So, my renewal is coming up with Principal Insurance. They sent me an email asking if I am still commuting with the bike (yes) and if I have any alarm/immoboliser(no). After I sent them a reply, they sent me another email:
"Can you confirm where you commute to please ? Is it one place of
work and what is the address please ? Where would the vehicle be stored
at work ? Does it have CCTV, gates, guards etc?"
I’ve never had to answer these questions before with Principal or other insurance companies, so what’s with the interrogation?
Good luck trying to get reinsured. All mine were coming up ‘your postcode is uninsurable’… and Bennett’s wouldn’t continue my policy neither will ebike.
Mark has finally found MCE will but you have to call them.
It's because they've realised it's not just your home address that's at risk but also your work address.
me_groovy
+1
I bet on my renewal in sept they will start asking me similar questions. Proper shite state of affairs if the main purpose for my bike is going to make it un-insureable for a commute.
That being said if that started happening bike sales would start falling and then the manufacturers would hopefully start doing something about security.
I believe that you insurers only allowing commuting to a single place of work, the same site every day. If you work at multiple sites then you have to be insured as using a vehicle for work purposes and not just as commuting. Maybe, at least in part, they are clamping down on that and having people declare the location?
I had a similar experience in Jan 2003. I couldn’t find a single business that would quote me for anything other than TPO cover on a 6 year old ZX-6R if I wanted it covered for overnight parking on the road at my house. Not only that, but the cheapest TPO policy cost twice the previous TPF&T one!
Must just be for London. My bikes up for renewal with Bennett and they haven’t asked any of these questions. I live in Guildford; so relatively safe - but do commute all the way in to Acton area of London. So probably pretty high risk. Luckily I have secure parking at work!
As Michael said, commuting is to one and the same usual place of work, if riding to different places of work you need business insurance cover. Most insurance companies do not charge any extra for this and this type of business cover, although I can see a case for them doing so in and around London and other major cities. This type of business cover should not be confused with cover for the likes of pizza delivery or Hire & Reward courier work. The Certificate of Insurance will carry a clause something like “Use for social, domestic and pleasure purposes and by the policyholder in person in connection with their business or profession”, you will also need to provide them with your profession.
The where is the motorcycle parked and CCTV etc questions simply relates to risk and is probably related to the higher numbers of commuters living in lower risk postcode areas outside of London and commuting into the higher postcode risk areas within London. If you think about it there’s little point insurance companies assessing an insurance risk by the postcode where you live if you do most of your riding and park up elsewhere!
MCE have been literally the only insurers that have insured me for the last few years. Their excess used to be £2000, which was plain ridiculous. Now it’s gone down to £1000 but not having a choice I, well, don’t really have a choice. At least my premium has gone down from £1300 to £550 over the last 4 years.
I was afraid I was not going to get a requote, I did - I am with Bennets it was £40 cheeper! which in the grand scheme or £2.5k is not exactly noticable. However, I searched around and was either uninsurable or was being quoted £5k or more… CN did get down to 2.3k after a million questions micro managing were my bike is how it is stored my work etc but they actually offered a lot less then bennets. The joys of living commuting in london without a garage.
I’m kind of surprised that insurers haven’t picked up on this before.
I’ve been quite lucky in that I usually blag secure parking on the sites I work on but if I couldn’t, the theft risk would be much higher in the areas I work than the area I live and the security much worse.
If they ask where you work, do you have to notify them if that changes?
I change sites every year or so, wouldn’t want to be paying an admin fee to update the work address on my policy every time I changed sites.
MCE have been literally the only insurers that have insured me for the last few years. Their excess used to be £2000, which was plain ridiculous. Now it's gone down to £1000 but not having a choice I, well, don't really have a choice. At least my premium has gone down from £1300 to £550 over the last 4 years.
Cypher
It can often be cheaper to get separate insurance to cover a large excess than paying more for a policy with a smaller one anyway. Although they only pay out when a claim is worth more than the excess, but that should not be a problem for theft.
I’ve just taken out insurance on my first bike for a few years and went with bemoto.
After reading this thread I asked about parking at work and they said it wasn’t an issue, the only restriction was that if it’s at home on a night it has to be parked in the garage, if it isn’t and gets nicked then it’s an extra £250 on the excess.
Might be worth giving them a try.
