehicle and are going back to getting private, personal insurance you should try to get a certificate from the company's insurer about your driving record while with them. We have heard of cases by getting this information from your company's insurance provider and showing a clean driving record for the time you were under the company's insurer that the personal insurance carrier gave back a portion of a no claims bonus, say two years instead of the whole five.

To get auto insurance in the UK or the United States, you can start here and see if the NCB or other discounts are available to you at this time.