What effect do the following security products have on insurance 2024

swemmy666

swemmy666

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Planning on a purchase, and I'm considering which security products I should budget for and what effects they might have on the insurance quotes. Things I'm considering:
VANBITZ growler system
Immobiliser
Bear Lock transmission disabler
Thatcham deadlocks on all doors
Disklok steering wheel cover
thanks in advance for any contributions
 
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When I was getting quotes, I was told that removable security items, disk locks, wheel locks etc, didn't affect the quotes because they said we may forget to put them on or just decide not to use them for some reason.

They were interested in a tracker and immobiliser being fitted. We don't have an alarm so I don't know what effect that would have, but presumably a positive one.
 
LV weren't interested that we had a S5 tracker on our over 70K new van last year. Mind you they weren't interested in how much we paid either! Competitive quote so we went with them anyway.....
 
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We had to have a tracker, went with Adrian Flux who supplied one. The subscription is part of the insurance quote. Saga were a bloody nightmare, although we were insured with them, they wouldn't insure us to collect our new Hymer until we'd fitted an approved (by them) tracker. Trouble was, living up in the Highlands, even Inverness has no tracker suppliers or fitters, they come up from Edinburgh/Glasgow.
 
Depends on van value. My current van is the first that all insurers require a tracker. If your van value is below say 70k then don't get a tracker. They only help the insurance company.
This van doesn't have an alarm and never affected insurance. ( also less of a nuisance to us)
Immobiliser usually come as standard.

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I've just been getting quotes and most companies wouldn't insure the van in a car storage compound with electric gates cctv and 6ft fencing because it wasn't dedicated motorhome storage but they would I sure on my drive at home with no security not even a picket fence ots bloody ridiculous they all make the rules up as they go along

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Grummyb said:
I've just been getting quotes and most companies wouldn't insure the van in a car storage compound with electric gates cctv and 6ft fencing because it wasn't dedicated motorhome storage but they would I sure on my drive at home with no security not even a picket fence ots bloody ridiculous they all make the rules up as they go along
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Insurance companies have always made up their own rules, that is how their businesses operate. Most people seem to buy their insurance on price alone but as far as I am concerned other issues are just as important. I have had to change insurers a number of times because they no longer provided the cover I wanted.
 
Yes, I've found that I sometimes assume a too high level of 'granularity' in how they underwrite - green alarm LEDs £1 off, red ones £ 2 off, steering wheel lock 50 p off sort of thing. It preoccupies me so surely it must preoccupy the insurer even more? And we try to understand the logic of what the insurers do.

But I think it's usually very much cruder than that. Percentage of claim costs due to accidents? Maybe 70%, Percentage due to break ins, theft most of the remainder. How much difference do all these things make? What is the claims variability based on these things, and do I have a sufficient sample to assess such variability?

Consider how many 'things' there are - the alarm system/immobiliser drop down menus alone run to quite a few lines. And consider how many incidents the insurer has experienced. And the relationship between each of the alarm/immobiliser permutations and the claims incidence.

They simply won't/don't have the data - they will end up with categories with zero incidents, or 1 incident, and you can't do stats on that. Nor can you justify all the admin effort. There's too much statistical noise. And it all depends on where the toerags are and that has high randomness and they don't care about your system.

So the underwriting brush strokes are broad, and the key determinant of whether a product is offered at a price is 'strategic' - was this product line profitable, is it the sort of business we still want to be in, what set of general exclusions and prohibitions should we bolt on?

When I had the Van Bitz Growler and the Meta Track thing fitted I needed codes for the insurers, which they then used. That box of the 20 there, this box of the ... And out comes a premium. Is it much lower? 🤷‍♂️

The security is for my benefit. The insurance implications are interesting but a bit of an afterthought.
 
I asked caravan guard insurance if I needed to let them know I was installing a millenco door lock. They said it was a good idea but if I added it to the insurance then it will be stipulated that everutime you are away from the vehicle for whatever reason the security device / lock must be on. Or she said just have it and put it on as when you feel the Nedd to. I decided not to add it to the insurance and just lock it when sense dictates.
 
Hew1 said:
I asked caravan guard insurance if I needed to let them know I was installing a millenco door lock. They said it was a good idea but if I added it to the insurance then it will be stipulated that everutime you are away from the vehicle for whatever reason the security device / lock must be on. Or she said just have it and put it on as when you feel the Nedd to. I decided not to add it to the insurance and just lock it when sense dictates.
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Sensible thing to do.

My house has an alarm but I tell insurers it doesn’t because I don’t always remember to set it.

Don’t give the sods an excuse to not pay out is my approach.
 
Hew1 said:
I asked caravan guard insurance if I needed to let them know I was installing a millenco door lock. They said it was a good idea but if I added it to the insurance then it will be stipulated that everutime you are away from the vehicle for whatever reason the security device / lock must be on. Or she said just have it and put it on as when you feel the Nedd to. I decided not to add it to the insurance and just lock it when sense dictates.
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One of the reasons I avoided alarms for many years was that the insurer can say that if the alarm was not on you're not insured. That was what I understood at the time. Then I had my van stolen from my drive while we were asleep, and now they insist. I do concede an alarm would have been a good idea.
 
Grummyb said:
I've just been getting quotes and most companies wouldn't insure the van in a car storage compound with electric gates cctv and 6ft fencing because it wasn't dedicated motorhome storage but they would I sure on my drive at home with no security not even a picket fence ots bloody ridiculous they all make the rules up as they go along
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I had an incident at a storage place back in 2011. Secure, dedicated, high fences, locks, lights, hundreds of motorhomes.

My van (with Van Bitz alarm) alerts me that the alarm has gone off. But it is/has been snowing and the roads are very difficult and it's late at night.

So I phone the police to tell them that there has been an incident at this storage place. They weren't wildly enthusiastic - probably the snow set it off, probably a false alarm, but ok then, we'll send someone.

Next morning I get there. They had broken in, stolen mattresses and a ladder (wtf?) and also did some other vans.

Van goes to Johns Cross, spends some months, parts get ordered in from Germany, bill of maybe £ 5k or £ 6k for the insurer.

Would this have happened on my drive? Not if I was at home.
 
Only thing that fave me any sort of decent discount this year was by adding a tracker subscription to my Vanbitz Non-start system . Took the quote down from £1100 to £400.
 
PaulW2 said:
Would this have happened on my drive? Not if I was at home.
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Personally speaking, if they are prepared to steal a van that's just a few meters away from where I laid my head, I wouldn't be keen to approach them. Phone the police, yes. Physically stop them? No. When I did contact the police the next day, after hours of trying, they were not in the least bit interested. Almost it was my fault for having such an attractive van!

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Dorwyn said:
Personally speaking, if they are prepared to steal a van that's just a few meters away from where I laid my head, I wouldn't be keen to approach them. Phone the police, yes. Physically stop them? No. When I did contact the police the next day, after hours of trying, they were not in the least bit interested. Almost it was my fault for having such an attractive van!
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In my case I had an alarm that made an unholy racket. All the neighbours would have woken up, I would have had lights on and been up and about.

I don’t think they would have continued to calmly steal mattresses while all this was going on.

And given the presence of LED alarm lights they may not even have broken in at all.

In the storage place, far from housing, in the dead of night they had the time and they didn’t have to worry too much about the noise from the alarm.
 
swemmy666 said:
Planning on a purchase, and I'm considering which security products I should budget for and what effects they might have on the insurance quotes. Things I'm considering:
VANBITZ growler system
Immobiliser
Bear Lock transmission disabler
Thatcham deadlocks on all doors
Disklok steering wheel cover
thanks in advance for any contributions
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Tracker and hydraulic levellers reduced our payment!!
 
Screenshot_20241006_114001_Chrome.jpg
 
diddydave said:
NFU quoted me on my American Rv. I asked what the price would be if I had a tracker and immobiliser fitted and they said the same.
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They gave me a 15% discount at the time but that discount seems to have disappeared on my renewal a few days ago.

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Dorwyn said:
One of the reasons I avoided alarms for many years was that the insurer can say that if the alarm was not on you're not insured.
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Slightly O/T but on the subject of responsibility I read recently never to have a 'Beware of the Dog' notice/sticker displayed as if a burglar was attacked by it you could be accused of owning a dangerous dog. o_O
 
When we bought our Burstner new in 2019, we had to have an alarm and a cat 5 tracker fitted. They would only insure the van when we sent proof that we had booked for an alarm and tracker to be fitted at our house by an approved installler. We paid for lifetime tracking as this is probably our last van or at least new one. We have a large garage at the bottom of our garden the van lives in when not in use. The garage is alarmed has remote disablement of the roller shutter door which is a 14 ft wide industrial one so a lot stronger than the domestic type. The door is set to only go up enough to let the car out in normal use and requires a remote to allow it up high enough for the van to get out. Has cctv with remote access and a in ground drop post. I told the insurers this but the insurers would give me a cheaper quote when and if I was to put it at my friends storage compound out in the countryside, doesn’t make sense to me???
 
Been with LV some years now and they aren’t worried about tracker or alarm however we have van it’s strike back with extra sirens and non starter which is easy and reassuring to to use the non starter also has a tracker but it’s not Thatcham approved LV do give discount for dash cam though.and they are very competitive with van insurance if you can get it 🤔

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