Carole Nash - Not all they're cracked up to be.
 

What a palaver I've had with insurance companies with Green card cover fort Ukraine and Russia, made much worse by awful service from Carole Nash. OK, it may not have been the best timing when I changed my bike only 6 weeks before setting off for Mongolia/China. For some strange reason my existing insurers wouldn't cover my new bike, a '56' reg BMW 650 Dakar, so I went to Carole Nash. They have, after all, such a good reputation.

Writing up my new policy was quick and efficient, the guy was all too pleased to welcome the new custom, and didn't baulk at the planned trip I outlined. He certainly didn't indicate there would be any problems of insurance cover outside the EU, I used them because they advertised 90 days cover for foreign travel. And so, with just over three weeks before departure, I phoned up and arranged my Green card for Ukraine and Russia. No problems, the guy supposedly checked with the underwriters and the docs would be sent out direct. Except after ten days no paperwork came through.

Oh no, I was then informed, your insurers won't cover you at all for Russia and a fee of £90 must be paid for Ukraine. Which I found unacceptable and researched alternatives, successfully. Carole Nash agreed they'd misinformed me and offered to waive the fee for Ukraine, but still wouldn't provide cover for Russia, so I defected. Despite their mistake, their failure to inform me of the problem and inability to fully rectify the problem they then went and charged me a £76 cancellation fee.

I'm flabbergasted by this and think people should be aware that Carole Nash claim none of their insurers off much in the way of cover outside the EU, I only wonder why I was not told this when I initially took out the policy.:nono:

They Change Their Tune
 

Carole Nash have taken on the administration of the Harley-Davidson Insurance scheme in the last 18 months. I took out my Harley insurance in 2010 and then took out a separate policy for a Moto Guzzi, they recognised my no claims bonus for both policies. I sold the Guzzi and cancelled the policy, they paid back what they owed me after three months. I renewed my Harley policy in January and asked for a quote on a Victory as a second bike, it was confirmed that my no claims would apply to both policies. When I actually went to insure the Victory I was informed that you can only use no claims on one policy. I told them that I had taken out two policies previously but I was told in no uncertain terms that it had never happened.

Then I am relieved, although I am obviously sorry this has happened to you. I did an online quote for one of my bikes about 2 weeks ago. It was almost as much for the one bike as I now pay for 5 on a multi bike policy :helpsmilie: Anways, I aborted the quote and they have called me at least twice a day since then, mostly whilst I have been at work. I eventually spoke to them yesterday, and they even sounded quite positive about my RTW trip, but after over half an hour of my time, they came up with their 'best' quote which was almost 3 times that of my current renewal costs :thumbdown:

When I pointed that out to the guy on the phone, he turned around and said: "Well why didn't you tell me that you already had a quote from someone else?"

:confused1: Eh?? Obviously he doesn't play poker :nono:

I've just rung Carole Nash, told them I wouldn't be coming back to the UK, and would want to cancel once I left the 'uninsurable' countries. Told me they wouldn't sell me a standard policy, (and don't do short policies) as I am being deceptive and not in the spirit of good will or such like. Oh well. Will have to ring back another operator and get normal quote as if I am returning to the UK. Don't know what the difference would be if I did return to the UK after a month or two and cancelled or didn't return.

bah humbug.

Some good things about Carol Nash:

1 - they'll insure a bike from outside the EU in the UK for six months - they're the only people in the UK who will do this. That meant I could ride my Australian ridden bike here at home whilst I went through the bloody awful process of getting it VOSA approved. MOTd and taxed. They then didn't charge me extra when it became a UK bike and just rolled the policy on.

2 - my insurance actually went down this year - by £100. No phone call, not looking around the quote came and was just fantastic - I'm as amazed as anyone else.

Not defending them per-se - just saying that there's as much good as bad in these kinds of companies and you never hear about the good stuff just the bad!

Matt
Read your policy carefully, make sure they have given you the same level of cover and that they have not increased your age by 15 years!
CN managed to take the 'wrong' bike off cover for me.:oops2:

You are quite unique, as you are the only person I have known to have a good word about them!

A slice of humble pie time!

Had to ring CN yesterday and got very good service, just hope you get to speak to same guy as I did.

So often with many companies it does seem to depend who you get to talk to on the phone. Different day, different adviser and you get a different outcome. Having said that I've not had any problems with Carole Nash over many years. Their policies have been there or thereabouts on price and content and I've been happy with their service. It's not the sort of thing you report on though - business does exactly what they said they'd do doesn't really make headlines and compared to the combination of confusion and inertia marketing that seems to dominate the car insurance world at the moment they seem almost sane. :smile2:

Experienced call centre workers get to pick their shifts, its a way for the managers to keep them. Typically they want "office" hours and leave the 1730 on a Friday stuff to the kids straight from University. Call on a Tuesday morning and you'll get the better service.

I'm no fan of CN and no longer a customer, but they are in my experience at least better than Bennetts.

Andy

They must have changed their tune, they only gave me 30 days cover for my Aussie bike in 2008 to UK register it, which inevitably ran out. They did grudgingly give me an extension which was lucky as the bike was stolen the following week.

I found that the service at Carole Nash went down hill as soon as the founder sold the company a few years ago.
I was renewing my policy after nearly 20 years of beiing insured by them when the operator reviewing my cover said "no pillion cover" I asked since when as I did have it in the past, had never cancelled it and had never been informed in the policy updates which I had always read through that it had been cancelled. He said he had no record of who had cancellled it or when, an appalling lapse in service and record keeping.
I did not renew with them and went elswhere, I would think twice before using them again.:thumbdown:

Yes, pillion cover is one to watch for, also look out for commuting, I noticed that removed some years ago and when I queried it, commuting was re-instated at no extra charge. So why was it removed in the first place? CN definately changed as you say, when the original founder 'sold out'. Just off to check the small print, just incase my insurance is void if I insert the ignition key!

my experience
 

CN have never let me down. Had an accident in Istanbul one year, Poland another time. Never any problem with them.

JOhn

Carol Nash
 

A few years ago I had a policy with CN which I took out and renewed online for 3 years. It wasn't until I had a no fault or other vehicle accident (I dumped it in a corner) in France that I found they had changed my policy.
From first taking out coverage with them I had helmet, boots and clothing cover included. Each renewal period there would be an email from CN stating that "IF MY CIRCUMSTANCES HADN'T CHANGED THEN JUST CLICK THE PROCEED BUTTON TO RENEW"
As I was (at the time) happy with the policy and the cover agreed, about £250 Fully Comp, I still lived at the same address, I was riding the same bike, had no convictions etc. I considered my circumstances to be exactly the same. However, when I put in the claim for helmet, boots and clothing I was told that I was no longer covered for them and hadn't been since my first year with them.
After many letters and phone calls trying to get a reasonable outcome without success I took them to the small claims court. I won!!!!! jeigerand was awarded the full cost of my original claim plus a portion of the policy cost for the two years that should have been for the extra cover.
After 8 months recovering from the accident I went back to CN just out of curiosity, according to them I had lost 80% of my NCB and as I was now a "liability" my insurance premium would now cost .... £1000 +
45 years old with no accidents/claims in 27 years!?
EBike (I think) gave me the same coverage with only 20% loss of NCB for £200
From that day on CN can go phuque herself. I wouldn't recommend them to anybody.