Why does everyone recommend Kiwibike Insurance?

[superman]

KiwiBike - $392 per annum (17.04% value of bike) $500 excess.
State - $245 (10.65%) 1st year $700 excess, 2nd onwards $450.

I asked KiwiBike why they were 60% more expensive than state because I'd heard such good things about them.

They replied with 'we write policies specific to motorcyclists "you get what you pay for"'.

[brp]

$240 3rd party fire and theft, will try state for quote next time - cheers

Kiwibike just the "organ grinder" underwritten by another insurance company - could be why they more

[DEATH_INC.]

Kiwibike insured me when others wouldn't. And they cover trackdays.
Good luck getting money out of state....

[rustyrobot]

Kiwibike are the broker, not the insurer. And they are right - you do get motorcycle specific insurance.

I don't know about you, but I haven't heard good things about State come claim time.

I had a really tricky claim after my chain ate my motorbike. Insurer (Protecta) initially said they wouldn't pay out as it was a 'mechanical failure'. So I was looking at a $7500 chain breakage. Dave at Kiwibike took it on, on my behalf, and after 8 very fraught weeks - I got a surprise email announcing a full payout on my bike. I really appreciated their service in that respect, and suppose that an insurer considers all the business Kiwibike bring them when deciding to honour or deny a claim.

No huge love for insurance companies, but was very thankful in my instance. I've reinsured through Kiwibike and happy to give them my continued support.

[HenryDorsetCase]

I wouldnt use State if they were the last fuckers on the planet. Thats based on my own very bad experience with them many years ago (used to be a customer, yo) and current experience dealing with a lot of our client complaints re earthquake.

It doesnt matter how cheap it is, AVOID.

[Bassmatt]

State have been a nightmare to deal with on occasion. I have been treated like a fucking criminal by them, the automatic assumption seems to be you must be defrauding them.

[R6_kid:Me]

They cover trackdays, and riders with dubious histories, oh, and they actually pay out when you have an accident.

Unlike my friend who never got paid a cent for two accidents he had when 'insured' by State.

I guess the same would apply to why you bought a Ninja instead of a Roadwinner or something that was 60% cheaper... you get what you pay for.

Or, you could ask yourself "Why does no one recommend State?".

[SMOKEU]

NAC came out a bit cheaper than KB for me.

[Mental Trousers]

Wouldn't go near State for anything.

A couple of mates had insurance with them and they both had drops. Did the claim thing (which didn't go at all smoothly and took longer than it should've) but in the end they got their pay out. However, with the payout they also got a letter saying they would no longer be insured by State.

As always, you get what you pay for.

[R6_kid:Me]

I think there was a thread on here about one guy who wrote of a bike, got paid out and had a replacement with in two weeks, and then wrote off the new bike on it's maiden ride, then got paid out again - I think he decided to give it a rest after that.

[baffa]

State arent the only company you hear horror stories about.

Whilst they would be second from the bottom in companies I'd recommend to people, I will say that most declined claims are the clients fault.
Eg, let their kid drive their bike/cage, dont tell the insurance company, get declined, rant about the company online.

I really like Kiwibike though, they give the sort of service larger companies simply cannot match. And they are all riders themselves. When I was sorting cover for the blade I spent 15 minutes chatting to a lovely wee lass who was in the process of sitting her license.

[BoristheBiter]

Well after over 20 years being insured with state, business and personal, I have never had any problem when it came to claim time, even when we had the wrong insurance they still paid out.

We changed last year to Star, the reason we changed was the track day and gear cover, State won't do full replacement on gear.

Now I crashed and state had it all sorted in under 2 weeks. The two from star have taken over a month just to sort out.

[slofox]

Boris' post not withstanding, I am another who wouldn't use State again.

I twice had claims that went tits up with them. The last one was over the theft of a camera from a school classroom - taken, along with other things, by someone who broke into the school in the middle of the night. State made it nearly impossible to claim, challenging everything I said, even though the B&E was reported to the LEO's and I got estimates of value etc etc as per State's instructions.

I decided never to use them again and haven't since.

[Madness]

I too wouldn't touch State Insurance with a preverbial barge pole, regardless of how much cheaper they are.

[PirateJafa]

In the past I have claimed against another rider who was insured with State. Ended up paying me close to double the value of the bike (even after me telling them exactly what I'd paid for it just a couple of months earlier), plus all my damaged gear and I kept my still-registered, still-WOF'd, still rideable "wreck" which is now my race bike. So that seems to make me the only person in the thread who hasn't had a issue with them. That said, I wasn't insured with them, I was merely claiming against them.

Only bike insurance company I've used personally has been Kiwibike though - it was a fair price for a learner rider, though I haven't been insured with them for years due to some ridiculously high quotes since I traded my supersport for a cheaper and much more durable motard.