I am in the process of swapping bikes from my very tricked up ZRX1200R to a Multistrada 1200 DVT. The Rex has gone, the Multi is being serviced prior to coming to live with me I called my current insurer Carole Nash yesterday to try and do a swap over, expecting like a 40 quid admin fee as the old policy runs until May... Cue - multiple phone options, pressing of buttons, waiting and being transferred and being put on hold. A whole 35 minutes worth ! Eventually.... " Yes sir, we can do that for you right now - if you pay now on debit card it'll be £348 but with a £450 excess" ( a hundred quid bigger excess than my ZRX was/is) I got back up off the floor and enquired if that was for a year, or until May "Yes, that's until May" "I have an online quote open on my screen now from you guys quoting 275 quid for a year !" "Really, well online quotes can be cheaper, I'd advise you to take that out - call back and we MAY credit the difference" "May? but you cant be sure ?" " No sorry" " So I could have two policies open?" "Yes that is possible" So I cancelled the policy instead and got my confirmation of 9yrs+ NCB emailed to me lol - it still cost me 15 quid (plus the remainder of what I would have got back) to do that of course. I went back online and the two best quotes available I was prepared to run with were Ducati Insurance and Hastings Insurance..Oddly the Carole nash quote was now unavailable (must remember to delete my cookies next time) The only real difference in my two preferred choices being that Hastings had a 250 quid excess and Ducati wanted a 350 quid excess. I settled on the former and ( I dunno why I did this except it was cheap at an additional 22 quid) I added in personal cover, excess cover, uninsured loss cover and helmet and leathers cover - it may have also covered dodgy Chicken Tikka cover, it seemed all encompassing. So all sorted for a full year for just 267 sheckles Still cheaper than 5 months with Ms Nash ... I had been with Nash for 5 years too - so much for loyalty eh ?
You did the right thing, lose the current year & move on. Protected NCB (no claims bonus) is a must do now-a-days also. Throw in any advanced rider training for a bit more discount, you could add GPS tracker for extra discount.
I have protected NCB and also did a Bikesafe with the local police a while back to help out. Irrespective of any insurance savings, the Bikesafe was brilliant..I learned more in that one day with a traffic cop than I had in two hundred or so years I had been riding before Done advanced on 4 wheels too
I've insurance with Hastings on the LR and as i did pick up 3pts last year for speeding they've bumped the renewal premium by £60. .....tossers insurance companies
Ditching Carole Nash was a wise choice . Once upon a time they were " biker friendly " but those days appear to be long gone . At least they confirmed your no-claims history . They wouldn't even discuss my 10 years plus with them ..... the "reason " being that I hadn't been insured with them for more than 3 years ..... go figure , as the Americans say !
I ditched Carole Nash 3-4 years ago after having been with them for 25 years. Up till that point they’d always come good with their renewal quote then 3-4 years ago I got a renewal quote for £978 for my two bikes, when the previous year it’d been £430. So I rang them and asked why and if they could get it back down, only to be told that the6 couldn’t improve and that was their best rate. A couple of calls around and I got a quote from Principal insurance of £419 so I rang CN to say I’d not be taking their “offer” up and the person on the other end of the line said they’d match Principal!! I told them they’d had their chance and I was switching.......and got the codes etc to prove my NCD to Principal. Job done......or so I thought. I then received my credit card bill and lo and behold CN had taken £978 out of my account! I immediately rang them up, making a fuss told and them when I’d cancelled my cover with them, who I’d spoken to and when I’d got the NCD info/codes from them and told them that since I’d done everything correctly and they had confirmed it that they’d stolen my my money and asked if they’d like me to involve the police. To cut a long story short I got huge apologies and a cheque for £200 for my inconvenience too
Just a point of interest, my insurance is about £80/annum fully comp and including business - you people must be living in rough neigbourhoods
I live in South Yorkshire, known as Gods garden No trouble here and the sun shines all year round on the very righteous inhabitants (we still get robbed by the southern based insurance companies of course - I think they are envious of us)
You have Trump to thank for those high premiums. The car insurance mafia is a cartel that exhibits text-book anti-trust malfeasance: price-fixing, market-share fixing, territory fixing, collusion from top-to-bottom ... imagine having a government and an establishment that was prepared to enforce the laws that already exist, in order to bring insurance companies into compliance. No. I cannot make that mental leap either.
Great, however I would query whether that is an actual recognized advanced rider qualification. Such as IAM or ROSPA which I would highly recommend. I've rejoined my local (IAM 10%discount code)coventry & warwickshire advanced motorcyclist group for my 5th year. Purely really for their social nights & occasional ride-outs' Advanced rider qualification is worth 5% discount overall at minimum with good insurance companies.
One of my bikes is with Bennett’s. Whrn getting my quote (phone) he asked if I had any training qualifications. I said, Yes, IAM when I was 19 years old but I am no longer a member and can’t prove it. He said, Never mind, we will stick it on. Go figure (yee-ha).
I refused to use Carole Nash when I found out it was the same company as Adrian Flux. Hate them with a passion after an issue years and years ago. I’ve been with Bemoto for 3 or 4 years now and they’ve always been good except this year when they kicked the arse out of it for the new S1000RR. To be fair they’re still the cheapest and the titanium policy is very good. The new Beemer is about £200 a year more to insure than my 1299S
I find it very much depends on the cost of adding those extras? I’ve never protected my NCB and in the past I’ve had bikes stolen, crashed/repaired and written off. If you make a claim you usually lose 3yrs bonus, if you have a fairly healthy bonus then the difference between 9yrs and 6 was £25 for me. Also things like alarms/trackers etc save around £10 per year, so it’ll take around 20-30yrs to get a return on the investment. Obviously there are many factors that affect the price of premiums but the best saving you can make is move to a better area and build a brick garage. Protecting your NCB does not protect your premium price, if you have a prang or your bikes stolen you are marked as a higher risk and your premium goes up, that’s why when you apply for a new quote they want to know if you’ve made a claim in the last 5yrs before they are interested in what your NCB is.
The test would be if you ever had to make a claim, cos I’d bet my bollox and yours too that the insurance company would declare your policy null and void.
