Which is fine, if Bennetts:
A. Offer an overall competitive premium
B. Continue to accept the metal shed
Time and your efforts will tell.
Is insurance costs killing bike sales if you don't have a garage?
- Thread starter r1200rt
- Start date
Which is fine, if Bennetts:
A. Offer an overall competitive premium
B. Continue to accept the metal shed
Time and your efforts will tell.
I was looking to replace my stolen std R1200GS LC with a later Rallye spec GS. The price went from around £2.5k to £7.5k for the same bike, in a pretty frock. Only two insurers would quote.
Does the vstrom look 'special'?
My latest stroke inducing phone call with my current insurers was when I considered getting a V Strom 650 either instead of or in addition to the 1250. They wanted £900 for the Strom. I then went to the comparison sites - £1200-£1400. I abandoned the idea rapidly. I have no circumstances to concern insurers beyond my postcode. The last two years only one insurer has quoted for my business. Luckily, both were acceptable but expensive. It will be interesting to see how it develops over the next couple of years.
The comparison websites work on the simplest lowest common denominator, ie. a post code, as a starting point. Start with them as a base point only; who knows you might get lucky.
If (or probably, when) this fails then contact some specialist brokers for their quotes. A good broker will listen to all your details and then do their best to marry you to an underwriter who is prepared (and able) to listen.
I have an E1 post code, which is central London. I had to go to two competing specialist brokers *. to give me a single multi-vehicle policy for three motorbikes, five cars and a motorhome. The cars vary between a VW Polo (kept on the street), a vintage Fraser Nash TT Replica *, a Porsche GT4 (kept on the street, outside my house), a Ferrari 360 (kept in storage but I can keep it overnight on the street) and the motorhome, stored in the open on a farm in Mill Hill (an hour away). The motorbikes are all garaged at home and include a BMW 1600 which was north of £20,000 when new. That is not a typical list of ownership but a specialist broker managed to do it. It’s not cheap (north of £2000) but the vehicles are all insured and the policy is flexible. On the other hand, when bods are being refused insurance or quoted well north of £1000 for only a single motorcycle, it maybe looks like very good value. Yes, several (not all, by any means) of the vehicles have to have good quality trackers (not some shonky crap off EBay) and, yes, I have to pay a subscription to the tracker company. Yes, I do have to declare estimated mileages. I don’t have business use or include commuting ***. I do include pillion cover. My licence used to be clean (five years) but I have picked up one SP20 since last renewal.
* The policy renews in mid-April, I am starting the process now. I shop around every year. If people (irrespective of their premium) cannot be arsed to shop around (ie. make at least an effort) then they will in all probability be over paying.
** Value? £350,000. This is actually the easiest to insure.
*** I will occasionally ride a motorcycle into the City and park it under our office, but that is not commuting on a regular basis. It’s no different to me occasionally riding to Tesco and parking it in their car park all day. I do sometimes park the bike on the street in London, but I use suitable security. I did not have to detail any of this to my insurer.
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From experience, I agree with the above.
If you have any "non standard" situation (I have, not because of value, but garage location) comparison sites are fairly useless, as it's a race to the bottom.
Getting on the phone speaking with decent brokers usually gives best results.
As I said in another post, it's not the overall premium that bugs me (I think it's pretty fair at the end) but the obstacle course one have to do every year to insure the bikes.
Insuring my car, new, higher value of all the bikes combined, off-street parking, took about 5 minutes. And it's fairly cheap in comparison.
If you have any "non standard" situation (I have, not because of value, but garage location) comparison sites are fairly useless, as it's a race to the bottom.
Getting on the phone speaking with decent brokers usually gives best results.
As I said in another post, it's not the overall premium that bugs me (I think it's pretty fair at the end) but the obstacle course one have to do every year to insure the bikes.
Insuring my car, new, higher value of all the bikes combined, off-street parking, took about 5 minutes. And it's fairly cheap in comparison.
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I had an interesting talk with a broker yesterday.
Basically, one of the reasons I’m getting silly quotes is because I’m buying a brand new model, so no one has properly assessed it yet.
So I’ll just to a mid term adjustment on my current policy and let it run until July and hope for the best.
Oh, and apparently I’m a very high mileage user at 10 k a year. He was quite shocked when I told him that’s a lot less than I used to do
Basically, one of the reasons I’m getting silly quotes is because I’m buying a brand new model, so no one has properly assessed it yet.
So I’ll just to a mid term adjustment on my current policy and let it run until July and hope for the best.
Oh, and apparently I’m a very high mileage user at 10 k a year. He was quite shocked when I told him that’s a lot less than I used to do
I get around this a bit.
I prepare a list of all the vehicles, their value, where they are usually kept and their estimated annual mileages. I then add a statement that the total combined mileages of all the vehicles added together will probably not exceed, say 15,000 miles a year. In other words, for every mile I do in my lowly VW Polo, it’s a mile not driven in say my GT4 or motorhome. The mileages are are easy to track as they show on MOT certificates. Anyone who says they don’t know how many miles they’ll do in a year, would I’m sure know with a fair degree of accuracy if it meant the difference between a firing squad or walking out of the jail.
Against each vehicle, I detail whether it has a tracker and its provider. Likewise any significant modifications, that said they are all pretty much standard manufactures’ builds.
I then make a clear statement on my loss record and any convictions.
I mail this list to the specialist brokers. This usually does the job. If though the broker then has a specific question, I answer it truthfully.
This saves repeating everything over the phone and takes just a few minutes, as I simply update the details from last year. The specialist broker then does all the donkey work. I do tell both brokers (I may well go to three this year) that they are in competition, so they need to sharpen up their pencil. Any bells and whistles (breakdown cover, say or voluntary higher excesses) I can consider as and when the quotes come back.
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I'll do that.
This year to date I've done 30.000 km with the car and, I think about 100km on all the bikes combined.
When I was a wee lad and still lived in Italy and still with my parents we had a trusted broker (family friends, it was their business) that managed insurance for all the vehicles in the household (not that many!) but those times are long gone
This year to date I've done 30.000 km with the car and, I think about 100km on all the bikes combined.
When I was a wee lad and still lived in Italy and still with my parents we had a trusted broker (family friends, it was their business) that managed insurance for all the vehicles in the household (not that many!) but those times are long gone
I think one of the problems nowadays is ourselves.
Times are changing.
We’ve seen the end of the days when travelling and owning transport was cheap.
The combined threats of government trying to force us onto public transport, allied to the greater threat of theft will do the bike industry in eventually. I think the theft problem will get worse as there seems to be no deterrent.
I believe we’ve had the best of days and it’s downhill from here.More so for those of us at the lower end of the financial spectrum.
Times are changing.
We’ve seen the end of the days when travelling and owning transport was cheap.
The combined threats of government trying to force us onto public transport, allied to the greater threat of theft will do the bike industry in eventually. I think the theft problem will get worse as there seems to be no deterrent.
I believe we’ve had the best of days and it’s downhill from here.More so for those of us at the lower end of the financial spectrum.
They are not, Wapping and myself use Brokers, they are still around and provide excellent serviceWhen I was a wee lad and still lived in Italy and still with my parents we had a trusted broker (family friends, it was their business) that managed insurance for all the vehicles in the household (not that many!) but those times are long gone
Feck numpty comparison sites and all that malarkey - that 's just for the lazy and feckless who want spoon feeding and are only interested in the lowest possible price and not the quality and specialism of the cover they are buying
Comparison sites and online quote engines, serve a useful function for the vast bulk of the market, who all drive a bog standard car. They are specifically designed to work that way. It’s relatively efficient for most people.
It’s hilarious that bikermates, who so often declare themselves to be different from the bog average * and ruggedly self reliant, then get uppity when systems designed to work for Mr and Mrs Joe Soap-Average, can’t or won’t cater for their motorcycle. Special needs, indeed,
* Leaving aside that a bikermate in London is a very different risk to a bikermate in sleepy Devon.
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shock horror, going from a 9 year old bike worth £5k to a new £12k one will cost more to insure
Still parked on the drive, £330 with Devitt. Just a mid term adjustment until June.
Still parked on the drive, £330 with Devitt. Just a mid term adjustment until June.
To emphasise how skewed the market is towards conventional cars and light goods vehicles, the numbers are:
In other words, for every motorcycle you see on the road, there is roughly 34 cars and nearly five light goods vehicles. The vast majority of these cars and LGV’s will be unmodified and all but conventional. To put that into some other perspective, there was I think three motorcycles at our recent camping weekend, that equates to about 100 cars and 15 LGV’s parked in the same field.
That is not to say that the potential motorcycle market is not large or potentially attractive at nearly 1,500,000 vehicles, but only if the price point of the premium is roughly correct. It is simply that the risk factor involved has increased exponentially, with the vast bulk of premiums failing to keep up for many years, whilst underwriters chased premium volume only. Eventually, the market as as whole does find a balance. Prices (ie. premiums) are to some degree or another cyclical; in other words they rise and fall, often for reasons that are beyond customers’ and day-to-day underwriters’ control. At the moment, there is little or no competition in the market and / or, to be blunt, little appetite for insuring some / many motorcycles, particularly those in the higher risk / exposure category. Rather than ‘No quote’, the insurer simply prices themselves out of the market or withdraws entirely, sometimes bankrupt. This is all no different to many Range Rovers (or whatever it was) becoming uninsurable, so it’s definitely not personal.
In other words, for every motorcycle you see on the road, there is roughly 34 cars and nearly five light goods vehicles. The vast majority of these cars and LGV’s will be unmodified and all but conventional. To put that into some other perspective, there was I think three motorcycles at our recent camping weekend, that equates to about 100 cars and 15 LGV’s parked in the same field.
That is not to say that the potential motorcycle market is not large or potentially attractive at nearly 1,500,000 vehicles, but only if the price point of the premium is roughly correct. It is simply that the risk factor involved has increased exponentially, with the vast bulk of premiums failing to keep up for many years, whilst underwriters chased premium volume only. Eventually, the market as as whole does find a balance. Prices (ie. premiums) are to some degree or another cyclical; in other words they rise and fall, often for reasons that are beyond customers’ and day-to-day underwriters’ control. At the moment, there is little or no competition in the market and / or, to be blunt, little appetite for insuring some / many motorcycles, particularly those in the higher risk / exposure category. Rather than ‘No quote’, the insurer simply prices themselves out of the market or withdraws entirely, sometimes bankrupt. This is all no different to many Range Rovers (or whatever it was) becoming uninsurable, so it’s definitely not personal.
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Asgard sheds are reported to be insurance ‘approved’.
I have one - not for the bike - and they are solid with a good locking system
I have one - not for the bike - and they are solid with a good locking system
Hopefully because it’s a brand new version, just like all other new model bikes, its probably not on the system, which is why you’re getting silly quotes. You could try getting a quote on a new old version (24 model year) and see what they quote and then go back to them and say the 25 year model will be a similar risk. Good luck
I’ve decided to get it, run it on my present policy ( paying a £35 admin fee) . When it runs out in July hopefully it’ll be sorted by then.Hopefully because it’s a brand new version, just like all other new model bikes, its probably not on the system, which is why you’re getting silly quotes. You could try getting a quote on a new old version (24 model year) and see what they quote and then go back to them and say the 25 year model will be a similar risk. Good luck
First of all, please let us all know who these wonderful brokers are!
Brokers only use the same underwriters that everyone else use, so if a comparison site throws up a quote from a broker, the next stage is to go to the provider and then engage with them. Quite often different brokers will be offering the same policy from the same underwriter, but some do alter their broker terms. For instance, their garage policy maybe different, I've had the case where IAM Surety has a different garage policy for Ageas than if you go to another broker for an Ageas policy. Quality of the policy is to do with the underwriter not the broker, most brokers, just hand you off if you have an issue.
Comparison sites provide a good starting point, think the lazy and feckless are the ones that just rely on a broker.
I have one and think it's great. However, it's green and is like an oven in the summer so not sure how safe it is to store anything containing petrol in.
