Buying Insurance in 6 steps

Danny · Ask Me About Stoppie School Joined: 26 Jan 2003 Karma :

Here's my full insurance list with a step by step guide on how to get your insurance premium down.

1. First get yourself a cup of your favourite hot beverage, it helps, believe me.

2. Fill in the 'info form' attached before calling any insurance companies (if you can remember all your details you can skip this step)

3. Call every insurance company on the attached list (try the ones if black if you have time), be sure to record the results in the attached excel file.

4. Try and find other insurance companies that aren’t in the attached list, BCF has a fair few insurance lists, use the search function to find them.
Alternatively you can use goggle or your favourite bike mag to find more companies.

5. Once you’ve got some decent quotes you need to play them off each other (haggle).

Eg. Company x offers you £500 TPFT , company Z offers £550.
Call company z and tell them that company x has offered a better deal and can they match or beat it.
Then go back to company x and tell them that z has matched their price and so on.

If you want anything additional with your insurance free eg. ride any other bike, breakdown cover, legal cover, then the haggling stage is when to get it.

6. You’ve chosen the best deal for you; make sure you check the policy details before you hand over your money.
Then check them again when you get your policy paperwork through the post.

General Notes:

Credit/Finance:
It’s best to pay for your insurance in one lump sum to avoid paying credit agencies.
If you must use their instalments plan bewared that it’s almost impossible to stop the payments if you need to cancel the policy.

Online quotes:
Most online quotes are excessively high. Never do ‘quick quotes’ as they are completely useless, always opt for the ‘full quote’.
There are however some good online insurance companies, you’ll need to search bcf for their details.

The main reason online quotes are so high is that when you call an insurance salesperson they punch your details into the computer and get a basic quote.
Then they try and find a suitable ‘scheme’ for you.
A ‘scheme’ is basically an insurance special offer e.g. all riders over 21 with 3+ncb receive a 30% discount, each underwriter will have many schemes and each broker will have many underwriters.

A simple ratio:
The more insurance companies you call the more likely you are to get cheaper insurance.

You could get your pc to fax lots of insurance companies your details, but unfortunately you’ll find very few will reply, I’ve found the same to be true of e-mail.
Insurance companies are notorious for not calling you back, they say they will but don’t.

If you have any major complaints against an insurance company contact the Financial Services Authority.

I welcome any and all corrections, complaints, questions and suggestions.

map · Mr Calendar Joined: 14 Jun 2004 Karma :

Useful info Thumbs Up

colin1 · Captain Safety Joined: 17 Feb 2005 Karma :

Id agree breakdown cover is important. I couldnt live without it.

I think online quotes are great to give you and idea of what insurance is on different bikes. If you ring up they will only do 2 quotes for you, and it takes ages.

I use www.ebikeinsurance.co.uk although I know I should do some ringing around when i come to get a policy.
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colin1 is officially faster than god

reyb · L Plate Warrior Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Karma :

thanks, man! I've been up to my neck with insurance infos, but what you gave comes out accurately practical
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tAkE As lOng As yOu likE, but tAkE yOur mOtOrcyclE AppArEl with yOu

Rookie · World Chat Champion Joined: 09 Feb 2005 Karma :

reyb, you do realise you are giving him the finger? Laughing

map · Mr Calendar Joined: 14 Jun 2004 Karma :

Just remembered another possible addition to the spreadsheet. Maybe more for comprehensive insurance although may affect third party stuff. Watch out on the excess. There's usually a mandatory amount imposed. However, you can usually reduce the premium a little by adding a voluntary excess on top of this.

Keeping track of this is useful. I've got plenty of cheaper quotes but for an extra £20 to £30 have gone from £300 excess to £100. Guess that makes any claim possible should it be required. Have too much excess and claims aren't worth it due to the loss of NCB and the hassle.

HTH Thumbs Up

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...and the whirlwind is in the thorn trees, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks...
Gibbs, what did Duckie look like when he was younger? Very Happy

White Noise · Mr Dudwee Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Karma :

kb-zxr · Could Be A Chat Bot Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Karma :

Good post mate.

Shame when I rebooted my computer I lost Microsoft Excel with the rest of Office. Can't find that bloddy disc either Evil or Very Mad

Zack · L Plate Warrior Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Karma :

yes very nice post mate Thumbs Up

im new here (today) look forward to sharing idea's with each other

just bought my self a Honda NSR 125 need to get insurance tax an mot for it..

i did di an mot it failed on minor things
but ive got that all sorted out just waiting for my fuel cap to come..

oh btw does anyone know what way you put the fuel lever ?
Down Left UP ???
my fairings dont have any signs on it to tell me Embarassed

White Noise · Mr Dudwee Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Karma :

Zack · L Plate Warrior Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Karma :

White Noise · Mr Dudwee Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Karma :

instigator · Super Spammer Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Karma :

You are a legend danny.

Pretty much confirms everything I know on what to do with insruance companies but the attached documents are very useful indeed. Smile

My renewal is up in one months time so it#s perfect timing.

Zack · L Plate Warrior Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Karma :

thx again

Zack · L Plate Warrior Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Karma :

I got a quote for £295! 3rd party fire an theft an £250 excess..

ive had my cbt for 2-3 weeks now and i drive a honda nsr 125 (1992)
my bike is kept in a garage.

well all i gota say is thx man for these numbers Laughing