eBike insurance - any problems?

[m33ufo]

I've just taken out a policy with eBike, the quotation seemed good value - slightly less than BMW and around 100 pounds less than my old insurer, MCE.

I should probably have asked this before actually arranging cover but has anyone had any problems?

 

[Amstel_Stu]

no worries, I have the same and as you said it was about 100 squid cheaper than BMW. Also, and this is the best bit you are covered 365 days anywhere within the EU and not restricted by 3 months or some other rubbish and having to pay the extra....therefore no worries and I guess by my standards you did the right thing!

 

[unhinged]

Never claimed from them so don't know about that angle. They were cheapest at the time though Carole Nash were cheaper this time round. They removed the ability to add other bikes temporarily to the policy which you could do over the phone at one point and were promising to be able to do via the web site but then removed the option completely meaning I couldn't borrow Steptoe's loan bike during services which was a right pain at times and was 15 or 20 quid a throw when I was able to. Meant that CN turned out to be better value anyway.

 

[SilverFish]

I agree with all of the above about value and ease of use.

But, Im going through a claim at the moment, and they are take their sweet bleeding time over it!

The problem isnt with eBike as such, but their supporting company who provide the claim management - The Claims Service. They in turn have other 3rd parties who provide engineering reports and liaise with the garage for approvals etc.

I've been tied up in this knot of poor intercommunications for a couple of weeks now. I've called dozens of times, and each time I get sympathy and promises that it will be sorted, but I still have to call back when they don't deliver.

If they had kept to their promised dates and done the admininstration on time, my bike would have been fixed last week. Instead the garage cant even order the parts yet as they're waiting for faxed approval (which was sent on Thu, no wait - we phoned them Friday sir, oops no - we sent an email this morning - actually hang on, we should be able to get it done today.... )

To be fair, if the repairs were below a certain limit, I dont think the above would have happened as it all could have been done without the need for 3rd parties Had I have known I would have tried to crash on something softer...

I've sent feedback to eBike using their website but I'm not holding my breath

Mike

 

[Bryn]

As Mike as said, their supporting company can get a bit confused, but on the whole my experience of a claim was good (if you could describe being punted off the bike by a car doing a U turn as you filtered past good )

Got the bike repaired (£2500 worth of repairs), got my NCB reinstated and £500 for a bruised leg..and the claim company let me keep all the scuffed bits to forward on to willing takers

So.. another favourable write up of E-Bike

 

[Rom]

I have been with e-bike for 3 years, first claim in March this year, artic jack knifed and came straight through the central reservation taking out all 5 of us, killing 2, 1 hospitialised and 2 walking wounded. Out of the surviours I was the first to recieve a full payout for my bike and through a 3rd party my clothing, all within a month.

The claims service in my case were fantastic.
I have just re-newed with them which says it all really.

Rom

 

[wessie]

I took out bike insurance with Ebike in 2006 and later got my car insurance from them too.

I have not made a claim so can't report on that element of the service. What I do like is their web interface. Especially useful if you are changing a vehicle. You can get an instant quote for any additional premium and even print off a cover note so that you can tax your new vehicle, without waiting for Royal Mail to pull their finger out.

Unfortunately, in 2007 their renewal prices have not remained competitve. Carol Nash came in cheaper in August for the bike insurance, especially when you consider the Euro breakdown included in their price. My car insurance is due in a couple of weeks and again Ecar are way off the mark with their renewal quote.

 

[Droopy Dick]

I took out bike insurance with Ebike in 2006 and later got my car insurance from them too.

I have not made a claim so can't report on that element of the service. What I do like is their web interface. Especially useful if you are changing a vehicle. You can get an instant quote for any additional premium and even print off a cover note so that you can tax your new vehicle, without waiting for Royal Mail to pull their finger out.

Unfortunately, in 2007 their renewal prices have not remained competitve. Carol Nash came in cheaper in August for the bike insurance, especially when you consider the Euro breakdown included in their price. My car insurance is due in a couple of weeks and again Ecar are way off the mark with their renewal quote.

Do what I did.

Don't automatically renew.

Go the website 2 hours after your policy lapses and get a new quote. The system asks if you want to use all the details previously submitted originally.

My quote was £16 cheaper than the renewal quote!

As for claims ... my bike wa sput right quickly after being pranged in the rear by another GS rider last summer.

But someone, somewhere is proving to be a REAL pain trying to sort out replacement kit. They're asking to see all receipts AND to have the damaged kit sent to them for inspection.

They even tried to tell me that they would deduct wear and tear for my X-Spirit which was 7 months old.

And my biggest problem has been with the company handling the personal injury claim, getting reports from GP and seeing a specialist.

I got so annoyed with my GP for not sending stuff when requested (and approved by my signature) that I had words with him. He phoned me next day, having had the practice manager trawl through the events. Seems that Micrah had been sent THREE copies of my medical records, but has 'mislaid' two of them. They sent copies to the consultant looking at my back injury and didn't even send them recorded delivery.

I feel a rant coming on when I beard them in their den at the NEC next week.

 

[Sergeant Pluck]

Depends which way you look at it. If you're after paying the smallest fee for a document to flash at the rozzers when you get pulled, then eBike are fine, and usually cheap. Anything more than that, then in my experience eBike have been poor. I've fortunately not had to claim, but I have had to contact them a few times regarding various (important to me) issues - and they were completely hopeless. Not returning calls, not understanding the simplest of insurance-related questions, never remembering the last call, etc etc. That, along with an uncompetitive renewal quote, lost them my business then, and now whilst I don't mind insuring my cheap bike through them TP only (just to be legal, really), I wouldn't insure anything of any value with them or bother going fully comp.

Remember they are specifically an 'online' service: fine if everything goes to plan, but they do not want you phoning them up - it costs them money and it's not what they're about, and they pretty much tell you that on the website IIRC.

Just my experience....

 

[wessie]

Do what I did.

Don't automatically renew.

Go the website 2 hours after your policy lapses and get a new quote. The system asks if you want to use all the details previously submitted originally.

My quote was £16 cheaper than the renewal quote!

£16 eh? Not enough in my case. The renewal premium quoted by Ecar is £286. Going through a few of the online comparison sites (confused, Tesco, & moneysupermarket) I got a quote from Prudential for £201.

I then looked at Quidco.com and Prudential are offering a £95 cashback. So, I clicked the link from Quidco to get to Prudential. The same premium was quoted and my transaction has tracked at Quidco. Oh, and as a bonus, Prudential are offering free Green Flag cover too. Price includes legal cover and a courtesy car.

So, a net premium of £106 for full comp insurance on a new C2 VTS seems like a bargain to me.

 

[Droopy Dick]

£16 eh? Not enough in my case. .

Well, to be fair, my premium for 4 bikes, fully comp, is £106. I guess it'd be hard to come down much lower.

Probably the only nice thing about growing old ....

 

[m33ufo]

Started off well and then went down hill quite sharply

It's a 12K bike plus luggage so I of course will have fully comp cover. On the positive side, for me the website worked very well for the purposes of providing a quote - something that the BMW site didn't, I had to call them.

I assume I have a 14 day cooling off period so shall think over it and if I think I'd be better off giving BMW a go I shall. Out of interest, how do you feel about the BMW option??

Thanks for all the valuable feedback by the way

 

[Droopy Dick]

Started off well and then went down hill quite sharply

It's a 12K bike plus luggage so I of course will have fully comp cover. On the positive side, for me the website worked very well for the purposes of providing a quote - something that the BMW site didn't, I had to call them.

I assume I have a 14 day cooling off period so shall think over it and if I think I'd be better off giving BMW a go I shall. Out of interest, how do you feel about the BMW option??

Thanks for all the valuable feedback by the way

Opinions seem to vary widely about the BMW scheme.

To be fair, I don't think it's the insurance so much as Devitt who run the scheme for BMW and which is a sack of shite.

They often seem to lose paperwork, send threatening letters about things they've already got, and in my case took 7 months to actually send the policy documents, and then only after BMW Customer Services had a go at them.


Others swear by them.

My suspicion is that when they're good they're good, but when they're bad they're utterly dire.

I was able to list every extra I fitted to my GS with ebike, and it didn't seem to have loaded the premium at all.

 

[Dave56]

Can`t fault them

I`m in my third year with ebike now, I honetly can`t fault them.

Premiums have always been substantially lower than any of the other major motorcyclist insurance companies - Bennetts, Carole Nash, MCD etc., currently paying £170 fully comp for brand new (last week) fully loaded 1200GS which I don`t think is to bad.

But as everyone knows any insurance company is only good when it comes to making a claim!

 

[m33ufo]

I was able to list every extra I fitted to my GS with ebike, and it didn't seem to have loaded the premium at all.

I haven't actually listed factory fitted options within my bike details, I've simply put in a value. I may run through it again and list things individually.

 

[pauly]

I've decided to change back to Carole Nash this year from ebike. I haven't had to claim (touch wood) with ebike so I can't comment on what they are like when it matters. However, due to a cock-up in their system, I didn't receive a renewal notice. Luckily I checked before the policy expired but I could have been riding uninsured. A couple of things I didn't like about ebike was the length of time on hold when you phone them (0870 number too) and also not being able to get a quote over the phone. Carole Nash were slightly cheaper for me this year also which clinched it

 

[wessie]

I've decided to change back to Carole Nash this year from ebike. I haven't had to claim (touch wood) with ebike so I can't comment on what they are like when it matters. However, due to a cock-up in their system, I didn't receive a renewal notice. Luckily I checked before the policy expired but I could have been riding uninsured. A couple of things I didn't like about ebike was the length of time on hold when you phone them (0870 number too) and also not being able to get a quote over the phone. Carole Nash were slightly cheaper for me this year also which clinched it

I don't understand this "I could have been riding uninsured" - the law is quite clear, the onus is on the rider to ensure they are covered when riding a bike. A renewal notice from an insurance company is a courtesy: their legal duty is to provide insurance cover up until the expiry date. They have no obligation to offer you cover beyond that date. Obviously, most companies will chance their arm and offer to renew your policy at a highly inflated price.

I haven't had a renewal notice from Ebike yet - it's 20 days until my car insurance expires, so no worries. However, I know the renewal price. I found out by logging onto their excellent website. It appears you can get a renewal quote about 30 days before the expiry date of your current policy.

and finally, if you go to http://www.saynoto0870.com/companysearch.php you can get an alternative to the 0870 number - 01454 634501

 

[pauly]

Their system had failed to generate a renewal so I was unable to follow the website route either. It just didn't give me much confidence. I have had problems with their system before when I added another bike to the policy.

 

[SPL]

Not sure if it is the same now, but I found in the small print on my policy that they DO NOT COVER YOU FOR OTHER BIKES - not even RTA level.

So, you are illegal if you borrow a mates bike for half an hour to try it out.

I do this quite a bit (accepting that if I bend it I mend it) but with Ebike I was breaking the law and didn't realize until later.

For that reason alone I went somewhere else at renewal.

 

[alimey4u2]

Erm, When you get the policy, does it not say the date/time of termination....Am I missing something here....