Renewing insurance

Ihave seen a surprising rise in inquiries from motorcyclists who have had their insurance renewal declined on the most specious grounds. I believe the source of this problem is comparison sites where insurers try to compete on minimum premium and have no underwriting discretion. One poor guy put some reflective patches on his bike and was told this was a colour change and therefore his bike would no longer be insured. Eventually a grown-up in underwriting corrected the position, but it was a miserable few weeks for the rider. This is one of many examples that highlight the fact that insurers have massively more unofficial power than you do as a mere paying consumer. Your insurer is governed by a system of laws and weak regulation which hugely tips the scales in their favour. If your insurer decides they do not want your business they can put a black mark against you that can last five years. Usually somebody very junior in an insurance brokers or underwriting department panics when they do not understand a change in policy. It is so much easier for them to tick the box which says ‘cancel’ or ‘decline’ than actually make enquiries, and you then have a cancellation, or worse a voidance on your policy. Which is bad because one of the questions you are always asked on an insurance proposal form is: ‘has any insurer cancelled, voided

‘One guy put reflective patches on his bike and was told he would not be insured’

or placed special terms on a policy of insurance in the last five years?’ And this hangs over all of your insurance, not just your bike insurance. While the people on the insurance frontline might not be impressive, the people who set up the insurance databases have made them as difficult as they can for you to correct, and the Information Commissioner and the Financial Ombudsmen Service show themselves to be toothless. In fact, their default position appears to be to support the insurers. So be very careful. If you are modifying your bike pick the insurers or the brokers who broadcast their willingness to insure unusual or customised bikes. One big direct insurer appears to either be closing down its motorcycle insurance arm, or they have lost every single experienced member of staff on their renewals desk, because they are declining to renew insurance policies for reasons which are so bizarre that I cannot begin to fathom them. If there is one lesson you should take away from all this it is: when your bike insurance comes up for renewal thoroughly search the market. Why? Because insurers who already have your business tend to be much quicker to void than insurers who want your business. This is especially true if you have done anything at all to your bike. And ‘done anything at all’ can mean just fitting a top box.