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Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Near Hornsea,on the East Yorkshire coast
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|  Bike Insurance - Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert
I'm on his e-mail list as I'm sure some of you may be too. This is the fella who knows the ins and outs of most things involving money. You've possibly listened to him giving advice and info on the radio and TV.
This is his advice for motorcycle insurance. You can find all of this and other money stuff on his website, just type his name into a google search. Quote:
"It’s possible to grab quotes from scores of motorbike, moped and scooter insurers in minutes; saving you £100s. Yet it needs to be done carefully, many big name insurers think motorbike, moped and scooter insurance is risky and steer clear of it, leaving smaller companies to cover the market. Though follow this article and you’ll have an easy ride.
You can save even if you're not at renewal
If you're thinking, ‘my insurance renewal isn't for six months', you're playing into insurers' hands. Provided you haven't claimed, most allow policies to be cancelled with a full refund. So follow this plan to see the savings, then check whether there are any leaving penalties. If not, switch and save immediately; if so, do the sums, you may still save by switching, even with a penalty".
There are a few issues that are specifically for motorbike and scooter insurance.
* Age of riders. The cost of insurance jumps for those under 30, and even more for those under 21, meaning Third Party insurance is generally the most suitable cover for younger riders.
* Mileage. If you’re also a car driver, do beware you don’t overpay because you’ve overestimated your bike mileage. While many riders don’t use their motorbike as their main form of transport, they use their car mileage to estimate the bike mileage. Yet the average motorbike’s mileage is around 4000 a year.
* Security. Security is one of the biggest problems for motorbike owners. If you can keep your bike indoors or lock it to a proper bolt fixed to your wall you’ll get a cheaper quote. Yet even if you spend hundreds on a lock, it may not substantially reduce the quote price so balance its cost against the reduced risk.
* Protect your no claims. Whilst one claim free year on a car insurance policy will give you around 15-20% discount in your second year, for motorbikes this scoots up to 40%. Remember this whenever you’re considering claiming.
Beware monthly payment plans
Whoever you insure with, if it gives an option to 'pay monthly’, be careful. What usually happens is the insurer actually loans you the annual cost and charges you interest for the privilege. While occasional promotions are interest-free, usually the interest rates are hideous. So either pay it off in full, or if you can’t afford it in one go it's actually cheaper to pay with a 0% credit card for spending and make the same repayments to that.
As insurance prices depend on an individuals unique circumstances, there’s never one ‘cheapest’ provider. Therefore the key is to get the most quotes in the shortest amount of time.
Use screenscraping websites
Here you enter your details and their software automatically fills in the required info at a host of brokers and insurers websites, grabbing you a quote, literally ‘scraping the data off the screens'. It's a very quick and easy way to quickly cover a huge chunk of the marketplace in minutes.
* The Bike Insurer. This site started as a pure motorbike insurance comparison site and still gives the widest possible cover by scraping prices from 16 websites. Results are given for all three levels of cover so that you can choose which you want after seeing the price. Coverage: Quotes returned from 16 websites Link: TheBikeInsurer*
* Confused.com. Typically a car and home insurance site, Confused has expanded into the motorbike market. Doing this search as well as The Bike Insurer will include an extra 3 brokers to your search. Coverage: Quotes returned from 7 websites, 3 of which haven’t already been covered Link: Confused.com*
* GoCompare. Another expanding comparison site that has branched into the biking world. By adding GoCompare to the previous sites you’ll add another 2 brokers to your search. Coverage: Quotes returned from12 websites, 2 of which haven’t already been covered Link: GoCompare*
As screenscrapers need to enter your details with insurers to get a quote, be aware there's a slight chance you may get sales calls from the insurers later.
Is it worth using all three?
If you’re doing this you’ll need your paperwork anyway, so you may as well do all three searches as it doesn’t take that much longer. Between the three screenscrapers you get 21 sites covered; if you’re wondering how they make their money, they get a lead fee when you click through to a website for insurance; although this shouldn’t impact the quote you get.
While this isn't every insurer, it's certainly a good proportion. For total belt and braces, you could also check the big names these sites miss Norwich Union and brokers Bennetts* & Carole Nash.
What's the difference between screenscrapers & brokers?
My analogy for this is ‘buying bread'. Direct insurers are like bakers, thus your choice is simply to buy its cheapest loaf. Using a broker is like going to a supermarket; they stock a range of baker's loaves whose price depends on their relationship with the supplier. Screenscapers are like sending someone to speed round all the supermarkets and bakers to find the cheapest loaf of all of them.
This importantly means as screenscrapers include brokers websites, which in turn cover a range or insurers, they're actually covering a much wider range of the market than it may at first appear.
Using the above system should have found you a cheaper quote, yet if you’re a higher risk rider or just want to get a cheaper price you can probably save even more.
Check the policy details
Once you have your best quotes, take the top three results and click through to the providers' website to double check the prices and possibly play around with some of the policy details to see the impact on the price, e.g. the excess (the amount you pay towards each claim).
Hidden cashback may be available
A few insurers pay out cashback if you sign up to them via the specialist cashback shopping sites. This means you can sometimes sneak even more cash off. For more details on these sites read the Top Cashback Sites article. Not all insurers are included, and you should never choose an insurer just for the cashback, but if your cheapest does pay out, why not grab it.
Haggle
Although the motorbike insurance market is not as competitive as for cars, all companies are desperate to retain business. Once you’ve got a decent alternative price from a comparison website, get on the phone and try to haggle (unless cashback’s available, as that has to be via the net). There's usually massive price flexibility, but be fully armed with the cheapest quotes.
The first port of call should be your existing insurer: after all if it can beat or even match the best quote, it saves the hassle of switching policy. If that doesn’t work, take it to other insurers.
Cross-selling
If you already have car, house and travel insurance with a particular insurer, you could call it to check, if it provides motorbike insurance, whether it’ll give you a discount.
Consider pay as you go
If you need short term cover eBike* offers a Pay As You Go policy. This provides cover one month at a time and as long as you cancel before your monthly renewal date there are no cancellation charges. There is however a £6 per month admin charge which makes the cover more expensive than a standard policy if you’ll need insurance for more than 8 months in a year.
Don’t let your annual renewal policy catch you up and simply sign up for another year with the same insurer. If you apply for cover from your existing insurer as a new customer it’s likely you’ll be given a cheaper price. This is because motorbike insurers like any company will happily profit from apathy if they can. It’s for this reason renewal notifications are sent as near to renewal as possible; as then you’re pressured for time and less likely to try and find a cheaper price.
To avoid being forced to decide quickly, diarise a warning six weeks before your renewal date, so there’s plenty of time to sort out a new provider. Alternatively use the free Tart Alert which sends a reminder text or email (it's designed for 0% credit card end dates, but works just as well for insurance).
Using this system should save you time and money. For a single 30-year-old man based in Leicestershire, with a mid-range bike looking for comprehensive cover, one insurer was charging over £350. Using a broker the price was reduced to £270.
However, using the combined screenscraper system the best price found was £185 and that's without haggling. Using the complete system above can result in serious discounts.
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06-09-2008, 02:52 PM
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