I've been playing with my quotes a little (obviously too much time on my hands) to see what difference it makes as I'm about to renew. So on a £156 Fully Comp policy (excess of £400) for the Blade I made the following changes. Saved £2 by adding HISS2 immobiliser (forgot to put this in the original quote). Saved £11 by by removing pillion cover (as I've removed the rear pegs anyway). Went up by £12 by changing from SDP (Social Domestic & Pleasure) to SDP&C (adding Commuting). £0 change by adding DataTag. Saved only £2 by adding a Tracker. Changing my job title from "Sales Engineer" of an "Appliance Manufacturer" to "Trainer" bumped the quote up by almost £50 So overall I'm gonna pay £143 by adding HISS & removing pillion cover Also, eBike will allow me to add the Triumph for free, but only on a TPF&T policy.
No that's my track bike that im making road legal so i can still take it out on the road. Its only a 600, so i guess their theory must be that im no high a risk on the smaller bike and can't ride both at the same time I'd just prefer to find a Fully Comp policy for the Blade that lets me add the Triumph rather than taking out a 2nd policy as it's £85 to cover it on it's own.
added fuel efficiency remapping device(aka power commander) £0 added exhaust that is road legal(leo vince gp pro) £0
I cannot believe they are allowed to ask your occupation. STILL this shit persists. I find it offensive. They will claim its because some are more likely to use for a job, or some travel or ... But in actual fact its because they can derive risk from what they think is "behaviour of a type of person" .. which I find as wrong as them saying are you black from Brixton therefore you carry a knife and mug people. FFS. They are no longer allowed to differentiate over gender. Good thing. We should lobby to get rid of this nonsense. I know a guy who is a musician who lies. He has to, no choice. He has 10 years no claims and a clean license, always has, rides his Daytona like a grandma on the road, despite being fairly quick on the track. Insurance companies shouldnt be allowed to ask this question!
Occupation has a significant impact in the risk profile of the policy, dictated by the hours worked, access to alcohol and numerous other factors. Good luck to your pal who lies - in the event of a claim it could mean policy is void I try and explain it like this, imagine you bet on a horse based on its past form. In the race it comes last by a huge margin - Naturally you try and find out why only to be told 'oh did you not know it only has 3 legs now?' - would be a bit miffed at betting on a 3 legged racehorse in an open race? Don't know your employment but I've worked in the Insurance industry for over 20 years and while not an underwriting I've written quote rule worksheets, provided acturarial information on the book of business, reports on claims by driver age etc.
Thing is if you buy a bike 2nd hand do you really know exactly what has been done too it? For all I know I could have oversized pistons cams etc, for all my mrs knows our car could have a jet engine or even powered by hamsters
A Fireblade ate my hamster then Seriously though, in most cases there will be many variations of what your job description is. As an electrical product trainer there are several, so I stick with the one that comes out cheapest. It's not lying, it's an accurate description of my job and the insurers seem happy with it when phoning for quotes.
If it is included, drop legal Expenses Insurance as well (which is a proven money maker for the insurers and of no real benefit to the policyholder) and watch your premium drop by anything from £15 - £30 even though they will tell you its free or included. I dropped LEI on both my policies (car and bike) and saved over £60 a year between the 2
You're not the only person to have said that, but I have to question it as I was once involved in a non fault accident and my isurers refused to pursue a claim against the third party as i wasnt covered for legal expenses. I had to write to the Third partys insurers to make a claim and wait for their permission to have my car repair. I felt cheated by my own insurers and have paid for legal expense cover ever since, but am I still being cheated?
Insurance companies will make all sorts of unfounded excuses as to why they will not do the job that you pay them to do as part of your policy, but that is another issue. Look at it this way. Insurers charge for Legal expenses insurance even when they say it is free or included, but the reality is they simply build it into the cost of the premium, and as a good friend of mine who works in the insurance industry recently told me, they make around something like £1billion in profits from these policies but only pay out about 10% of what they take in, so it is a massive earner for them, particularly when if you want to make a claim or get legal representation, they will insist that you use their panel firms who are on a retainer working for a fraction of the hourly rate charged by a normal firm and therefore have no real interest in you as an individual because of the numbers they deal with you are nothing more than a number on their conveyor belt. The fact that insurers can no longer insist that you must use their panel firms does not stop them insisting, and because most members of the public are unaware of this, the insurers and their tame law firms end up being the only winners. No lets put it into perspective. If you have a crash which is your fault, you have insurance which covers third party liability and will therefore pay out end of story. That is why third party road risk is the minimum cover available. If you have a crash which is not your fault and you are injured, then you can get legal representation through any firm or solicitor you choose under a conditional fee agreement (no win no fee) where the law firm has to do a proper risk assessment before they can take the case on because if they lose the case they get paid nothing, so they are more likely to fight your corner which an LEI appointed firm will not do. If it is damage only, yes I accept that some insurers will not fight your corner (and they are by and large in breach of their contract with you), but that simply means that you issue proceedings online through the small claims court (which is very simple) and is a dammed sight quicker to get a result and settlement, and the court staff will actually give you all the assistance you want and a darned sight more than most insurers. Additionally all your costs can be claimed back directly to you. If the value of a damage only claim is over £5,000 then you can still get legal representation. The difference her is that damage claims under £5,000 means that solicitors cannot claim back their costs or fees, but over £5,000 they can. There are more complaints about the way a legal expenses appointed solicitor handles cases than anyone else simply because they work on a rack em, pack em and stack em system. I saw one of these firms in operation a couple of years ago. The call centre worked to a strict script and had no interest in the individual, and the fee earners (legal staff) were limited to 1 unit of time (6 minutes) for each file per day. No wonder things take so long and this rule applied to even catastrophic and fatal crash cases. Hope that all makes sense.
but how will it go lower if it's included in the price? i've justinsured my car and take everything off,when i asked about the legal thing,i was told it wouldn't make difference as it's free anyway.
Wow, makes you feel sick doesn't it. Some really good info there. I think i'm gonna stick to your plan and save around £20 for both car and bike bike policies. Is there anything that you lose out on by not having legal expense cover?
Not really. It is accepted as being a rip off insurance that most people don't use, don't need or can get better representation for free elsewhere but with someone of your choosing. Scooby, Most half decent insurers will show the value of legal expenses as part of the breakdown of the policy value, and 90% show the cost, for example I have the car insured with Churchill and they give it to you automatically until I took it off and immediately reduced the premium by £30 a year. They phoned me and said it was advisable to take the legal expenses, so when I asked Why, I got 100% BS and every point they made I countered to which they had no answer or had to agree with me. Brokers are the worst offenders because they know that the more they reduce the value of a premium, the less commission they will get, so they tend to keep quiet, although in my experience most don't have a clue anyway.
Sorry man.. but I find that answer to be a croc. Its nothing more than a sweeping generalization. Risk Profiling .. ummm ... sounds like other types of profiling to me. You CANNOT tell anything about a person's motoring behavior from the behavior of OTHERS in their profession. For instance. I don''t drink, I am near T-Total. And neither does my friend. If insurers were allowed to ask what race someone was. They would. Imagine that. Insurance should be based on facts not assumptions or profiling. Your driving history, your time and experiences, qualifications, offenses .. all acceptable .. but any kind of assumption or "profiling" is wrong in any walk of life. You guys were banned from offering a discount to women, quite rightly, another generalization quashed. Now time to do away with profession questions. Even if it costs us all a little more.
My brother was a learner driver on his car for 3 years and my dad sat in the car with him too teach him, when he eventually passed his test and phoned his insurance went up nearly 1k as they put him from having a provisional licence for 3 years to a full licence for 0 years! How fecked up is that
Finally sorted it today, £147 full comp with Hastings. Couldn't add the track bike, so I may do that later in the year as it's only £50 for a no frills policy.
What's £50 Muff? Dedicated Track Bike Theft Insurance? What happens though if ya Track Bike gets nicked out of the Garage, does your other Bikes Insurance get hiked too cause you've made a claim?
