Y yacht insurance - excellent service.

[Whitelighter]

On the recommendation of a few on here I insured Seralia with Y insurance.

So far I am seriously impressed. Their response to every question or quiery has been immediate and they have been helpful with insurance documents for foreign waters.

This month I have agreed to buy a new (more expensive) tender which has the ability to tow toys so I wanted to increase my dingy cover and add water sports cover to the policy. I emailed Y to ask if I could increase the limits and they came back very quickly as usual and even better they agreed that they could cover the extra for no change in policy cost.

So far service and value are absolutely 100%. I hope never to test them with a claim but if they conduct themselves with the same level of speed and professionalism there I can't see it being an issue.

No connection, other than a very very happy customer.

 

[Hurricane]

On the recommendation of a few on here I insured Seralia with Y insurance.

So far I am seriously impressed. Their response to every question or quietly has been immediate and they gave been helpful with insurance documents for foreign waters.

This month I have agreed to buy a new (more expensive) tender which has the ability to tow toys so I wanted to increase my dingy cover and add water sports cover to the policy. I emailed Y to ask if I could increase the limits and they came back very quickly as usual and even better they agreed that they could cover the extra for no change in policy cost.

So far service and value are absolutely 100%. I hope never to test them with a claim but if they conduct themselves with the same level of speed and professionalism there I can't see it being an issue.

No connection, other than a very very happy customer.

I wonder if the service will be as good from the new tender supplier

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I hope never to test them with a claim

I insure with Y myself and their service is indeed excellent but the acid test is always going to be how they deal with a major claim so until we get a report or two from satisfied claimants, the jury has to be out

 

[Cbjroms]

I have also just moved to Y and have been very impressed with service and happy with the prices.

 

[captmikecoin]

I have also just moved to Y and have been very impressed with service and happy with the prices.

+1

Mike

 

[Whitelighter]

I wonder if the service will be as good from the new tender supplier

Not sure, think he's a bit dodgy frankly

 

[Hurricane]

Not sure, think he's a bit dodgy frankly

Hopefully my new tender will be collected by Peters and May in Florida today.
It has taken ages to get this far but I get the feeling things are moviing now.

 

[Otter]

I have also just moved to Y and have been very impressed with service and happy with the prices.

Service is superb and the price is reassuringly mid range from the quotes I got - not so cheap there's nothing for claims and not so expensive you feel ripped off.

 

[Nick_H]

Just for info, GJW also added water sports cover at no extra cost when I asked them a few years back.

 

[jfm]

I insure with Y myself and their service is indeed excellent but the acid test is always going to be how they deal with a major claim so until we get a report or two from satisfied claimants, the jury has to be out

I see your point mike but fwiw I don't completely agree. Sure it is very nice if the insurer handles a claim easily without fuss, but the bottom line is actually the contract. If given a choice of poor customer service and a great contract, versus great customer service and a lousy contract, i'll take the former every time. The contracts are visible for all to see, so in my book the jury isn't out; it has delivered its verdict

As it happens, Y offer (imho) an excellent product (with some wording amendments for larger boats, discussed ad nauseum on here) and outstanding service so they are my first choice these days and my boat is insured with them (and my brother is in process of switching his boat to them too). In fairness to others, Pantaenius, GJW and HKJ offer great service too, but I'm not a fan of the policies of the first of those two. I need to check whether Pantaenius have re-issued the new policy that they launched about a year ago, following comments they got on the shortcomings of it- anyone know?

 

[petem]

I see your point mike but fwiw I don't completely agree. Sure it is very nice if the insurer handles a claim easily without fuss, but the bottom line is actually the contract. If given a choice of poor customer service and a great contract, versus great customer service and a lousy contract, i'll take the former every time. The contracts are visible for all to see, so in my book the jury isn't out; it has delivered its verdict

I agree the primary focus should be the contract but an insurer's historical attitude and handling of claims that are on the margin of the contract is also important.

 

[Whitelighter]

handling of claims that are on the margin of the contract is also important.

Though if the contract is written well, and is clear and robust there shouldn't be any 'margins'

 

[jmw]

I see your point mike but fwiw I don't completely agree. Sure it is very nice if the insurer handles a claim easily without fuss, but the bottom line is actually the contract. If given a choice of poor customer service and a great contract, versus great customer service and a lousy contract, i'll take the former every time. The contracts are visible for all to see, so in my book the jury isn't out; it has delivered its verdict

As it happens, Y offer (imho) an excellent product (with some wording amendments for larger boats, discussed ad nauseum on here) and outstanding service so they are my first choice these days and my boat is insured with them (and my brother is in process of switching his boat to them too). In fairness to others, Pantaenius, GJW and HKJ offer great service too, but I'm not a fan of the policies of the first of those two. I need to check whether Pantaenius have re-issued the new policy that they launched about a year ago, following comments they got on the shortcomings of it- anyone know?

I'm no expert on this but when I renewed a month or so back with Pantaenius I questioned their contract vs Y and got a very robust answer including the updated contract on renewal.

 

[jfm]

I agree the primary focus should be the contract but an insurer's historical attitude and handling of claims that are on the margin of the contract is also important.

It may be important to you

 

[jfm]

... got a very robust answer ...

Ooh yes you'll get robust answers. No doubt about that!

 

[petem]

It may be important to you

It may be unimportant to you if you enjoy a fight . And even if you enjoy the fight and have the time for it you're still at the hands of the ombudsman and ultimately the court to interpret the contract correctly.

Or to put it another way, AOTBE (i.e. identical contracts), would you choose a company (a) who are shitbags and do everything they can to mis-interpret the contract in order to refuse a claim or company (b) who understand their contract and the intent of it and do the decent thing and pay claims without any fuss?

 

[jfm]

I totally get your point pete but I'm mostly disagreeing. I take a strong view that all I care about here is total loss or near total loss. I'm not in the slightest bothered about a £500 gelcoat ding. Indeed, my excess is £10,000.

The lovey dovey track record of being nice about £500 gelcoat will count for absolutely nothing when you claim £1m or whatever because a big claim will get dealt with by a new group of people. So basically the track record counts for very little in my book. Not that nice behaviour wouldn't be a very welcome thing of course

Yes, sure, if I rely on the contract I'm at mercy of courts, but they are pretty rational so I'm happy with that. I'm not bothered about ombudsman and I'm most certianly not at his mercy. I see ombusdman as heads I win/tails I don't lose- if they agree with me then great, if they disagree then I just go to court. I don't have a huge love of the ombudsman team's ability to reach the right answer or operate a level playing field - a view formed on hard experience with them. Last time I dealt with them they communicated in private with the insurer but not me, and I lost at both levels of the ombudsman (there's a sort of junior panel then senior panel, neither of which showed the intelligence necessary to get the right answer on a quite complex matter, and neither of which understood the law of the land enough, imho). But I won at the stage beyond the ombudsman. This was a large claim, way way more than £500 gelcoat ding

Reference your question of course I'd choose (b), marginally, but you will never know if any insurer is in the (b) camp till you've made a big claim, say 50x the premium or upwards, which is much less than a once per lifetime thing. I've handled very large claims with the BishopSkinner/Towergate lot, Royal SunAlliance, but that's all. A small fraction of the market. And as I say I don't extrapolate from anyone's £500 ding behaviour. So where does that leave you? It leaves you basing 95% of your decision on the contract

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I see your point mike but fwiw I don't completely agree. Sure it is very nice if the insurer handles a claim easily without fuss, but the bottom line is actually the contract. If given a choice of poor customer service and a great contract, versus great customer service and a lousy contract, i'll take the former every time. The contracts are visible for all to see, so in my book the jury isn't out; it has delivered its verdict

Point taken and of course you're right. I suppose then the acid test of Y's policy is whether their underwriters pay out a claim in accordance with the terms of their policy without being forced to do so by a hotshot legal whizz