Short Term Insurance

Off-topic
1

Hello all! Its been a while since I last posted here.

Im back with avengance, or more accurately a full bike licence after passing my DAS last week first time!

Ive found and bought a lovely Fazer 600, but the problem is my current insurance company wont insure me on anything bigger than a 125 until I send them proof of my full licence, apparently an email with a scan of my Cat A pass certificate wasnt good enough, so I have to wait for the DVLA to post me my new licence, and then post that to them. Needless to say this process is probably going to take weeks because insurance companies are a pain in the ass and dragging their heels.

I cant live with being on a 125 any longer, the honeymoon phase is well and truly dead, I want my Fazer and I want it now!

At first I thought I was in luck, eBike offer a monthly rolling insurance! Perfect! Insure it with them for a month, until my current insurers sort their act out, then go back to them. Simples.

Except eBike apparently no longer offer the monthly contract one, and I cant find anywhere that offers anything similar or any kind of short term insurance for bikes, the latest government fuckery messing up fair weather bikers and requiring SORN’d bikes to still be insured (or something like that, I dont quite understand it myself) seems to have all but killed the niche market of short term bike insurance.

The only other option I can see is to take out a brand new policy with a different company who wont ask for proof of my full licence, then either cancel it when I can switch back to my current insurers, or stick with them and cancel my current insurance. Either one is going to accrue a ballache of cancellation charges though, and if I leave my current insurers Im about 7 months into my next years no claims bonus which I dont really want to lose either

Anyone been in this situation and got any suggestions for a workaround?

I mean I could just stay on my 125 for another month or so whilst waiting for all this bureaucratic bollocks to sort itself out, but I really REALLY dont want to. (as Im sure anyone whos gone from a 125 for a “big” bike will understand :stuck_out_tongue: )

2

When I needed temp cover on my 125 I used Bike Sure, quick and straight forward.
I can understand your impatience wholly, I loved my 125 but my god I needed something more powerful to ride badly!
Only issue with temp insurance is that you pay over the odds, if you’re happy to do that then go ahead.

3

it doesn’t take that long for your license to come back. should be a couple of weeks

4

I got a quote with bikesure because they were the only ones I could find that came close to offering temp insurance…

£188 for 30 days insurance.

I was expecting it to be a bit on the expensive side, but thats taking the piss! A whole years insurance is only £210!

As for waiting a few weeks, thats worst case scencario and one I really dont want to do having tasted the fun and power of a full size bike! Ill have to wait a few weeks for DVLA to post licence to me, then post that to insurance, then wait a few weeks for them to decide what they want to do and post it back… so were looking at potentially a month or two of waiting and being stuck on a 125 still! :frowning:

5

Isn’t there a way to view your entitlements online now?? Maybe your insurance can check that or a print out etc.

You could try an insurance broker, who might be able to arrange such a thing?

Oh and congratulations on the DAS pass and the new bike…I think i’ll be forcing myself to get a new one in the new year, can’t live on the 125 for much longer :wink:

6

The only other option I can see is to take out a brand new policy with a different company who wont ask for proof of my full licence, then either cancel it when I can switch back to my current insurers, or stick with them and cancel my current insurance. Either one is going to accrue a ballache of cancellation charges though

Cancellation’s free (ish) if you cancel within 14 days. I think they can charge some nominal admin fee, but it’s not going to be massive, and it’ll probably be cheaper than any other way of getting two weeks’ insurance. That ought to cover you for long enough for the DVLA to get your license back to you.

7

Expense will always be an issue with temp insurance for bikes :confounded:
The option of going elsewhere is prolly better, I never had to send off details of my full licence when I first passed
Oh and yes, sorry, congratulations on passing :grin:

8

Same here - I just phoned up, said the licence details need to be changed and then had to pay quite a bit (in % terms of existing premium) extra…

9

I didnt know you could check licence details, just had a look ant you can on the .gov website… and according to that I still havent passed my bike test, still only provisional cat A holder, so the DVLA havent even updated my details yet, let alone sending my new licence :frowning:

I think I am going to have to go for the “take out a new policy with someone else” option, because I’m part-exing my 125 for the new bike, so I can only have one or the other, the Fazer is sat in a dealership waiting for me to collect it, theyre not going to hold onto it for a month or so whilst DVLA and insurers sort things out.

10

Think that’s your only option - as if you’re handing over the bike, you need to cancel the insurance.

You’d probably lose any acruing no claims, but if its only a small amount, don’t worry about it.

11

@tierbirdy - My insurance when they wanted my paper work was all sorted within 24 hours so you never know. TBH the DVLA bit will take the longest part.

12

Wait and dont lose that start on the no claims .
Patience pays dividend especially with the current weather and road conditions .

13

So, update! Typically as soon as I took out a new policy and phoned my current insurers they changed their mind when I threatened to cancel my policy, turns out they WILL accept my pass certificate as proof of my licence rather than wait weeks for the DVLA.
So now Ive had to cancel my new policy (thanks EU for introducing 14 day right to cancel periods <3 ) and gone back to my old insurer because theyre £1 more expensive per month, but I wont lose my NCB and they also offered pillion passenger cover and can ride any motorbike including other people’s on my policy.

Fazer is now sat on my driveway! :smiley: Bringing her home was the most fun Ive ever had on 2 wheels, absolutely dumps all over the ER6 I was learning on!

Lesson learnt: getting angry (in a polite way) at people over the phone sorts most problems because the customer is always right! (apparently!) :stuck_out_tongue:

14

Tierbirdy - Congratulations on passing your DAS test. Well done for dealing with your insurance broker/company in a “polite way”, which can be quite trying with most things related to insurance.

15

Well done! Whenever you threaten to leave there’s always a good chance your insurance company will try to accommodate you😊