It usually does not transfer — most insurers start you at the base of their own scale — so factor a lost discount into any switch.

What actually happens

Not every private medical policy uses a no-claims discount, but where one applies it rewards claim-free years by moving you up a scale to a lower premium. The complication at a switch is that the scale belongs to the insurer, so a discount built up with one is generally not recognised by another. Move, and you tend to start again near the bottom.

That makes a lost discount a real cost of switching, and it has to be set against whatever the new insurer is saving you. A cheaper base premium elsewhere can be wiped out, at least in the first year or two, by starting a no-claims scale from scratch — so the headline saving is not the whole picture.

It is separate from your underwriting. Switching on continued personal medical exclusions protects your medical position — the conditions you have covered — but that has nothing to do with a no-claims discount, which is about claims history rather than health. You can keep the former and still lose the latter in the same move.

Before switching, ask the new insurer where you would start on their scale and how quickly claim-free years rebuild it, and ask your current insurer what your discount is worth in cash. Only then can you judge whether the move pays after the discount is accounted for, which is exactly the sum a broker can run for you.

Questions to put to the insurer or broker

  • Do I have a no-claims discount, and what is it worth in premium terms?
  • Where would I start on the new insurer's scale after switching?
  • How many claim-free years would it take to rebuild the discount I would lose?

Related questions

What a switch cannot change

Switching insurer or adjusting cover changes the price, not your medical history. A condition you already have stays excluded when you move — carried across as it stands on continued personal medical exclusions, re-declared under full medical underwriting, or parked under a fresh moratorium. Chronic conditions are excluded by every insurer whose wording we hold, and renewal terms change each year, so read the document you are actually offered before you commit.

Get a free quote — a specialist broker calls you back, free and with no obligation.

Or see how UK cover compares and the FCA-authorised broker list.