View Full Version : Insurance - Fully comp or not?
Sorry if this has been covered before. I'm trying to insure my first big bike (at 23) and i'm getting some silly quotes.
I put the value of the bike at £2000 and my annual milage at 4k - fully comp insurance is coming back at around £900 with a £900 excess (just checked bennetts and confused.com) with third party fire and theft at £450 with £250 excess.
While i don't plan on dropping the bike.. i'm not stupid and i know there's a good chance i will, but with the policy and the excess equalling the write off value of the bike i can't see the point in fully comp.
Any thoughts / good insurance places for my kind of situation?
Carsick
20-03-05, 10:34 PM
you could try express, they're part of cofield. I got an ok deal with them.
I'm 23 and pay £800 FC, £350 xs but with unlimited mileage, class 1 business use and can ride other bikes. Some european cover was also included, though I can't remember how much or how good.
At a value of £2000 (and a £250 excess) I'd personally not bother with FC and go for TPFT on the premise that virtually anything can be fixed for £500.
.
Carsick
20-03-05, 11:13 PM
At a value of £2000 (and a £250 excess) I'd personally not bother with FC and go for TPFT on the premise that virtually anything can be fixed for £500..
This is also a good point.
I had to take FC as part of my finance agreement, but if I was buying a secondhand SV I would almost certainly only get tpft.
also , what you have to take in consideration is how much it will affect your premium next year if you do claim.
i was in your dilema, and i thought id go for TPFT (and hope i didnt do anything silly)
I went for TPFT last year since I was new back to biking, and took things very easy. This year I'm getting fully comp quotes for less than last years TPFT [even with 2x SP30]. Under 400 quid cos I'm an old, but inexperienced, fart. I was still wondering myself whether to go for fully comp or not but the saving to TPFT for me isn't that much so I probably will this year.
northwind
21-03-05, 03:15 AM
I reluctantly went FC this year owing to the value of mods on the bike as much as anythign else...
You basically have to do the maths on it... FC costs you 4 ways-
Premiums are higher
Excesses tend to be higher
and to make it worth having, you'll claim for things that you'd just fix normally, which loses you your no claims while also adding on a weighting (since you have to declare any crash on your next application- which naturalyl we all do, oh yes- but you can't avoid it if you'd made a claim.
Since last year FC would have cost me £400 more with £100 more excess, plus any claim would have lost me my 1 year's no claims, and the increase that any claim would have caused, and I'd have had to work incredibly hard to do enough damage to mak it worth it- basically wreck the engine or frame, or roll it and smash everything up...
This year, I can do £600 worth of damage by dropping it on its side, so I'm going FC :)
Flamin_Squirrel
21-03-05, 07:09 AM
northy you're pre-planning your crashing for this year? Love the optimism :lol:
timwilky
21-03-05, 08:40 AM
As my SVS is £162 fully comp with £250 X/S, I think TPFT would be for me a false economy.
It is all down to the maths. If they were asking >£800 then it would not be justifiable.
But at the end of the day how much you pay is down to the risk you are assessed to be. I only have one years NCD, but do have a few more years on the clock. I doubt that it makes me any better a rider, but perhaps curbs any youthful exuberance for the riskier manouvre
There are advantages to being an old fogey :wink:
For my first ever year's biking on a year old Hairnet (Gp12 Insurance) I paid £403 FC with £250 xs. TPFT would have been about £100 cheaper but as I'd just paid £4k for the bike it made no sense to do anything other than FC.
This year I've paid £372 FC with £300 xs, but I've added Class 1 business use over last year. Would have been £342 FC otherwise.
But to answer the question............. I think, as others have said, you need to take the value of the bike, the difference in cost between FC and TPFT and the xs into account. Don't forget to assess all the extras that you might get with FC, though.
Mines FC this year as I had a loan on it and didn't want to be paying the loan for a dead bike if I dropped it... Now I've paid for it I may drop to TPFT in the summer = 600 euros a year is a bit of a difference...
Hairnet
:lol:
I am intending to go TPFT when I eventually get a bike, purely based on the fact that it will be a weekend fun thing only and as a newbie to bikes a FC quote is :shock:
My best quote was £240 (with 6 points) from confused.com
also , what you have to take in consideration is how much it will affect your premium next year if you do claim.
i was in your dilema, and i thought id go for TPFT (and hope i didnt do anything silly)
Very good point which i'd not thought about. I think that, plus jonboys £500 note tips it towards TPFT and with the money i save start buying replacement fairing and pegs :)
Ceri JC
21-03-05, 10:04 AM
I went for TPFT on mine. I'm 23 and the price difference for fully comp was so much more (along with higher excess) that there was no way of justifying fully comp. As has already been said, with £650 excess, you'd have to really knacker lots of the bike before it'd be worth claiming (especially once you take into account additional "future cost" through loss of NCB, etc.).
Can't ever really see myself going for FC, until I'm a lot older/have a v. expensive bike.
my quote was as follows
600 quid TPFT
2500 FC
diamond
21-03-05, 10:08 AM
OUCH!!!!!! :? :shock: :shock:
SVeeedy Gonzales
21-03-05, 01:42 PM
Used to just have tpft on the old ER5, but that was because I didn't commute on it then, plus it was only worth £2000. The SV cost me £3400 and now I'm doing about 20k a year on it, commuting into London each day, so I got comp. for the first few months (was extending the policy from the old bike)
When the renewal comes in a few months, it'll be a hard choice - at least 500 for comp vs about 250 for tpft. With the bike being restricted now and the extra 40 or so bhp due to be set free in July, I'll probably splash the extra 250 in case I get carried away with it... once I've had it a year then I'll probably drop back to tpft...
It's all to do with how confident you feel on the bike and whether you think/feel you could end up in a situation where you'd be considered partly/totally to blame for an accident.
I got rear-ended by white van man when I had tpft but he put his hands up so tpft was good enough for me then... a month later, a mate went through an amber light, hit a car, broke his wrist, only had tp and the bike was on finance, so he didn't do well. Another mate bought a zx6r as his first bike right after his DAS, fell off within a week, then a month later he lowsided going round a bend too fast and had comp and got most of his cash back despite it being entirely his own lack of control. Just need to work out where you fit in :)
One other thing about fully comp - even having it is rubbish, as when you claim you lose your NCB, face higher premiums in future, etc. so the only way to really "win" with comp is to get the bike trashed due to (at least in part) your own fault and get a new bike out of it. Which is loads of hassle and not really winning at all.
Hmm, have just convinced self to not get comp next time... :evil:
northwind
21-03-05, 03:20 PM
northy you're pre-planning your crashing for this year? Love the optimism :lol:
That one's booked in for August :) I haven't decided yet if it'll be on the track, on a rideout, or in the garage.
mysteryjimbo
21-03-05, 03:36 PM
I'm in a similar position. I've got TPFT.
Most stuff can be fixed for £500 so i wont bother claiming on anything unless my bikes stolen.
craven2k
22-03-05, 12:51 PM
Jon,
I've just bought my SV650S. Dead pleased with it........ :D
Spent an age ringing round, it's a ball ache but it definitely paid off. Try Carole Nash. I always thought they'd be too expensive, but then again, you get what you pay for. Apparently they have a special deal with AXA for new/young riders on SV650and Bandit 600's.
I've got a £650 Excess but I took the view that if I drop it or bin it, I'd probably rather have my 1st yrs no claims. The policy gives full accident and breakdown cover, 4 free homestarts and full european cover.
As is often the case with these special deals, is only if you can tick all the right boxes.
Thanks craven2k, and welcome to the forum :)
I phoned carol nash last night, £296 TPFT through AXA so i must have ticked something. I'm taking out the policy today :)
my first scoot was £800 TPFT or £300 TPO, and fully comp wasnt even an option. anyway, as i only paid £800 for the bike i figured if i went 18months without it getting nicked i'd be in pocket.
18 months later it was nicked... which was ok, as it was knackered and smoking like a .. urm smokey thing.
pay about £150 TPFT now, which seems about right. but defo think i could fix it cheaper than the cost of FC insurance.
k
Just taken the insurance, i still can't believe how much cheaper than everyone they are. The best TPFT quote was around £500.
Carolnash / AXA with full legal cover, breakdown cover, pillion, european riding, 3rd party on other bikes was £296TPFT.
Simply stunning.
mysteryjimbo
22-03-05, 01:57 PM
Just taken the insurance, i still can't believe how much cheaper than everyone they are. The best TPFT quote was around £500.
Carolnash / AXA with full legal cover, breakdown cover, pillion, european riding, 3rd party on other bikes was £296TPFT.
Simply stunning.
Snap! :lol:
Yep, I just went with Carole Nash too. All the above but fully comp for 379. Now I get to call the RAC and give them the good news that they aren't getting 43 quid from me this year.
adamfool
23-03-05, 08:23 PM
my quote was as follows
600 quid TPFT
2500 FC
i can beat that... 992 TPFT......5000 FC :lol:
guess which i went for....
but there are a lot of factors involved and it does come down to the maths...
when I had a 2k gpz500 living in croydon, tpft was 550 pounds pa. also first bike. new licence. with a 3k SV650S in Ashford, tpft was 350, fc 475... for that I got life insurance, legal assistance, breakdown recovery - including european breakdown recovery so when it goes on the eurotour I can get it back... :D
hmmmmm good job as using legal assistance with my october accident and the breakdowns been used three times... (which at around 150 pounds a go means Ive saved money than if Id had tpft) :shock: :( :lol:
gotta get your moneys worth eh? :wink: :lol:
SVeeedy Gonzales
22-04-05, 12:36 PM
Just checked out Bennetts for this year's renewal. Despite having only gone to the SV from an ER5 in the last few months, they're offering £466 fully comp and £194 tpft.
That's for 28 year old in Kent, bike parked off road, 20,000+ miles per year, no fault claims, no points... for the extra £270, it's tempting to get fully comp for that amount of mileage... as much as I'd rather save the cash, £270 extra to know that whatever happens, they'll sort it for me, even if it's part fault/my fault entirely, is a bit reassuring. Also just got married and that seems to have pushed the premiums down quite a bit.
None of the others - CIA, motorcycle direct, confused.com... seemed to come out better than Bennetts, and I had good service from them when I got punted off at the end of last year. I suspect that because they have more info. on me as I've always been with them, they can do a better deal... will probably be pitting one against the other on the phone as I get closer to the actual renewal date... even if I can shave off £50 or something :)
Captain Nemo
22-04-05, 12:47 PM
i was once told that if fully comp cost more than 33%of the bike/car then just to go third party, on the probability that short of catastrophic damage virually anything can be fixed if you go to breakers and stuff.
i have fully comp as its a new bike,
im a new rider (passed DAS Oct 04) im 34, bike garaged with a cat 1 alarm £330 Fully comp through MCE
Just ask yourself how much do you think you could fix? Or do you know anyone that would help you. And can you live with out the bike for a while.
That should answer your questions if you want Comp of FPTF.
Longshotmojo
22-04-05, 06:01 PM
If anyone fancies a quote then PM me. I work for a brokers - we ain't all b*stards :wink:
Quiff Wichard
22-04-05, 09:44 PM
ooooooooooo the grinch!!! - just got it in b4 me.
my wife works in insurance and she says it annoys her how people say FULLY comprehensive....!!?
she says it is comprehensive..! there is no fully prefix..
I mean- how much more fully can you get than comprehensive ?
I know its pedantic but she sat here with me and told me to write it..or she says I cant have a go in her minnie (see my hand wash post !??)
anyway no doubt long can confirm this if he is a broker .
Quiff Wichard
23-04-05, 08:27 AM
its grinch speak
Fird party theft (and) fire..........................
Cloggsy
23-04-05, 02:07 PM
I'm fully comp... £500 excess though :roll:
TPFT £120 for the year. Sometimes it pays to be older :wink:
Longshotmojo
23-04-05, 03:46 PM
my wife works in insurance and she says it annoys her how people say FULLY comprehensive....!!?
she says it is comprehensive..! there is no fully prefix..
I mean- how much more fully can you get than comprehensive ?
I know its pedantic but she sat here with me and told me to write it..or she says I cant have a go in her minnie (see my hand wash post !??)
Mehh. Doesn't really bother me that much :riding:
Quiff Wichard
23-04-05, 08:09 PM
wot a cool little biker buddy he is !!
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