MY complaint to the financial ombudsman re insurance

[Fazer Jake]

Thought i'd write an email complaining about insurance re mods.  :P

Dear Sirs,

Recently after renewing my motorcycle insurance i noticed now you must declare any modifications to your motorcycle. It appears insurance companies are severley taking advantage of this.

For example,

An aftermarket exhaust with no power benefits over the standard manufacturers insurance companies think its acceptable to increase the price to 100% more than orginally quoted.
I have also experienced price increases for cosmetic modifications such as heated grips and bellypans which is ridiculous.

This in my eyes is extremely unfair, during renewal we are encouraged to list all modifications with the insurers whether or not they are performance increasing as in the event of a claim, the insurance will be rendered invalid due to not declaring the modifications.

In comparison to car insurance, you could have an after market exhaust fitted by quick-fit this would make no differences what so ever to your insurance premiums, in my eyes this is the exact same as aftermarket motorcycle exhaust which is based on the original manufacturers.

An insurance broker which appears to be taking advantage of this is Express Insurance.

Yours Faithfully,
Jake Bousfield.

Be surprised if i got a reply

[MadDogMcQ]

As far as I can see, the only thing to do these days with insurance, is pay as little as you possibly can. Forget all that clap-trap about good companies and bad companies - they're all a bunch of thieving 2wats as far as I'm concerned. Not only do they do their utmost to wriggle out of every claim (by employing unscrupulous loss-adjusters who get paid to screw you and save the insurers money), but they also rob you when you want to make an address change or cancel a policy or anything else.


Have I suffered theft-attacks during the last 33 years? YES, on an annual basis by feckin insurers!! 
 
Tom

[Lawrence]

but they also rob you when you want to make an address change or cancel a policy or anything else.

When I changed my insurance from my 125 to my FZS the premium stayed the same but the admin fee was £60     On a £140 policy 

[AdieR]

I'm with Aviva, and when I enquired about the cost of insurance to fit heated grips and luggage (topbox), I didn't get charged any extra. I did get charged extra when I bought the Fazer, but to be fair it was a far bigger bike than what I'd had before, rather than admin charges.

FWIW, I had a claim on a works policy (also Aviva) after a van decked the bike 10 days after I'd bought it, accident happened Tuesday with the claim settled by Friday, and the bike assessed by the following Friday.

If you're going through brokers, try going directly to insurers (that way you avoid brokers fees etc).

[bludclot]

 
jake
 
good move, somebody needs to address the current state of affairs as it's not consumer friendly.
 
i have other points about modifications that i make on the phone every year for in case the call is recorded and it ever comes to court:
 
when asked are there any other modifications i say:
 
'you have to understand that my bike is 11 [in my case] years old and i am the fourth owner. i am not a yamaha tranied expert and cannot be certain which dealer options were fitted when the bike was supplied new. as far as i know the bike is standard but i have not taken the time to investigate every part fitted and compare this to the yamaha specification sheet, any more than any customer of yours has done, so apart from the exhaust can already declared it looks pretty standard to me.'
 
technically of course a vehicle is modified every time it it used. when a stone lodges in a tyre tread groove the vehicle is modified. when the oil and filter are changed and original yamaha (or ford or whatever) oil is not used the vehicle is modified. when i ask the person on the phone which make of oil and air filters they currently have fitted to their car they never know! so how can we be expected to know? and yet we can reasonbly assume (ok hope at least) that every vehicle in use on our roads is insured, so the insurance companies must accept that there will be a certain modification level for each and every one of them that is tolerated.
 
this is a stick that we really shouldn't be beaten with.

[DILLIGAFF]

A few years back when trying to reduce my car insurance renewal I asked if it would reduce my premium to remove the cover for travel to and from work. They asked me why and I said I no longer needed this as I worked from home so my car was normally left in my locked garage all day.






They INCREASED my premium by £30  ?????????????????????????....................... but DID NOT get my business.

[wfbroddy]

Carol Nash only ask if the aftermarket pipe increases HP by more than 5% if it doesn'tthey ignore the fact.

never been asked about heated grips

[Tmation]

Why would you think if you modify your bike you shouldn't pay extra for it?
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[/size]Say you buy a £5,000 bike you would expect to pay say [/size]£250. If you then add a [/size]£1,000 or so of extras surely you can expect a [/size]£50 or so increase. Now if this increases your bikes performance or its attractiveness to thieving toe rags its reasonable to expect to pay even more. Say your bike got knocked over in a car park and damaged your £50 heated grips, if you hadn't declared them why should the insurance pay out or not just give you the [/size]£5 cheap rubber ones. What if at the same time your [/size]£400 Zumo GPS was smashed should they pay for that if you hadn't been charge excess premium?
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[/size]I am not defending insurance companies, as I agree they just take your money and then make every effort to not pay out and I agree with MadDogMcQ, pay as little as you can and hope you don't have to claim.

 

[ghostbiker]

I am looking now for insurance again as affter my full claim on mine the company i am with wont insure it cat c
Now i have called 7 or 8 companys today trying to get insurance cover.

some wont alow my extensive mod list, others wont allow cat c so out of the ones i called no one will insure me as the bike stands.
the mod list puts them on the back foot then the cat c finish's them off lol


29 mods on the bike from jet kit to tank pad and all were listed on my old policy with just a £8 increase because of the top box lol

im going to just tell them about the in your face mods from now on and keep those to as small amount as i can, no more than 3 or 4 as most places dont have box's for more than that.

[Fazer Jake]

Why would you think if you modify your bike you shouldn't pay extra for it?

Say you buy a £5,000 bike you would expect to pay say £250. If you then add a £1,000 or so of extras surely you can expect a £50 or so increase. Now if this increases your bikes performance or its attractiveness to thieving toe rags its reasonable to expect to pay even more. Say your bike got knocked over in a car park and damaged your £50 heated grips, if you hadn't declared them why should the insurance pay out or not just give you the £5 cheap rubber ones. What if at the same time your £400 Zumo GPS was smashed should they pay for that if you hadn't been charge excess premium?

I am not defending insurance companies, as I agree they just take your money and then make every effort to not pay out and I agree with MadDogMcQ, pay as little as you can and hope you don't have to claim.

 

Thats totally irrelevant, insurance companies payout on the basis of the motorcycle value minus the mods, declaring the mods wont get you a penny more unless you state the value etc.

[Lawrence]

Why would you think if you modify your bike you shouldn't pay extra for it?

Say you buy a £5,000 bike you would expect to pay say £250. If you then add a £1,000 or so of extras surely you can expect a £50 or so increase. Now if this increases your bikes performance or its attractiveness to thieving toe rags its reasonable to expect to pay even more. Say your bike got knocked over in a car park and damaged your £50 heated grips, if you hadn't declared them why should the insurance pay out or not just give you the £5 cheap rubber ones. What if at the same time your £400 Zumo GPS was smashed should they pay for that if you hadn't been charge excess premium?

I am not defending insurance companies, as I agree they just take your money and then make every effort to not pay out and I agree with MadDogMcQ, pay as little as you can and hope you don't have to claim.

 

Thats totally irrelevant, insurance companies payout on the basis of the motorcycle value minus the mods, declaring the mods wont get you a penny more unless you state the value etc.

You'd have to get an agreed value policy.  As said, just declaring them won't mean they're covered.  Your heated grips will be replaced with standard ones and your Ohlins shock will go back to standard unless they've agreed otherwise.

[bigralphie]

Would be ok if some of the insurance comps weren’t so poorly informed

I got into a piss with Avia when I bought my Dorsoduro because it was supplied with arrow (legal)cans from new. They insisted they were a performance mod and therefore would not insure the bike.
Ended up cancelling a running a policy that had only 3 months to run (losing the time from my accruing NCB) to insure with a more bike focused insurer ,they said if the cans said Aprilia on them it doesn’t matter

[Tmation]

Sorry didn't explain myself very well. I declared my mods and asked for them to be covered (like over 700 quids worth of SW Motech rack and Givi luggage) so I suppose thats agreed value. If you don't intend to claim for any changes you have made, I would still say its fair to pay more if you increases your bikes performance or its attractiveness to thieving toe rags.


In the past I have paid extra to cover helmets and leathers etc.


Oh and you do pay extra for car modifications, in the dim distant past the engine on my MK1 3.0L Capri blew up. I replaced it with a 3.1L rebuilt engine from Specialised Engines in Essex as it was cheaper than one from Fords, I also added a performance exhaust a  four barrel carb conversion and a K&N filter. Dam near doubled my premium for about 20bhp more.


As said shop around and get the cheapest




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