A struggling Kingsway General Insurance Company will be tucked into the folds of Jevco Insurance Company on October 1 in order to cut losses, and that’s not good news for Riders Club members.
Kingsway Financial Services, which owns both Kingsway General Insurance and Jevco Insurance, lost $38.4 million in the second quarter of this year and is consolidating its U.S. and Canadian operations to save money.
New policies sold by Kingsway will be written under the Jevco name starting October 1, and starting in December, Kingsway renewals will also become Jevco insurance policies. Rates and terms of insurance will likely be affected, and the Kingsway Motorcycle Club discount will not transfer to Jevco.
That means CMG Riders Club members will no longer qualify for an insurance discount. Nor will other motorcycle club members in Canada.
My Jevco renewal is three hundred and twenty dollars HIGHER than Kingsway’s last year. YIKES!
Public insurance is not the answer – ask anyone trying to ride in Manitoba. Several forum post on insurance in that province show that public insurance has priced motorcycling out of the hands of average riders.
Although it has its flaws, government vehicle insurance is a damn sight better than the privateer shysters. All Canadian provinces should dump the disastrous, discriminatory, costly, PITA of private motorcycle insurance and go (back) to a provincial or federal public system. Properly run, it is cheaper and more effective. Even poorly run, like ICBC, it’s still cheaper and less discriminatory.
I’ve been riding for over 40 years. I used to be with Kingsway and also with Jevco. I am now with Riders Plus. Great rates, which even includes my cargo trailer I sometimes pull behind my ’03 Venture, without ext5ra costs!
Jevco is cheaper than Kingsway anyway. No tears shed here.
… and don’t try to insure a 1976 Moto Guzzi Lemans with them either … or any old bike for that matter.
I must admit though, I’m glad I’m not in the motorcycle insurance business.
I’m 50 , been licensed since I was 16 and I used to be with Kingsway (and quite happy) for a Honda Firestorm. That is until one year they moved it into the super bike slot and the rate jumped from $800 to $1,800 (no claims, tickets or accidents). I swapped the Firestorm for a KLR ($500 per yr) and went dual-sporting for a year. I then bough a Ducati 900 Monster and tried to put that on my policy. I was told in no uncertain terms by two people there that ‘Kingsway does NOT insure sport bikes, and certainly NOT a Ducati. Sorry.’ Goodbye Kingsway.
I dropped Kingsway 4 years ago when they decided that my FZ6 was a “supersport”!!! Idiots. I went through a broker and got the best rates with Jevco as it turns out. All insurance companies are trying to cut their losses these days. However, these “losses” are actually investment shortcomings caused by the market crash and subsequent recesstion and not actual losses due to policy payouts.
I’m 40 years old, have been riding for over 20 years and don’t so much as have a parking ticket to my name yet Kingsway wanted $200.00 more out of me this year for a 14 year old motorcycle. Needless to say, I dropped them.