Insurance

8 replies [Last post]
Tue, 17/01/2012 - 11:45
shuggiemac
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Dear all. I am working on a little idea/project as regards bike insurance and I would like to solicit the help of some of our erstwhile members.

I would like to ask if first of all we could get an idea of what countries this little safe place on t'interweb reaches.

I am in Czech Republic but would be interested to know is people from other places would be willing to help me out.

In a nutshell I want to find out how much bike insurance is in different countries, what type of policies are available, if possible what method the companies use to calculate their premiums, any restrictions in place and what you get for your money.

I know that we have contributors in blighty of course, USA, Australia but I am sure there are others - Spain, Germany, Denmark perhaps. If we can find out then I would send by email to those willing to help the specs of the machine(s) that I would like the data on and the other parameters. Once it is all collated and the excercise is over then I will let everyone know.

I hope that some of you will be willing to help and the more countries the merrier.

Thanks in advance

Shug

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Tue, 17/01/2012 - 11:46
#1
shuggiemac
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User offline. Last seen 13 hours 36 min ago. Offline
Joined: 23/11/2008
Re: Insurance

Dear all. I am working on a little idea/project as regards bike insurance and I would like to solicit the help of some of our erstwhile members.

I would like to ask if first of all we could get an idea of what countries this little safe place on t'interweb reaches.

I am in Czech Republic but would be interested to know if people from other places would be willing to help me out.

In a nutshell I want to find out how much bike insurance is in different countries, what type of policies are available, if possible what method the companies use to calculate their premiums, any restrictions in place and what you get for your money.

I know that we have contributors in blighty of course, USA, Australia but I am sure there are others - Spain, Germany, Denmark perhaps. If we can find out then I would send by email to those willing to help the specs of the machine(s) that I would like the data on and the other parameters. Once it is all collated and the excercise is over then I will let everyone know.

I hope that some of you will be willing to help and the more countries the merrier.

Thanks in advance

Shug

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Wed, 18/01/2012 - 11:57
#2
vroum_ninou
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Joined: 14/03/2010
Re: Insurance

Hi Shuggie,

Could you describe a little more what you would have us check in our various countries? How many bike models do you want to do? How many insurances should be checked for each model?

I'm ready to help but if it's 20 bikes across 10 different insurances, that would be little tedious and time consuming: a lot of form filling and a lot of time checking the difference in the various insurance offers (deductible, extra covers...)

Ninou

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Wed, 18/01/2012 - 12:11
#3
shuggiemac
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Re: Insurance

Hi Ninou,

Thanks for the reply - first one!

I understand that this could be time consuming and I also don't want to get too bogged down myself. I am thinking along the lines of using just two machines that are, hopefully, available new in all the countries that I can get a response from so I was thinking

1) Honda Fireblade
2) BMW F650GS

Both machines for the sole use of a 45 year old, married man, living in a metropolitan area, clean driving licence held for ten years and the machine secured at night. The basic premium is what I am interested in so zero no claims bonus.

I am not sure what optional policies each country has but as fully comprehensive for accident, fire, theft and third party is general then that is what I will base it on.

I am also interested to learn in general how the insurance works in different places. For example here they make no difference between if you live in the heart of the city or half way up a mountain, surrounded only by sheep. There is no such thing as a no claims bonus. Premiums are calculated as a percentage of the purchase cost of the machine. It is the machine that is insured and not tied to the rider. It is this and much more that I am interested to learn about.

Any and all insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Shug

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Wed, 18/01/2012 - 16:32
#4
roundincircles
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Re: Insurance

Shuggie. My insurance for a UK benign postcode has been £200/£250 for just about all my new bikes from Fireblade, MTS, K1600 OR WHATEVER even KTM 690 Duke. But on a multibike policy first bike £200 then each addition at £70.

I have a clean license, clean marriage and 2.5 clean kids ( flown the nest )Also I remember biking in the 60's.

It is very age and postcode sensitive in the UK.

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Wed, 18/01/2012 - 20:47
#5
shuggiemac
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Re: Insurance

RiC - that is a pretty good deal, in fact very good deal compared to here. I assume that this is a fully comp policy you are talking about?

I nearly dropped a brick a couple of years ago here when I went to re-insure my ST2. The only relevant information they wanted was how much it cost when new, which was about 8000 pounds in 1997 and they then calculate a premium based on that figure which came to about a thousand quid.

I want to get as much data from around the world that I can and then actually go to see the insurance people and challenge them on it.

I remember when I still lived in britain that we used to complain about insurance premiums but it is paradise compared to other places.

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Wed, 18/01/2012 - 21:05
#6
roundincircles
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Re: Insurance

Shuggie. The problem with Insurance is that you have to work at finding alternatives with insurance. It is hard work and time consuming.

At this time I am searching to insure a car and quotes came in at £3700 from 3 sources so you would conclude that is the market but now I have one at £1700 and you would conclude that is good value but not if I find one at £1000!

Get it? Pain in the .......

ps the difference between fully comp and TPFT is usually 5% for me....no brainer?

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Wed, 18/01/2012 - 22:16
#7
taylod
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Joined: 11/07/2011
Re: Insurance

Hey Shug; Over here in Canada, I am paying $801 canuc bucks or ~513GBP for my 2010 MTS (full comp, $1000.00 deductable). Last time I insured the ST2 (2001) in 2009 it was $562 or ~360GBP. There are deductions for having multiple policies with the same company ie: house, 2 cars, bikes, and life ins. As with RiC I have a healthy driving record, but only 2 kids, one still milking the comforts of home. I deal with State Farm here and they are supposed to be one of the cheapest to insure bikes with. However the X bought herself a new Subaru Outback when she departed, and found insurance rates $200 cheaper than State Farm.

It is a bit steep IMO as we really only have 7 months of decent riding weather, and you can't cancel and renew. Woke up this morning and its -31°C. We long for Spring Time.

Hope this helps your query. Dan

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Sun, 22/01/2012 - 00:39
#8
vroum_ninou
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Re: Insurance

shuggiemac wrote:

1) Honda Fireblade
2) BMW F650GS

Both machines for the sole use of a 45 year old, married man, living in a metropolitan area, clean driving licence held for ten years and the machine secured at night. The basic premium is what I am interested in so zero no claims bonus.

I could use one of those comparison sites for insurance and get you a range of prices for these 2 models for Spain and France if you want.
As an English speaker you should be able to do the same for most English speaking countries.

I'm not sure what you refer to by "basic premium" and "no claim bonus", although I guess the "no claim bonus" is the discount they give you after x years with no claims. This usually comes factored in the price since they ask you during the process how many claims you have had in the past x years.

shuggiemac wrote:

I am not sure what optional policies each country has but as fully comprehensive for accident, fire, theft and third party is general then that is what I will base it on.

There are usually 3 choices: Third party, Third party + theft + fire, and comprehensive.
Then you can have a choice of different deductibles on the 2 last ones and coverage amounts on the 3.

A few years ago you could only get third party on sports bikes in Spain. You could not even get theft! Fortunately, some French companies moved in and started offering the 3 options listed above, that had been offered for as long as I can remember in France. So the Spanish companies had to adjust and most of them are now offering these options on all bikes. Unfortunately that happened after my R1 was stolen...

shuggiemac wrote:

I am also interested to learn in general how the insurance works in different places. For example here they make no difference between if you live in the heart of the city or half way up a mountain, surrounded only by sheep. There is no such thing as a no claims bonus. Premiums are calculated as a percentage of the purchase cost of the machine. It is the machine that is insured and not tied to the rider. It is this and much more that I am interested to learn about.

Any and all insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Shug

Zip code definitely make a difference in price in all countries where I have had insurance on bike: France, Spain, USA. In all 3 they have the "no claim bonus" and "claim malus". In the US they even raise your premium just for getting tickets!
I know that in France some insurances will reimburse the price of a brand new bike if its stolen or totaled in the first 3 to 6 months.
I'm pretty sure that by law, it's the vehicle that's covered and not the owner, which means that anyone can ride the insured bike and it will have at least third party coverage. I know this is the case in France and I would not be surprised if it was the case at the European level. Even though some policies are offered as "single rider" there is at least third party coverage for the bike whomever the rider. But they will usually apply a deductible if the bike was ridden by another rider than the one listed on the "single rider" policy.

I don't know if that is the kind of info you were looking for...

Ninou

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