Insurance quotes

[Laverda Dave]

Well online with Footman James was a waste of time. Every bike I entered was either wrong details or not there at all. I just gave up as it means I would have to ring them again and life's too short for that again today. Just waiting for Adrian Flux to ring back with the classics quote. Been at this now for over 4 hours just tryng to get a reasonable quote. Ridiculous.

Yep, I can relate to that, very painful experience obtaining quotes from insurance companies. Carol Nash was always the worst to deal with. They would send a renewal quote far higher than I had paid for the previous year and I'd have to ring them and go through the same details they already had in their books for the same bikes I'd insured with them for the previous 10+ years! This would go on for at least 45 minutes. I gave up with them in the end.

[royhall]

Well after another 3 hours on the phone I have my insurance. That's a total of 7 hours I will never get back. My renewal with Peter James (been with them for 7 years) was just short of £600 when it was £320 last year due to a new bike going on it. Couldn't get through to Peter Best at all, just stuck in a line for ages. Footman James said they would call back today at 2pm and never did, Bemoto were even dearer than my renewal, Footman James website couldn't find my details correctly. There was a fair few more that went nowhere as well. In the end I have gone with Adrian Flux (BikeSure) for a combined price of £464 with the modern bike on a different policy to the classics. I had to give up the RAC cover and I cant carry a pillion (not done that for nearly 10 years anyway). At least it's finally sorted and I saved £132, I could have worked the 7 hours and earned more than that. One of the worst insurance experiences ever, at least it's 12 months before I have to do it all again.

[Oddjob]

I would never have insurance that didn't include pillion passengers myself Roy, the amount of times I've had mates on the back with his fuel tank on his knees because they'd run out of petrol is quite frankly alarming. Plus if you're on a ride and someone breaks down or feels ill at least they can get home on the back of you. Plus I carry my wife a lot, she loves being on the bike. She even fell asleep on the back of my old CB500 when we were going on honeymoon on it, not sure I'd advise doing that but I didn't know she was fast asleep until she told me when we stopped.

I'll have to do the same as you shortly, when the 500 gets back on the road I'll need a dual policy, oh what joy I have to look forward to 

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I thought passenger liability was compulsory under RTA legislation didn't know you could buy bike insurance without it. Live & learn.

[royhall]

I was going to ask about a combined policy for all bikes and cars but that would mean details of 9 vehicles. To be honest I don't think I will live long enough to get a competitive quote on that. Just 6 vehicles was taking an hour at a time. Why can't you just say 6 bikes all over 40 years old combined value £25000 (or whatever), then give me a quote. If I like the price then ask for the details. That entire industry is a mess.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[royhall]

As an odd footnote that may save you some money. They asked me how many miles I will be doing a year on each classic so I opted for the cheapest 999 miles. They didn't ask the existing mileage on the clocks nor are they MOT'd anymore, so basically you can do whatever miles you want as they have no way of knowing. That said, next post will probably bring a request for photo's of the clocks or something.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

I'm guessing the reality is most old bikes owned by older owners do not cover a great mileage at the best of times.

[MCTID]

Happily (not often when it comes to dealing with insurance companies and brokers) via GoCompare, I quickly and pleasantly just renewed my single bike Insurance for my 2007 CB600F.

I was insured with 'One Call' Insurance for a time but when their renewal quote went ballistic the other year - as did myself, I rapidly found a much more competitive quote on GoCompare so off I went.....and the deal was done in 10 minutes. Result.

Once again I used GoCompare to search for this years Insurance, and guess what - 'One Call' were the most competitive.

I realise that Insurers 'buy' Insurance by offering cheap prices and looking to grow their business by increasing their volume of Customers, but if One Call can be competitive this year, then how come they were off the scale last year ? I used to be an Auditor of Quality Management Systems, so maybe my background and exposure to some of the most successful companies around the globe has flavoured how I look at things, but surely the simple underlying factor of why Customers stay loyal is trust, honesty and value for money ?

For well over 20 years I had my two cars and household Insurance through Direct Line, but eventually I had had enough of their unjustified rocketing premiums. Their Chairman received a damning complaint which was ignored, so I walked - and have never looked back !

All Insurers start off their spiel with 'We demand that our Customers are open and honest in their dealings with us'...........if only these same Insurers were 'Open and honest in their dealings with their Customers' then the Insurance Business would perhaps no longer be viewed as 'being able to slide under a snakes belly whilst wearing a Top hat' !

[royhall]

The insurance for my modern bike was pretty easy, it was the 5 classics that were hard work, when really you would expect the other way around. This is the first year I have had separate policies for the classics and modern, previously they have always been combined.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[rbt1548]

Now, I am sure you are all aware of the the "voluntary excess" type, let's say, 'money making exercise', that goes on when trying to insure a bike.

 I have just recently bought a modern bike, a 2017 BMW F800r, having a classics policy with RH I will just add it to that at a not too unreasonable price, but I thought I would shop around to see prices elsewhere. Nine times out of ten when you look at the quote it has added some sort of varying scale of voluntary excess, as I always take no voluntary excess when getting a quote for my car or bike, I take it off and the price may just rise by a few pounds.

 Yesterday I got a quote from BeMoto for £465 for a single bike which was bad enough, and with a total excess of £500, made up of £300 compulsory and £200 voluntary, when informed I did not want the voluntary, the young lady sounded a bit shocked and said she would have to go and speak to someone, she then came back and asked me to confirm I did not want voluntary excess, I confirmed and she then said ok, 'without voluntary the price is now £465!', the exact same as with the £200 voluntary, I asked her why it was the same and she couldn't explain it, granted it is not the young lady's fault but it's totally ridiculous.

If I had been inexperienced, or not savvy enough to not want voluntary excess, should I have had an accident I would have ended up £200 out of pocket for taking the £200 voluntary excess for absolutely no benefit to me in reduction of premium at all.

 By all means if you have a low excess of say £50 or £100 and you think bringing it up to maybe £250 is fine and you're getting a good bit off your premium, do it, but check how much you are going to pay extra by not taking voluntary excess, possibly just a couple of quid, or in my case, absolutely zero.

[Johnny4428]

That’s ridiculous that excess carry on! But £465 for one bike?? That’s a touch steep.😡😡

[royhall]

£465 is three times what I paid on my Triumph Trident 660 (£151), and I have no voluntary excess.

[martyn916]

I recently moved from Carole Nash to Lynbrook Insurance due to a big hike in cost. Customer service was good as was the price £378 for 7 bikes ages ranging from 1950 to 1998 (Sunbeam S7 to Ducati 916 {tuned as well} plus the 500/4), all agreed value (total value £50.5K) with breakdown cover, etc. Only downside each is limited to 3,000 miles per annum but over 7 bikes that’s 21,000 which I’m unlikely to do in a year.

[rbt1548]

£465 is three times what I paid on my Triumph Trident 660 (£151), and I have no voluntary excess.

Agreed, £465 is totally ridiculous, who are you with for your Triumph?

[royhall]

After a long time on the phone getting quotes I ended up at BikeSure (Adrian Flux). Two separate policies for modern and classics.

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk