A wise friend in insurance
Bike Insurance - Motorcycle Insurance
Before you go off to get some quotes you need to pull a bit of information together. You will have most of this on your driving licence, the licences of other named riders and V5 registration document. If you are already insured your renewal document will also help.
Make sure you have:
- The full details of the make and model of your bike.
- The exact year that your bike was registered, most systems work on year rather than letter.
- The date of births for other named drivers, if there are any.
- The exact dates of any claims, accidents or other losses (whether on a bike or in another type of vehicle) within the last 5 years, for all riders. Some systems also require details of costs and whether any claims were settled as ‘fault’ or ‘non fault’. If in doubt you will have to ask the insurance company at the time.
- The dates of any motoring convictions for all named riders together with conviction codes, penalties and dates and length of any ban imposed. You will need date of conviction and date of offence.
Read the questions carefully to make sure that you provide the correct information as it could invalidate your insurance if you give inaccurate information. Be careful here as you may be tempted to get quotes based on your memory of dates etc and then forget that you may not have been 100% accurate when you decide to take up the insurance. It is best to be absolutely accurate at the quotation stage, then you are less likely to cause yourself problems.
If the quote system has a link on the first page called “assumptions” or something similar. Follow this link and read the page at the end carefully. This could save you a lot of time as if you don’t fit their assumptions then there is no point in getting a quote.
The sites listed in the right hand column offer quotes for what would be called in the insurance industry “good clean risks”. That is for people with a good driving record with only one or two minor motoring convictions and no claims in the last few years. The actual number and type of convictions and period of no claims varies from site to site so do check if you fit their criteria. The sites listed are ones where we have visited and tried out the quote system. We havew provided a bit of information about what we found on our visit.
We are currently researching the market for non standard risks such as modified bikes, returning from a ban etc and will add pages on these in the near future.
Motorcycle Travel Insurance
If you are planning a trip to Europe please be very careful when you buy your travel insurance. Many (infact almost all) travel insurance policies either restrict the size of the bike you can ride to 125cc or 50cc or exclude riding a bike at all. Clearly this is of no use, you need good medical cover in case some giffer driving a 2CV knocks you over or you have a lapse in concentration and go back to driving on the left (It does happen and head on collisions on a bike are never much fun). We have found two firms that have specialist schemes for bikers on trips to Europe and details can be found here. Motorcycle travel insurance
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We research and search the Internet to find insurance solutions for circumstances and things that are difficult to insure. It is easy to find standard insurance for standard risks but what if your lifestyle or circumstances are a little out of the ordinary.
The information on quotations sites is correct at 30th June 2006.
Don't forget to read the assumptions when you get to the quote site.
Clear, concise and easy to use quotation system.
Includes breakdown and legal expenses cover. Our quotation for comprehensive cover on an 1150 BMW tourer was astonishingly cheap.
Offers full online administration of your motorcycle insurance. Buy online, renew online, claim online.
Comprehensive, TPF&T, Third Party Only and Laid up Cover (Fire and theft only).
Ebikeinsurance is a trading name of Southern Rock Insurance Company Limited who are the insurance underwriters for the policy.
Breakdown and Legal protection cover is provided by DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited (Checked June 2006).
Fairly easy quotation system but make sure that you answer the first page qualifying questions carefully. Some of the questions lead to more detailed questions further on in the quote and if you are not consistent you can’t just over-ride the original answer, you have to go back and make amendments which is a bit annoying.
MotorCycle Direct is a trading style of Europa Group Limited. Europa Group Limited are the national distribution arm and sister Company of A-Plan Insurance Group.
Quote (June 2006) included Breakdown and Legal protection cover is provided by DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited.
The quotation system offered us choice of 7 underwriters some we had never heard of others such as AXA, Norwich Union and Groupama are well known major insurance companies.
Simple and easy to use quote system but a bit more long winded than most. The level of detail was greater than might seem strictly necessary.
The following are offered as optional extras, Legal expenses cover, Breakdown, Personal Accident cover.
Bennetts is a trading name of BISL Limited. Registered Head Office: Pegasus House, Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate, Peterborough, PE2 6YS.
The quotation offered, although competitive was from a single insurer, in our case Advantage Insurance Company, presumably this was the least cost option.
A couple of things we didn’t really like when we used this system were: 1. You don’t know where you are in the quote so you don’t know how much more there is to come. It is relatively simple though and takes the form a many small steps rather than a few long forms to complete. 2. You are asked to confirm that you have read a terms of business disclosure document which extends to 3 pages of A4.
Having said that the prices offered were very competitive.
The following are offered as optional extras, Legal protection, Personal Accident
Churchill is perhaps best known as the direct motor insurer with the British Bull Dog puppet. In the case of motorcycle insurance it works closely with Devitt. Both Devitt and Churchill are owned by RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland Group). The Churchill motorcycle insurance quotation web site appears to be a rebranding of the Devitt’s system
Three prices were offered from different insurance companies, Chaucer, Zenith and Equity Red Star.
See Churchill above.
The Norwich Union motorcycle quote system takes a different approach to most of the others listed here, being based on one long form for you to complete. This is relatively simple and quick to do.
Norwich Union is owned by Aviva (June 2006), one of the biggest insurance groups in Europe.
Legal protection cover is an extra.
Just one policy is offered as expected from Norwich Union themselves.