UK Insurance

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brxpb

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Oct 19, 2013
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Who do the UK crowd use for insurance?
I've used Carol Nash for the last 12 years but they've been starting to get expensive in the last few years. It's got to the point that I thought they were taking the piss a bit so I bailed. The only other classic insurers I know are Footman James.
Just after more suggestions
Cheers Paul.
 
brxpb said:
Who do the UK crowd use for insurance?
I've used Carol Nash for the last 12 years but they've been starting to get expensive in the last few years. It's got to the point that I thought they were taking the piss a bit so I bailed. The only other classic insurers I know are Footman James.
Just after more suggestions
Cheers Paul.
Click to expand...
I use Peter James on a multibike policy ,all good
 
I moved from CN to Footman James. Not sure the premiums are much different, and they all seem to sell policies with the same underwriters.

What did make a difference was VMCC membership. I joined the VMCC last year and the cost of membership was about the same as the reduction in insurance premium, but now have a policy for two bikes (Commando & T140) with unlimited mileage and agreed values.

Cannot put my Hinckley Scrambler on the classic bike policy, so I have a separate policy for my 'modern' bike.
 
I was with Peter Best 'til I got another bike. They were slow off the the mark to quote for two bikes so I ended up with Bikesure (Adrian Flux)
Sod's law that Peter Best came back with a better quote, albeit two days late :-(
 
Carol Nash and Footman James are now owned by private equity. Peter James was the James in Footman James and setup Peter James when he got bored and still owns it. My Peter James renewal earlier this year was lower than previous renewal.
 
brxpb said:
Who do the UK crowd use for insurance?
I've used Carol Nash for the last 12 years but they've been starting to get expensive in the last few years. It's got to the point that I thought they were taking the piss a bit so I bailed. The only other classic insurers I know are Footman James.
Just after more suggestions
Cheers Paul.
Click to expand...
Join the VMCC and use Peter James. The same cover as CN with a good saving. After taking off the VMCC membership cost I saved £70.
 
Although a £70 per year saving is not to be ignored, to be honest, I’m more interested in who gives the best service.

Meaning who gives the most hassle free agreed value, who pays out the best when needed, who operates the most ‘no quibble / minimal small print’ kind of service when you actually need to make a claim. I’d be happier paying a little more in the knowledge I’d be better looked after when the sh*t hit the fan !

Does anyone have any feedback on that?

I’ve made a claim with Carol Nash once (a fire) and they were fantastic to deal with, paid for everything and were utterly quibble free.

But my experience is from 2006/7 so I’d be very interested in other positive or negative experiences.
 
Last edited:
brxpb said:
Who do the UK crowd use for insurance?
I've used Carol Nash for the last 12 years but they've been starting to get expensive in the last few years. It's got to the point that I thought they were taking the piss a bit so I bailed. The only other classic insurers I know are Footman James.
Just after more suggestions
Cheers Paul.
Click to expand...
Completely agree with the Carol Nash insurance costs, i moved back to Swinton Bikes
 
At renewal time earlier this year, Carole Nash was still the most competitive.
One of the aforementioned companies quoted nearly double.
 
If nothing else, I think this thread shows that insurance does appear to be a total lottery at times.
I can't comment regarding service come claim time as I've been fortunate enough to have never needed to make one, but renewal quotes from any company seem to be all over the board. I have in the past been with Carole Nash, Norwich Union, Adrian Flux, Footman James, Peter Best, Diamond Services (found in OBM), Swinton and possibly others I've forgotten.
The one that bugs me: 'Sorry, I can't reduce our quote, but will match any competitive one you may find elsewhere'
 
Insurance companies just take the piss out of loyal customers most of the time. Every year my car insurance increases by far more than the inflation rate, & because it renews automatically, if I don't take the time to look for an alternative quote I end up getting ripped off. Because of this I go on to a comparison site to find the best price for the cover I require, & guess what, I end up with the same company for less than my original renewal quote. Loyalty counts for nothing these days. I believe this matter has been discussed in parliament recently.
Same issue with break down cover. When I call the AA to cancel due to them increasing the price of my cover by a ludicrous amount, & tell them that the RAC or Green Flag have a special offer on, they miraculously seem to be able to reduce my premium.
 
Matchless said:
Every year my car insurance increases by far more than the inflation rate, & because it renews automatically
Click to expand...
New rules in last 12 months mean the renewal now has to match that of a new customer so the difference between the renewal and the comparison sites is much lower. But it still gets you a modest premium reduction and with Go Compare you get £250 excess reduction.
 
kommando said:
New rules in last 12 months mean the renewal now has to match that of a new customer so the difference between the renewal and the comparison sites is much lower. But it still gets you a modest premium reduction and with Go Compare you get £250 excess reduction.
Click to expand...
Does that include all insurances? 'Cos my household insurance went through the roof (not literally!) this year, so went the: 'Gocompare' route.
After scrolling down the weird and wonderful names I'd never heard of, first familiar name I came to was my own insurer with a premium way less than my quoted renewal.
Not only that, when I clicked on it to reach my insurers site, it had dropped yet again!
All the data I fed in was from my renewal letter, so identical details supplied....
 
EstuaryBoy said:
Does that include all insurances? 'Cos my household insurance went through the roof (not literally!) this year, so went the: 'Gocompare' route.
After scrolling down the weird and wonderful names I'd never heard of, first familiar name I came to was my own insurer with a premium way less than my quoted renewal.
Not only that, when I clicked on it to reach my insurers site, it had dropped yet again!
All the data I fed in was from my renewal letter, so identical details supplied....
Click to expand...
Yes it covers house insurance, the differences between the renewal quote and the comparisons is now very low unless someone is breaking the rules and so you should report them. Date of introduction was Sept 2021.

FCA confirms measures to protect customers from the loyalty penalty in home and motor insurance markets

The FCA has implemented a package of remedies to improve competition and protect home and motor insurance customers from loyalty penalties. This includes new rules so that renewal quotes for home and motor insurance consumers are not more expensive than they would be for new customers.
www.fca.org.uk www.fca.org.uk
 
Some big players in the industry used software called "Earnix", which would take each individual customer's data, at time of renewal quote and predict their potential to switch at varying rates of commission. This was very, very profitable. It was so effective, some brokers set a cap, or limit on the % commission they would load onto premiums, to reduce potential exposure to bad publicity.

Last year's regulation change should stop this, but there were some highly paid, highly intelligent individuals, with lots of data, working out how to price new business and renewal quotes. I would be surprised if they just shrugged and gave up!
 
So, out of interest I done the quick quote on Peter James website and pretended I was a vmcc member. The quote was a hundred quid cheaper than last year's CN quote. So if I join the vmcc I'd still be sixty quid up on last year's quote, probably more this year, although I never insured last year and took the bike off the road through this last summer.
I might ring CN and see if they can beat the total of Peter James + VMCC fees before I commit. Thanks for the advice given.
 
I’ve used Bikesure 01553 400215 or 0330 381 6503 for many years since they were the only ones who could obtain multi bike insurance for heavily modified bikes that I was using, 1400 Hayabusa & Busa turbo. Worth a call I’d suggest.
 
Flatspot said:
I’ve used Bikesure 01553 400215 or 0330 381 6503 for many years since they were the only ones who could obtain multi bike insurance for heavily modified bikes that I was using, 1400 Hayabusa & Busa turbo. Worth a call I’d suggest.
Click to expand...
Did they load the premium much for the turbo?
 
10 years ago, and I paid around £700 for the turbo Busa and a stock Busa. A claimed value for the turbo of £25k helped bump it up I suppose.
 

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