While everyone is complaining about insurance price increases...

[wessie]

A friend had a profitable side hustle renting out lock-ups across London. He lived in Sutton. In the days before the internet he used to scour the classified ads in local newspapers and Express & Mart buying them for peanuts. He snuffed it a couple of years ago but his wife & daughters still have the lock-ups. I doubt they are all used for bikes but this policy might affect their business model.

 

[er-minio]

It will. (If what the insurers I spoke to are telling the truth)

I know quite a few people that, like me, live in relatively central London where the only way to keep a bike secured is a lock-up.
It is unrealistic to expect people in an area like Central London and nearby areas to have the vehicles immediately within their properties. Most don't have parking or underground parking (I have car parking in my building).
Also, new builds (not my case) in London cannot have parking areas anymore, so relying to a rental is possibly the only way.

I spoke with 4 insurers this morning. Will resume on Monday and will try to split the bikes as you suggest and see what happens.

Of all the lock-ups where I am, only another one has a car and bike inside, all the others are either storage or used by the businesses opposite them.


Anyway – requoted the GS alone with Bennetts online and it gives me 1.1k for Third Party + fire theft and 1.3k for third party only, but at least it gives me an amount.

 

[er-minio]

Well, seems the Devitts guy wasn't completely accurate.
Most underwriters will refuse insuring while the bikes are at a separate location as most I rang up these days flat out refused to quote.

Had a call with Hastings and split the bikes (they don't do more that 2 bikes per policy) and the HP2, carrying over my NCB, Fully comp is quoted at 574 and the GS/DRZ 773 for third party and fire and theft on a brand new policy starting with 0NCB. I tried asking for a third party only (GS insured for 3.5k, DR for 1.5k... so little sense in fire and theft) but they refuse to provide a quote.

Not terrible, but let's see if I can do better.
It is just a bloody pain to have to go through all the calls.

 

[er-minio]

Martin Lewis recommends you get a quote 28 days before renewal as after that the prices start to rise, the closer you leave it to renewal date before getting a quote the more you'll get rinsed. Good luck!

Does anyone know how does this work exactly?


Situation I am in: I managed to find a solution splitting the bikes. Keeping the 9+ year NCB on the HP2 on policy on its own with Swinton and then I can insure the GS/DRZ with a brand new policy with Hastings.

I quoted with Hastings yesterday and I know their quotes have a short lifespan.
I called them today with the intention of paying, checked the details (0NCB) and they re-run the quote and it was 150 quid more.
I asked why and they said "responsive quote" or something along those lines.
I asked to clarify what justifies the price increase to no avail.

I spoke with quite a lot of insurers in the last couple of days, 'cause insuring a 17 years old GS (again, valued fucking 3.5k at most) in London seems like an impossible task as 90% of the underwriters refuse to insure it.


Now my question is: if I SORN the bikes* and keep them locked and then resume all this shitshow in March... will I be worse off? Or the price gouging is only for the 28-odd days before renewal?
And I don't mean that I expect to pay 50 quid in total in March. Just wondering if the unjustified increases as you near the renewal date will be gone then with no actual contracts in place.




*I have quite a lot of things going on a the moment, bike usage will be quite limited (aka none) and also I'm strongly considering if I should be arsed by all this...

 

[wessie]

Does anyone know how does this work exactly?

Apparently the underwriters have data that indicates:
1. Apply a month in advance and you are a category B mid level risk
2. Apply 28-21 days and you are C, lowest risk
3. Apply 20-7 days and you are B
4. Apply 2-7 days and you are A higher risk
5. Apply on renewal day or later and you can probably go fuck yourself as you will mow down a row of nuns at a bus stop within days

 

[er-minio]

Looks like it.

Nevermind, I got annoyed at the person on the other side of the phone.
Called them later, spoke with someone nicer and the increase was lower (70ish) and I bought the policy.

Tomorrow I’ll insure the HP2 on a separate policy that uses my 9+ NCB.

The discovery here is the GS is the expensive one. I always assumed the HP was an issue…

 

[Wapping]

Has anyone considered that insurers, picking up on Lewis’ earth shattering revelation, have subsequently adjusted their pricing algorithms? I’ll piss myself laughing when / if bods twig that they have been paying more, though believing that they had been paying less.

Keep shopping around, it is the only way.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

I have 3 bikes kept at a garage away from home, not London though.
I had a Burgman 400 but I've just changed it for a new Forza 350. The other 2 bikes are a 2013 1200 GSA and a WR250.
When I called to update the inurance it took an age as every insurer wanted to replace the GSA with the Forza as the lead bike on the policy.
I'll be interested to see what prices I get quoted come renewal time.

Good luck with getting a suitable resolution.

 

[Bill-H]

Brother in law had an issue when his car was written off due to an non blameworthy accident , claimes company rang him up not once but every couple of days determined to force him into taking a hire car ( he neither wanted nor needed one ), they were such persistent f*ckers that he ended up blocking their number . Why would they do this other than to run up the final bill on the other drivers insurance

Just been through a similar scenario, motorhome got a light sideswipe in December, went through all the sending of photos and dashcam footage to their designated agent, got an agreed repair date with a local bodyshop, then 'About a hire car Mr H....'. When I told them I didn't want one they tried to persuade me to have one and in the end I said 'ok but it will just sit outside my house as I have my own car'. At this point they refused to deal with me, said they'd close the case because it could be classed as fraudulent !!
I've had to start again from square one with my insurer.
It would save the 3rd party's insurer some money by not having an un-needed hire car but assume the agent wouldn't get such a big cut without the added percent to their charges.
Of course, we know who these excess costs would be passed on to.

 

[er-minio]

Good luck with getting a suitable resolution.

I managed. Following Wapping's usual advice and also Wessie's usual suggestions (owe you both a beer or two) I ended up splitting the policies and insuring the HP2 with Swinton and the GS and DRZ as a brand new policy (0NCB) with Hastings.

I ended up spending pretty much the same as last year single multi-bike policy with BeMoto (that was unable to offer cover), so that is a good thing.

What I find funny is that, while underwriters complain that there is high risk of theft in London and they don't want to have bikes garaged as a separate address because they are less monitored, they all flat out refuse to quote for Third Party only that would not make them liable for theft. I just gave up trying to find the logic in there
Also my GS and the DRZ are insured for a grand total of 5k with a fairly high excess. In my case getting the GS stolen would be more an issue because of the sentimental value of that specific bike that forking out money to buy another one.

It's all good in the end, and the overall premium paid across two policies is more than acceptable (£1200) for three bikes. It just took a lot of time and also insurers started getting a bit annoying towards the end because they saw that I ran a million quotes over a few days... that apparently is a bad mark, and I explained the situation. If it is difficult to insure a vehicle, at least don't give me grief if it takes me a lot of tries to find a suitable (decent) cover.


Funnily enough: I am considering buying the car I currently lease from work (refer to this thread for the condition we suffer from ), so I got a quote with Admiral (my previous insurer from when I had my own car) to insure it expecting it to be obscenely expensive as it is parked outside... nah. Slightly less than the GS/DRZ policy with a much higher insured value.
I guess the issue is just bikes and Range Rovers

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

Excellent, I'm pleased you got sorted.

Don't be looking for logic when it comes to insurance bods though, the only one I know believes in the moon landings.

 

[ATT]

I am pleased you got this sorted in the end. I have followed this and your resolution is good.
I am so pleased that we do not have to go through this here, I have a broker who sorts it all out for me and it is much cheaper and easier, much like it used to be in the UK!
It really does highlight what a rip off the UK is and just how full of criminals it is....And at your expense. (The main criminals being the insurance companies.)

 

[dicktheleg]

Have you tried here? I use Cornmarket but usually start below to get a feeling of how much I'm going to pay and can usually get Cornmarket to drop the price if they're well off the mark. Martin Lewis recommends you get a quote 28 days before renewal as after that the prices start to rise, the closer you leave it to renewal date before getting a quote the more you'll get rinsed. Good luck!

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Just renewed with Cornmarket (I’m an IAM member), their renewal came through at £175 with their fees!

shopped around and hit them with my other options and they knocked £50 off. So I renewed at £125.

Shame we need to do this every year.

2010 1200GS 5000 miles, full NCD, £350 total excess, DY13 postcode, 67 years old.

 

[littleade]

Just renewed with Cornmarket (I’m an IAM member), their renewal came through at £175 with their fees!

shopped around and hit them with my other options and they knocked £50 off. So I renewed at £125.

Shame we need to do this every year.

2010 1200GS 5000 miles, full NCD, £350 total excess, DY13 postcode, 67 years old.

I totally agree it is a shame, but I just play thecsystem and it's what I do every year with both car and bike policies and for the small amount of time I spend doing it the rewards outweigh the inconvenience (for me anyway). They (Cornmarket) did become uncompetitive circa 2020 so I ended up going to Hastings Direct for a couple of years - I found after an initial search on the comparison site that going direct to their website it saved me a bit more, but Cornhill seem more willing to keep my business now and the increase from a 2020 1250GS to a new 1250RS for the remaining months left on my policy was relatively small compared to each time when I went from a 2 year old 1200 GS to a new one..