What's with insurance companies?

My insurance is due for renewal end of the month so I was using some comparison sites to help narrow down who I should call. Considering last year cost me £500 TPFT with £650 Excess, I thought this year would be a little better, well no.

I did the usual and stated that I had a 33BHP restrictor and a non performance enhancing exhaust, only 1 company would give me a quote and that was for £1200. All the other companies were listed as "Cannot insure due to Modifications". So I removed all the mods and got a quote for £350 with £650 Excess from Swinton. Thinking it was my exhaust that was stopping me getting a quote I just removed that and left the restrictor on, nope no one would insure me except for the company quoting £1200.

I then found out, to my amusement, that it wasn't the exhuast that was making me uninsurable but the 33BHP restrictor. What? So I'm going to call Swinton Monday and try sort something out as surely having a 33BHP restrictor shouldn't cause that much of an issue, maybe it's just the way the comparison site gathers my quotes.

Anyone else had something similar where something, no matter how small an effect it has on the bike your premiums skyrocket? I read on here that someone was refused insurance because they fitted better brake lines.

mines gone up nearly 100% from 450 fully comp to 880 fully comp but other bikes have not gone up that much, so probs getting rid of the sv and getting another bike next summer

Remove the restriction as a modification then ring the desired insurance company and say you have a restriction and then they will give you the proper qoute this was a problem I had.

I rang up bikesure and the qoute i recieved online was the same even after I declared the restriction.

So yeah, just ring the company with the qoute you want and see what they say.

Doing mods in internet quotes never seems to work properly. Always phone up.

[Dave20046]

Originally Posted by TazDaz

Doing mods in internet quotes never seems to work properly. Always phone up.

Agreed, however they've all been really funny about mods recently. I could only find one insurer at an affordable price this year

I spoke to bennets a couple of years ago when I had my ktm 640SM restricted and the lad I spoke to said that you're best not telling anyone it's restricted..!

I didnt tell my insurance company the bike is restricted because its not optional its a legal requirement on a A2 licence. They know my age its not possible for me to have an unrestricted licence.

Originally Posted by dan9878

I didnt tell my insurance company the bike is restricted because its not optional its a legal requirement on a A2 licence. They know my age its not possible for me to have an unrestricted licence.

I did this for the two years too.

[TamSV]

Originally Posted by dan9878

I didnt tell my insurance company the bike is restricted because its not optional its a legal requirement on a A2 licence. They know my age its not possible for me to have an unrestricted licence.

100% correct. In those circumstances there's no need to disclose the restriction.

As you say, they know your age and should know the requirements.

Ah right. Thanks for the heads up. I only told my current insurer it was restricted because i thought it would lower my premiums, but I was wrong, didn't change a thing. I'll just tell them about the exhaust and not worry about the restrictor. I'm happy with £350 TPFT with 8000 mile annual limit and Pillions, the cheapest I've had.

Did another quote, all the same stuff but this time without my NCB and cheapest I found was just over £500 so my 3 years NCB has saved me about £150 which is pretty good.

Anyone ever used Direct Line? Going to give them a call aswell as apparently they are quite cheap.