Bennett’s insurance. Advice needed, to make a claim for probable write off.

As I said, the sale of insurance products to the man on the Clapham omnibus, is supposed to be one of the most strictly regulated areas of financial conduct.

Off the shelf Motor insurance providers seem to have found a way around some of the regulations. I can only assume legally or the regulator just can’t be bothered, if the complaints don’t stack up high enough on his in-tray. My thought on this is that for the vast bulk of the insurance demands for the owners of the 33,000,000 cars in the UK, the current method of selling insurance seems to work.

Forget any notion of ‘long term relationships’, that went out of the window when the first comparison / quote me cheap websites first appeared, probably in the early to mid-80’s, nearly half a century ago. In a word, insurance (a contract of indemnity) was, for the first time, turned into a commodity, no different to a tin of baked beans. Shop around and get yourself a deal each year. It was why the free market was created. Not least, remember that - for the majority of enquiries - you’ll be dealing with a call centre, the bod on the other end not knowing one end of a pencil from the other. That’s a quality that may well be shared by the bod on the other end of the line, too.
 
Regulation in lots of sectors has a process.

If not happy ask them for a copy or look online for their complaints process. Typically follow this process and if not satisfied escalate to the insurance ombudsman.

If your expectations are reasonable and are as per the policy you purchased you will be fine.
 
Wapping said:
Good stuff. I think they are a shower of shite, too.
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Seeing as we're singing from the same hymn book;

So, my sad tale of Bennetts offering me a price on Go Compare, only to ask for another £70 once I confessed to my outgoing bike being higher capacity and owned for 7 and a half claim free years.

Had I agreed to their revised quote, would they simply have trousered the £70 on top of the brokers fee?
When the predictable renewal hike comes because you couldn't find the little box to tick to opt out of auto renewal, does the broker simply pocket that also?

I can't believe the insurance company benefit in any way from these underhand tactics.
 
Got regally p*ssed off with CN a few years back when they gave me a ridiculous quote so I called up and their minion gave me a quote that was approx a third of the initial quote , accepted it and paid and then an hour or so later a senior supervisor rang to say I had been misquoted and they could not honour the price. (I believe he had quoted me their cost price from the insurance company and anything over that they can screw out of you is pure profit).
 
Neil W said:
I believe he had quoted me their cost price from the insurance company and anything over that they can screw out of you is pure profit).
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Seems to me the Insurance take all the risk, while the broker creams off all the extra profit.

What I can't grasp is why brokers don't appreciate the steady income loyal customers bring (or should I say brought) to their company.

Take Bennett's for instance. In the 20 odd years I stuck with them, they grew from a brokers shop in Coventry, to the event sponsoring monster they are today.
They were built on solid, reliable customers like me.
So why would they want to lose that foundation by doubling the premium on the small chance they could pull it off?

This really is a game they started, not us!
 
It was refreshing today to contact bemoto and actually be able to discuss my renewal with Arron who gave good advice and great customer service from someone who understands motorcyles and gives unbiased advice......it just so happens he saved me £77 on renewal.
Highly recommended !
 
Shinyface408 said:
It was refreshing today to contact bemoto and actually be able to discuss my renewal with Arron who gave good advice and great customer service from someone who understands motorcyles and gives unbiased advice......it just so happens he saved me £77 on renewal.
Highly recommended !
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Lucky you, every time I have tried them each renewal for the last 3 years, they have been useless.
 
Have gone directly to AXA, Aviva, Ageas and LV in the last couple of years, but not sure if they still sell direct to public or through brokers only.
 
casbar said:
Are there any underwriters you can actually go direct to, these days. Ageis used to do direct, but they now only seem to allow through brokers. Guess LV etc are underwriters
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my car insurance is with https://www.ageas.co.uk/ but you are still dealing with a broker Ageas Retail Limited based at a call centre

they also sell travel insurance but this is from another broker part of the Hood Group.

Hastings only sell their own policies but it is a UK broker selling policies underwritten by a parent in another country.

Even if "going direct", you are always several steps removed from the underwriter sitting on their yacht moored in Monaco. You only deal with people in a call centre reading a script from a screen or making it up as they go along.
 
Most insurers, whether it be for motor or other lines of business, distribute their wares through a broker or similar intermediary or some sort of call centre / on-line ‘platform’ as it is efficient for them to do so. To do otherwise would require the insurer staffing up with umpteen ‘underwriters’ to field God knows how many unintelligible phone calls and barely legible emails from bikermates, enquiring (or moaning) about some aspect of their policy.

For everything else, just ask UKGSer, the sole authority on everything.

:beerjug:
 
I had/have two bikes with Bennett’s let’s call them A & B

Bike A owned the longest and had maximum no clams discount….

I then bought bike B……went to insure it…..with Bennett’s … new policy …..0 no claims as attached to other policy….

ok, seems fair……..

three years pass…….

bike A maximum….bike B three years…..

then disaster…….Bike A written off……….paid out - policy cancelled…..

Bike B comes up for renewal….. £100 increase……a claim….. “not on this policy I declare……”

“ ah ha… no sir … you have claimed…….” So you loose your no clams discount……..

but……..


but……..

you told me, I could not share my NCD across my new policy, but if I’ve claimed…..you can spread the joy across my policies……..

happy days.
 
First off, do you have separate policy numbers for each bike ? Was bike B on a separate policy or has the broker actually applied it to a multi-bike policy with bike A but not told you which is common practice it seems. If the NCB on bike B has actually been lost it seems possible that it was a multi-bike policy.

Following a claim, the gross premiums on all your policies will increase regardless of the NCB earned or if this is protected or separate for each vehicle. If separate policies the discount level on this gross could well remain the same at three years NCB but the overall price still rises, so it is worth checking if the NCB has actually been lost or they are just telling you that.

Separate policies means NCB on bike B is preserved if the claim was on bike A, so it does not seem to add up to me, unless of course they have in some way been linked by the broker, which is not what you paid for it seems. If you feel they have mis-led you it is worth going down the insurance ombudsman route if you get no joy from the broker/underwriter.

Think of it this way, a claim on bike A does not mean you lose NCB on your car so why should it be the case for bike B ?
 
GSite said:
First off, do you have separate policy numbers for each bike ? Was bike B on a separate policy or has the broker actually applied it to a multi-bike policy with bike A but not told you which is common practice it seems. If the NCB on bike B has actually been lost it seems possible that it was a multi-bike policy.

Following a claim, the gross premiums on all your policies will increase regardless of the NCB earned or if this is protected or separate for each vehicle. If separate policies the discount level on this gross could well remain the same at three years NCB but the overall price still rises, so it is worth checking if the NCB has actually been lost or they are just telling you that.

Separate policies means NCB on bike B is preserved if the claim was on bike A, so it does not seem to add up to me, unless of course they have in some way been linked by the broker, which is not what you paid for it seems. If you feel they have mis-led you it is worth going down the insurance ombudsman route if you get no joy from the broker/underwriter.

Think of it this way, a claim on bike A does not mean you lose NCB on your car so why should it be the case for bike B ?
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Same broker, two separate policies - neither on a multi bike policy…as far as I’m aware… two different policy numbers and different underwriters ( I think)
 
In which case, the NCB on bike B should not be affected as the claim was not on that policy.
However, the pre-discount price of bike B policy will rise but they apply the unaffected NCB % discount meaning the overall price will rise. If they tell you anything different, I would be very suspicious of the information they give you. Ask to speak to an underwriter or express your demands for more clarity in writing.
Good luck with it mate.
 
If both bikes are with the same underwriter that could be your issue. If they are on separate policies, NCB % discount on bike B should not be affected by claim on bike A. However, the gross premium on bike B will increase but with the % NCB applied still means an increase in price overall.
 
I’ll check out the policies…. Get a few more facts.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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