Best insurer for new riders

[Milesprower]

any recommendations for insurers for new riders ?
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milesprower

[Ste]

There is no best. There's nothing to say that the cheapest insurance company for someone else will give an even vaguely competitive quote for you.

Put your details in price comparison sites, play around with all the variables and make no assumptions.

[Polarbear]

As Ste says, play around with the variables. Don't lie, just stretch the truth a little.

Take me, I never said I was in the merchant navy as they don't like that job for some reason, but an engineer in the oil industry seemed much more acceptable.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[arry]

Given your intention to buy a 125 then do your test, keep a close eye on a few things - namely, the size of the new business fee, the cancellation fee and their terms of business in respect of whether they get to keep all the commission made on the policy if you cancel. After that, you'll probably find the policy itself will be short period cancellation rates so the first month will cost you 20% or so of the premium and after 6 months you get nothing.

It's not uncommon for a motorcycle insurance intermediary to actually charge you to cancel your policy rather than give money back.

There is no guarantee that the policy you take out will be with an insurer that will cover you cheaply once you have passed your test. And yeah, there's been plenty of cases of people's premiums going UP when passing test, even on the same bike.

Best insurer? Depends on what you mean by best. Best won't always be cheapest. However, I have my Enfield with Bemoto and they were excellent in helping out when I was placing that. On my R Nine T I tried to use them but there was a significant premium difference of a couple of hundred quid and I didn't feel the need to like them that much.

[arry]

Given your intention to buy a 125 then do your test, keep a close eye on a few things - namely, the size of the new business fee, the cancellation fee and their terms of business in respect of whether they get to keep all the commission made on the policy if you cancel. After that, you'll probably find the policy itself will be short period cancellation rates so the first month will cost you 20% or so of the premium and after 6 months you get nothing.

It's not uncommon for a motorcycle insurance intermediary to actually charge you to cancel your policy rather than give money back.

There is no guarantee that the policy you take out will be with an insurer that will cover you cheaply once you have passed your test. And yeah, there's been plenty of cases of people's premiums going UP when passing test, even on the same bike.

Best insurer? Depends on what you mean by best. Best won't always be cheapest. However, I have my Enfield with Bemoto and they were excellent in helping out when I was placing that. On my R Nine T I tried to use them but there was a significant premium difference of a couple of hundred quid and I didn't feel the need to like them that much.

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Go through the comparison sites as suggested here :-

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/motorbike-insurance/

It's not a 5 minute exercise though.
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Chances are quite high you are not in my Monkeysphere, and I don't care about you. Don't take it personally.
Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[Riejufixing]

To add to this, consider the value of your bike versus the cost of insurance and the amount of any "excess" you have to pay, plus any increase in premium "next year" if you claim. It could be best to insure it third-party only, i.e. the insurance will pay out for other people should you damage them or their property, but it won't pay you if your bike is stolen/bursts into flames/you bend it. By the way, I have never found any insurer charge less for comprehensive cover than third-party, which I have occasionally heard can be true. Consider the options, bung details into a couple of insurance comparison sites, and call anyone that you know is not catered for by those sites. Sometimes if you "select insurer" direct from the comparison site, it can lead to a lower premium than going through the rigmarole on the insurer's site itself, which is bizarre.

[rpsmith79]

[arry]

[Riejufixing]

[Riejufixing]

[rpsmith79]

[Riejufixing]

I've just chucked some details at M/smkt. Proposer is: Married, Policeman, SW1A 2JL (New Scotland Yard), works in "pollution control", 35yrs, full car licence, no car, provisional m/c licence obtained 04/2005, 0 years NCD, start ins 1/Sep, bought M/C 04/2020, not disabled, insured only, no pillion, TPFT, SDP+commute, 5,000-5,999 miles/year, annual payments, 2018 YZF-R125, kept on driveway, £2,222 value.

Quote ref: 202008201019914 email: JohnDory@maildrop.cc (NOTE: no details are mine!) for https://www.moneysupermarket.com/motorbike-insurance/quote/Default.aspx
.
Cheapest quote is £523.99 for Third Party Only cover.

Cheapest MCE: Comp=£1061.44, TPFT=£787.30, TPO=£523.99

Note, this won't be the best insurance, which will be more expensive (up to about 6 times more!).

It should be possible to fiddle with the details in the quote and see what's what. There's a tab to switch Comp/TPFT/TPO, at least the first 10 are priced in that order.

That's not to say that when you used a comparison site there wasn't someting the matter with it, and it gave odd resuts.

[arry]

All results from price comparison sites are odd. Some of the rating factors / loadings / discounts and the position of those loadings in the cycle are hilarious. Then you've got the commission ceding and negative new business fees to consider.

[Riejufixing]

[Ayrton]

[Riejufixing]

[Milesprower]

I've decided not to buy a 125 in the end and take more lessons in between doing the das so will then aim at a bigger bike as a first bike .. As a driver I know about insurance and how it works etc, I guess I was wondering about those 'specialised motorcycle insurance' companies that pop up once google recognises that you're looking at bikes 😀
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milesprower

[Ste]

It's no mistake, it's that the big table of statistics says that for some profiles TPO policy holders cost the insurance company more than TPFT or fully comp policy holders do.

[arry]

[Riejufixing]

Hm, interesting. I too ran some details (similar to the motorbike quote above), and as an example got:

Quote Detective: Comp £1,487, TPFT=£1,278 , TPO=£1,278
Be Wiser: Comp=£2,235, TPFT=£2,215, TPO=£2,215.
Onecall: Comp=£2,346, TPFT=£2,346, TPO=£2,346

EDIT: RAC were actually significantly more, including excess, for TPO.

How very strange and interesting. I will give them a ring.

Edit: No can ring, online... "We aim to reply to you within one working day".

[Riejufixing]

[arry]

[Ste]

[Ayrton]