Recommend me an insurance company with excellent customer service

[Orinoco]

It's that time of year again, renewal is 2 weeks away. This time rather than going for the cheapest quote thought I'd start a hunt for a 'good' insurer that looks after you in the event of needing to claim.

Can anyone recommend their insurers, based on claim experience... or otherwise who to avoid.

Also, I seem to be having trouble finding a company which will accept that a 15 year old GS will have lots of small mods, which just happen over time, but don't necessarily add to the value of the bike, not in any major way at least.

TIA

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

NFU Mutual - dunno about bikes, but for all other insurance their customer service is top notch, with local offices in most towns staffed by real people

Or

Adrian Flux

 

[Neil W]

If my mates recent dealings are anything to go by avoid any broker who offers Equity Red Star Policies like the plague

 

[wessie]

I've been disappointed with the previously good CNash. They fucked up my change of bike and then the bike dropped off the www.askmid.com database.

As far as extras go, I would tend to "insure" them myself and not tell the insurer, unless there is something that really is very expensive or could be considered a performance enhancement, enough to make an insurance adjuster have good reason to say the modification contributed to the incident. Items I might declare would be expensive suspension components or an engine enhancement that really increases power. Removing ABS would be a significant change as an insurer might say it affected safety.

The best you can probably do is a broker that is easy to deal with so maybe Adrian Flux (also trades as Bikesure and offers a discount to forum members). A good broker is never a guarantee that the actual underwriter isn't useless when it comes to claims handling but the broker will take away the pain of dealing direct. On the other hand, if the broker turns out to be useless, then you can always go direct. I ended up doing this with a house insurance claim for my mother - the broker was hopeless but we contacted the underwriter Groupama who bent over backwards to get the claim processed. Ironic really, as Groupama now own CNash...

 

[Neil W]

Mate is actually insured via Adrian Flux , broker just passed him the telephone numbers of ERS and 4th Dimension and said they would be dealing

I've been disappointed with the previously good CNash. They fucked up my change of bike and then the bike dropped off the www.askmid.com database.

As far as extras go, I would tend to "insure" them myself and not tell the insurer, unless there is something that really is very expensive or could be considered a performance enhancement, enough to make an insurance adjuster have good reason to say the modification contributed to the incident. Items I might declare would be expensive suspension components or an engine enhancement that really increases power. Removing ABS would be a significant change as an insurer might say it affected safety.

The best you can probably do is a broker that is easy to deal with so maybe Adrian Flux (also trades as Bikesure and offers a discount to forum members). A good broker is never a guarantee that the actual underwriter isn't useless when it comes to claims handling but the broker will take away the pain of dealing direct. On the other hand, if the broker turns out to be useless, then you can always go direct. I ended up doing this with a house insurance claim for my mother - the broker was hopeless but we contacted the underwriter Groupama who bent over backwards to get the claim processed. Ironic really, as Groupama now own CNash...

 

[wessie]

Mate is actually insured via Adrian Flux , broker just passed him the telephone numbers of ERS and 4th Dimension and said they would be dealing

Many insurers or brokers outsource claims handling. Of course, the provider of the service can change in the lifetime of your policy so a service that was good at the point you took out the policy may go to ratshit 9 months in when you make a claim. As ever with insurance, and often repeated by Wapping as well as a mere amateur like me, the policy is a contract between you and the insurer. The onus is on you to understand the policy and what the process is should something not work out as you expected. This is much easier now there are websites like moneysavingsexpert etc as they will often provide exceptionally good advice and even standard letters to send should you need to go that far.

 

[MikeO]

Aviva - after the way they dealt with my bike fire in Spain they have my business if they are remotely competitive (and they are generally the cheapest quote I get). Do a search for my thread "It was a dark and stormy night" for a full report on how I was treated.

Mike

 

[Fanum]

I've had a very good experience with Carol Nash on a nicked bike, and with Aviva for many years with cars.

Can't fault either from what I've experienced TBH....documents emailed in hours or less, hard copies by post in days, no problems communicating with either and a very easy and reasonable claim handling process, no argument on valuation or time delays.