Do you have a Tracker? If so read this!

[The Wino]

I still say if insurers want a tracker it's for their benefit, not the van owners.
If they can track and trace it they won't have to pay out as a total loss saving them thousands.
Therefore, if the insurers want a tracker they should be responsible for having one installed and maintained.
Of course, that will never happen.

Surely the idea with insurance is you provide details of the risk you want covered ( value driver alarm tracker) and they offer a bet. If they decide the risk is higher the premium rises. If it's too high a risk they decline to offer a bet. If they were taking on a bet to cover your MH conditional on having a tracker and were going to fit it themselves they'd just add the cost of the tracker plus an admin charge and a bit of profit to the premium.

 

[Hettie's Crew]

Not a motorhome obviously, but interesting. When I bought my current motorcycle (R1250GS) earlier this year it was fitted with a Datatool tracker, a very good, well recognised tracker.
I insured it informing the company thinking that’ll get me a good discount. When I contacted Datatool to activate it I was a little surprised by the cost and decided against activating it. I reasoned the additional insurance cost couldn’t be anywhere near as much as the subscription.
I contacted my insurance company a few days later to alter my insurance to no tracker fitted. The difference in premium? Nil, didn’t make any difference.

 

[Kups]

That's not what we've been told by our insurer, no tracker, no theft cover, end of.

I suppose having a RHD MH is a benefit to some extent ... might make those who buy LHD ones think about it though!

NFU insure our mh with Eddie's kit installed. Recommend both.

 

[Lenny HB]

NFU insure our mh with Eddie's kit installed. Recommend both.

NFU normally don't require tracker or alarm.

 

[Minxy]

NFU normally don't require tracker or alarm.

What value do they insure up to without one though?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[eddie]

What value do they insure up to without one though?

Millions, literally

 

[Old Gibber]

Depends on the Value of the van with Comfort.
Under £75k Alarm or Tracker, over £75k Tracker required.

That figure was £55k with mine.

 

[funflair]

NFU normally don't require tracker or alarm.

I think you will find that has changed Lenny, when we got a quote 3 years ish ago now they were not bothered about tracker but when we got around to taking out the policy it was a stipulation, and discount given on the basis of alarm and tracker.

 

[Miggs]

I have never come a across a failed theft insurance claim for a suspected inoperative tracking device, they are simply too easy to disable remotely.

Which begs the question, why have one if your insurance doesn't require it?

 

[Old Gibber]

Which begs the question, why have one if your insurance doesn't require it?

Mine's a tracker and immobiliser, so more for a toerag to sort out, and if stolen the tracker will initially give its position. It appears many toerags park up stolen motorhomes for a few days to see if a tracker is fitted.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[scotzsue]

What value do they insure up to without one though?

When i contacted NFU they told us they don't cover this area, stored fairly near you too.

 

[Lenny HB]

I think you will find that has changed Lenny, when we got a quote 3 years ish ago now they were not bothered about tracker but when we got around to taking out the policy it was a stipulation, and discount given on the basis of alarm and tracker.

May depend on the price of the van, my mates e-line didn't require a tracker.

 

[Lenny HB]

When i contacted NFU they told us they don't cover this area, stored fairly near you too.

With NFU you need to contact the right office for Motorhomes, Chichester or Louth.

 

[Theonlysue]

Background:

We have a Smartrack tracker installed, it was a requirement in order for us to get insurance due to the value of our MH, and we took out a lifetime subscription for the monitoring. The 'kit' is only warranted for 3 years so we've taken out a renewal warranty which covers parts & labour at a cost of £99 for 3 years, this covers us for any work necessary in the UK. It does NOT however cover any warranty work if it goes wrong abroad so we would be responsible for fixing it ourselves then with no recourse to the warranty but as they don't seem to go wrong that often it doesn't appear to be a major issue.

The BIG elephant in the room is that, as it is a stipulated requirement for our having motorhome insurance, if it wasn't functioning it would void part of our policy so we would NOT be covered for theft of our motorhome.

This begs the question of how many others have the same insurance stipulation but are oblivious to the fact that not having a working tracker could mean they won't get a pay out if it is nicked and never recovered.

Also how many of you actually check your tracker is working?

eddievanbitz - what is the situation with the tracker that you install?

What was the insurers response to lack of warranty abroad??

 

[Minxy]

What was the insurers response to lack of warranty abroad??

They don't require a warranty to be in place so that's not a problem, the issue is if the tracker isn't working which would be up to us to sort out.

Hubby's been emailing the tracker company, below is their email content which was returned to them with hubby's questions; the last email is what hubby's just received:

Initial emails

The warranty covers any faults or defects which may occur with the tracking device and allows us to replace any parts or service under the warranty.

And this cover all labour etc or a replacement if it cant be fixed?​

The warranty will cover you throughout Europe in terms of that if it goes wrong when you are abroad, however if you require an engineer visit, all of our engineers are UK based and usually we can't carry out the service call until customers return back to the UK. We have recently sent engineers to Switzerland to carry out maintenance on a customer's device however the customer had to cover the costs in this instance.

Anyway of knowing if the tracker stop working through the notifications on the app or would you tell us or could it just stop working without either of us knowing - what unit is it if it goes wrong and we need an engineer​

As I am aware, as long as you have the certificate to show you have a tracking device fitted, with an active subscription you will be covered.

Insurance company says it has to fitted AND working!​

Last email

Yes this covers all labour, parts and replacement if needed. The only way to know if the device has stopped working is to monitor the updates through the app periodically, there is no notification on the app that would identify this other than you noticing the device has stopped updating or any discrepancies in the tracking data.

We monitor the devices but only the alerts that come through, we don't health check all of the devices due to the sheer amount we have on the system, unless an issue is reported to us, this would be down to the customer to report.
The only other time we may see your device has stopped working is when the device comes up for renewal we will contact you prior to this and a member of the team will let you know if the device is not updating at the time.

If your device stops working whilst aboard we will do everything we can to fix the device remotely, failing that we would be unable to carry out an engineer visit under the warranty until you returned to the UK.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[The Wino]

They don't require a warranty to be in place so that's not a problem, the issue is if the tracker isn't working which would be up to us to sort out.

Hubby's been emailing the tracker company, below is their email content which was returned to them with hubby's questions; the last email is what hubby's just received:

Initial emails

The warranty covers any faults or defects which may occur with the tracking device and allows us to replace any parts or service under the warranty.

And this cover all labour etc or a replacement if it cant be fixed?​

The warranty will cover you throughout Europe in terms of that if it goes wrong when you are abroad, however if you require an engineer visit, all of our engineers are UK based and usually we can't carry out the service call until customers return back to the UK. We have recently sent engineers to Switzerland to carry out maintenance on a customer's device however the customer had to cover the costs in this instance.

Anyway of knowing if the tracker stop working through the notifications on the app or would you tell us or could it just stop working without either of us knowing - what unit is it if it goes wrong and we need an engineer​

As I am aware, as long as you have the certificate to show you have a tracking device fitted, with an active subscription you will be covered.

Insurance company says it has to fitted AND working!​

Last email

Yes this covers all labour, parts and replacement if needed. The only way to know if the device has stopped working is to monitor the updates through the app periodically, there is no notification on the app that would identify this other than you noticing the device has stopped updating or any discrepancies in the tracking data.

We monitor the devices but only the alerts that come through, we don't health check all of the devices due to the sheer amount we have on the system, unless an issue is reported to us, this would be down to the customer to report.
The only other time we may see your device has stopped working is when the device comes up for renewal we will contact you prior to this and a member of the team will let you know if the device is not updating at the time.

If your device stops working whilst aboard we will do everything we can to fix the device remotely, failing that we would be unable to carry out an engineer visit under the warranty until you returned to the UK.

But what would a warranty cost that included sending out an engineer to anywhere in Europe ( or for some the states) to sort out a repair?

 

[Minxy]

But what would a warranty cost that included sending out an engineer to anywhere in Europe ( or for some the states) to sort out a repair?

I'm not suggesting they should, just that when you take out a warranty you don't necessary assume it's just for your home country, nor that they don't have operatives in other countries. I'm not anticipating it being a major issue but I do like to know the full situation and are aware of what we would need to do should it stop working abroad rather than try to get the info about this at the point in time when we need it fixing.

I'm sure many others have never thought of how they'd deal with an issue like this when out of the UK so I hope it gets them to check and ensure they are prepared should they need to sort it. It's a bit like dog health insurance, you need to check if what you have bought means they are covered when abroad or just in the UK.

 

[Lenny HB]

But what would a warranty cost that included sending out an engineer to anywhere in Europe ( or for some the states) to sort out a repair?

Best answer is to choose a tracker that is generally avaliable thoughout Europe then they would have an agent in most countries.

 

[eddie]

Which begs the question, why have one if your insurance doesn't require it?

I agree, our Non Starter is a much better bet

 

[eddie]

What a storm in a teacup!

Someone explain to me how an insurance company could prove a tracker wasn’t working when it’s disappeared along with the vehicle?

Tracked vehicles disappear every day with no trace, more vehicles with tracking are recovered than vehicles without however.

Jammers make tracking systems inoperable, so no difference to a faulty tracker!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Minxy]

Well as you've tagged me in, my take on this? Any tracking system can easily be disabled from the outside of the vehicle so is fairly pointless.

They don't tend to go wrong, sell someone a "warranty" is a bit tongue in cheek in my opinion.

I can't remember ever changing a unit as it had "failed"

As for the UK warranty not covering you abroad, I am sure that if you asked them for a European service and offered to pay for a European service that they'd come up with something, after all they have come up with the UK scheme

As a guess I would think that "if" a tracker did fail abroad it wouldn't invalidate the insurance it would just mean complications if the motorhome was stolen abroad, which is unlikely being the steering wheel is on the wrong side and your actually in it quite a lot. I am more concerned about motorhomes on drives with owners away, rather then motorhomes away from drives with owners in them.

So would we ever charge for an extended warranty on a Thatcham tracking system? No

Would I ever pay to extend the warranty on a Thatcham tracking system? No

Do I see any of this a worry at all? No

What date did I start fitting tracking systems? 1996 L.E.O Low Earth Orbit installed at £1,499.00 What is the installed cost of our Shadow Thatcham approved tracking system in 2022? £299!

Thanks Eddie, I've relayed this to hubby so he's now having a 'rethink'!

 

[Littlewheels]

My comfort insurance stipulates alarms and locked - nothing about trackers

Insurance companies can stipulate a working tracker in the policy, but if you have done everything reasonable to fit and maintain one, they couldn’t duck a payout if it had stopped working suddenly.

If it stopped and you did nothing for 3 months for example then they’d have a case. But as a policyholder, if you have taken all reasonable steps, you’d be covered.

We are Comfort as well
For us they insisted on a tracker (and alarm and engine blocker)
It depends on perceived risk, where you store it and where you live

Depends on the Value of the van with Comfort.
Under £75k Alarm or Tracker, over £75k Tracker required.

Definitely depends on the value and the higher it is £150k for instance they then seriously ensure it’s all paperwork is in order and require proof.