Private Insurance vs. ICBC?
 

I'll be insuring my bike in a few days, and I have heard on the grapevine that one can save tons of money by using ICBC for the basicest basic part, and then go private for the collision theft and all that.
Does anyone have any pointers on which company to go with? Or what office to get it at?

Thanks in advance

I get my private insurance through BCAA. I wouldn't say you save a ton, but typically the deductibles are a lot less.

I use Essex insurance, and save a bunch over the optional stuff from ICBC. I used to go to Coast Crapital, but for personal reasons, I will not deal with those douche nozzles anymore.

There may be some better deals for bikes though, I know some companies are more bike friendly. Maybe check islandriders.ca for some insight.

Cars and bikes are different. Check on the usual bike forums and see what people use.
When I rode, I only used ICBC. For car, I went with ICBC as well because teh difference between ICBC and private was minimal while I autoplan 12 and their interest rates were way lower than some of the private guys.

Also, keep in mind private insurance companies can refuse you insurance if you are deemed a "high risk". I know ICBC can too, but I had it happen with Family and not yet (knock on wood) with ICBC.

also had horrible insurance experience with coast capital... their "agents" dont know anything.

Weird, I've had great success with Coast Capital although I'm stilling paying ICBC (I'll be a roadstar this year, knock on wood) and private has never been cheaper for me. From my understanding, private gets a lot cheaper once you hit 25 (this week, noooooooooooooooo!)

But I'm dealing with the Sooke branch, not the Langford/other branches...

I always just have them compare the price of private and all-ICBC.

Same. I will never deal with them again for insurance.

I have used Coast Capital for years and have no complaints at all. I've flipped back and forth from ICBC to private several times, it seems they change the rates randomly every couple of years.

all these private companies base their rates off ICBC(or the biggest Inc in town) and they always check your driving record and experience levels regardless.

If you are a good driver you might be able to save more on the optional coverages like Collision and Comprehensive. Mind you that clueless "agents" are one of those things you gonna take in account with private insurers. I've only heard bad things from them when ppl try to claim from private, mind you so the ones that are still accident free have yet to contribute with some credibility IMO.

Just keep in mind how much ur saving Vs. quality of service. Keeping your self safe on the road is a lot to do with driver awareness too.

I use Beacon Insurance for the my bike and I saved closed to $700 for the year. I think the ICBC qoute for 1 year was $1684, Beacon was $994 for 1 year.
You still have to buy your basic stuff from ICBC but all the extra stuff might be worth pricing out elsewhere. Mind you Beacon requires you to hold a drivers lisence for atleast 10 years ,etc.

I saved a ton of money on car insurance by switching to Gieco

add another to the "Never deal with Coast Capital for insurance" group. those fucking idiots cost me over $4000 by giving me wrong information on my home policy and also screwed up huge when I insured my bikes with them. they don't know their ass from a hole in the ground and I will never deal with them for insurance of any type again.

Beacon Insurance is pretty good I heard. They cover the equipment and stuff for your bike, while, ICBC doesn't cover any of the equipment. It's also cheaper with Beacon if you qualify.

I looked into private coverage when I insured my Cobra, and it was significantly more than ICBC. Again when I bought my wife her new Caddy I priced it out and it was close this time but there was no real savings with private. When I bought my Lightning a few weeks ago, I checked again but (much like the Cobra) it was more expensive.

Maybe for bikes and/or if you roll a Civic, RAV4, Hyundia, or Camry or something like that there are good savings to be had. For me it hasn't really worked out.

I don't know how its works cause it was cheaper to go through ICBC for everything on my Civic but a lot cheaper for my bike to go through a private insurer

sucks that you guys have bad experiences with Coast.
I Work for Coast/have had my accounts and insurance with them for years.

It *should* be the same quality of service no matter where you go! But I guess that's not always the case.

Had some major Issues with Canadian Direct when i had some damage on my truck... Would not put it through an ICBC shop, had their own shop than undercut everyone else. I had to pay the labour difference to use an icbc accredited shop... FYI

To be honest, I never had any issues with the people I dealt with face to face. However, at the old Z'sport location, there was a CC storage unit across the way from us, and every time they came out to use it, the managers who looked after the storage unit found reasons to be incredibly rude to us and our customers, so I canceled my insurance through them.

Check out Beacon Insurance they have an awesome motorcycle policy.

when we deal with private insurance claims at our shop it usually take longer to approve and more hassle and stuff... that means you get no courtesy car while that is being approve and also parts that require replacing they would ask you to try and repair (ie.. headlight brackets can be re-weld) but icbc just replaces it if its even scratch... and for myself i recommend staying with icbc even though private insurance is 10-20% cheaper on my car

Were staff or customers in the CCS parking spots? I have been out there to pick up supplies and had to ask people to move their cars. I can see people getting really annoyed if they had to do this every trip out there.

I use Coast for my car and house insurance, and my banking. So far pretty good. My only complaint I have ever had was I called their help line once to set up some account stuff and the lady on the other end was really rude. She had zero patience for me asking questions that I didn't feel were that bad. I think one of her responses was "what do you want?" in a really pissed off voice and this was at the very beginning of the conversation. Either way i have used them for years so I will continue.

^^ Should have complained. All calls the the contact center are recorded. Just need the person's name and approximate time the call was taken.

Anyways, I have used a few different insurance brokers. Never had a problem with any of the agents, but getting correct info from ICBC can be a pain. I think I am 0/2 with them.

In my opinion, all insurance companies are EVIL!
Havn't you watch fight club? :P

As far as going through private/icbc.

I would go with private to avoid the BS that ICBC put you through.

Private insurance general care about you, whereas ICBC themselves.

Don't trust any adjuster, regardless if they are private or not. They are out to save their company money.