insurance surprises (oh my) on a 125 downsize
 

we all know and loathe insurance and the companies wot peddle it, but i've been stung by a few of their tricks (auto renewal!) recently.
this is a new one for me, but on hindsight i guess i should have seen it coming.

i was insured with a company, on my 650 gs. i use my dads cbr900 as a spare and this third party only insurance covered me to ride other bikes, as long as they are insured by someone else too.

i recently downsized to a 125 (honda cg) for reasons. i swapped my insurance over from the 650gs to the cg, so moved down 5 insurance groups (cost me 17 pounds, because of fees and such !?)

after that was all done, i asked the nice telephone lady to check if i was still covered to ride other bikes, just to check. she informed me that i wasn't, and never was.
i asked her to check, as i had confirmed that i was when i took out the insurance. she came back after a wait with the information that i was correct, i was insured to ride other bikes, but now i am not. there was nothing she could do about it. impossible.
i see the logic there, a 125 rider cant ride a bigger bike, not on their low costing insurance, but bloody hell. ive got 7 years no claims!

TL;DR: swapping insurance down to a smaller bike cost me 17 pounds and the cover to ride other bikes.

which is a pain, i commute on my bike and would like to take it off the road to paint it all pretty.