Insurance scam?

[Champy72]

Bike insurance renewal required by 24 June, so started by looking at all the market.coms.

Best deal - £102 fully comp! Bargain. However, on the phone, I was asked to state the accessories fitted to the bike. The list was long...
Heated grips, touring screen, F/R cameras, driving lights, crash bars, sump guard, Givi side and top luggage, Storm Exhaust, GPS mount, centre stand, side stand extender plate... Apart from the cameras and GPS mount, that s how the bike was when I bought it last year.
Suddenly the price jumped by 20%! I suggested that was a good price if those items were all covered on the policy, but no, they are not covered!
None are performance enhancing items, but apparently all are 'modifications'.
If not declared, the insurance would be invalid in the result of an accident, and was told all insurance companies did the same.
Yet another way to grab more money without any benefit to the rider...

Anyone have any good suggestions as to Insurance Companies, or are they all just crooks?

[kwackboy]

So , you're moaning over £20  ..? , are you sure you're not from Yorkshire..

I'd snap thier hand off for £120 fully comp all in.

[Rixington43]

No idea how they'll work out on price for you but Carole Nash are consistently one of the cheapest for me and they have a list of accessories/mods which you don't need to declare as they're not performance enhancing, even includes things like slip on cans etc. Their breakdown cover also includes Europe which makes them worth it for me even though they're not the absolute lowest quote I get.

* I've had 1 claim with them and they were great to be honest, although everyone has a horror story everywhere it seems.

[TLPower]

Pay the twenty quids.

I have just insured with BeMoto, I was with Carole Nash. I would never use the European cover, my AA cover covers my bike as well as the cars so breakdown cover was not an issue. Carole Nash said they could match the BeMoto quote (the one including breakdown cover) if I reduced my bike's value by 60% .

 ( I previously used Carole Nash as I didn't realise my AA cover, covered the bike as well.)

[Upt North]

I don't see it as a scam Champ'ster, and they were cheap. I believe from experience that the comparison sites throw out the lowest possible price to get you to follow it up, then they whack you with £20.00 extra for the extras.
It's business, but of course you can take yours elsewhere.
CN do provide a long list of accessories you don't have to declare, but recently, maybe the last couple of years I think they've changed like the rest, and not for the better.
I see phone calls in your future.
Press 1, Press 5...........
Upt'North.

[Barbel Mick]

The comparison sites will give you the lowest quote possible, that will not cover any additions/accessories fitted to your bike. To get 'proper' cover you need to ring and speak to them to ensure you are covered for everything you want to be covered for & that all accessories are listed.
This year I too changed from CN (who didn't charge for my additions as not performance enhancing) to BeMoto. Same cover but a bit cheaper including breakdown cover.
I'd be happy with £120.

[endintears]

For anybody out there who wants to gain some understand of the situation in relation to non disclosure be that unintentional or otherwise and how that actually affects your contract with the [UK] insurance company I would suggest you follow this link which contains guidance from the insurance ombudsman to the insurance industry on how to act proportion and fairly  in such cases.
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/complaints-deal/insurance/misrep-and-non-disclosure

[Rusty Nuts]

Carole Nash have just quoted me £525 . I decided not to accept.

[Brockett]

My son moved away in the summer and took his two cars with him. Insurance on my two cars are is now due. A 2015 Honda Jazz (aka 'the slug') and a 2008 Fiat Doblo  (my mobile tent,  bike on trailer tug and general fishing gear wagon) When I told them there is now only two cars in the household and not four, the previous price quoted went up by £50 to £585.   
Bike insurance is due soon and a long list of modifications is being prepared now. Last year they argued that fitting handguards radiator guard and crash bars was a tacit admission that I intended to use it for racing. They could not understand why I would fit a  "hugger" or front "mudguard extender".
I have come to the conclussion that many of the call handlers do not have a clue about motorcycles. They are faced with filling in a form based on my answers to the forms questions and where my answers are not an exact fit for the 'form', they have to interpret my answer and give it their best shot as to what box to tick.  Last year I demanded to speak to someone who understood motorcycles. That resulted in a five minute fix to a problem that had been rattling for about twenty minutes with a nice but out of their knowledge zone previous call handler.   

[Champy72]

OK, OK! Backside slapped by all, and well deserved.   
My original indignation was not the overall cost, but the percentage increase they added for no comprehensible reason.
Anyway, I sculled around the sites, and what an eye opener! There are some that have lists of items you don't have to declare, and others who would double an already expensive quote once listed. For example, I found one that made no increase at all, until I mentioned the sump guard and a cosmetic only exhaust change. Wang! Price rocketed up by over £100. 
Yes, I agree that we do end up talking to non-bikers who do not have a clue that heated grips are not performance enhancing, and that crash bars, cameras, driving lights may actually help reduce/prevent major damage and injury in a modest accident/bike fall. So if they advertise as motorcycle insurers, why don't they get people in who do understand???   
Anyway, of course I went back to the original insurers and signed up with them. I have my own travel and breakdown cover in UK and EU through my bank, so didn't need any extras.
I now consider myself admonished by my peers!!! 

[Upt North]

Champ'ster,  , like it.....
Glad you're sorted.
I've had to ring CN twice this years, which is twice too many.....
On both occasions (and I say this with no intended malice) (no honest) I was speaking to kids who wouldn't know which way to sit on a bike and both were working from home. They just click away with gay abandon with no real understanding of the issues. One even asked me to wait while she went to the door.
Obviously her time was more important than mine.
Again, glad you are one sorted bloke.
Upt'North.

[kwackboy]

Champ'ster , nice to hear your are sorted, and yes, 20% increase is a piss take .. 

My CN renewal has just landed in my inbox, again I have to make a call and barter for a lower cost, which I despise 

Wish me luck ..

[TLPower]

I must say the chap who I spoke to at Carole Nash was a well clued up sort, in his bid to reduce my premium, HE decided that my declared end can wasn't a performance up-grade, HE asked about my employment status, (I'd forgotten I didn't work anymore) and both revisions lowered my premium.

[Barbel Mick]

That's the problem with retirement, it means you're probably old and the memory isn't what it used to be. 

[Champy72]

The big problem with being fully retired is that you never get a day off...