Posts Tagged cost of motorcycle insurance
Approved Enhanced Security Measures Can Help Lower The Cost Of Motorcycle Insurance
Every year there is in excess of 35,000 motorbikes stolen in the UK. The percentage of bike being recovered is extremely low, approximately one in five never being returned to their rightful owner. As it takes experienced thieves only 14 seconds, on average, to steal a bike you need to do everything possible to stop your bike becoming a statistic.
Security has to be a top priority for all motorbike owners, irrespective of the size, make or model of their machine as the motorbike thieves aren’t that fussy which bikes they steal as any relatively new model can be sold on the black market and for older machines be broken down and the parts sold for cash.
The main reason that motorbike theft is so proliferate is that it take just those 14 seconds for thieves to pick a bike up which has no enhanced security and put it into the back of a van and drive away, for the most part unnoticed by the authorities or the general public. Joy riders are also rather partial to helping themselves to unprotected motorbikes or scooters as it is so easy to do.
Using a common sense approach to where you park your bike can help to reduce theft, this may mean that you have to pay for parking in some towns and cities, but rather that than arrived back to find you have no bike at all.
Anther advantage of enhancing security is that many motorbike insurers will offer discounts off the premiums if your motorbike has approved enhanced security. The main word here is ‘enhanced’, although the insurance companies welcome preventative measures the ones you use have to be on the insurers ‘approved’ list to be offered the discounts. If you are unsure which security devices are approved, you simply have to phone the insurers and ask which they approve of.
Unfortunately some of the approved enhanced security is pretty expensive so you will have to decide whether the value of your motorbike warrants spending the money. Your own security measures may work but they may not get you a discount!
The more visible the security measures the more likely the thieves will pass your bike by and aim for one that has no visible signs of security. The most visible is probably a hefty cable locks, more especially if they are put round a sturdy anchor point concreted into the road and wrapped around as many parts of your bike as possible, not just the front tyre.
Disc locks pose little problem to professional motorbike thieves but may pose more of a problem to opportunist thieves, so they are better than not using anything at all. Many bike manufacturers and insurance companies recommend marking your bike with VIN, vehicle identification number, and your postcode. Mark as many components of your bike as your can, if your bike is stolen to be broken down for spares you may not get your entire bike back but it will help the authorities track the thieves.
Any enhanced security measures you make should be told to your motorcycle insurance company, if they give you a discount off your insurance premiums so much the better!
post by : Tom Jones
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Manage the Cost of Motorcycle Insurance
The cost of gasoline has us all evaluating our driving habits. Fortunately, they’ve come down from the terrible highs of over $4 a gallon, but they’ve been steadily climbing since then. Prices are now in the $3 plus range. Somehow it doesn’t seem as bad as before, because we’ve already had worse. We’ve become a little bit complacent. Gas hit $4 and we survived. But it’s more expensive that you ever intended to pay when you bought a car and decided to use it as your primary means of transportation. So you’ve finally had enough, and you bought a motorcycle. Good for you! But now you’ve discovered another hurdle; the price of motorcycle insurance.
Motorcycle insurance costs more than car insurance for a couple of reasons. First, motorcycles are difficult for other drivers to see because they’re small and they can move quickly, leading to more accidents. Although the other driver may be at fault too, if you are partially responsible for an accident, your insurance has to pay. They also pay if the other driver is uninsured or underinsured, if you purchase that coverage. Fair or not, the insurance companies take this into consideration in their pricing.
Motorcycle accidents are also more likely to involve significant bodily injury claims. Obviously this is a bigger concern than just an insurance problem, but it does drive the premiums up. You can help reduce this danger by driving carefully, or not driving your motorcycle when conditions are dangerous. Wind, rain, fog and other weather factors are more dangerous for motorcycles than for cars. Those are good days to drive a car or find another means of transportation. Always wear a helmet, and insist that any passengers do too.
Lastly, insurance companies base their rates on statistics. If the odds of a claim or the average dollar amount of a claim are high for the particular type of vehicle that you drive (or ride), your premiums will be higher. This helps them account for all kinds of things that they can’t identify, from hot-dogging drivers to unsafe vehicles. If you are planning to buy a bike, get insurance quotes for a few different models. The price difference may be significant enough to influence which bike you choose.
How do you keep insurance premiums from cutting into your gas savings? First, be a low risk driver. Make sure you drive safely all the time. Whether you’re in the right or not, do what it takes to avoid accidents. This will be reflected in your driving record. Second, shop around for insurance. Don’t just call your old auto insurance company and add your bike. Contact at least three companies and get quotes for the coverage you want for your bike with your driving record. It’s so easy now that you can get quotes online. Yes, it still takes time, but it’s worth it. This is not a one-time purchase. It’s a major expense, year after year, and you probably don’t price out every year. If you find a good insurance policy that saves you $500 a year, you’ll save that much not just this year, but next year and the year after as well. Every couple years, it’s probably a good idea to get one more quote in addition to the quote from your current company. If the new one is better, then switch. If not, stay where you are. That’s not much effort to make sure you have the best price.
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