Insurance Woes

[MadDuck]

Since I got the SV I have made numerous calls to brokers and Insurance agencies. This price range is HUMUNGOUS anything from $600 to $1,000+.

I know the topic has been raised before but if we had a KBer looking after our interests and getting better bang for our buck - would you support such a move? I guess I am initially talking Auckland area but with a move to national.

Give us some ideas on what you are paying and what Insurance agent would be appreciated. Excess would also be of interst as theft is way more than a crash as I have discovered...so us gals are safe :eek:

just want to combine some data in one thread ....

[k14]

Well I have the CBR insured for $6000. It costs me around $35 a month which is something like $420 or so a year. That is with a 60% no claims bonus though, so if i make a claim the cover goes up to around a grand straight away, that would really suck.

The excess is $700 if I crash it and $1000 if someone else crashes it or if it is stolen.

Incidentally at the same time I asked how much it would cost me to insure a $15 grand 600, and that would cost around $700 with the same excess charges.

This is all through Golightly Insurance Services who are the agents for Vero, down here.

[moko]

In the U.K. insurance is way over what you guys pay,I`m an old fart of 46,no convictions,max no claims,600 Fazer,20-odd years since I last fell off and I paid a bit over $450 N.Z. and that took hours of research,phone calls and e-mails.More typically,40 year-old mate,Hornet 900 finally got his for the bargain price of $2100,most quotes were for double that.Here renewal time is kind of a ritual,you phone all the brokers you can find and try to play them off against each other,haggle and negotiate.Unless you`ve got more money than sense you never just send a cheque to your current insurer because they never offer the same terms as they will for new business.The people I`ve got now quoted me over $500,I said I could beat that,they came back with 450,I said I wanted un-limited mileage and breakdown cover which I`d been offered elsewhere,they caved in right away.Bit of a pain in the arse but I ended up saving 40% of what my then current insurers had quoted,at the end of the day that was hard-earned money that I could spend on better things.

[Yarg]

Hey madduck,

did you try John Baker insurance?? Ph 278 - 6264. :cool:

[dreamride]

Hi

Also, try AMI Insurance, they are not too bad as well. Around $35 or so a month and similar excess as our friend above (k14).

This AA guy said if I switched from AMI to them since I am an AA member, they would surely beat it. Better if i combine the contents, car and the bike if you have the lot. Check them out too.

I will be looking into that in the near future.

Cheers :rolleyes:

[Dr Bob]

Also, when you already have insurance and they send you a renewel statement that puts the premiums up (it happens to us regularly) phone up the sales team of your current insurance provider. They may offer you a lower rate.

We did this recently with the Commodore, we phoned up and they quoted us some $200 less than what we were paying. Late last week we received a cheque for $220 and they were also going to look at the ute. They said that this problem was caused by an "administrative error".

I encourage all of you to get your insurance requoted every year.

[Antallica]

Hey what's that Kiwibike Insurance like?

Got this from them a while ago for my Fixxer:
Option One – Company One
The discounted annual premium to insure your motorcycle for Full Cover is $318.95 per annum.
This policy has a monthly option that would be $29.55.
The basic excess is $500.00 with and additional $500.00 until you obtain your full licence.

Option Two – Company Two
The discounted annual premium to insurance your motorcycle for Full Cover is $402.75.
The basic excess is 20% of the sum insured with an additional $250.00 until you obtain your full licence.

[750Y]

Hey what's that Kiwibike Insurance like?

I was with Kiwibike a couple Years. never made a claim.
Dave was great to deal with. now my opinion is that they suck badly.
the new lady there straight out lied to me on the phone and they made some pretty major f-ups. the last straw is that the lady was rude to me.

go direct to those companies for a better deal. I did & saved $$$ over what they offered me. don't go to STATE without your vaseline, they suck bigtime and NZI is now the same as state too. blow them

[Devil]

I went through kiwibike. No problems, good deal. Nothing but politeness from lady.

[vifferman]

My premium with State is reasonable ($500 or thereabouts) but the excess is crap: $1000 because it's over 750cc.
Mind you, it would be more if we didn't have house, contents and three other vehicle premiums covered by them....
Can't complain really - I've had three claims, all on my last bike, none of which affected my excess or No Claims Rebate (NOT MY FAULT), and which totalled something like $13K.

[Hitcher]

Dealt with Dave at Kiwibike. A great deal through Swann on the Zrex -- half what AMI quoted (gasping noises)!! Swann was great to deal with getting repairs done after the "off".

[dhunt]

Dealt with Dave at Kiwibike. A great deal through Swann on the Zrex -- half what AMI quoted (gasping noises)!! Swann was great to deal with getting repairs done after the "off".
Hey I'm going to need some insurance soon. How do I get hold of them?

David

[Devil]

www.kiwibike.co.nz

[pete376403]

I asked a friend what his insurance for an SV1000 is. He sez "3rd Party only with AMI. $90 per year. We have all our other insurances with them as well. Quote for full insurance was $700. The Honda (Transalp)was insured
at a cost of $520 per year. I cant remember who the company was. I had to
insure it because of HP. Wgtn Motorcycles didnt care with the SV as only
borrowed $3500. The Triumph (Trophy 1200) was $1200 per year with excess of $1000" He is over (well over) 25 btw
I have no idea about insurance cos the GS has never been covered since I got it in 1990.

[Posh Tourer :P]

AMI do a third party only (no fire and theft) for $71.60 for all three bikes I have insured under my name with them. Excesses have varied, with the beemer being $1000, but promised reduction to $800 after a year of no claims.

Being only 20, I could not get them to talk to me on the phone about it, but I went into the branch, and talked to a lady on customer service. I questioned as to why i couldnt get insurance, and she told me the manager wouldnt allow it. I asked to speak to the manager, who initially told me that the 650cc engine was the V8 of the motorcycle world. I didnt want to be rude, so i emphasised that the bike was 22 years old and a touring bike, not a performance one. He kinda latched onto a supposed similarity with a V8 Pajero or something ie not performance at all, and I got my insurance. I couldnt get the excess any lower than $1000, I asked for $800 and he refused. I also couldnt get my brother onto the insurance, even though I tried that too.

Lesson? Always go into the branch and always be persistent, go as high as you can get, and ask for a decision from the top.

Once you have your foot in the door it is easy though. Milky's kwaka is insured in my name because they refused to listen to him. All I had to do was point out I already had the beemer policy, and even though the kwaka is more powerful, no worries over the phone. I also managed to get milky on as a secondary driver on the beemer policy, which had been refused to me before. It takes a bit of work to get a bit of leverage, but once you have done the hard work in, you can get almost anything. Before I got the beemer insured, I had the Honda CB125T insured in my name, which helped me a little in getting the insurance for that.

Quotes for full insurance for the Beemer at a value of $3000 were $650 per year, and the CB125T at $1200 $350 a year.

[scumdog]

50 years +, clean licence, nil claims, $15,000 bike = $800 per annum.
Shopped around and that was the best deal, with AMI, got house,contents & 4 other vehicles insured with them too.
Anybody KNOW of a better possible deal? :disapint:

[Jinx3d]

I went through kiwi bike. The lady (Donna) was fine for me. Never claimed tho.

Bike insured for 10, premium bout $890, $1000 excess. Through Swann.

Someone was asking how to contact them, easy peasy

http://www.kiwibike.co.nz/

[marty]

yeah i'm the same scumdog (although i'm not that old.....) @ AMI, 1000cc @ $11k for $763/annum, although an $1100 excess. even joblins and national auto club couldn't beat that

[Devil]

Oh forgot to post my deal as well.
Insured with Swann, through kiwibike. $4k value, $390pa, thats with two learner riders. Cant actually remember what the excess is hehe.

[MikeL]

50 years +, clean licence, nil claims, $15,000 bike = $800 per annum.
Anybody KNOW of a better possible deal? :disapint:

Not likely!

2 bikes insured with John Baker Insurance for total of $11k: premium $770, excess $500. They will only cover you if you belong to a recognized club (Ulysses, RAT, BMW etc).

[Firefight]

My R6 insurance is NZ$554.00 pa,paid monthly, value 12k, with Golightly insurance broker done via Honda riders club, not sure what the excess is .

Firefight :ride:

[Gummybear]

Insured with AMI for $4.5K value. Pay monthly 36.70. Xcess $300, whoever rides it. Made a claim a while ago for around $5k, due to bike accident. They paid out in 5 days and I did not lose my no claims bonus. I was impressed!

[moko]

So isn`t insurance compulsory in N.Z? It is here and if you dont have it you get hammered by the law.You have to show your insurance docs and M.O.T.(WOF) when you tax the bike and we now even have roadside cameras that`ll pick up un-taxed vehicles.You get caught for no tax and you have to turn up at a police station with the above mentioned paperwork,you havn`t got it and you`re in deep shit.Learners here on stuff like Aprilia 125`s pay over $3000 NZ,usually the dealer lumps it on the finance for their new bike so they get to pay rip-off finance charges on it as well.

[wari]

So isn`t insurance compulsory in N.Z? It is here and if you dont have it you get hammered by the law.You have to show your insurance docs and M.O.T.(WOF) when you tax the bike and we now even have roadside cameras that`ll pick up un-taxed vehicles.You get caught for no tax and you have to turn up at a police station with the above mentioned paperwork,you havn`t got it and you`re in deep shit.Learners here on stuff like Aprilia 125`s pay over $3000 NZ,usually the dealer lumps it on the finance for their new bike so they get to pay rip-off finance charges on it as well.

SHEesh ... bugger that

and No ... insuranc isnt compulsory

[claire]

We insure our bikes through our broker, underwritten by NZI, getting a good deal but thats mainly because we have tacked them onto our business policies.

We have previously had a bike insured with National Auto Club, very reasonable premuim which we were happy with but when we got someone who knows about insurance to look at the policy they had slipped two excess' in, so if we had an accident and were found to be at fault we would have had a $1500 excess for our bike and $1500 excess for the third party. Hardly made it worth having it insured when you added the premiums and the excess' up and compared it to the value of the bike.

[Devil]

We have previously had a bike insured with National Auto Club, very reasonable premuim which we were happy with but when we got someone who knows about insurance to look at the policy they had slipped two excess' in, so if we had an accident and were found to be at fault we would have had a $1500 excess for our bike and $1500 excess for the third party. Hardly made it worth having it insured when you added the premiums and the excess' up and compared it to the value of the bike.
Thats a standard NAC policy, has always been like that for cars/bikes.

Dont forget the small print! ;) (actually in this case its not that small...)

[Dr Bob]

So isn`t insurance compulsory in N.Z? It is here and if you dont have it you get hammered by the law.You have to show your insurance docs and M.O.T.(WOF) when you tax the bike and we now even have roadside cameras that`ll pick ....

What sort of uniforms do they wear in those offices, do they have big black boots and lots of belts with shiny buttons?

[Bleck K6]

Hey madduck,

did you try John Baker insurance?? Ph 278 - 6264. :cool:
I agree they found the best price for my bike.

[MD]

yeah i'm the same scumdog (although i'm not that old.....) @ AMI, 1000cc @ $11k for $763/annum, although an $1100 excess. even joblins and national auto club couldn't beat that
I'm with AMI as well Marty & Scumdog. I called John Baker Insurance last week and they quoted way cheaper on CBR. BUT dearer on the missus's car? can't figure that.
No bike claims in over 20 years but still $1000 excess at AMI stinks. Why is it most bike crashes cost $999 to fix???
I'm thinking of moving the bike cover to JBI but the paper work they sent me requires you to belong to a club? and makes no mention of what the excess is. When I get time I'll call them to check this out. Maybe I can claim Kiwibiker to be a club.

[What?]

I'm with Golightly also. The best bit, other than premium lower than anyone else, is that the one policty also covers my other bike. The only downside is if I were to lose both by fire or similar, but as they live in diffent sheds, I reckon that is a low risk.

Contact Golightly through Eric Wood, Chch.

[pete376403]

I'm with AMI as well Marty & Scumdog. I called John Baker Insurance last week and they quoted way cheaper on CBR. BUT dearer on the missus's car? can't figure that..

Women drivers, eh? :msn-wink:

[lewises]

Hey what's that Kiwibike Insurance like?

I had my last bike with them. The people at Kiwibike are great but one of their underwriters is Swann Insurance. They eventually paid out after 3 months of phone calls. Then they still forgot to cancel my direct debit, or fix up the bike shop for towage and inspection. Find out which underwriter.

[lewises]

Currently going with Golightly Insurance, Chch. Contact David Golightly. Underwritten by VERO Insurance. Insured current bike for $11700, 40% No claims after total loss, $700 excess, $1000 for theft, Premium $850 approx.

[MadDuck]

Hey thanks for all the details guys n gals. I too have insured thru Golightly but thought it a bit insane to have insurance through a broker based in Christchurch.

I know a broker or two here in Auckland (bikers) and the option to get something going closer to home could be of great interest to him if I put forward a plan.....now just got to get plan organised <_<

[Firefight]

[QUOTE=MadDuck]Hey thanks for all the details guys n gals. I too have insured thru Golightly but thought it a bit insane to have insurance through a broker based in Christchurch.

Yeah I thought the same MD, the way it was explained to me was Main land rates are cheaper , even if the bike is used in the N Island, its still underwritin in the south, go figure, anyway wasn't going to argue with such a good deal, glad you got sorted.

F/F :crazy:

[Slim]

Hey thanks for all the details guys n gals. I too have insured thru Golightly but thought it a bit insane to have insurance through a broker based in Christchurch.
I've got this years insurance through David Golightly too (03-3572428 or 027 2953004). I also got him to send me the policy booklet, and although Vero's 24x7 0800 HelpLine excludes most of the services to motorcyclists (typical!) at least there's someone at Vero you can ring no matter when you have an accident. That was probably the thing that pissed me off most about Protecta (only being available 8-5 Mon-Fri AND no 0800 number) and so I changed back to Swann again, although they are actually no better.

I was also relieved to hear of the fast payment one of our KBers had on paying out a claim from Vero.

To whoever it was that was considering insuring their bike with the AA:

I wouldn't bother. They're only just setting up their system to insure bikes, but it's so primitive that they go by CC rating only, not model (which is good if you've got a GSXR1000 or some such - you could get a cheaper deal), but it indicates to me that they don't know the risks, and while the quote was good (I'm an AA member & have c@r and contents with them already) I wouldn't trust them to deal with my claim properly if the worst should happen. I can just see them quibbling over "market value" when it came to the crunch. I s'pose it really depends who they use as assessors. If they decided to offer Agreed Value on bikes too, I'd probably make the change, but Vero's looking pretty good to me at the moment.

HTH

[Quasievil]

My R6 insurance is NZ$554.00 pa,paid monthly, value 12k, with Golightly insurance broker done via Honda riders club, not sure what the excess is .

Firefight :ride:
Hey FF do you have contact details for these guys? and will they cover you for track days ?
Cheers MAte

[Slim]

Hey FF do you have contact details for these guys? and will they cover you for track days ?
Cheers MAte
No cover for trackdays, from what I could understand in the policy. Not even approved training days on tracks I think.

The contact phone number is in my post, just above yours. :)

[Wonko]

I'm with State, but only third party. With contents and car, the saving almost pays for the cover, so it's well worth getting/looking at package deals.

When I was looking at full coverage, State was ~$500 pa with an excess of $1500. Due to the vintage of my bike, if I was to have a big off, I'd end up with less in hand than the premium. I've always had great service from them, payment within a week with no chasing up.

Another advantage of having contents and bike at the same place is that anything happens, I can do all the claiming for my gear at the same time as the bike.

I think it should be law that third party is required for all road vehicals as it is in the UK and parts of the US.