Travel Insurance questions
 

Hi,

Could anyone help me out with my travel insurance problems. I'm struggling to find any insurer who will cover motorcycling properly. I am also going to areas that are not advised by the FCO travel advise and most insurers instantly won't touch you in those areas. Does anyone know of any insurers who can help me out. I'm UK based and going to Nepal via iran, pakistan and india if that matters

Thanks in advance

No experience of these, but it might be worth a call:

Motorcycle travel insurance, breakdown and recovery cover

I used World Nomads - Keep Travelling Safely

Brilliant service.

John

insurance...personal or vehicle?
 

do you mean personal travel insurance or vehicle insurance?

if its vehicle insurance you will probably not find a company in the UK who will insure you for riding through these countries. Just get insurance at the borders as you go. If you can - its not always an easy thing to do and sometimes you have to go into the nearest town/city and get it there.

if its personal insurance - then World Nomads is good - be aware depending on which country you are a resident of they restrict the size of motorcycle you can ride. read the policy document before you pay out anything.

World Nomads is a broker, they don't actually provide insurance.

For residents of certain countries (inc. the UK), the actual underwriter will not cover motorcycle touring, regardless of engine size. So as Lisa mentions, be sure to read the policy very carefully before purchasing.

Campbell Irvine.

They cover motorcycling as long as its yours and your wearing a helmet. I had to use them when on the way to Gambia I fell off and broke my leg. Excellent service.

Re the against FCO advice if you're looking for that I think you'll find it very hard to get. The reason being is that they need to be able to come get you if you need them which they can't do it ifs a civil war. You're into the realms of specialist insurance there best to find a decent broker and start phoning around.

You can get insurers who will cover you in FCO areas but how many that do that and also motorbike will be low. But as with anything its possible just expensive :) Your probably looking around £4-5 a day from what I remember for the cover you want.

World Nomads
 

We too are shopping for insurance and have just checked out the small print on World Nomads and it has an exclusion for motorcycle touring where a motorcycle is the primary form of transport! Has anyone find a way to get that exclusion removed by them? for extra cash presumably.

We currently have a policy with Navigator Travel Insurance for our trip, it's a sports and adventure package. We haven't had to use it for any claims but we got it specifically for a big motorcycle trip and the countries on our list include Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal etc.

One thing we did have to do was upgrade it slightly to one a particular package as the small print said the policy wasn't valid if we rode over an altitude of something like 2-3000 metres which obviously is an issue in the Himalayas.

As far as I remember it allows me to go to countries that are on the FCO advisory list, but has limitations regarding some areas in those countries. I don't you'll find one that allows you to go 'anywhere'.

Re: bike insurance? good luck trying to find somewhere, we just get liability insurance at the border and rely on the fact that we made a point of travelling on cheap machines which if damaged we can get simple repairs done.

Navigator Travel - are the ones to go with. No problem with motorbikes and lots of options to choose from.

time restriction..
 

just a quick point to make:
both Navigator and Voyager policies only cover what they call 'long' term trips of up to 18 months duration.....
some of us travel a bit longer than that and most insurance companies wont renew whilst you are on the road for a longer period than that...or wont allow you to take out a new policy with them once you are already on the road.
WorldNomads will allow you to do both.

...and so far this is the only company I have found that will (unless anyone can advise me otherwise...and I am always open to new options!) I also find that WorldNomads is relatively cheap when compared to other companies like Campbell Irvine etc. We had our original policy with CI.

Travel Insurance
 

For the last couple of trips I've been using Biker's Travel Insurance
Bikers Travel Insurance
they were really good when we had to claim and do seem to cover all types of bikes. Good luck.
Tiffany

How about insurance from Canada?

Lisa, Are you insuring in England, if so how do you get round World Nomads not covering motorcycling where a bike is your main transport?

...nope
 

hi robinhelen
ours is considered to be a fairly unusual situation due to the length of time we have been on the road.....

as we have not been in the UK for over 7 years now we are no longer considered as residents of the UK.
however, as we have not been working in any other country we are not considered as being a resident in any other country either!

so after speaking to world nomads it was decided that they would take us a being resident in the country that we had been in the longest at the time of taking out the policy and where luckily we also had an address - which was Argentina.

so far this is still the case.
but as I said....I think ours is a bit of an unusual scenario as we have not been back to the UK in those 7 years and if we did go back in order to be considered once again as resident we would have to remain in the Uk for an average of 91 days or more in a tax year over a maximum period of four years....
and thats not going to happen for quite a few more years....

Ensleigh
 

Ensleigh will cover you but it is not cheap but probably will be valid which is more than any insurance from sta will for what you are planning. Make sure whoever you use knows what you plan to do and on what size of bike.