Riders Plus BAD POLICY | GTAMotorcycle.com

Riders Plus BAD POLICY

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IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING MOTORCYCLE INSURANCE
I am putting this information out there simply to make you aware of a policy held by one of the insurance companies that covers motorcyclists. Rider Plus, who is a broker for Echelon, has a “cancellation table” that reflects “the seasonal nature of motorcycle riding in Ontario”. This applies when you want to cancel your insurance for any reason. They require us to pay for 6 months up front for one year of coverage. I guess this covers them in the case of a rider cancelling their policy and claiming a refund during the months where the weather is less desirable to ride in… or something like that and I don’t know where to find this “cancellation table” that they speak of anyway.

This is how their nonsensical policy affected me:

My policy renews in January of 2015. At the end of October I called Riders Plus to cancel the coverage of my two motorcycles as I had sold the one, was soon to sell the other, and no longer needed the coverage for them. That leaves two months of insurance that I had already paid for, unused, and therefore I would like to transfer that coverage to the new motorcycle I will be receiving in March of 2015. This seems to me to be a fair request, but no way! According to Riders Plus because of this “season” that they have arbitrarily come up with, I will only have a credit of $7 due to it being “short-rated”. I was not asking for a cash rebate but simply to apply the two months of insurance that I had already paid for, to the next motorcycle. I explained I was planning on still being a customer but this meant nothing to them and therefore I will no longer be a customer of Riders Plus.

I’m not saying Riders Plus is a bad insurance company as I have not ever made a claim with them and my only interaction was to send them tons of money for which I would have thought there would at least be some customer service. I would have thought that an insurance company that advertises itself as a ‘motorcycle friendly’ company would be more flexible with situations like mine, but they are not.

So a word to the wise; If you are CERTAIN that you will be riding the same motorcycle ALL year AND into the next go ahead and pay Riders Plus up front in the first 6 months for one year’s insurance; BUT if you think you might be changing your motorcycles sometime through “the season” with any gap at all, I would suggest you find a company that offers a month to month payment plan. And seeing as none of us own a crystal ball, the later of the choices would be the wisest.

I hope this information can save some of my fellow riders from losing money to these corporate S.O.Bs the way I did.

Cheers,
Cameron
 
State Farm is also like this and it makes perfect sense. You pay the majority of your premiums during the riding season. It's not 12 equal payments. If you want to cancel your policy with two months left in the winter, you don't get much back. Nothing new.
 
State Farm is also like this and it makes perfect sense. You pay the majority of your premiums during the riding season. It's not 12 equal payments. If you want to cancel your policy with two months left in the winter, you don't get much back. Nothing new.

TD is as well. I bought a bike last October and my premium to cover until Feb or March was all of $30.
 
Pretty easy to figure out actually.
It's a bell curve. Next to nothing from Jan to March, goes up, peaks in June/July and then proceeds back down again for October to December, where again, your policy will be about $10 of your premium per month.

TD actually told me the dates that they consider the riding season to begin and end - don't recall them exactly, but I believe it was mid-October to mid-March.
 
Month % of Annual Premium....IOW - this is how your premium gets eaten up:

January 0 %
February 0 %
March 5 %
April 10 %
May 10 %
June 20 %
July 20%
August 20%
Sept 10%
Oct 5%
Nov 0%
Dec 0%
 
Read the stickies, this makes sense and has been discussed hundreds of times before.
 
I'm glad to see that GTAM members understand this -- I've explained this countless times in the forums and made the stickies as a result. It's a little confusing at first, but makes perfect sense when you think it through.
 
Agreed. Statefarm actually sent me the schedule on which months charge the most and least. It makes perfect sense since 90% of the people here in Canada don't ride when it's winter time.
 
That leaves two months of insurance that I had already paid for, unused, and therefore I would like to transfer that coverage to the new motorcycle I will be receiving in March of 2015.
I was not asking for a cash rebate but simply to apply the two months of insurance that I had already paid for, to the next motorcycle.

I can't see any insurance company would ever going for this......

me on the other line if I was the insurance agent -----> :lol:
 
Welcome to the world of insurance. We all experience this at one point.
 
Most if not all do this. Good reason to not have a gap in bikes. I always have the replacement before selling the current. That way I'm not desperately looking for or spending more than I need to for the next ride.
 
Very pleased to see majority of the GTAM members do understand how insurance works for motorcycle if the policy is cancelled midterm before the year ends.
The examples and explanation by some of the members is remarkable
 
Very pleased to see majority of the GTAM members do understand how insurance works for motorcycle if the policy is cancelled midterm before the year ends.
The examples and explanation by some of the members is remarkable

I think anyone that's gone through more than 2-3 bikes, dealing with insurance, could be a borderline agent themselves after all the comparisons of policy/price/coverage/ratings etc.
 
Is this concept really that difficult to understand.
If you prefer they could sell you a policy that runs from April - October for $2000 and another one from Nov - March for $100
 

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