No-claims discount in the Netherlands and Belgium

How the Dutch ladder works

Each year in which you claim nothing adds one schadevrij jaar to your count. The Consumentenbond confirms that all Dutch insurers count these pure claim-free years the same way, under the Roy-data business rules of the Verbond van Verzekeraars. What differs per insurer is the discount each step buys: every house keeps its own bonus-malus ladder, so the same count can mean a different price at the next insurer.

The years are personal. They sit on the name of the policyholder, so a partner or a regular second driver builds nothing on your policy. Lease drivers do not always build years either: it depends on whether the lease company registers them. The count also stands on your policy document each year, which is the fastest place to check it.

What a claim does to your years

A claim your insurer pays because you were at fault moves you down the ladder. The Consumentenbond states the usual fall as five years per at-fault claim, applied the same way by every insurer. Two at-fault claims in one year therefore hurt twice, and the count can drop below zero into negative years.

Only claims that cost your insurer move you down. If your insurer recovers the full amount from the other party, your count stays where it was. Most limited-casco claims leave it alone too: theft, fire, storm and glass damage are paid from a different part of the policy. Small damage you pay from your own pocket without filing a claim never touches the count at all.

The Roy-data register

Roy-data is the central database where Dutch insurers record claim-free years. Stichting CIS, which runs the fraud and claims database for Dutch insurers, states that Roy-data itself belongs to Efficiënte Processen Schadeverzekeraars (EPS) and that you request your own years through EPS. When you cancel a policy, your insurer registers the count there, and the next insurer reads it back. You never carry a paper statement between Dutch houses.

Years without a car keep a limited shelf life. The Consumentenbond reports that most insurers honour old years for three years after cancellation, while a few stretch to four or five. Past that point the count expires and you start from zero. If a break from driving is coming, ask your insurer in advance how long your years survive it.

An FSD crash counts like any other claim

Tesla says you are responsible for the speed and control of your vehicle at all times, whether FSD (Supervised) is enabled or not. Insurers read that line the same way the law does: you were driving. An at-fault claim with FSD (Supervised) engaged therefore moves you down the Dutch ladder or the Belgian scale exactly like a claim with your own hands on the wheel.

Say on the claim form that FSD (Supervised) was engaged. The fact changes nothing about who pays, as explained in FSD crash in Europe: who pays for the damage?, but leaving it out can cost you cover. The ladder treats an honest FSD claim like any other honest claim.

How bonus-malus works in Belgium

Belgium had one compulsory national bonus-malus scale until 2004, and then let it go. Since then each insurer runs its own system and must describe it in the contract, so your step after a claim depends on the house you insure with. There is no national ladder to climb, only house ladders.

What the law does standardise is your record. The insurer must hand you a claims attestation whenever you ask and when the contract ends, and the sector centralises five years of attestations in Car@ttest, run by Datassur. You open your own attestations at carattest.be with your eID and hand them to the next insurer or broker. Datassur keeps each attestation for five years from issue and then deletes it.

How to prove claim-free years across the border

Ask your old insurer for a written claims statement before you move, even if the new country keeps its own register. EU law gives you the right to a claims-history statement covering at least the preceding five years, and the Commission laid down a common template for it in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1855. Where an insurer uses claims history to price, it must treat a statement from another Member State like a domestic one.

Mind the expiry dates on the way over. Dutch years in Roy-data stay usable for about three years after cancellation at most insurers, so a long gap between policies can empty the count. Belgian attestations in Car@ttest reach back five years. Either way the new insurer maps your foreign record onto its own ladder by its own rules, so ask upfront how many of your years it will honour before you cancel the old policy.

Before filing a small claim, ask your insurer what it costs in years. A bumper repair you pay yourself can be cheaper than five lost years on next year premium.

Cover levels decide which claims can touch your years in the first place: WA, WA+ or allrisk: Dutch car cover levels and Belgian car insurance: BA, mini and full omnium.