I’m just wondering if anybody have any ideas on this one.
I have 2 months left on my insurance policy and I’m getting a new bike, so I need to change it. I currently have TPFT and am changing to a much higher value bike, so I want to change it to fully comp.
Equity Red Star is the underwriter of my current policy, and to change over they want £180 (including admin fee), which is a lot, but I can live with that. However, to change it over to fully comp, they want £647, which is dailight robbery, particularly as quotes for a new 12 month fully comp policy comes in about that same amount of money (cheapest quote I could fine was about £600).
H&R say the only thing they can do is cancel the policy and start a complete new one, but that would mean I would loose the years NCB I would get in a couple of months (if I don’t claim between now and then). That’s not really something I want to do.
As I might pick up the bike tomorrow, I went for the £180 option, but I’m uncomfortable about not having fully comp insurance. Is it just me, or are insurance companies completely taking the phiss out of policy changes? There’s no way I’m ever going to get a policy underwritten by Equity Red Star anymore.
Does anybody have any ideas? Anything I can do to get my bike insured fully comp without supporting this obvious scam?
I’m not asking for NCB after 10 months, but I think the cost of change is compeltely out of proportion with the cost of a new policy. Even if I discard the NCB, it’d be about 5 times cheaper to get a new policy than the change my existing (based on 12 months). That’s what annoys me, and makes me decide they won’t have my custom again. As I said, I have no problem paying a bit more and I have no problem with an admin fee, but it’s just the scale of it.
I thought of just letting it run and getting a new policy, but I don’t think I’d ever be able to re-claim that extra NCB.
I had a cb500s ,them i bought a xjr1300 new i insured is as a seconed bike, then sold the cb5oos after 5/6/months still keept my no claims, and didnt have to pay any more i think it was £80 more as a seconed bikegood luck
I’ve done the keeping the old policy/starting a new one on a new bike thing before.
O.k., paid a bit extra because I’d not got that years NCB but the next renewal of the new policy the year following the new company gave me that “lost year” when I explained the circumstances to them.
Mind you, they weren’t quite the money grabbing sh*ts they are now.
im also having a little bit of trouble with Equity Red Star and my insurance. All ive done is move house and they want almost half of what the policy is worth
I spoke to them again, as, based on the above suggestions, I thought I would:
leave my current policy
take a new policy on the new bike
cancel the new policy on the 13 June, and start yet another new with the NCB of my old
Even including admin fees etc, this would have gotten me fully comp insurance for these 2 months for about what I have now paid for TPFT, and would save £470 on what H&R tell me it would cost to change to fully comp.
However, they can’t do it. Because I’ve told them that I’m changing the bike, the wouldn’t let me keep my NCB on the existing policy, so I would loose that anyway.
I guess the only way I could do it was to get the cheapest bike one can buy, change the insurance onto that, then take the NCB from that onto my new bike in 6 weeks time.
That’s too much hassle.
So I’m stuck with TPFT for 6 weeks (missed sales opportunity for Equity Red Star and H&R Insurance), and a lost customer for them as well when it come to renewal.
What has your changing the bike got to do with anything? You paid for one years insurance and you have not claimed on that insurance, therefore you are entitled to a No Claims Bonus. Whether you trashed the bike on the second day of the policy or kept it through-out is of no concern to your insurance company. You paid for insurance you didn’t claim on the insurance…you get the no claims bonus.
I would ring them back and ask them to show you where in the contract you signed it was stated that you had to keep the bike to get your no-claims bonus and see if it is in writing, because if it is not, then they cannot claim that to be a part of your contract and have no right to deny you a no-claims bonus if you pay for a full years of insurance and do not claim.
i’m in almost exactly the same position, and the problem with letting the old policy run and starting a new one with another insurer is that the new one will ask you for proof of the NCB. As your current NCB is tied up with the old policy, and you cannot use it on 2 concurrently, you may end up having to pay an extra premium as they will not apply the NCB discount. this happened to me a few years back. that said, i was given the chance to call them once the old policy had expired and they would then apply the full NCB discount and refund me for the difference (not including the time where the NCB was on the first policy). Perhaps ask the same of your new insurers?
it is a bloomin minefield, and I am trying to work out my best course of action as in a weeks time i am going to have a sparkling new bike which I am not able to insure myself on until my old policy runs out in 8 weeks (if I want to get that extra years NCB anyway!)
