Renewal time and for the past couple of years I’ve haggled and accepted JMI’s revised renewal offers and they’ve been less and less year on year until now. This years renewal was a whooping 56% increase and they wouldn’t budge on it…
…found me the same cover via the same Markerstudy Insurance Services policy from a different broker, Swinton Bike Insurance, at 13% less than last year’s premium. There was no haggling they came straight in with the best offer, on reading back through the statement of fact I increased the annual mileage by 3,000 miles and they increased the premium by 8p
Don’t forget to get your proof of NCB accepted prior to the policy commencing, else they could try and sting you if you claim. I would also pay the extra to get protected NCB.
Swinton’s call handler said there was no need and didn’t require me to provide proof of my NCB which I thought was odd. I’ve changed brokers but not insurers, still insured by Markerstudy but now its through Swinton not JMI so it shouldn’t be a problem but I have requested and JMI will be posting proof of my 9+ years NCB.
NCB protection was included and I realise I’ve paid for it as part of my premium but if it wasn’t included I’m not sure I’d want to pay extra for it. The thing is NCB is taken off after all other risks have been added on, if you make a claim your premium will be affected by that so although you’ll still be getting the full NCB discount it will be applied to a higher initial cost of your premium.
Firstly, unless your new broker has accepted as fact, that you do have NCB, then on a claim they may ask you to then prove it, and if you can’t, they could state that the policy is void.
Secondly, even with protected NCB, if you have non-fault accident(s), you may/can expect an increase in premium. But if your NCB is not protected, then the premium can/will increase dramatically. For example, client has had non-fault accidents, increase his premium by 20%. Same client has 60% reduction for maximum NCB, the premium is increase by 20%, then dropped 60%. More to the worry, with many “panel solicitors” that are only interested in making a quick settlement and earning their commission from your insurance company, they simply want to spend as little time as possible working on your claim and/or don’t have the specialist traffic/motorcycle knowledge to properly get you the justice you’re entitled to.
