Look Closely At Motorhome Insurance Policy Small Print - Some Surprising Facts

Caravan Guard would not insure me because I have storage in the UK during Winter. In Summer we base ourselves at our static caravan in France, where we use our moho on a weekly basis, anything from one night to five weeks away. Although the moho is parked right next to our static and if not away in the moho, we're in the static. Caravan Guard insisted it was in storage. I have had a moho for seven years and had no claims.
 
For us with an A Class the key points of difference to look out for with a specialist motorhome insurance outside of the normal excess, no claims bonus etc and cost - not in order; A Class windscreen excess, breakdown cover/recovery of the vehicle, level of security required, new for old, understanding of the sector and reputation. It also counts if they look after you on renewal as do not want to have to shop around all the time.
 
Had a quote from LV for car renewal also with boundless was a loyal customer but tried their web site as new policy and got a quote £80 cheaper without the boundless discount, phoned to see if they could match and they said no but could knock £25 off quote?

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peterc10 said:
I went for Saga for my first moho insurance If they treat you anything like they treated me you will find that they will double the premium in the second year for no reason at all and refuse to budge at all. So I suspect you too will be changing insurers at the end of the first year.
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Interesting the different experiences. We ve been with Saga for 5 years now, when we took it out I was expecting it to be a one-shot but so far they keep coming back with a reasonable renewal, we re paying £300 pa granted we have a 12 year ncd and a good postcode.

Just getting close to renewal time now though.....

Jon
 
Wombles said:
Look out for cross over in different policies that you may have:

Worldwide Family Travel Insurance Policy as one of the benefits of Nationwide Flex Plus paid for account has £25000 Personal Accident Cover so some may already have some cover but again would need to check the small print to make sure it meets your requirements.

If you already have Motoring Legal Expenses Cover which is often an add on to car insurance then you may not need to add this to a motorhome insurance policy. We get free LV Motoring Legal Expenses Cover as Boundless members (£26 per year) https://www.boundless.co.uk/ which is cheaper than the £30 that Saga quoted but they agreed that we only need to have one MLE policy to cover any vehicle so no need to add it for the motorhome (y)
We have been members of Boundless for many years as that also gives a discount on many LV policies (motorhome, car, home & travel) so for us more than pays for itself (especially with free MLE) & other extra member benefits too including ferry discounts.
To join Boundless which is part of the Civil Service Motoring Association (CSMA) you used to have to be civil service or public sector workers or their family but now friends of current members can join too so we are happy to refer our Funster friends :)
LV are a Which? Best Buy insurer & they were the cheapest for us for the motorhome even with the option of £100,00 PA cover but only one year New For Old which as ours is two months old only covers 10 months & ideally we would like it to have NFO for the next three years.
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When I looked at the LV cover for motorhome contents, it was the same as a car at circa £100 (£500 for the radio). With Laptops, tablets and phones; never mind plates, cutlery, clothes, bedding and everything in the garage, fire or theft would have been costly; the policy was of no use whatsoever. We have cars and home insurance through LV but not the motorhome. They would be my favourite option if they had changed.
 
tonyidle said:
I looked up NFU on Google (I do know who it is!) just for fun. Two it came up with were "No First Use" and "Non-Financial Update".
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breath in deep and go some were else,keep looking, they all do it, all the best ,pj in notts.
 
Camdoon said:
When I looked at the LV cover for motorhome contents, it was the same as a car at circa £100 (£500 for the radio). With Laptops, tablets and phones; never mind plates, cutlery, clothes, bedding and everything in the garage, fire or theft would have been costly; the policy was of no use whatsoever. We have cars and home insurance through LV but not the motorhome. They would be my favourite option if they had changed.
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LV stated £1000 for motorhome contents which isn't great but can use house insurance "personal possessions away from home cover" (£2500 for LV) in event of a claim which depending on home insurer could be adjusted to a higher amount. For us just one year (10 months for two month old motorhome) New For Old rules it out this time but overall with option of £100,000 Personal Accident cover it rates very well otherwise & competitive pricing.
 
denisejoe said:
Had a quote from LV for car renewal also with boundless was a loyal customer but tried their web site as new policy and got a quote £80 cheaper without the boundless discount, phoned to see if they could match and they said no but could knock £25 off quote?
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Think that like for savings, broadband etc insurance companies often offer a better deal for the first year to new customers - being loyal doesn't count for much but politely suggesting leaving them often does result in retention discount - this doesn't always work though Broken Link Removed . For our car LV were competitive on renewal but we also got a slightly cheaper quote as a "new customer" so called & matched that then Boundless discount reduced the premium further. The renewal quote for the motorhome was one of the best pricing wise but didn't try & reduce it further as it didn't match our required criteria (see above) this time.

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I have just had a very stressful time with my insurance until I spoke to the right person. I am insured by Directline and have always found them good and easy to deal with on the rare occasions that I have.

We have several Kiwi friends and DL was always easy to include them on my policy, they all had MHs in NZ and were well known to us. Providing they had a clean current licence suitable for the vehicle here and were old enough, over 25 I think although this never came up as they were all older and experienced in driving a MH, DL were amenable. They also provided breakdown cover and vehicle repatriation which seemed sensible as with two different insurers one may try to shunt the claim onto the other. I have stayed with them because they were also very good when I made a claim and settled with the minimum of fuss and bother and didn't increase my premium much after.

We left the van with a Spanish parking firm near the airport and flew home for a month over Christmas. I knew that it was unlikely that any UK insurer would cover me when the MH's location and security was unknown by them and I was prepared to bear that risk myself. I then found out that DL would only give me greencard cover for a maximum of 90 days in any insurance year. I was still covered for basic legal cover but not for fully comp. As even our 10 year old MH is an expensive item for me to bear the risk on so I was not happy not to be covered. One of the people I spoke to asked his supervisor but they wouldn't budge. It looked as though I was going to have to re-insure and cancel with the usual loss of money on my DL policy leaving me wishing that I didn't have to use insurers at all!

I spent most of a day on the internet trying to find cover but I couldn't get the cover for a foreign driver. Then I found that some would void my policy if I left it abroad even if I was prepared to cover the risk myself they would void the policy completely which is very bad news for me but good news for the insurer, they get the money with no risk at all!

All very frustrating with them all being 'good in parts' and woefully inadequate to my needs in others.

After a couple of days cooling off I tried DL again and explained that I had had a policy with them for years, two vehicles and generally had no complaints and could I pay extra for fully comp cover whilst in Spain in excess of the 90 day specified. After a while on hold whilst he checked with the supervisor he came back and no problem if I paid a fairly modest extra amount which I agreed to do.

As somebody else has said here 'bring back the good old days when a broker did all this for you'

Personally I do not like the phone approach where if there is a disagreement they listen to the recording of the transaction but I doubt that they would find that part if it was to your advantage. As they can all afford better lawyers than I, I think you would be on a hiding to nothing to even try. Might is right.

Moral- check very carefully your cover and conditions. Bit of an eye-opener for me.
 
It's that time of year again - 3 weeks to renewal date so shopping around for quotes - it's frustrating as always!
Saga - our existing insurer - can't get a quote online as we are existing policy holders & renewal quote not available yet but imminent... They have a reputation for well priced first year insurance then big increases for the next but hoping this won't be the case as good level of cover & 2 years New For Old.
Caravan Guard - although they cover LHD motorhomes they are the only insurer who still won't cover self imported motorhomes (although UK registered) but only mention this when almost through the whole application.
Safeguard - going through their online quote process is a long affair with lots of personal questions (including health ones) that no others ask. Presume that they want to use this to sell customers other insurance based on this. Getting a quote does enter you for a prize draw for a campervan but think they need this incentive or lots wouldn't complete the online process.
Comfort - easy enough online quote process but as we have a van conversion it is a lesser "campervan" policy offered (e.g. lower personal belongings insurance) than their motorhome one although this isn't made obvious on their website but hopefully a phone call will enable a requote for better cover as this was the case last year.
LV - no longer have motorhomes listed on their web pages so that's a phone call. They used to be one of the best for most types of insurance but now owned by Allianz which has meant a lot of changes. Previously car type basic cover for motorhomes but well priced.
 
Saga now do a three year fixed price deal which for us works out better for us as it gives us a 'free' Morocco green card

www.saga.co.uk

Homepage | Saga

Saga offers a range of products and services exclusively for the over 50s, including insurance, holidays, money and the UK's best-selling monthly magazine.
www.saga.co.uk www.saga.co.uk
 
With Saga for year 1 at £358pa, then braced for the reported massive price hike.

Oh! Only an extra thirty six quid, which still has full European cover for the bus, and the trailer for the little car, or the little car itself when it is on the A Frame. Three separate green cards at no additional cost.

I am looking at the three year deal. Any idea how much extra it is, and whether it is worth it?
 
For our car insurance with Saga the 3 year option was a lot more money per year compared to 1 year but it did have more options included. For us we have those extra bits elsewhere so went for 1 year only.

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billym said:
Saga now do a three year fixed price deal which for us works out better for us as it gives us a 'free' Morocco green card

www.saga.co.uk

Homepage | Saga

Saga offers a range of products and services exclusively for the over 50s, including insurance, holidays, money and the UK's best-selling monthly magazine.
www.saga.co.uk www.saga.co.uk
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But what happens at the end of three years?
Having just renewed my C1 I've started thinking about how age is going to affect insurance premiums and having alreadyt been made aware of the Saga deal I've been considering it. But at the end am I left with being unable to get "new" insurance at a reasonable cost when I'm then somewhat older and Saga decide to up the premium by 300%?
 
Would 365 days euro cover not be full timing then?
 
TerryL said:
But what happens at the end of three years?
Having just renewed my C1 I've started thinking about how age is going to affect insurance premiums and having alreadyt been made aware of the Saga deal I've been considering it. But at the end am I left with being unable to get "new" insurance at a reasonable cost when I'm then somewhat older and Saga decide to up the premium by 300%?
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Planning ahead is not one of my strong points.
You can leave them after one or two years with no penalty so for this year it will do us.

I didn't get a quote for just one year because that ( I believe) didn't include a ' free' Morocco green card. The cover is quite good.

As for 365 days European cover and full timing. Who knows! They didn't ask and thankfully does not affect us personally
 
Saga are the last company I would trust with my Motorhome insurance. they are a broker and substitute policies at a whim.
If you are with Saga at renewal you need to read all the small print as they will probably send you a renewal which is a different policy to the current years one.

This happened with our house insurance, had the e-bikes covered that were new at the time and worth a few grand, had to ring them to tell them if taking them abroad. A couple of months after renewal I rang them to tell them I was taking the bikes abroad, they said they are only covered in the Uk, the renew was for a totally different policy to the previous years they wanted to double the premium to cover the bikes. After a few heated phone calls got them to completely refund the premium.

Also had a car insured with them, had a prang despite having full NCD & NCD protection premium nearly tripled at renewal.
 
Although Caravan Guard won't insure self imports :( so no good for us for others it may be handy to know that they offer £20 off if you subscribe to MMM magazine or £10 off if you just read it or if you mention the NEC Show so an easy extra £10 off any quote.

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Wombles said:
It's that time of year again - 3 weeks to renewal date so shopping around for quotes - it's frustrating as always!
Saga - our existing insurer - can't get a quote online as we are existing policy holders & renewal quote not available yet but imminent... They have a reputation for well priced first year insurance then big increases for the next but hoping this won't be the case as good level of cover & 2 years New For Old.
Caravan Guard - although they cover LHD motorhomes they are the only insurer who still won't cover self imported motorhomes (although UK registered) but only mention this when almost through the whole application.
Safeguard - going through their online quote process is a long affair with lots of personal questions (including health ones) that no others ask. Presume that they want to use this to sell customers other insurance based on this. Getting a quote does enter you for a prize draw for a campervan but think they need this incentive or lots wouldn't complete the online process.
Comfort - easy enough online quote process but as we have a van conversion it is a lesser "campervan" policy offered (e.g. lower personal belongings insurance) than their motorhome one although this isn't made obvious on their website but hopefully a phone call will enable a requote for better cover as this was the case last year.
LV - no longer have motorhomes listed on their web pages so that's a phone call. They used to be one of the best for most types of insurance but now owned by Allianz which has meant a lot of changes. Previously car type basic cover for motorhomes but well priced.
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Comfort Update - by calling we were able to get a quote for their motorhome policy "Horizon" as well as their campervan one "Twilight" having confirmed that with us having a van conversion we could opt for either. Ironically although the campervan policy is a lesser level of cover than the motorhome one it was quite a bit higher cost!
LV Update - despite no mention of covering motorhomes anywhere on their website their car policy does include motorhomes too with added motorhome related sections but needed to phone to get a quote.
 
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After looking at all the companies mentioned in the Reviews section on this forum, all the relevant ones which are Which? Best Buy car insurers too, checking on comparison sites, ringing around & reading an awful lot of small print we chose Saga again this time. It may not be the best for everyone but for our criteria (see first post) it came out best overall. They did increase the premium slightly from last year when we got our renewal quote but over the phone mentioning the other quotes that we had been given they reduced it back to slightly less than last year :) This may be partly due to us now having car insurance with them though.
They did offer to quote for the 3 year fixed rate offer that they do now but as Comfort offers 3 years New For Old & Saga currently only offer 2 we may switch to them for next year even if their premium is likely to be a lot more. Saga have said that they are considering offering 3 year NFO though so who knows...
 
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I also would not go with SAGA - a few years ago we were thinking of storing our van (Caravan at the time) in Spain, and wondered if that would affect our insurance. I rang SAGA to ask the question, & they said we would not be insured. I said ok, we won’t do that then. They said “since you have asked the question we can’t be sure you won’t do it - we are cancelling the insurance”! Left us in the lurch & having to find new insurance whilst we were away! ?
 
Again no mention of nfu, our van insurance is £260 and actually went down from last year, don't know how all your needs would affect it, but we also get pa insurance with them on the house insurance for an extra £40 for the two of us.
 
chaser said:
Again no mention of nfu, our van insurance is £260 and actually went down from last year, don't know how all your needs would affect it, but we also get pa insurance with them on the house insurance for an extra £40 for the two of us.
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Unfortunately NFU have never been competitive price wise for us whether ringing the main general number or regional offices locally or those suggested by Funsters. They are a Which? Best Buy car insurer though so may be worth it for some if you can sit through long phone calls - 45 mins at least each time in our experience!
This thread is not a comprehensive review of insurers but is just sharing our experience with the hope that it will encourage others to look closer at policies when comparing quotes & when renewing existing policies so no nasty surprises & best cover to suit individual needs at best price.

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Nfu, no use ringing them or online, you have got to go in and talk to them
 
We are with Safegaurd , hope never to claim , We tried Comfort but as wife don't drive , if I'm unfortunate to be incapacitated Comfort would not get vehicle home from abroad as my son is on Insurance, Comfort said he would have to drive it home !! what? leave off his work, fly to wherever I should Co, co
 
gus-lopez said:
No. It usuallt states that although you have 365days euro cover no more than 90 days in one hit is acceptable.
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Not on mine , I'm with safeguard and have unlimited 365 days cover anywhere in Europe. Both this year and last year I asked the agent to confirm to me on the phone that I was covered for continuous travel with no limit which they did, I also have unlimited glass cover. unlimited miles , unlimited europe wide breakdown and recovery. I had a replacement windscreen done last december at a cost of £1500 , and someone lodged a claim against me in may this year after claiming my skylight hit their land rover, safeguard were contesting that and I'll find out this month whether that claim was accepted or rejected as they left it open for 6 months. At august renewal the person still had not proceeded with the claim.

I've found safeguard to be very good.

And were £1300 cheaper than the price quoted by comfort for limited miles limited glass cover.
 
Tony50 said:
We are with Safegaurd , hope never to claim , We tried Comfort but as wife don't drive , if I'm unfortunate to be incapacitated Comfort would not get vehicle home from abroad as my son is on Insurance, Comfort said he would have to drive it home !! what? leave off his work, fly to wherever I should Co, co
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Yep my safeguard cover states if I were incapacitated they would repatriate the vehicle , I only have to pay ferry or tunnel cost

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