Motorcycle Insurance Articles
Riding History And Its Impact On Motorcycle Insurance Premiums
2010-09-13
Motorcycle insurance costs can suddenly increase or decrease depending on a bike owner's actions. Riding history makes it much easier for insurance companies to determine which motorcycle owners are safe and which riders may be dangerous, so it's always used in quote calculation. This is why it's important to ride carefully and keep tickets and accidents off of your record whenever possible. Knowing exactly how your riding history affects your costs can be very helpful, particularly for motorcycle owners who are looking for new insurance quotes.
States require insurance providers to explain how rates increase when a motorcycle owner is involved in an accident. The charts that insurance companies provide with your initial paperwork can be valuable for figuring out exactly how incidents on your riding history figure in to your premiums. However, they're intentionally written in a confusing manner, so this may not be the case depending on which insurance provider you use. You can generally assume that something like a traffic ticket will increase your monthly motorcycle insurance costs by somewhere around 20-30%, with additional tickets tacking on further costs. Needless to say, this means that a riding history full of traffic citations will result in extremely high rates. Accidents can also increase your costs, although the extent of the increase in premiums will depend on many factors. These include the size of the claim, whether or not the policy owner was at fault, and the laws of the state where the accident occurred.
To keep the cost of your bike's coverage down, you should try to keep your riding history free of incidents. If you're involved in an accident or if you receive a traffic citation, consult an auto law attorney for advice. You may be able to take a special defensive driving course. This can keep your rates low, even after the incident is reported to your motorcycle insurance agency.
You can also take advantage of the competitive nature of online motorcycle insurance. Get a few quotes for comparison, and if you find a quote that's lower than your current policy, use it to negotiate for a better rate. Even if you have a few blemishes on your riding record, your insurer will want to keep you as a client, and they'll likely meet or even beat the lower quote. Motorcycle owners with extremely bad histories should simply ride carefully and wait. An incident will disappear from your riding history after a few years, at least from your insurance company's point of view. This will allow your rates to sink back down to a reasonable level.