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9 Ways To Find Cheap Motorbike Insurance

To save you time and money we examine the top nine tips for getting the right motorbike insurance without breaking the bank.

Finding the cheapest motorbike insurance to meet your individual requirements can seem like a daunting task and not one that many people look forward to tackling. Trawling through websites and comparing premiums, excesses, and exclusions can be exhausting but with these ten tips, your hunt will be simpler, more focused and most importantly, help you find the best deals on the market.

 

Plan ahead

One of the main reasons many motorcyclists fail to get the cheapest motorbike insurance is that they run out of time to consider their options. Begin your search between 6 to 8 weeks before your current cover runs out. This will remove the stress of searching for the best deal or even worse, simply sliding into an automatic renewal with your existing insurer without seeing what else is available. If you tend to be forgetful, set a calendar reminder immediately after you take out your deal to prompt you to start looking in good time before the next renewal.

 

Think about what you actually need

Aside from covering you, your motorbike, and any affected third parties in the event of an accident, what else is included in your cover? Make sure you're not paying for extras that will be of no benefit to you. For example, some policies include sidecar and accessories cover, breakdown cover, loss of earnings etc., and it is quite possible that in paying for these you are duplicating cover already in place from your bank, workplace insurance or even home contents insurance. So make sure you check and rule out any such extras.

 

Shop around and compare

Don’t just rely on your existing insurer's offer. Use comparison sites to shop around the internet for the best deals out there. Make sure you read the small print and understand any exclusion clauses in each insurer's policy. Better still, engage a broker to do some of the work for you. Brokers tend to have relationships with the various insurers and can often, therefore, offer better discounts or special deals that you might not be able to get by buying directly.

 

Reapply with your existing insurer

It may seem odd, as most people would expect to be rewarded for loyalty, but many insurers reserve their best deals for brand new customers. Although this isn’t true of every insurance company, it is still worth going through the process of applying as a new customer through your current provider to make sure that you are getting the best deal they have on offer. The reason why so many insurers will not bother to extend their introductory offers to existing customers is that they stand to gain from your passivity.

 

Haggle

Whether you’re renewing with your existing insurer or using a comparison site to find the cheapest motorbike insurance, never accept the first quote. With a large number of operators in the market, competition is high and the laws of demand and supply are on your side. This means that you are in a great position to negotiate extra discounts. And if you can use competitive quotes you’ve found to drive your current insurer's renewal quote down, you may even save yourself the hassle of actually switching policy at all! If you are uncomfortable haggling, remember that these businesses are in it for the profit, and you won't be denying them their daily crust by simply asking for a discount.

 

Watch your mileage

Riders who rack up fewer miles per annum will find their premiums are lower. This is because, logically, if you aren’t taking your bike out on the road quite as much, the chances of you getting involved in an accident are lower. This, in turn, make you less of an insurance risk. Many people forget to check how many miles they have actually put on the clock come renewal time, meaning that their renewal quote ends up being based upon the insurer's default. If you are a very occasional biker, you could make significant savings by informing your insurance company of this fact.

 

Park securely

If you’re looking for the cheapest motorbike insurance and you are lucky enough to have a garage, use it. Many insurers will charge extra if your bike is not garaged at home whilst some companies go as far as refusing to insure these at all. According to motorcycle insurance specialists, Bennetts, you stand to save as much as 10% of your premium cost by securing your bike in a garage overnight. And if you don’t have a garage, considering keeping it your hallway if possible or at least using an insurer-approved anchor lock and an alarm to secure it outside the house.

 

Pay annually

As with most types of insurance, paying annually is a good way to make sure you benefit from the cheapest motorbike insurance premiums. Although spreading the cost by paying in monthly instalments may make the cost more bearable if you are on a budget, what you end up paying each month will be more than one twelfth of the quoted annual amount. This is because insurance companies will charge interest on top of your monthly payments as they are, in effect, offering you a loan that you are paying back over a year. According to online comparison site Money Supermarket, the average interest charged on motorbike insurance was in the region of 10%.

 

And if you’re new to motorcycles…

Choose your first bike carefully! It may seem like a great idea to buy a motorcycle with the most powerful engine available. Or to add modifications to your bike to make it stand out in a crowd, but doing any of these things will definitely drive up your insurance premiums. This is because heavily modified or extremely powerful expensive bikes are deemed to be more costly to repair or replace and can also be targeted by thieves. According to Confused, it is important to remember that apart from higher insurance premiums, many insurance companies will not cover a new rider on any of the more powerful bikes until they have gained some riding experience on smaller bikes.


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