View Full Version : Insurance again - Bennetts declining to renew
aesmith
17-02-15, 06:54 PM
Hi,
Insurance nonsense time again. I've just received a letter from Bennetts saying that they won't be able to offer a renewal for my SV650 this year. I can't imagine why not since they've covered it for the last two years with the same parameters (except I upped the mileage a little last year). I hope I'm old enough to be low risk, and our address is certainly in a low risk area.
Anyway they can take a hike, there are plenty of other insurers around.
My only concern is whether this counts as having "Cover refused" which is one of the standard questions or assumptions (for example assuming ..
"You or anyone named on the policy have never had insurance refused, declined, cancelled, had special terms imposed or made null and void in the last 5 years"I suppose it could be Bennetts being idiots again, like last year when they quoted £512 renewal premium (up from 80 odd previous year) and then dropped it to £78 when I phoned. But do I really want to keep dealing with such an incompetent outfit?
My brother in law bought a panigale last month, all the big companies refused to ensure him. Full ncb and years with litre bikes.
You can force them to quote, it's the law. But they will comeback with a quote of £10,000 or something similarly silly.
give bikesure a phone. fantastic company to deal with. unlike other insurance companies my insurance actually drops every year. i had a claim in 2009 for full loss due to it being stolen i was paying £280. 2 years later i got another bike and modded it like the last one.. no problem sir just let me speak to the underwriter. yes that will be £280 FC inc leather and helmet cover. next again year £210 FC but i dropped the helmet and leathers cover next again £185 and this years renewal was a whopping £135 with protected no claims, yes i nearly fell off the seat laughing.
mind you i have only ever claimed once in the past 25 years on any insurance for car or bike and that once was a theft of my last bike.
there is a lot more to my claim as it all happened when i had my heart bypass and lets just say that their customer service is superb.
Moleman
17-02-15, 11:15 PM
I'm with aviva via just motprcycle insurance (broker)
I have a 2003 curvey with mods like exhaust hugger braded lines up rated suspension and its £84.95 fully comp I opt to pay aviva an extra £35 for roadside and onward travel brake down cover but that's it my renewal came this week exactly what I paid last year so not bad. Never had to claim though so can't comment on service there but they have been fine otherwise even with declared mods
thats cheap.
i have just thaught and i have only claimed 4 times on insurance for theft since i was 17. never had a claim for accident in my entire driving history.
Moleman
17-02-15, 11:32 PM
Yeah it's about the best I could find for fully comp limited to 8k a year which for me would cover it. Everything like road cover leathers hemet protected no claims seems to be extra though but has to be worth a call??
I have had zero claims and have clean licence .. For now at least .. Bike is locked in a garage and has stock alarm (I presume) no other deterrents fitted. Oh disk lock on days out that's it.
And I'm 47 but not born again :-) it never died for me always had a bike knocking about even had a chicken 90 fun on fields :-)
aesmith
18-02-15, 11:03 AM
You can force them to quote, it's the law. But they will comeback with a quote of £10,000 or something similarly silly.
The funny thing is that if I do an online quote with Bennetts they come back with a premium of £78, just a touch down from last year. That's with all facts correct including business travel and high mileage (15K/year) which were the two things I thought might have been an issue.
So it's either a screw up and the letter was just sent by mistake, or it's something personal.
The funny thing is that if I do an online quote with Bennetts they come back with a premium of £78, just a touch down from last year. That's with all facts correct including business travel and high mileage (15K/year) which were the two things I thought might have been an issue.
So it's either a screw up and the letter was just sent by mistake, or it's something personal.
I'd give them a ring if it was me and get to the bottom of it.
Technically, you have been refused insurance and "should" answer that question accordingly. However, if you do that, you'll open an unpleasant and expensive can of worms.
Could just be a mistake but it's worth sorting now rather than ending up on a database of dodgy geezers.
Red ones
18-02-15, 03:32 PM
What it sounds like to me is the letter they have to send out for renewing the exact policy you currently have. BUT if the policy you have is no longer on the market you will then get this letter.
It doesn't mean they won't insure you, it means they can't insure you on that policy.
Phone them and ask for a quote on a SIMILAR policy.
aesmith
18-02-15, 03:38 PM
You could be right, but the actual wording doesn't invite any sort of approach ..
"Unfortunately, we are unable to offer you a renewal quote based on your current details. This means that a renewal invitation will not be issued to you and you will need to make alternative insurance arrangements." This is followed by a couple of "scare" sentences about CEI penalties and potential prosecutions. Only at the very end does it say to call if I have any queries.
If they're refusing cover, are they obliged to provide the reason?
Yeah, you're getting the boot with that letter :)
They have been acquired by Saga recently so there could be changes to underwriting criteria or changes in their carrier - none of which would reflect on you in any way. If that was the case though you wouldn't expect to still be able to get a new quote from them with all the same details.
Even if your existing insurer was changing their approach to bike insurance and didn't want to invite renewal, I would expect Bennetts to offer an alternative insurer. They should be able to give you a reason why they can't do this.
aesmith
18-02-15, 04:19 PM
But yet if I go online and get a quote, using all the 100% correct data, they quote me a price of £78.24, with a "Buy Now" button to go ahead. So it doesn't look like anything to do with the cover requested, my declared data or the address or anything.
Is there the equivalent of an insurance "black list"? Not that I can think of the remotest reason why I should be on it. Where they say "with your current details" made me think maybe they no longer offer cover for business travel or something, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Can't be modifications either as all the mods on my bike are covered by their "standard modifications" list and therefore don't need to be declared.
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g246/sey115/Photobucket%20Desktop%20-%20Sage%20Youngs%20MacBook/Funny%20and%20Random/justinlonghedoesntlike_zps2109d8e9.gif
aesmith
18-02-15, 05:09 PM
That's what bugs me, if they don't want to insure me then I'd rather go elsewhere and not bother getting back in touch with Bennetts. But if they've blacklisted me I can't do that - so end up needing to speak to them anyway.
Blacklist? Certainly not. The industry prefers "Data sharing in the interest of honest customers". :)
There could be a number of reasons for what's happened but, from what you say, the most likely is that it's an error. I'd give them a ring to sort it out.
After that, you can choose to leave them due to their incompetence and go with another crowd whose incompetence is, as yet, unknown to you. :)
aesmith
19-02-15, 08:42 AM
I've read elsewhere that "Cover declined" means a quote was issued and accepted, but then the underwriter declined. If that's the case, it's not applicable if a quote was simply not offered. That makes a lot of sense (if true), otherwise for example I'd need to declare "declined" after I phoned Aviva and they said they don't cover motorcycles!
Unfortunately I've realised I'll have to speak to Bennetts anyway, as without a renewal quote I don't have evidence of no claims discount to show any new insurers.
aesmith
19-02-15, 08:42 AM
I've read elsewhere that "Cover declined" means a quote was issued and accepted, but then the underwriter declined. If that's the case, it's not applicable if a quote was simply not offered. That makes a lot of sense (if true), otherwise for example I'd need to declare "declined" after I phoned Aviva and they said they don't cover motorcycles!
Unfortunately I've realised I'll have to speak to Bennetts anyway, as without a renewal quote I don't have evidence of no claims discount to show any new insurers.
I've just had my renewal and I've been informed that my insurer has "stopped offering the product" or something like that.
Ran a quote on the bike insurer and the company we don't speak off came out on top.
Bikesure was the most reasonable offer (price vs excess), what scared me, was the number of errors transferred from the bike insurer website to the Bikesure offer.
Generally speaking the cover declined bit is more directed at people who have had the insurance revoked after policy started due to failing to disclose or such like.
I had an old pay as you drive policy from aviva years ago which got cancelled mid term as they realised they were hemorrhaging money.
As a result I had to look elsewhere and thought I would have to declare that I had insurance declined or removed but phoned around and explained to each potential insurer what happened and they said not to bother, the only thing it might do is change my NCB, but aviva provided a letter to advise I should get a full yr from the defunct policy. So apart from the NCB issue I think you are OK.
But to be safe, call Bennett and see why it happened and then call a random insurer and ask a general question of how they would view it. That would tell you how to proceed with the declaration going forward.
Biker Biggles
24-02-15, 06:08 PM
That's what bugs me, if they don't want to insure me then I'd rather go elsewhere and not bother getting back in touch with Bennetts. But if they've blacklisted me I can't do that - so end up needing to speak to them anyway.
I can assure you that there is NO BLACKLIST and your name is not on it.;)
Sure, just like there is no fight club.......
😉
aesmith
05-03-15, 06:51 PM
Well as suspected it turns out it was a Bennetts screw up. Again. According to the guy, when my policy was taken out they marked it as "do not renew" instead of "do not auto renew". It took quite a bit of pressure to get them to find out, the guy I spoke to just wanted me to take new cover and said he could see no reason why it wouldn't go through. I pressed the point because the last thing I wanted was to renew then have it knocked back as that would definitely count as "cover declined".
I must say renewing with them feels like a bit of a climb down, but it was the only way I felt I could really be sure that no black mark implying cover refused was left on my records.
Why does that option even exist.
What's the cooling off period and penalty?
aesmith
05-03-15, 07:05 PM
Ha ha, good point .. 14 days under consumer law, I think that has to be without penalty (Distance Selling regs?)
I'm sure they'll have their own BS one but 14 sounds fair. Renew, get COI, look elsewhere, cancel. Job done.
Lol
Littlepeahead
05-03-15, 07:39 PM
I've just had 3 companies including the one I'm already insured with come back to say they cannot give me a quote online. The one advisor I spoke to said it's a combination of wanting multi bike policy and my job being a sports ground. Anything that says sport flags up potential issues as even though I'm an admin manager on the drop down menu they have to be sure I'm not actually a professional sports person, and high risk. Anyone who has seen my attempts at any sport would vouch that 'professional' is about as far from a description as it gets.
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