You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Howdy all,
Need to re-new my camper van insurance soon and looking for recommendations with who to insure with. I had a bad experience with Brentacre which was underwritten by Markerstudy so I am not keen to give them my business again.
I value good customer service and a comprehensive package. I'm not after the cheapest quote.
I have a Renault Traffic LWB van that I partly converted my self and partly got some professionals to help (pop top roof, windows etc). I also use the van for driving to and from work sometimes so would need that covered too by the policy.
Who do people recommend?
Admiral have a tick box for campervan conversion. Though with their price rises this year they were almost the same as Brentacre for my DIY campervan. I'll probably swap back next year
A-Plan did my van insurance. Not phased at all by the not-official-campervan but not quite a normal van set up/modifications.
Brentacre. They seemed to be the go-to insurer of self converting vans back when I did mine. Have been with them now for 7 years with no complaints (though no claims ether so who knows!). Price seem competitive. All mods declared and can be added at any time for free (unless performance related) as work progresses. Phone staff in Swansea, always friendly and helpful. They are well aware how hard it is to reclassify a van as a motor caravan these days and still class your van as a camper for insurance purposes, even if the V5 says it is just a van.
edit
Mine is fully declared as a work vehicle for the farm business with trailer towing specific to policy.
Brentacre are no longer called Brentacre and now trade as Academy. They still are and have been my insurer of choice for weird vehicles for 10 plus years.
EDIT - double post
As said I don't want to use Brentacre, I had a very bad experience making a non fault claim from them last year and using their claims management company Winn Solicitors.
Their response to my feedback and complaint was terrible; the person on the phone couldn't care less I was having a bad experience using their service and didn't want to do anything to rectify it or make any assurances that they would look into and make things better in the future. I really don't want to use them again.
I would much rather pay more money and get a better service.
I will looking into A-Plan and Admiral ....
Is it worth getting camping and caravan club membership or something similar? Do they have any exclusive insurers / policies that are not available on the open market?
As said I don't want to use Brentacre, I had a very bad experience making a non fault claim from them last year and using their claims management company Winn Solicitors.
Their response to my feedback and complaint was terrible; the person on the phone couldn't care less I was having a bad experience using their service and didn't want to do anything to rectify it or make any assurances that they would look into and make things better in the future. I really don't want to use them again.
I would much rather pay more money and get a better service.
I will looking into A-Plan and Admiral ....
Is it worth getting camping and caravan club membership or something similar? Do they have any exclusive insurers / policies that are not available on the open market?
<p style="text-align: center;">Do mine through Just Campers, you Need to chase them but cost has been reasonable.</p>
Adrian Flux insured the self build I'm currently sat in when I first did it 13 years ago, and every year since. They even managed with having it insured for business use too.
Flux worked/works for me too.
Adrian Flux here.
I don't think the price has gone up significantly over the seven years or so I've been with them.
I've topped up the mileage limit from 6k to 10k a while back, they changed the underwriter and the price stayed the same, but the new policy didn't include 3rd party on other vehicles.
I think I also upped the insured value at one point with no significant increase to policy (might have been another change to the underwriter again).
I keep meaning to get an agreed value policy top up just to avoid too much heartache if it ever gets written off, I'd like to know I could go and buy something similar 'off the shelf' as it would take ages (like 2 years and hundreds of hours) to choose another suitable base van and covert it!
LV have insured my partially completed VW conversion for the last 3 years of its very slow progress!
I used Shield Total Insurance for the 10 years that I had a van. We're always a lot cheaper than Flux or Just Kampers for me and were helpful over the phone.
A guy at work found NFU Mutual to be good as he needed his insuring for work too.
YMMV
Having been done over by Adrian Flux in the past, id not give them another penny. I guess you only ever know how good your insurance is until you need it. Luckily, that’s rarely in my case.
Thank you all for the recommendations so far. A few different avenues for me to look into.
Adrian Flux have insured my van for the last few years. Never an issue but equally never needed to claim. It is a worry to see folk having bad experiences with these specialist insurers. It feels like a limited choice.
I'm planning on buying a van soon, which I'll be using at times for camping. I'm going to insulate and sound deaden, but I won't be fitting a permanent bed, sink, stove etc. I'll be using a camp bed & stove when I am going on a trip but the rest of the time they won't be in the van.
Would insulation and sound deadening mean it's a modified van and need specialist insurance?