Had a total loss on a motorcycle last month (£8000) and have decided to get something worth £1000 now and just ride with 3rd party only.

Predictably my insurance is now coming in at around £700 (it used to be about £350 comprehensive).

Now I have always paid for my insurance in full without bothering with monthly payments, but after this theft the provider has said that the rest of my policy is now essentially void… despite the fact there were 8 months or so left on the policy…

…if I had been paying by direct debit, would they have been seeking the rest of the months back from me OR would I have saved the 6 months cover?

Many policies insist that the full years policy is paid for when claiming – the logic being you have paid for insurance, and it has paid you out after an accident. If you want another 8 months insurance you have to pay again.

I’ve always put the new vehicle on the same policy so the years policy can run its course, and then shopped around at the end of the year as normal.

There would be an adjustment to pay To take into account if the new vehicle is more expensive to insure /of it was a fault claim etc but that’s seemed to me to be the easiest way to do it.

Many policies insist that the full years policy is paid for when claiming – the logic being you have paid for insurance, and it has paid you out after an accident.

That seems odd, so if you have a crash in month 1, you lose out on 11 months worth of money and have to start again ?

I typically pay monthly, when I had a write off, I just bought a new car and put it on the existing policy, the monthly payment went up as it was a very similar car but slightly more powerful, but not by much.

mattyfez – that is. what they are essentially telling me with the theft.

It seems incorrect to me that your policy is void because you’ve made a claim.. But I’m not an expert.

The cost of a policy is an annual thing. The insurer just lets you pay monthly.

If you have a claim in month 1 and have only paid say £40 you cannot expect to just walk away at that point given the policy has responded – you need to pay for the whole thing (eg £480).

I don’t understand that, what if the bike wasn’t written off (I know it was theft) but say £7000 worth of damage would they still be able cancel the policy. When my son wrote off his car and was paid out he bought a new car and transferred the rest of the insurance onto it (don’t see why a bike should be different.

I don’t understand that, what if the bike wasn’t written off (I know it was theft) but say £7000 worth of damage would they still be able cancel the policy. When my son wrote off his car and was paid out he bought a new car and transferred the rest of the insurance onto it (don’t see why a bike should be different.

That’s what I would have thought.

I think you need to find out where they have that in writing and then possibly question the insurance ombudsman on the legality of this.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/cancelling-renewing-car-insurance-case-studies.html

On the other hand, if someone’s used their insurance to make a claim, we’re likely to say it’s fair for the insurer to keep the premiums.
We’ll check the insurer clearly explained how any cancellation fees and refunds would work when their customer took out the policy. If they didn’t, we’ll think about how this affected what their customer did next. For example, if someone had known about the charges, would they have chosen a different policy?

That seems odd, so if you have a crash in month 1, you lose out on 11 months worth of money and have to start again ?

You’re not being insured a month at a time – you’ve bought on year insurance policy on credit.

Op is saying his policy is essentially cancelled though because he’s made a claim, even though he purchased a year’s worth of cover, if I’ve read it right.

Op is saying his policy is essentially cancelled though because he’s made a claim, if I’ve read it right

His policy is cancelled because he’s bought a new bike.

Op has used his policy, he insured his bike for x for the year, has had a total loss and therefore there is no insurable asset left so the policy is cancelled. Just because it could have been paid monthly doesn’t change that. He has given them money for the years cover they have given him some back on the claim.

Some companies will allow you to run the policy on but normally it needs to be a similar risk. In ops case he wants tpo which is a different policy so needs to cancel existing and start again, losing his original premium.

Bad for us, good for the insurers, but such is life. File it along with every other reason they want more money off you for.

I had the same thing though with a car, wrote off on black ice, no one else involved, so a fault claim for total loss, got a pay out and bought another car, just carried on with the same policy, albeit slightly higher monthly payment for having a fault claim/newer car was slightly more valuable but not much in it.
Although that was fully comp with protected no claims..

I wonder if it’s because op wanted to go to 3rd party only insurance rather than keeping the same policy.