Insurance

[Elsie]

Does anyone remember correspondence relating to insuring motorhomes with CIS. Started with readers letters praising premiums with CIS. Followed with cautionary letters as cover might not be extensive enough and then followed by letter from representative from CIS confirming cover was definitely appropriate for motor caravans. Any help would be most appreciated

[Bill Ord]

I have insured vans with CIS in the past and they were very satisfactory. I did need to top up the contents insurance but that was cheap and easisly done on a CIS caravan contents policy. Of course you will have to get your breakdown insurance elsewhere but that's no problem. There were several reasons for leaving CIS one being I got lazy and wanted everything in one place and renewed at the same time but a big thing for me was CIS stopped having local agents in my area, I think it is nationwide now and I really liked having a knowledgeable agent to talk to and sort out the details. A big plus with CIS was if you had to make a claim it was sorted in minutes on the phone and as we had a CIS approved repairer in town a fax was sent to the repairer and by the time you got there they were waiting for you. I had one of the light fingered brigade try to force entry by removing the lock barrell. The time from phoning to make the claim to having the vehicle back fully repaired was six days, speak as you find. bill Ord

[Elsie]

Thanks for your quick reply. I quite agree about not having agents call now. We too had the lock barrell removed but they came back the same day and took the lot. The problem now is that when we had an agent call (he was usually excellent with advice) we explained what sort of cover we needed but it does not seem to have been set up like that. Trying to get them to at least share costs!

[alanmac]

Like the other correspondents on this thread I too no longer have a local agent. My only business with CIS now is house insurance and in the past they have been satisfactory in dealing with storm damage. A recent call to them revealed that they have modernised their approach and a new "menu " system is now on their switchboard at my local office,I found this a trial but to be fair I felt the staff seemed better aware of the ins and outs of my query. Not always the case previously with my agent ! I shall seek a quote for my 'van later in the year in view of the previous comments,many thanks !

[colin]

For me going to centralized system was much better, no more leaving messages on ajents answering m/c every week reminding him to send out documents. They also corrected two errors on documents that ajent never managed too in 7 years!

[Mel E]

There was a genuine story about 3 years' ago from a person who has got unbelievably cheap insurance for his motorhome from CIS using their call centre and boasted as much. When he checked further, however, he discovered that, when he described his motorhome as 'based on a Fiat Whatever' they actually insured a Fiat van for private use and not a motohome. As I frequently say, unlike car and home insurance which have both become commodities you buy on price v cover, that is not the case with motorhomes. It is a very tiny specialist market and you should ALWAYS use a specialist broker - plenty advertise in MMM each month.

[chris]

I posted on that old forum and stated that I questioned and questioned CIS and they couldnt always give answers. I asked what if a gas cylinder blew up on the van (hopefully never) but they said you would not be covered. They couldnt answer about awnings either and when I checked on contents insurance then there was a limit. As much as I wanted to go with CIS I realised the cover was not for motorhomes and went to Safeguard where I have breakdown etc and can upgrade easily for travel insurance. In the end "you get what you pay for!"

[Elsie]

Thanks for your reply and agree they are usually good with claims. We have just had our van stolen and are apprehensive about the outcome of our claim!

[Elsie]

Thanks for your reply. Time will tell I guess on the local agent v centralised system.

[Elsie]

Thanks for your reply I expect this was the story which started up the letters in the MMM. Hope our case is not as bad as that as our van has just been stolen! We did insure with our agent so he did know exactly what we were getting.

[Elsie]

Thanks for your reply. From all the replies received it would seem we might have put too much faith in our agent. Too late to do anything now as our van has just been stolen!