Good experience with Cornmarket

I have spent several days filling out online forms or talking to reps who had no ability to go beyond the scripts prepared for them just trying to get an acceptable quote for my R1200GS that included what I wanted to include and excluded the useless bits.

Based on positive comments on here I gave Cornmarket in Belfast a call. In less than 20 mins I was sorted with decent cover at a decent price arranged by someone who came across as knowing what they were talking about.

Highly recommended.

I’d second that. IAM approved I’ve been using them for about 5 years now. They are always competitive (but not necessarily the cheapest compared with price comparison sites - but pretty close) and I trust them! That, and a bit of Irish charm thrown in along the way, and its a more pleasurable experience than a lot of companies!! Mind you - I haven’t needed to claim yet. That could be the acid test!!

I used their claim dept a couple of years ago after an accident in France, no problems at all, top draw service and could not be more helpful, claim sorted in a couple of days.

Andy B said:

I’d second that. IAM approved I’ve been using them for about 5 years now. They are always competitive (but not necessarily the cheapest compared with price comparison sites - but pretty close) and I trust them! That, and a bit of Irish charm thrown in along the way, and its a more pleasurable experience than a lot of companies!! Mind you - I haven’t needed to claim yet. That could be the acid test!!

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Likewise I rejoined the IAM a few years ago just to get the option of discounted insurance. They have consistently been as good as comparison sites for me, for both bike & car. Especially when the class one business use & protected NCB are included ‘free’.

I had to use them when some scroaty tw@ts robbed my GS a few years ago now,
I found them very helpful and on the ball,

I have been with them on and off for quite a few years. Be aware of their garage policy, if you declared a garage, no cover if bike is outside of the garage and within half a mile, so don't leave your bike on your drive

Why do people insist on regaling us with there insurance shenanigans, and then end with the

utterly pointless statement "At a decent price"

FFS what was the decent price ?? 2 Goats, 6 shekels, Your wife and kids enslaved for life???


Better of telling us what your price was, and what you did to get it to that price, that way we can all decide if it was a decent price

Santa-2512 said:

Why do people insist on regaling us with there insurance shenanigans, and then end with the

utterly pointless statement "At a decent price"

FFS what was the decent price ?? 2 Goats, 6 shekels, Your wife and kids enslaved for life???


Better of telling us what your price was, and what you did to get it to that price, that way we can all decide if it was a decent price

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how would you tell from a number? Knowing the actual price is meaningless to you as you have unique underwriting criteria from your age, claims record, postcode, bike(s), sex etc etc.

Are you unwilling to accept someone's word without a spreadsheet of how the various underwriters calculated the premium?

An insurance thread with people willy waving about how low their premiums are is pretty pointless. Mostly, my interest in such threads is to get an idea of which brokers or underwriters to avoid. MCE being top of that list right now. Markerstudy as underwriter and any broker owned by Towergate being on the list as well.

wessie said:

how would you tell from a number? Knowing the actual price is meaningless to you as you have unique underwriting criteria from your age, claims record, postcode, bike(s), sex etc etc.

Are you unwilling to accept someone's word without a spreadsheet of how the various underwriters calculated the premium?

An insurance thread with people willy waving about how low their premiums are is pretty pointless. Mostly, my interest in such threads is to get an idea of which brokers or underwriters to avoid. MCE being top of that list right now. Markerstudy as underwriter and any broker owned by Towergate being on the list as well.

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Address your comment to the op

i'm just pointing out how useless the thread is without any supporting data to validiate the op's claims

Santa-2512 said:

Address your comment to the op

i'm just pointing out how useless the thread is without any supporting data to validiate the op's claims

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Yet you still felt the need to join the discussion - classic.

casbar said:

Yet you still felt the need to join the discussion - classic.

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Yawn, another one added to the list

Santa-2512 said:

Address your comment to the op

i'm just pointing out how useless the thread is without any supporting data to validiate the op's claims

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and I am addressing you for being a pointless, contrary cúnt

casbar said:

I have been with them on and off for quite a few years. Be aware of their garage policy, if you declared a garage, no cover if bike is outside of the garage and within half a mile, so don't leave your bike on your drive

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Depends which insurer they place you with. I have a real bugbear about this clause so make a point of asking about it. When I got a quote from Cornmarket Saturday for cover with Axa, the garage clause applies only 10pm to 6am and if not garaged between those hours, there is an additional £250 excess. I consider that fair enough (others may not). The clauses I seek to avoid are those which say no cover at all if not garaged within 500 metres or half a mile or whatever of the home address.

As per the OP, I have to say I was impressed with the service from Cornmarket and the chap I spoke to was helpful and knowledgeable and not just a slave to a script and guessing or clueless when I asked anything remotely outside that script. He also offered what seemed to be a realistic and experienced view about almost all insurers imposing some kind of garage clause, as opposed to giving me some meaningless drivel like some call centre chimps sometimes do.

ronnie69 said:

Depends which insurer they place you with. I have a real bugbear about this clause so make a point of asking about it. When I got a quote from Cornmarket Saturday for cover with Axa, the garage clause applies only 10pm to 6am and if not garaged between those hours, there is an additional £250 excess. I consider that fair enough (others may not). The clauses I seek to avoid are those which say no cover at all if not garaged within 500 metres or half a mile or whatever of the home address.

As per the OP, I have to say I was impressed with the service from Cornmarket and the chap I spoke to was helpful and knowledgeable and not just a slave to a script and guessing or clueless when I asked anything remotely outside that script. He also offered what seemed to be a realistic and experienced view about almost all insurers imposing some kind of garage clause, as opposed to giving me some meaningless drivel like some call centre chimps sometimes do.

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the unreasonable garaging clause is why I will not touch Markerstudy, as well as their poor reputation for claims.

I live under half a mile from a retail park so if I stopped at Lidl or Sainsbury's on my way home then under some underwriters' garaging clause I would be in breach of that clause if I suffered a theft whilst shopping. I am sure I could take them to court to dispute that this clause is unreasonable but I would rather not give them any money in the first place and avoid such hassles.

Like you, I am happy with the Axa endorsement to raise the garaging excess after 10pm when the bike is at home.

wessie said:

the unreasonable garaging clause is why I will not touch Markerstudy, as well as their poor reputation for claims.

I live under half a mile from a retail park so if I stopped at Lidl or Sainsbury's on my way home then under some underwriters' garaging clause I would be in breach of that clause if I suffered a theft whilst shopping. I am sure I could take them to court to dispute that this clause is unreasonable but I would rather not give them any money in the first place and avoid such hassles.

Like you, I am happy with the Axa endorsement to raise the garaging excess after 10pm when the bike is at home.

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There's a distinct risk of this thread going off topic but ...

I made a similar(ish) point to the helpful Cornmarket chap. My concern would be if I forgot something on leaving home and nipped back to get it, or if I was cleaning or maintaining the bike outside and went inside to do whatever. Although I take reasonable risks to prevent bike being nicked I wouldn't consider it reasonable to have to put it back in the garage each time in order to be covered. The chances of such a theft have got to be very low but that doesn't make them zero.

Chap said the test is when the bike is 'not in use' and that any reasonable insurer, even with the more stringent clause in place, would struggle to justify not paying out if the bike was being washed or maintained or a trip had been suspended for mere minutes while the rider nipped indoors to grab a forgotten item or similar. This makes sense as clearly the clause is intended to prevent policyholders from getting the garage discount then not bothering to put their beast of awesomeness in said garage. The clause isn't intended to catch bods who leave the bike for very short periods while the bike is otherwise 'in use'.

Helpful bod didn't say so but I suppose if you had a claim in the above scenario, I expect the Insurance Ombudsman may side with the policyholder if the insurer didn't pay up. However, I'd rather not have the more stringent version of the clause to avoid needing to rely on that possibility.

Cornmarket quote also included riding other bikes (not owned or hired by the policyholder) on third party cover only. Some insurers don't cover that either these days but don't always make it clear - you usually have to ask because even their 'blurb' will often say "see the insurance certificate" - which of course you don't have at quote stage.

If in doubt, any subjectivity or condition (there is a technical difference between them) applied to any insurance policy - and especially a mass sold policy (like motor) sold in its millions a year to the man on the Clapham omnibus - have to be:

A. Legal, in the sense of being part of a contract, which is all an insurance policy is

B. Reasonable and fair

Bods on this forum and others spend their lives dreaming up scenarios where they ‘know’ (or their mate has told them) that their insurer will not honour (ie pay) a bonafide claim. The garaging clause is a typical example.

Is it reasonable that a motorbike is on the drive or on the road near a bod’s house, whilst he gets it ready to go to work, to go on holiday or whilst he uses it to go shopping in Tesco, three hundred yards away? Yes, of course it is. Those in doubt, can refer to Tarka’s claim - which was settled without quibble - when he was (on the face of it at least) in breach of the garage warranty, his bike being pinched from his front door when he took it from the garage, ready to go to work.

Is it reasonable that, he breaches the same warranty, by leaving the bike on his drive or on the road because he was too knackered * after hooning all afternoon to put it away and SWMBO had his tea on the table and the dog wanted walking. Or that he left it overnight in the car park at Tesco three hundred yards away, because it’s free and he went out with his mates on the lash? The answer, to any reasonable person, might well be no.


* Couldn’t be arsed, I believe the expression is.