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Insurance Frustration
Blog Date - 17 January 2012
For several years now I've had a multibike policy. It has always made sense to have one policy for 2 bikes, I guess the thinking is that I can only ride one at a time so apart from the risk of theft there's only a 50% chance of having an accident for each bike. I have priced up insuring the bikes separately but as I only have 1 lot of no claims bonus I can only transfer this to one insurance policy. Ever get the feeling things are weighted in the insurers favour?
Currently I own a old and tired 125 and a used but in good order 600, and it's that time of year to renew my policy. I have 8 years no claims bonus and last year I paid around the £250 mark for a policy that covered both bikes fully comprehensive. This year to my dismay the renewal came through at £335, dagnammit. I totally definitely and completely do not believe in loyalty when it comes to insurance or utilities. I know that they'll dump on you from the highest height and drop you like a hot potato if it suits there whims. They simply want to make money out of you and rely on laziness and inertia to do this.
One problem with the comparison websites is that they generally only quote for one bike. You have to go to the specialist motorcycle insures such as Carole Nash and Bennetts to access the ability to quote for two or more machines online. Carole Nash, who used to be competitive for me, were way off the mark at well over £400. Bennetts, who I am currently insured with and had sent a renewal price of £335, quoted me £270! That means I'm at least paying £60 over the odds just because they hope I'll be lazy and let the insurance automatically renew, how rude is that!
Still I ploughed on. I went to a handful of the more famous comparison websites and got quotes for the 600. Remarkably I can insure this bike, fully comprehensive, with protected no claims bonus, for around the £120 mark. Hmmmmmm...I wonder how much it would cost to insure the 125 on it's own too. I ran this through a few comparison site making sure to state there would be 0, none, nil years no claims. That was typically coming out around the £170 mark. That's a total of £290. Cheaper than the current renewal but not as cheap as taking out a new policy with Bennetts for both bikes.
Well, now, let me see. The 125 probably has a value of £300 - £400. If it were to be damaged in a crash of my own doing whereby I would claim on my fully comprehensive insurance, there would be around a £300 excess. So I'd get £100 back. Then of course if I made a claim I'd lose my no claims bonus on the 600, and the car too. Yes, that's right, if I claimed on the 125 policy when my CAR insurers asked me if I'd made a claim in the last 5 years I would have to declare my motorcycle claim. Ever get the feeling things are weighted in the insurers favour? If that were the case I'd have to spend many hundreds more on insurance, making a net loss if I ever were to claim for bending the 125.
Another hour or so of looking at third party fire and theft policies for the 125 and I found Devitt's would cover me on the 125 for £106. That's better. No no claims, TPFT and garaged, for £106. OK, super, cool. Now to the 600. Using a quote from Tesco I found Hastings to be best, so I went direct to Hasting's website rather than give Tesco the bump. I got it down to £96! Wow, but that was without no claims protection. The site pointed me to make a call when I asked for protected no claims, I think having made several enquiries for both bikes it got it's knickers in a twist. The nice man on the phone after double checking all my details and making several legal points very clear, finally quoted me £106 for the 600, that's with 8 years no claims, garaged and fully comprehensive with protection too.
That means I went from an initial renewal of £335 to a total cover for both bikes of £212. That's a saving of over £120. Now, this took me 4 hours. 4 Hours of phone calls, form filling, endless quotes and double checking. But £120 for 4 hours work, that's £30 per hour. Well worth it I reckon. I can also start to build a no claims bonus on the 125 now too.
Still... Ever get the feeling things are weighted in the insurers favour?
Reader's Comments
Borsuk said :-
Just renewed the bike insurance, from £218 last year it is now, £291.40 as I live outside the UK. MCE wouldn't insure me as I am not a UK resident ended up doing a lot of searching till I found out I can get cover with Bikesure. They have some strange reasoning about foreigners being dearer to insure on a British vehicle, whereas in Spain I get quoted the same as a local does but with a British car. At least bikesure do cover non residents which is more than most of them do.
"Still... Ever get the feeling things are weighted in the insurers favour?" Too smegging right they are.
12/01/2018 23:53:54 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Insurance - legalised protection racketeering.
I'd never considered the complexity of your circumstances Borsuk and to be frank I'm impressed that you found a solution. Albeit a costly one.
13/01/2018 08:17:13 UTC
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