A Bupa renewal notice is the product of two calculations, and only the second depends on you. Bupa first works out the premium for the coming year, then takes off a no-claims discount set by what you claimed. When the figure has gone up, the useful question is which of the two moved, because that decides whether you accept it, ask Bupa to change the cover, or have it priced elsewhere. For that last route, set out your current cover on the form here, and a broker the FCA authorises phones you to discuss it; nothing is charged, and one call can take in several insurers. What to do with the notice once you understand it is on Bupa health insurance: renewal.
Everything below is Bupa By You wording unless it says otherwise. How far a Bupa price moves turns on who is on the policy and what they claimed, so no single percentage printed here would be yours; your notice carries the only increase that applies to you.
How Bupa builds the renewal figure, step by step
Bupa's leaflet on the no-claims discount for Bupa By You (BINS 23776), dated September 2026 by the print code in its footer, sets out the order of work, starting with timing:
"Every year, we calculate the cost of your cover around six weeks before your policy is due to renew."
— Bupa, About your no-claims discount and how it affects the price of your Bupa By You policy (BINS 23776, September 2026), page 2, read 21 October 2026. A PDF on Bupa's own site.
The price is struck about six weeks before the renewal date, so the figure is already settled when the notice reaches you. The leaflet then gives the order in which it is put together:
"Once we've calculated your premium (excluding Insurance Premium Tax), we'll apply your no-claims discount. So, if you haven't made a claim, your price increase will be smaller than if you have."
— Same leaflet, page 2.
The discount is applied to a premium that has already been worked out, so it can soften an increase but not undo it, and what the leaflet offers for a claim-free year is a smaller increase rather than none. Page 1 says why:
"The cost of health insurance tends to go up due to your age, improvements in medical technology, increases in drug prices and new treatments becoming available. This means it's unlikely that the cost of your cover will go down, even if you have a no-claims discount."
— Same leaflet, page 1.
On Bupa's own account, then, a rise with no claim behind it is what to expect. The rest of this page takes the two steps in turn.
What sits in the premium before any discount: Bupa's own list of factors
The leaflet's four causes overlap with a longer list in a Bupa Group press release, 'Health insurance renewal premiums in the UK', dated 30 October 2022 and read 21 October 2026. The release covers individual, small-business and large-company cover alike, so it is Bupa Group describing its approach across the board, not wording for Bupa By You or for this year's notice. It says Bupa uses "some common factors to help set the right premium at the renewal of a policy". Four of them are these.
- Prices charged to Bupa. "the rise in prices from the hospitals and clinics and clinicians we work with, which we negotiate hard to keep under control". This is the cost of the care itself, and it applies whether or not you claimed.
- New treatments. "the costs of new treatments, such as new cancer drugs, or other new breakthrough treatments". The 2026 leaflet names the same pressure, with drug prices as a separate item.
- Your age. "the age of the person or people included on the policy, be they members of a family or employees in a business, as this heavily influences likely claims".
- Where you live. "the location of everyone on the policy, as the cost of healthcare varies around the country". If anyone on the policy has moved since last year, ask Bupa whether the new address changed the figure.
The same release says that most individual policies carry either a No Claims Discount or a Low Claims Bonus, the second of which "adds some extra onto their premium increase" after a claim. The 2026 leaflet describes a no-claims discount on Bupa By You; if you hold a different Bupa product, ask which of the two applies to it.
The price of treatment and the arrival of new drugs are out of your hands. Age and location depend on who is on the policy and where they live. If the notice gives a single figure, ask Bupa how much of the rise each of these accounts for.
Where you sit on Bupa's fourteen-level scale
The part of the increase that depends on you is your level on the no-claims scale. A new Bupa By You policy begins at level 12:
"You'll start at Level 12 with a 65% discount on the no-claims discount scale when you first take out your Bupa By You policy with us."
— Same leaflet, page 1.
The top is close: "Level fourteen is the highest level, with 70% discount." On the leaflet's rules a policyholder who never claims gets there after two claim-free renewals, and from then on a quiet year has nothing further to earn on the scale. Below the top, the rule is:
"If you haven't claimed, you'll move up one level on the no-claims discount scale. The higher the level you're at, the higher your discount is."
— Same leaflet, page 2.
What a claim costs you on the scale
The size of the claim sets the drop, and the leaflet gives three bands in a worked example it introduces with "for example":
| Value of claims counted | Effect on your level |
|---|---|
| Up to £300 | You stay where you are |
| More than £300 but less than £1,200 | Down two levels |
| More than £1,200 | Down three levels |
The rows follow the leaflet's page-2 text. The diagram on its first page labels the three-level drop "£1,200 or more", while that text says "more than £1,200". If a claim of yours comes to £1,200 or close to it, ask Bupa which row it falls in.
A claim of up to £300 therefore leaves your level where it was. Whether a claim also feeds into the premium Bupa calculates before the discount is worth asking Bupa directly.
The counting window, and whose claim it is
Three more rules in the leaflet decide whether a claim moved your level.
- The window. "For your first renewal, we'll consider the value of any claims we've approved for payment in the first 10 months of your policy." From the second renewal on, the window is twelve months: "the last two months of your previous policy year and the first 10 months of your current policy year". On that description, a claim approved in the two months before a renewal falls outside that renewal's count and into the next one's. Claims count when Bupa approves them for payment, and "we don't count any excess you may be responsible for paying", so the figure that matters is what Bupa pays, not the whole bill.
- Whose claim. "Everyone on the policy has their own no-claims discount. This means your discount isn't affected if someone else claims and you don't." On a couple or family policy, one person's claim moves only that person's level.
- What is left out. "Some claims won't affect your no-claims discount scale at all." The leaflet's list: Dental Cover Add-on, Dental Allowance, NHS Cash Benefit payments, the Face-to-Face GP Service, and claims under the Members First Option.
Together these let you check the level on your notice: total what Bupa approved for payment in the window, set aside anything on the excluded list, and see which row of the table the total lands in. If your level fell further than that allows, ask Bupa to show its working against your own record of claims. And if the answers leave you looking elsewhere, a broker can put the same cover to several insurers, and filling in this page's form starts that.
Tax and the contract itself: two things that move a Bupa premium outside your claims
Two clauses in the Bupa By You policy guide (BINS 14718), dated only by a 2024 copyright line, can move the premium whatever you claimed. The first is about tax:
"If the IPT rate changes or any new taxes or charges are introduced, we'll change the amount of the premiums you have to pay."
— Bupa, Bupa By You policy guide (BINS 14718, 2024), page 39, read 4 September 2026.
The same page says premiums are paid "(including Insurance Premium Tax (IPT))" in advance, while the leaflet applies the discount to the premium excluding it. A change in the tax rate therefore reaches the figure you pay with no claim of yours behind it. The wider tax position, as we understand it and not as tax advice, is on the tax and cost page.
The second clause is on page 43:
"We can change these terms, the premiums, any discount or preferential rates and the cover available to you and your dependants or other policy terms, at your renewal date. If we make any changes, we'll write to let you know at least 28 days before the renewal date."
— Same guide, page 43.
The right to change the premium and the discount sits in the same sentence as the right to change the cover, so read the notice for changes to the policy as well as to the price. Twenty-eight days is a floor, since Bupa says it will write "at least" that far ahead. The clause puts no figure on how large a change can be.
Asking Bupa for a different excess or fewer add-ons
Page 42 of the guide lists what you can ask for at renewal:
"At your renewal date you can ask us to: add, remove or change an excess remove any Add-ons change any of your cover options. We'll let you know if we can make the change(s) you request and whether your premium will change."
— Same guide, page 42.
Each change is a request, and Bupa's reply says whether the premium moves. A higher excess, fewer add-ons or a narrower option usually brings a premium down; how far shows only in Bupa's reply, and a broker can talk the trade-off through with you free on a call-back. One line on page 9 bears on the excess in particular:
"Your excess renews at the beginning of each policy year even if you're mid way through treatment. So, your excess could apply twice to a single course of treatment if your treatment begins in one policy year and continues into the next policy year."
— Same guide, page 9.
Whatever a higher excess saves on the cover, it raises what a claim costs you, and on that wording a course of treatment running across the renewal date can meet it twice. How the excess works within a year is on Bupa health insurance: excess; weighing the settings against one another belongs to the Bupa renewal page.
Getting Bupa to break the figure down
A notice that shows only the new total hides both steps. Ask Bupa to set out, in writing:
- the premium it calculated before any discount, this year and last, and the IPT added to it;
- each person's level on the fourteen-level scale before and after this renewal, and the discount each level carries;
- the claims it counted in your window, at the value it approved for payment, and whether any were on the leaflet's excluded list;
- how much of the rise before discount came from age, from a change of address, and from the cost of treatment;
- any change to cover or terms made under the page-43 clause, and the date its letter was sent.
Keep Bupa's reply with the notice. Deciding what to do next, including the underwriting risk of moving insurer, is the job of your renewal price: what to do.
Short answers on a higher Bupa price
Will my Bupa premium come down if I stop claiming?
Bupa's leaflet says it is "unlikely that the cost of your cover will go down, even if you have a no-claims discount". A claim-free year moves you one level up the scale, to the ceiling at level fourteen, and earns a smaller rise than a claim would; the premium underneath still tends to climb with age, drug prices and new treatments.
Can Bupa change my cover as well as my price at renewal?
On the Bupa By You guide, yes: the page-43 clause covers terms, premiums, discounts and cover, with a letter at least 28 days before the renewal date. If your policy is a different Bupa product or a company scheme, ask Bupa whether the same clause applies.
Does every insurer count claims the way Bupa does?
Not necessarily. Vitality's Personal Healthcare membership guide (August 2024, page 39; broker-hosted copy, read 10 October 2026) works with bands rather than levels: the amount Vitality paid puts a plan into a claims band, and the thresholds turn on the number of adult members, 18 or over, and are shown on the membership certificate. That is Vitality's rule, not Bupa's.
Once Bupa has answered, the choice is yours. To see the same cover priced by other insurers first, enter it on the form and the broker who calls can ask them; leave enough time to do it before the renewal date passes.