Insurers. Scammers or cute?

[carlosthejack...]

OK, now I'm confused. Shopping around for policies for my lad's renewal, the cheapest 2 quotes are from Bike Devil (£486 - no excess) and MCE (£518 with £600 excess). When he rang MCE regarding his renewal notice, they quoted him £770. When the missus took over the phone call (no flies on her), it came down to £700 but talked to her like she was an idiot and said the online quote was wrong and was going to be changed.

That was 3 days ago and guess what? It's still the same. So we looked more closely at the Bike Devil quote, which clicks through to the same quote price, but the excess has now gone to £1250, which is more than the value of the bike. I remember someone telling me that it's a workaround to enable a cheaper insurance quote, but I can't remember how it works exactly.

What I did spot though, was that the address for Bike Devil is exactly the same as MCE (Crown Way, Rushden, Northants) and the quote number from them was MCE-xxxxxxxxx etc. So how's that then? MCE and Bike Devil are the same? And if so, how can they offer such massive differences in their insurance prices?

And how does that excess thing work?
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Responsibility. It's a difficult reality for some. I'm running the 2014 Sheffield Half Marathon on behalf of Bluebell Wood Childrens Hospice. Please sponsor me, even if it's just a quid.
DonnyBrago: "I think you may be confusing rain and napalm..." Paulington: "It's not what you ride, it's how you ride it."
Current rides: '05 VFR800 VTEC, '57 Mondeo 1.8 TDCi #58LEGEND

[iooi]

What sort of policy ?

FC, TPF&T or TP ?

If its FC, then by setting the excess higher than the value of the bike, your policy is in effect, no better than 3rd party.
Can't claim if its your fault, cant claim for theft, unless that has a diffrent excess.
OK CAN'T is a bit strong..

More a case of not worth it, as you have to pay the excess....

Try diffrent voluntary excess. As increasing it, does not bring the policy price, down by the same amount.
Reducing mine from £200 to zero cost me a extra £10...
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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......

[carlosthejack...]

The Bike Devil one is £0 excess applied for and stated in the policy and on the webiste. I'm setting nothing, that's what it's coming up as. As I said in the OP, it's a way of offsetting the initial policy costs. And it's TPFT btw.
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Responsibility. It's a difficult reality for some. I'm running the 2014 Sheffield Half Marathon on behalf of Bluebell Wood Childrens Hospice. Please sponsor me, even if it's just a quid.
DonnyBrago: "I think you may be confusing rain and napalm..." Paulington: "It's not what you ride, it's how you ride it."
Current rides: '05 VFR800 VTEC, '57 Mondeo 1.8 TDCi #58LEGEND

[Andrew122]

I'm with Bike Devil, for the zero excess. It's definitely a part of MCE. Whenever I have to contact them for whatever reason, it's MCE that deal with it all. I don't understand why Bike Devil would give you a quote with an excess included, unless MCE are just confusing themselves (highly likely).
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Restricted licence: 11th May 2012
Daelim Roadwin 125 (Sold) --> Bikeless!

[Aff]

Excess is fairly redundant on a policy for young people as its rarely worth making a claim. If you did make a claim the price increase for the following 5 years will likely outweigh the amount you claimed for.
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Current Bikes:Honda 929RR Fireblade, Honda CD200 Benly (Project), Stomp Z2 140
Electric Bike Project

[ruck bodgers]

i hate the whole process its a horrible affair isnt it taking out new insurance. there such assholes . i tell them give me the lowest boggest standard deal it is barley legal to have never offer me perks promotions or upgrades and NEVER EVER under any circumstance contact me until 12 months is over

[ThoughtContro...]

[ThoughtContro...]

[carlosthejack...]

They rang back as promised and delivered well on the Bike Devil quote. Suits the lad better being young and the bike not being worth much. The excess is zero, but they put it onto the policy and "refund" it to you in the even of a claim, so it is, for all intents and purposes "zero". But what a massive difference on the initial renewal quote, the online price and the Bike Devil price. And we kinda got preferential treatment 'cos we started dropping names of the MCE execs that looked after us at Oulton BSB earlier this month. As usual it's a case of not what you know (although we knew it was excessive) as opposed to who you know. And the obnoxious little shit who tried to baffle the missus with technobabble and industry bullshit is being investigated apparently. Never kid a kidder, especially when it's my wife...
____________________
Responsibility. It's a difficult reality for some. I'm running the 2014 Sheffield Half Marathon on behalf of Bluebell Wood Childrens Hospice. Please sponsor me, even if it's just a quid.
DonnyBrago: "I think you may be confusing rain and napalm..." Paulington: "It's not what you ride, it's how you ride it."
Current rides: '05 VFR800 VTEC, '57 Mondeo 1.8 TDCi #58LEGEND

[Rogerborg]

So it's an insurance policy with a mandatory insurance policy on the mandatory excess. What tangled webs we weave.

Please bear in mind that if your lad makes a fire or theft claim then he's likely to end up paying out a fair chunk in increased policy costs. Personally I wouldn't even take (or at least claim) F&T on a vehicle worth less than a grand. And I had a TPO car burn to the ground once.

Have you gone with that quote? I wonder what you'd have got it down to with TPO or slapping a big voluntary excess on it?
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[carlosthejack...]

[skatefreak]

As above...
Insurance is an absoloute scam...
Never had a vehicle thats worth enough to worry about claiming for because you'll end up paying for it in higher premiums in the long run...

Am getting really pi$$ed off as it's becoming the norm in my experience for them to give out higher quotes for the lowest level of cover (third party only) than for the mid range (third party fire and theft) which makes ball's all sense as its a much lower level of cover (and I know they claim that people opting for lower levels of cover are crazy, kitten culling low lives who are garenteed to cause 10 car pile ups as well).

Insane the gov does nothing about it.

In my eyes, get by paying as little as possible, take theft precautions and don't ever even bother about thinking about claiming for jack...

</rant>

-Jvr

[Trasler]

BikeSure does a One2Five scheme where they'll take on 125 drivers for less money. They were the cheapest i found.
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Current Bike: 2005 Suzuki EN125-2A Grey.
Dream Bikes: Harley Davidson Roadster 883, Triumph Bonneville (British Racing Green) and Norton Commando 961.

[iooi]

[cameron1590]

Just like to say MCE are fucking cunts ! Got rear ended on an island last year and they refused to pay for legal action against third party ! Had to pay for it myself and l won the case in the end thank fuck! I didnt find them helpful at all when making a claim!

[ajag]

I was looking at the devil insurance quotes a few months ago. This whole 0 excess seemed a bit fishy so I asked them about it. It is only 0 if the other party is at fault. If it was my fault the excess would be 1000
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Street Triple

[mcgoogle]

Hmm strange they say that the excess would be a 1000 if you hit someone because you only pay an excess when you make a claim on your own policy (theft fire) not when a third party claims on it. Thats why when you get a tpo only quote theres is never an excess because you cant claim
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current bike - CBR600fv

[mcgoogle]

Hmm strange they say that the excess would be a 1000 if you hit someone because you only pay an excess when you make a claim on your own policy (theft fire) not when a third party claims on it. Thats why when you get a tpo only quote theres is never an excess because you cant claim
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current bike - CBR600fv

[ajag]

not sure to be honest. Maybe if it is your fault but your bike needs fixing too?
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Street Triple

[mcgoogle]

that would be fully comp then so claiming on the policy yourself
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current bike - CBR600fv