MCE or Hastings Direct?

So I’ve only got 2 reasonable quotes for my central London location and MT-07, and they’re basically the same in terms of cost, excess and benefits. The difference is negligible.

Ones with MCE and ones with Hastings Direct.

Reviews seem pretty close too, although Hastings Direct win by half a star or 10%.

Anyone have any comments that could help me choose?


For anyone who saw that I took our a policy with The AA and was very happy with it: 2 days into the policy The AA called me up to say that the underwriter had reviewed my overnight location and wasn’t willing to accept it. They admitted that this was their fault and offered to give me a refund plus a weeks insurance while I find a new insurer, which I thought was good. Turns out that if the entrance to the place you keep your bike is not the same address as your house, even if it’s the same development, it’s considered as being kept in a different location. In this case the underwriter was not insuring bikes that were not kept at address of residence.

Still recommend The AA if you can get insurance with them!

Personally I’d go with Hastings. I’ve insured with both, but from what I can gather MCE can be hard work with a claim.

MCE are a broker, but I think Hastings are also an underwriter. Not sure if that makes a huge difference these days.

I’ve been with MCE and had to claim, yes it was a bit of a ballache but wasn’t straightforward as was claiming against a farm. With MCE the technique is to keep calling back until you get someone competent. The same could be said about their customer service…

I’ve also claimed on their kids policy.

Hastings are a bit of a yesteryear brand from what I can tell… But other than that don’t know much about them.

Make sure that they’ve not recorded it as a cancelled. That could really screw you up big time when it comes to getting other insurance policies, not just vehicle ones.

And get them to put it in writing to that the error was due to them selling you a policy that you weren’t eligible for.

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I was with Hastings Direct for years and very happy. Never made a claim but then 2 years ago they refused to renew and declined this year as well. No idea why they no longer like me. Went with MCE this year. Seem good enough.

Great catch, thanks!

Heart sank a bit when I read your comment haha. Should have been more careful when talking through the cancellation with them.

Good news - just double checked my documents and confirmed that it’s been put down that I cancelled the policy, not them. Phew…

Thanks all for the thoughts and advice!

I wanted to go with Hastings Direct in the end, but when going through the policy with them I didn’t like that they couldn’t give me clear definitions of overnight location types prior to me paying. I’ve found them nice when I’ve called them, but on this occasion the person on the phone said that “you just choose from the list the one that best sounds like yours, we don’t have descriptions”, to which I said “the description is going to matter when it comes to a claim or, even worse, a dispute”. He understood my point and found some terms in a guide he had, but I wasn’t fully satisfied. Further to this, I found the policy had crept up in price since I last checked it the day before.

MCE called me a couple of times today without coming across pushy. On the final one I took them up on their offer with some discount they added to sweeten the deal.

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I’ve been with mce in the past, as with most they are great as long as you don’t call them up with a claim! :joy:

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