This is where you can save a lot of money. Insurance excess is simply how the industry relieves itself of the more trivial and frivolous claims. So, if you're riding a Vincent Twin, you certainly want the overall value of the bike covered. But if you bend the forks one day, you might be happy dealing with all, or some, of that yourself. Therefore, you agree to pay the first £500 of any claim. And for a motorcycle, that's a significant excess. Of course, fixing the forks might cost £1,000. Nevertheless, your insurer is liable only for half, and they'll probably be happy to pay seeing as you're taking direct responsibility for the rest of the money. And that should be reflected in your premium. So, talk about the excess only AFTER you've got a basic quote. Not before. Then ask the telephone sales staff to rework the numbers based on differing excess estimates, be it £50, £100, £250, or whatever the top excess is. Sometimes there's not much difference between the excesses. Yes, it sounds as dumb as communism to buy insurance only to pay for your own damages. Alternately, you can simply pay higher premiums if you feel bad enough about it. Our advice is to take on as much excess as you can reasonably afford. Maybe you should even invest that £500 or whatever in some short term (and sensible) scheme. But you'll need to factor this excess offer into any other relevant information you get from your broker. Note that they might ask you to volunteer an excess, or they might not. Either way, you need to check what's going down. And remember that your excess is tied up with your no-claims bonus. In other words, if you don't make a claim, you'll take the full hit (cashwise) for any smaller incident. But if you expect your underwriter to pay its share, your no-claims bonus will suffer, unless you've got it protected by another layer of cover. Insurance within insurance. One way or the other, the industry has us all covered. ◄ PREVIOUS PAGE NEXT PAGE ► [Back to main Motorcycle Insurance feature...] | 
