Got home this afternoon to be greeted by a letter from Swintons, who arrange my bike insurance.
I currently have a multi-bike policy, fully comp, covering the 23 Mandello and an 02 Ducati 900SSie.
Congratulations, it said. We’ve re-insured at the LOWEST PRICE!!! (it said.)
Sounded good, until I looked at the suspiciously small print.
Apparently my underwriter last year had chosen not to renew the policy - despite there being absolutely no changes, no convictions, one more year NCD, RoSPA qualification, etc.
Last year I paid £261.53.
Didn’t think this too bad for a couple of bikes.
But not to fear - Swintons had heroically trawled the market and come up with…
£652.01 (Where did the .01 come from???)
Needless to say, I will NOT be snapping up this “unmissable” offer.
Anyone got any suggestions for insurers offering REALISTICALLY priced multi-bike policies?
You could try Lynbrook, who are part of Kingfisher Insurance. You will have to ring to get a quote. The number is 0800 4700553. For the bikes you have they will be more expensive than your previous price but, I would hope they will be cheaper than Swintons.
Good luck
Footman James - £482.64 for 11 bikes albeit with 3000 mile max. as I tend to fiddle rather than ride it seems. I don’t think it’s much more for normal mileage.
Euro cover, ride to work etc .etc. included.
More to the point I suppose is that Footman James have been consistently good on price and if you have to make a claim (which after all is why we have insurance) there’s no quibbling.
Roy Green from the Forest of Dean
Bikesure/Adrian Flux are good to deal with and prices fair. Never had a claim so I can’t vouch for them in that respect but I’ve been with them multiple times over the past 20+ years.
I get mine through a local broker but the underwriter is highway insurance who i think are in England. I pay 220 to 250 depending which bigger bike (125s only cost me about 70-90 a year)
bike sure were ok too, I had a policy with them for a couple of years.
I didnt do multibike, just insured each bike individually.
Try Hastings insurance. Multi bike policy for my Moto Guzzi V7 850 and Royal Enfield 650 interceptor both bikes covering 3000 miles per year was £319 fully comprehensive this year.
Chris Jackson, Colne
Roy. I am with Footman James for 7 bikes and my car (17 year old Honda Cr-v) all on one policy. If you state you are a member of the Guzzi Club, they should remove the mileage limit. Unless they have stopped doing this feature? I’ve been with them for around 15 years now.
Went from Auntie Carol to R H insurance. As advised in Gambalunga, good price and good recommendations from other bikers . As we all know ,nothing goes wrong till it goes wrong with insurance, but all seems good to me . Cheers
Im with Footman James quote for 7 bikes has just landed on door mat for £600. I painted my Spada in Black with a slight gold metallic flake and that added £90 to premium last year.
VMCC do cheaper insurance through Peter James cover is Ok but not as good as FJ. I did use FJ breakdown cover a couple of years ago and it was very good (Repatriated my Honda ST1300 from France, not a Guzzi )
My husband insures through Carol Nash. (Aviva) Last year for 2 bikes was £254 this year £389. He questioned it and got the princely sum of £7 off. No changes made by us to warrant this increase, but our car insurance increased by just as much this year so we changed company for the cars.
Well thanks all who contributed…your submissions and thoughts were very useful.
It turned out that it was Hastings who saved the day, with just an extra £25 for the level of cover I had last year.
When I rang Swintons to say that regrettably, I would not be availing myself of their unmissable offer this year, they sounded almost surprised but said they could “look at the quote again”.
“Too late”, was my reply.
But yeah - goes to show. I spent a couple of hours on the phone this AM, but it was time well spent…and money not!
Just as an aside, RH were also well out of the running, even with Club membership. Their quote was £455, so…resistable.
Exact same situation and conversation with my car insurance - they similarly felt that a 35% increase over last years premium would be swallowed as “rising business costs”.
“Sorry we can’t do any better”, they said.
“I can”, I replied. “Bye”.
I’ve got 5 bikes on a Carole Nash policy including a 1982 T3, Honda blackbird, a Greeves 250 because at least one of them is over 30 years old £430 per year limited to 8000 miles
It is ridiculous the way policies are going up, but look on the brighter side. Many of us, for an hour or so on the computer will save several hundred Pounds. This works out as a far higher rate of pay than I have ever had.
I play Carole Nash and Bennetts off each other for my 4 bikes. One gives me the renewal and then I go to the other. This year last year Bennetts did it for the same price as Carole Nash the previous year with extra cover thrown in. They will give me a quote with a large increase this year and I will switch again. Shysters the lot of them!
I got quoted more for multibike policy than quotes for separate bikes. Also found it cheaper to get personal breakdown cover for all bikes and car.
I used Martins money comparison and there was a cashback offer on it. Just got that back today so works out for BMW 1150GS, £75 full comp/ legal/ 5000 miles. It will be about the same for my 1971 V7 special full comp/ legal/ 3000 miles,
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