Insurance Advice

[Buggles]

hi Everyone,

My bike's coming up for it's insurance renewal quite quickly (end of the month) and my current insurer has let me know that they no longer offer insurance for England, Scotland & Wales anymore (just Northern Ireland).

So now I'm scrambling for a new insurer, but all the quotes I'm finding are stupidly expensive (comprehensive cover).

They vary from 600 to 1000 pounds a year (with excess up to £500)...

I've tried Gocompare, Wicked Quotes, Swiftcover and many more...

Also, in Gocompare, I fill out my modifications (crashbar and top box) and all of a sudden, no one will quote anymore...

As this is all new for me (insuring a bike in the Netherlands is far, far easier) does anyone have any tips?

JB

[Wee Jack]

I use moneysupermarket as a first stop ...........

From the list that that threw up, I tried Tesco insurance and got a great quote......

I always shop round every year for my insurance , any time I have tried to renew with the same company it is always way over the top , and I have never made an insurance claim in my life !!!

I do not understand insurance companies renewal practices - it seems to me that they don't try to keep good customers ?????

[Lumiya]

ebike, bennetts, carolenash, footman james and adrian flux are the first insurance companies we go to... But we do tend to run either classic (my GPz) or heavily modified bikes

[Zenarchy]

I use Ebike. They'll allow you to select a range of modifications and extras when you get the quote and I've added luggage, upgraded airfilter, crashbars etc. on. Didn't seem to add any extra cost onto my quote (at least for the modifications I selected) and they appeared to just go from the overall insured value you enter which will include the cost of extras.

After my first experience dealing with an insurance company on the phone for my first bike (absolute numpties!) I've gone with ebike ever since, as you can handle the whole policy yourself online and aren't relying on a telephone operator to get it right (my first policy I organised over the phone they got more of my details wrong than they did right - still can't figure out how they messed it up so badly!).

Some people seem to get amazing deals from Ebike, but mine have always been a bit on the expensive side (but I go with them because I like their online system so much and it's so easy to manage, add remove bikes, and so on - you can control the whole of your policy online and change it yourself whenever you need to and it'll just tell you how much extra or less it'll be for you to confirm you want to proceed before the policy change takes place).

Might be worth a look as it only takes a few minutes to fill in the quote form and it'll give you a price immediately at the end. If you fit the right profile you might be one of the lucky ones that gets a good deal from them.

Best to check their terms carefully though as I think they have exclusions for riding other peoples bikes (even if you're fully comp) and might have some exclusion about track days or off-roading etc. I can't remember exactly (I'm only third party fire and theft with them).

Reviews seem mixed with them like with every insurance company I've came across though, and I've never needed to claim myself so can't really say personally how good they'd be.

If you're looking for the best price, it's probably best to start calling them up on the phone and playing them off against each other rather than going from the online quotes (I know some people have saved hundreds doing that - I think they're more likely to give you a deal over the phone if they think they're going to lose the sale to another company so if you have the time and inclination to spend an afternoon on the phone to them it might get you a better price).

There's a big list here:

http://www.xsmotorcycleschool.co.uk/?Page=Insurance

Ebike I don't think do quotes over the phone, only online though so probably not much use calling them unless you need help with their system or a policy you've taken out already.

[GOG 007]

http://www.hastingsdirect.com/ just renewed with these guys, best quote for me, and the excess is low, of course will depend on age,machine,accidents, etc but I was pleased with £146.00 for the Alp and breakdown cover

[digitalcaptive]

Carole Nash insure my tiger full comp with breakdown cover £194.00 £250 excess (and I've only been passed my test since last April)

I don't think a top box or crash bars count as a modification do they?

That would be like saying the roof box on a car is a modification

hi Everyone,

My bike's coming up for it's insurance renewal quite quickly (end of the month) and my current insurer has let me know that they no longer offer insurance for England, Scotland & Wales anymore (just Northern Ireland).

So now I'm scrambling for a new insurer, but all the quotes I'm finding are stupidly expensive (comprehensive cover).

They vary from 600 to 1000 pounds a year (with excess up to £500)...

I've tried Gocompare, Wicked Quotes, Swiftcover and many more...

Also, in Gocompare, I fill out my modifications (crashbar and top box) and all of a sudden, no one will quote anymore...

As this is all new for me (insuring a bike in the Netherlands is far, far easier) does anyone have any tips?

JB

[Buggles]

The quotes I've gotten sofar have been crazy expensive. Apparently this is part due to my having an EU License, as opposed to the full UK one.

They don't seem to take into account that lesson and examination standards in the Netherlands are much higher than they are in the UK (no offence intended to any of the instructors on the forum).

They're also unable to account for my advanced riding course, as it was giving by the Dutch equivalent of IAM or ROSPA (the same instructors that train our motorcycle police officers).

Finally, according to most insurers, parking a bike in a secure gated parking lot (residents only, electronic gate) is the same as parking it on the street :confused

I'm going to change my license to a full UK one, as that seems to make a huge difference (40% on some quotes). It'll take some time, as it requires me to go to the DVLA and hand in my license (either that or send them my license, and my passport, they must be joking).

So we'll see what happens...

I'll definitely give eBike and moneysupermarket a shot once I've had my license converted!

Thanks for the suggestions!

JB

[Whealie]

If there is no way you'll

• take a pillion
• leave it outside
• ride more than X,000s miles a year
• add to it/modify it
• change bike
• add another bike

then try the websites and certainly tell this to any broker you call. All these things will make it cheaper. If you think you might need to change any of these things mention it because you need a policy that allows changes without huge costs.

Some policies will ony cover one bike, others can have an extra bioke added, for example.

If you ever use your bike for work (not just to and from your main place of work but anywhere else) you must tell them that (it will cost more).

If you have points on your licence, even for car driving , or you have had any accidents or claims in the past five years (in any motor vehicle) you must tell them that.

If you have any other convictions too, you must tell them (that will make getting cover very difficult, as insurance is based on utmost good faith and insurers find it hard to have utmost good faith in a criminal).

And look at the excess and the extras. The lower the excess the more expensive usually, but also are they including breakdown cover or adding it afterwards?

Try the bike brokers first Carole Nash, Bennets, etc