Hi who did your tracker and ghost I’m requiring both
Best Insurer for a Camper
- Thread starter GJH
- Start date
Well after 6 weeks of discussion with the insurance company of the chap who so nicely backed in to our new van Royal Sun Alliance his insurance have washed their hands of the claim due to costs of the repair. So I'm now back to square one with my own insurance company to restart the claim to repair and recover costs.
I am sure Royal Sun Alliance will have repaired the vehicle of their customer who damaged our 8 week old van and they were full of promises over how they could repair our van etc. But as I have found out I have no legal right to insist they repair my van, so be warned if the insurance company of the third party who damages you vehicle offers to manage the claim they could leave you high and dry.
The lesson is I should have gone with my own insurance company from day one and not lost 6 weeks. My new headache is the Admiral insurance are claiming the campervan conversion is a modification which they will not cover even though I was explicit in declaring it was a Hillside Leisure birchover conversion. Lifer is never easy.
I am sure Royal Sun Alliance will have repaired the vehicle of their customer who damaged our 8 week old van and they were full of promises over how they could repair our van etc. But as I have found out I have no legal right to insist they repair my van, so be warned if the insurance company of the third party who damages you vehicle offers to manage the claim they could leave you high and dry.
The lesson is I should have gone with my own insurance company from day one and not lost 6 weeks. My new headache is the Admiral insurance are claiming the campervan conversion is a modification which they will not cover even though I was explicit in declaring it was a Hillside Leisure birchover conversion. Lifer is never easy.
@Camper_Chris just a curious question why did you not let your own insurance company deal with it in the first place
That’s the same as my NFU experience but as the breakdown cover is no doubt out sourced it maybe at the request of the contractor, who knows.
Err... say what? What do you mean by "RSA have washed their hands of the claim"? Are they contesting liability? Are they saying your van is uneconomical to repair? Or are they saying something else? Claims can run into tens of millions of £s (when personal injury is involved), so simply saying the cost to them is too high is arrant nonsense.
If the driver they insure is adjudged to be at fault (which you may have to go to court to prove), then it's simply not their prerogative to refuse to repair the van - at least not without you accepting an alternative remedy (such as write-off or a like-for-like replacement).
Yeah, I wouldn't ever let the third party's insurer manage my claim against them - the potential for a conflict of interest is just too great (as you're finding out!)
Just thought I'd share my first time van insurance info as a newbie to campervan life. Its likely already been discussed many times, but for what is worth, he's some info that hopefully will help others in similar situation.
I have only previously insured cars, so not had any issues, both me and wife covered fully comprehensive under wife's name with business use for her.
We have a VW T6.1 professionally converted.
After online and phone call searches that produced ridiculous prices, especially for a couple in our 50's with full no claims discount and over 25 yrs driving experience we were getting worried at the insurance costs moving forward.
These prices ranged from £1200 to £6000 per year.
In the end, our dealer gave us a list of half a dozen insurance companies that finally gave me a list of 4 companies to decide between.
You can get their details from Google if needed.
Please note, these quotes are specific to me and will vary from person to person as everyone has different information to input.
Adrian Flux - £1260 and insisted on a tracker, (the only one in contention that insisted on a tracker). At first, I thought this was not a contender, but upon reading their email, I read it as the cost of supply and fit of the tracker was included in the quote, it wasn't too clear if the 12 month subscription was included too. We are getting a tracker fitted anyway, so factoring this cost in, it was not a bad quote really.
LV insurance - £495
A Plan Thatcham - £395
Comfort Insurance - £356
We opted for comfort insurance as they were the cheapest but same cover as the others and great reviews, even on trust pilot.
The staff at both comfort and a plan Thatcham were amazing, after speaking to both companies, it didn't feel like they were just trying to sell me a policy, or even like talking to a robot die to doing quotes all day, they were both very friendly, professional and came across as wanting to help. I struggled to decide between the 2 companies but opted for comfort insurance purely due to slightly cheaper.
I hope this helps someone else who is new to this van life and worrying about decent insurance cover, it is out there.
Happy camping everyone.
I have only previously insured cars, so not had any issues, both me and wife covered fully comprehensive under wife's name with business use for her.
We have a VW T6.1 professionally converted.
After online and phone call searches that produced ridiculous prices, especially for a couple in our 50's with full no claims discount and over 25 yrs driving experience we were getting worried at the insurance costs moving forward.
These prices ranged from £1200 to £6000 per year.
In the end, our dealer gave us a list of half a dozen insurance companies that finally gave me a list of 4 companies to decide between.
You can get their details from Google if needed.
Please note, these quotes are specific to me and will vary from person to person as everyone has different information to input.
Adrian Flux - £1260 and insisted on a tracker, (the only one in contention that insisted on a tracker). At first, I thought this was not a contender, but upon reading their email, I read it as the cost of supply and fit of the tracker was included in the quote, it wasn't too clear if the 12 month subscription was included too. We are getting a tracker fitted anyway, so factoring this cost in, it was not a bad quote really.
LV insurance - £495
A Plan Thatcham - £395
Comfort Insurance - £356
We opted for comfort insurance as they were the cheapest but same cover as the others and great reviews, even on trust pilot.
The staff at both comfort and a plan Thatcham were amazing, after speaking to both companies, it didn't feel like they were just trying to sell me a policy, or even like talking to a robot die to doing quotes all day, they were both very friendly, professional and came across as wanting to help. I struggled to decide between the 2 companies but opted for comfort insurance purely due to slightly cheaper.
I hope this helps someone else who is new to this van life and worrying about decent insurance cover, it is out there.
Happy camping everyone.
Last edited:
Ballfire1234
New Member
I know everyones case will be different but a good insight as I will be collecting our van in a few weeks. Sounds similar case, except we are late 50s and want to have our 2 sons (27 & 30) as named drivers as well
Just spent the morning getting quotes online and over the phone ready for collecting my new camper next week.
Had a couple of quotes in the region of £1000, which wasn't great, as with some of the others, I'm in my 50's.
The best 2 pricewise were LV and Comfort. LV looked the better price wise, but once they added on legal protection, it took it up a fair bit.
Comfort were great on the phone, and they quoted £366, with legal protection, green card and 3 years new for old all included.
Had a couple of quotes in the region of £1000, which wasn't great, as with some of the others, I'm in my 50's.
The best 2 pricewise were LV and Comfort. LV looked the better price wise, but once they added on legal protection, it took it up a fair bit.
Comfort were great on the phone, and they quoted £366, with legal protection, green card and 3 years new for old all included.
Matches my experience (and my outcome).
Ageon? Aren't they in the pensions and life assurance space? Did you mean Ageas?
Not really - you just don't fall within their target demographic.
looking at insurance policies and i am concerned some policies i looked at do not give full comprehensive cover in the EU and only cover personal items for up to £300 ,giving that i could be carrying an awning and bikes which would could cost 5k to replace i was wondering if others had looked at this cover.
how did they react to the fact it was converted van ,mine was converted by summers day but some companies wont accept this as professional conversion.
