Thursday, February 7, 2013

Insurance blues $$



So here I sit in my office staring out the window looking at some watery sunshine and thinking 'do I or don't I?' Insurance on Scarlet expired on Sunday and I decided that I would try and make it through the short month of February by walking or taking the bus to and from work in an effort to make paying insurance a little more doable instead of it hitting right after Christmas when of course I am paying off my contribution to boost consumer confidence by spending my hard earned cashola at Christmas. 

The groundhog has said we are in for an early spring (not that I put much stock in rodents.  I don't know about you guys, but if I was a groundhog I would be pretty snarked at the dude who pulled me out of my burrow and flinging me about looking for my shadow to show or not.) I knew we were getting spring before he did, because our winter has been mild and blossoms & blooms are coming up everywhere.  Our temps are warming up and past February's have been pretty chilly.  This of course may be a fake out by Mother Nature or maybe not, particularly after the crappy summer she gave us last year. 

So what say you moto peeps?  Do I stick it out or should I buzz out and get insurance?  After all there is a long weekend coming up and I am seeing a little bit of sunny skies in the forecast.  Hmmm what to do?

8 comments:

The City Mouse in the Country said...

I'm not sure who you have or what you pay but I was not really given a choice. I could pay yearly or month by month. The yearly had a nice discount so I decided that made sense. Of course living in Florida the riding season is pretty much all year.

Unknown said...

Dar:

Of course I am of no help to you. I'll be thinking of you as I throttle down the road and leaning into the corners. I should have ridden to work today, it is so nice out there, but I was running late

You should really have a separate bike/car account. Put monthly amounts into it. Budget for insurance, maintenance and farkles. You pay equal amounts every month and when you need insurance $$, this is where it comes from

bob
Riding the Wet Coast

RichardM said...

I had heard that BC insurance rates are ridiculously high. Here there was no discount from all year to a portion of the year so I didn't see a reason not to leave it on all year. Is it about $100 per month in Victoria or more than that?

Dar said...

Robert - luckily you can pay for 3,6, or 12 months either lumpsum or monthly payments on the 6-12 months.

Bob - you are right, but unfortunately I have too many other expenses to have a bike account, my teenage seems to take all the excess cash. Have fun in the sun. I think I am going to tough it out until the beginning of March.

Richard - my 1985 Honda is $900 for the year and that is with my safe driver discount. If the bike was newer and more cc's and I didn't have the safe driver's discount I would be paying considerably more.

Unknown said...

Richard:

with ICBC, our insurance monopoly here, there are NO discounts for multiple vehicles. Every single vehicle you own you have to pay FULL rate, even if it sits there all day.

My strom is about $1,100. and my "R" is around $1,700. per year, that's why I am only going to insure that one only for the Summer.

There is a penalty applied for terms of less than a year.

bob
Riding the Wet Coast

Roger said...

I think you guys get ripped over there with your insurance, all seem s very high. I have just received my bill for both bikes, un limited mileage full year $990..covers both not each. That equates to about$800 Canadian for two bikes a year...

VStar Lady said...

Dar - sounds like your insurance is a little steep in BC. Our rates depend on training, years experience, ccs and class of bike (a 650 cc sport bike costs more to insure than a 650 cruiser). Lucky me, I've trained twice, am an old gal with several years (even born again) experience and ride a cruiser. My insurance is not as cheap as Rogers, but I'm embarrassed to tell you what it costs in light of your costs - and it just dropped dramatically as I no longer have full replacement on it (sadly, that means it's not new anymore as well.)

Dar said...

Bob. Is completely right about it being a monopoly. ICBC sucks wind!

Roger I wish we had cheaper insurance here, my hubby just insured our van andit was $800 and that is with their '42% safe driver discount' EGADS!!

Kathy - I have been driving for 25 years and am able to apply my safe driver discount on my bike and my training courses apparently count for 10 years of driving experience. Heaven forbid I ever want a bigger or newer bike, I could not afford it, so I will be sticking with my beautiful 500. What do you pay out in Ontario?