Member Benefits?

[wedmonds]

Hi People,

I am sure this has been discussed or perhaps is already in place but while looking for insurance for my up an coming holiday I suddenly thought 'is there not an insurance company that is offering a deal to all ukdivers members?'

I am a member of a subaru club and they have hundreds of companies offering deals because they loads of members. Most companies offer 10% off but many run special deals for specific items.

Is it worth Ukdivers admin speaking to some insurance companies and pressing them hard for a special deal for members, perhaps in return for a small advert or something? This helps both ukdivers and the insurance company as other people will join the forum once they realise they can get cheaper insurance if they are a memeber of the site and the insurance company will get loads of new business.

If its already happening, forgive my stupid ramblings

[Ian]

It's not a bad idea.

To be honest, I have a few memberships that offer "discounted rates for members" but you can usually phone up and negotiate a better deal for yourself, so they are a bit of a con IMHO...

I know that Divemaster insurance offer a discount to BSAC members, but I think that's an underwriting thing rather than anything else. BSAC members already have 3rd party liability through BSAC so any claim would be handled jointly...

[O2 Steve]

Its a good idea but as Ian says you can often better negotiate your own rate. And as we UKD's are not a formal club or society their maybe an issue with getting "membership" verified.

As a case in point, a couple of years back I was doing a job for Norwich Union and all the staff were in uproar as the staff discount made policies more expensive than the buy on-line price!!

[wedmonds]

Well it would not be that hard to start a membership scheme up.
Even a basic membership could be setup for £2.50 or £5 a year to start.
We only need to contact one or two companies then. Once one insurance company takes the plunge and backs us with a serious offer which will never be offered on the phone, word will soon get around that there is additional business to be made from it.
I am sure we could rustle up some people that would be interested in helping U.K divers to get this up and running. I am game if site owners/admin are game. I am only a holiday diver at the moment so I dont think I am the right candidate to be the front runner.
When arranging insurance on my car I have a specific contact that ALWAYS beats any quote I have already got.

[Old Dude]

I know I have only recently joined the forums and certainly wasn't looking to drum up business but I own my own commercial insurance brokerage and operate/place similar schemes for other industries, etc.

If the admins would be interested in investigating how easy this would be to organise and costs involved pm me and I can provide my work contact details.

In short it depends on how many people there are that use the site and how many policies a year you buy. If the volume is sufficient insurers, probably Chubb, will be interested and could probably just provide a link from here to their own site with specific limits and discounts already written in.

Oh and before you ask "No, I don't do individual car insurance so its not my fault !"