Insurance what a piss take.

[Townhill]

Spent a couple of wasted hours Saturday sorting out insurance on my bikes. I informed insurance about aftermarket end can F.F.S went down hill from there.


They needed informing about hand guards, heated grips, comfort seat, fender extender on and on. In the end I decided against multi policy as it was doing my head in. At one stage they wanted to raise my insurance by a whopping margin after some discussion and the threat to go else where it dropped again.


Any way Fazer arrives this Friday it is now taxed and insured ready to go happy days. I had to start a fresh no claims bonus policy on the Fazer due to the hassle with the KTM. I informed the new insurance about the heated grips and fender extender on the Fazer. The annoying thing is it makes you not want to trick your bike up. But if you don't they will wriggle out of paying you out somewhere.

[Dave48]

I fully sympathise with you re insurance.
I am about to start the annual haggle. Last year Fazer on its own was £115 fully comp. Now with the Tracer 700 they are asking £357! Havent told them about the Honda Cub 90 yet!
Re mods-some insurers only want to know about those that enhance performance-I hardly think heated grips & fender extenders come into that category.

[Townhill]

I fully sympathise with you re insurance.
I am about to start the annual haggle. Last year Fazer on its own was £115 fully comp. Now with the Tracer 700 they are asking £357! Havent told them about the Honda Cub 90 yet!
Re mods-some insurers only want to know about those that enhance performance-I hardly think heated grips & fender extenders come into that category.

I agree Dave heated grips, seat, extender fender, W.T.F proper annoying. I think it is a reason if you have a claim to start picking at any pay out your likely to get once they have market valued your bike. In a round about way doesn't matter what you value your bike at. The more you put a value on the bike the higher the insurance goes but you still only get the market value if you put a claim in. You might as well down value your bike on requesting a quote
                                                                               Steve
                                                                                                                          Steve

[BBROWN1664]

They ask you the value and base your premium on that too but then only pay out what they consider the market value is (unless you said it was worth less)

[fazersharp]

In a round about way doesn't matter what you value your bike at. The more you put a value on the bike the higher the insurance goes but you still only get the market value if you put a claim in. You might as well down value your bike on requesting a quote
                                                                            Steve
                                                                                                                          Steve

I think its a bit of a trap that they lead you to. They ask what is it worth and you say £3,000 so they then load the insurance but as said will only pay out market value £1000.
But watch out because if you say £500 to get the insurance down then £500 is all they will pay out and not the £1000 market value.

I am withy bennets this year and they have a list of accepted mods that wont add to the insurance cost. Same with my last insurance I had to list my mods otherwise they would not pay out for them in the event of a claim, stuff like hugger, braided lines, rad cover, declaring them did not add cost to the insurance.

But yes insurance is a piss take and I get sick of having to go through the annual haggle when my new quote is £100 more than my last one.     

[darrsi]

I was gonna say i saw an ad a while back by an insurance company saying they understood the need for simple mods and wouldn't charge extra, maybe it was Bennetts?
I declare my exhaust, but not much else, so i may look into using them in future.
Insurance will always be a con, no matter which angle you look at it.

[BBROWN1664]

I bought my bike 2nd hand. I know little about bikes and assumed the heated grips, rack and fender extender etc were fitted at the factory as standard equipment

[darrsi]

I bought my bike 2nd hand. I know little about bikes and assumed the heated grips, rack and fender extender etc were fitted at the factory as standard equipment

I've seen some that want you to declare decals???
What difference is a bloody sticker gonna make?

[darrsi]

Some good info here:


http://www.gocompare.com/motorbike-insurance/motorbike-modifications-and-your-insurance/

[darrsi]

The other thing to be weary of is if you start searching online declaring mods then try again elsewhere but ommitting them, i know they like to share their info so maybe something to think about?

[Graham53]

While not bike related my dog insurance renewal came in yesterday and went from £1000 a year to £1900 Went on meerkat site , same company offering better cover for £900 the mrs phoned em up threw a few fucks at em and they renewed it for £750 !!They all take the piss whatever you insure and try conning you every renewal in the hope you just go and carry on with the cover without checking around.I was a naughty boy once and was convicted of a non motoring offence and my 600 insurance then was £125 fully comp afterwards it went to £900 third party only and it was a struggle to find a company that would insure me BUT it didn't affect my car policy at all , fucking insurance it's legal theft really.

[BBROWN1664]

There are many insurance companies out there. What you don't realise at the outset is how many of them are under the same umbrella company. For example, Churchill, Privilege, NIG, Green flag, Prudential, Nationwide, RBS are all part of DirectLine and will all offer you different prices for exactly the same cover. All their back end services are shared so anything you tell one, the others will know about. eSure and Admiral between them have about another 15 brands they sell too.

[slimwilly]

Just moved my three over to Carole Nash, £80 less than Bennetts offered,,been with Bennetts forever.

09 Fireblade, 57 FZ1s and an old Husky endure = £517.00 inc euro cover fully comp. More than I wanted but heh ho

[Townhill]

Just moved my three over to Carole Nash, £80 less than Bennetts offered,,been with Bennetts forever.

09 Fireblade, 57 FZ1s and an old Husky endure = £517.00 inc euro cover fully comp. More than I wanted but heh ho

That's another point I had an argument with the insurance once when renewing on a multi policy. I understand the theft part of the of insurance cover fully.


But my point was when insuring on a multi policy I could only ride one bike on the road at a time. And the other bike/s would be in the garage not being ridden so why the high cost!


I sound like Mr Grumpy but I am not its just insurance and the way we are all being screwed because you have to have it. And once you are into bikes you are knackered because it gets hold of you.


                                                                                  Steve.

[pilninggas]

MCE allow you to have multiple mods, within a framework, and not declare them. They include exhausts, hand guards etc. In fact, by memory, the only exclusion relate to boosted engines, nitrous and frame mods, everything else they cover up to a certain number.

[darrsi]

MCE allow you to have multiple mods, within a framework, and not declare them. They include exhausts, hand guards etc. In fact, by memory, the only exclusion relate to boosted engines, nitrous and frame mods, everything else they cover up to a certain number.

That name rings a bell, i think that was the company i saw the ad for.

[Dudeofrude]

MCE allow you to have multiple mods, within a framework, and not declare them. They include exhausts, hand guards etc. In fact, by memory, the only exclusion relate to boosted engines, nitrous and frame mods, everything else they cover up to a certain number.

You'd be taking a big risk using MCE.
Now I'll add that i used them for 2 years and they were perfectly fine but apparently when it comes to making a claim they are worse than abysmal!
Just Google them and read some of the reviews. Some people have been charged £1000s after an accidents that weren't their fault. They've ripped so many people off its a wonder they are still in business
So I'd advise caution before putting trusting all your precious motorbikes with them

[fazerscotty]

MCE allow you to have multiple mods, within a framework, and not declare them. They include exhausts, hand guards etc. In fact, by memory, the only exclusion relate to boosted engines, nitrous and frame mods, everything else they cover up to a certain number.

You'd be taking a big risk using MCE.
Now I'll add that i used them for 2 years and they were perfectly fine but apparently when it comes to making a claim they are worse than abysmal!
Just Google them and read some of the reviews. Some people have been charged £1000s after an accidents that weren't their fault. They've ripped so many people off its a wonder they are still in business
So I'd advise caution before putting trusting all your precious motorbikes with them

  PLUS 1 too this comment...........

[sc0ttie]

I was on TPFT with bennetts last year, £78 that was. This years they offered a renewal of £85 same cover. I went on go compare, got a bennetts quote for fully comp, same excess details as what I had, that was only £4 extra at £88. So i paid for that this year. Quite pleased with that. And my 600 passed MOT on Saturday no advisories. chuffed. 

[pilninggas]

MCE allow you to have multiple mods, within a framework, and not declare them. They include exhausts, hand guards etc. In fact, by memory, the only exclusion relate to boosted engines, nitrous and frame mods, everything else they cover up to a certain number.

You'd be taking a big risk using MCE.
Now I'll add that i used them for 2 years and they were perfectly fine but apparently when it comes to making a claim they are worse than abysmal!
Just Google them and read some of the reviews. Some people have been charged £1000s after an accidents that weren't their fault. They've ripped so many people off its a wonder they are still in business
So I'd advise caution before putting trusting all your precious motorbikes with them

I went through a period of non fault accidents a decade ago, my experience is that most are pretty poor when it comes to claims: motorcycle direct, hastings and admiral all treated me badly, and I wouldn't used them again. I've had policies with nash, bennetts and ebike in the last few years, all have very good to very poor reviews by people claiming. It's a total joke across the industry when you claim.

[NorthWestern]

I seem to remember baron von grumble or his 44teeth channel interviewing a guy who had setup a biker specific insurance company. Was talking about allowing mods and whatnot and being sympathetic to bikers needs etc. Can't recall the name...will be on YouTube

[taylor]

they just put my car insurance up by 130, a year,   nothing has changed in that time,   so I phoned up to see why,  he said perhaps there have been a few accidents in my area.       ,    new ins company.

[Dudeofrude]

In my experience bennetts seems to be the best when it comes to mods. I can put everything in that I have done (even the pc3 and decat) except the paint job and it comes out at 220 a year fully compatible.  If I declare the paint job I'm looking at 770 and that's with some unknown company. Nobody else on the comparison site will touch it 😣😣

[Townhill]

In my experience bennetts seems to be the best when it comes to mods. I can put everything in that I have done (even the pc3 and decat) except the paint job and it comes out at 220 a year fully compatible.  If I declare the paint job I'm looking at 770 and that's with some unknown company. Nobody else on the comparison site will touch it 😣😣

All because of a paint job its like an annual wind up. There should be a health warning sent out with all renewals, reading this could seriously damage your health.
                                                             I go back to my title of this post its Piss take.
                                                                                                                 Steve

[darrsi]

There can't be any really good companies out there, otherwise we'd already all be using them. 

Word will always eventually get round about good business practice and value when people are reluctantly parting with money, but that doesn't really apply to insurance companies, they really are modern day Dick Turpin's.