Bennetts V Carol Nash

[fontana]

An interesting pattern has emerged with my bike insurance of the last 5 or so years.
One year Bennetts are the cheapest, and the next year it'll be Carol Nash, and it's not a small difference either.
My multi bike renewal came through today from Carol Nash at £605.
OK so there is now a new bike in the mix, but even so I thought that was a bit steep for an old fart like me with no claims or convictions.
So, as I've done for the last 5 years, I got a quote from Bennetts, which was £317.
Almost half.
Next year it'll be Carol Nash again.
What is going on.

[slparry]

An interesting pattern has emerged with my bike insurance of the last 5 or so years.
One year Bennetts are the cheapest, and the next year it'll be Carol Nash, and it's not a small difference either.
My multi bike renewal came through today from Carol Nash at £605.
OK so there is now a new bike in the mix, but even so I thought that was a bit steep for an old fart like me with no claims or convictions.
So, as I've done for the last 5 years, I got a quote from Bennetts, which was £317.
Almost half.
Next year it'll be Carol Nash again.
What is going on.

ouch!

I have 4 bikes on one policy from EBike and pay £260 for all four fully comp. Bikes on cover are Boxercup, F800GS, K1200GT and R1200RT so all larger engines

[fontana]

ouch!

I have 4 bikes on one policy from EBike and pay £260 for all four fully comp. Bikes on cover are Boxercup, F800GS, K1200GT and R1200RT so all larger engines

Ah Ha.
Yes someone else told me they're cheap.
I've just done an online quote with them, and it's come out £12 more than Bennetts at £330.
No claims, convictions, 54 years old, 35 years continuous experience.
Having said that, I'm still reasonably happy with that figure.
Certainly more than the £605 renewal figure I got from Carol Nash

[Grip Fast]

It's usually a two or three year cycle with me. I think this is my third year with Bennetts. Haven't used Carol Nash for quite a long time. I was with the Irish lot (whose name escapes me), who do a special deal for IAM members. They guaranteed to match cheaper quotes, but I got a bit t'd off with getting their outrageous starting offer, hunting round for a best quote, proving the better quote to them, and getting the same price from them. I thought it's just easier to hunt around for the best deal... ...and take it.

We had a shouting match about that when I told them I'd got a better quote and had gone with it.

[Boxered]

Sadly loyalty to insurance co's is going to cost you £££s
I was a big fan of CN for many years as they offered a great deal for good price, but they are no longer the Co that they were
Now I just look for the cover I want and go with the best price for the spec. Currently with Hastings and my renewal is £138 FC Prot NCB, no claims or points.
I did a comparison on http://www.thebikeinsurer.co.uk and got a best price for similar spec of £79
I haven't gone through it all just yet but the cover looks to be like for like.

Steve

[slparry]

ouch!

I have 4 bikes on one policy from EBike and pay £260 for all four fully comp. Bikes on cover are Boxercup, F800GS, K1200GT and R1200RT so all larger engines

Ah Ha.
Yes someone else told me they're cheap.
I've just done an online quote with them, and it's come out £12 more than Bennetts at £330.
No claims, convictions, 54 years old, 35 years continuous experience.
Having said that, I'm still reasonably happy with that figure.
Certainly more than the £605 renewal figure I got from Carol Nash

the other advantage ebike have is they don't charge £35 every time you want to make a policy change or add/remove a bike from cover, Bennetts want to charge £35 at the drop of a hat.

Last time I was with them they wanted to charge me to change the Welsh address they'd misspelt on my policy ...grrr

[milleplod]

the other advantage ebike have is they don't charge £35 every time you want to make a policy change or add/remove a bike from cover, Bennetts want to charge £35 at the drop of a hat.

Last time I was with them they wanted to charge me to change the Welsh address they'd misspelt on my policy ...grrr

Bear in mind that Bennetts, like many of the other big 'names' in insurance, are just a broker, not an insurer. When I first bought my ST, I neglected to mention to the broker (I think it was Carole Nash) that it had a Remus can on it - I called them around a month after I'd taken out the cover to get it added on. They 'checked with the underwriters' that it was acceptable....it was....that'll be a £25 admin fee please. I declined and said I'd put the standard can back on, which at the time I'd not even got! Then I called the insurer direct - 'no problem, we'll add it on'.....no charge whatsoever.

So, for changes of any sort, sometimes its worth going direct.

Pete

[fontana]

Bennetts want to charge £35 at the drop of a hat.

Carol Nash do exactly the same.
Seems to me if you ring them up to say hello they charge you £40

[kfrogzx7]

My Bennetts 2 bike on one policy renewal leapt up to £370 this year from around £200 so I started to shop around.
The MCN insurance comparison site will only quote single bike policies ,so I put in each bikes details separately, and got the best prices for each.
Both the best quotes were from Bennetts !! AND the two quotes together came to £230 !!
So I rang Bennetts and explained and asked them what they could do about it ?
The best they could do was to come down on the combined bike policy to £320, but they agreed that the online individual bike quotes were legit and that they could sign me up for those on the phone there and then.
So after quite a laborious process of being read the T&Cs right through TWICE I was insured with Bennetts for £140 less than their original quote -- it's all madness, introductory offers for all services should be banned .... same goes particularly for energy companies too.
The regulators should just insist that ALL products should be available to ALL customers, existing or new.
A lot of market irregularities and discrepancies would be eliminated immediately.