Insurance Corner: Save it for the big losses

A man called about two weeks ago raging because his insurance rates on his motorcycle went sky high. He wanted to know what I could do to help him.

I asked him if he recently had any accidents or tickets, and he told me that he had an accident on his motorcycle, but no one else was involved, and no ticket had been issued. He had actually run into a ditch to avoid being hit by a car.

My next question was, “Did your insurance company pay for the damages to fix your bike?” He really flipped when I told him that unless the car had made contact with his bike, it was considered to be an at-fault accident, and that claim would affect his insurance rates on both his motorcycle and his automobile…. for the next three years.

My recommendation to all riders is the following: Anytime you do damage to your bike, find out how much it would cost to repair your bike. You might want to get a couple of estimates. Take into consideration that you will have a deductible.

Unless the damage is major, you might want to pay for the repairs yourself. Contrary to what people think, insurance is not a maintenance policy. It’s there to help you recover from the big losses