"Scooters cost more to insure"?

Apparently I messed up on the VIN number when I got my quote from Progressive Insurance. I put a "Z" when I should have put "2".

I called them and fixed the problem today, and was VERY unpleasantly surprised to find out that my monthly premium went up by $30!

The Progressive guy told me that "scooters cost more to insure than motorcycles."

Anybody heard that one before? It sounds fishy to me, to say the least.

My Silverwing costs $105.00 per year to insure. Pennsylvania titles it as a "Motorcycle". I do not know why you pay so much unless it is your location.

My wife just added the Swing to our insurance policy and it was $59 a year.

Insurance is as individual as underwear.

Age, gender, locale, year, make, model, driving history, number of riders/drivers on the policy, insurance history, number of policies with insurance company, credit history, I could go on...

I do think scooters may cost more to insure, for some, than if they had a motorcycle as there is all that plastic that can easily break. On the other hand because of all of those variables insuring a scooter may cost some less.

No one size fits all in this case.

I pay a 170 dollars a year with Progressive and that is full coverage with towing in Tx.

Progressive is charging me over $80 per MONTH. Clearly something is amiss. I'm old, married and boring.

The guy on the phone had no idea what a "Silverwing" is. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea of a 600 cc scooter.

I seriously doubt they could have an unusually high loss ratio in Utah. We're dead average for accident stats.

Weird.

By the way: Geico refused to accept me at ANY price.

I'm completely mystified.

Best so far MCE with Legal and Breakdown £91.68 ($152) £300 excess or Ebike £117 with £175 excess

Cheapest so far without breakdown or Legal is Swinton £72.99.($122) £300 excess

I'm 55 live in a safe area, bike garaged at night, have 5 year NCB (No Claims Bonus) and have an SP30 (Speeding endorsement in excess of 30 MPH on a regulated road)

Do you guys have monthly insurance in the states? I pay £15 a month with Ebike and I tend to only ride in the summer because of our wet winters.

mickey wrote:

Progressive is charging me over $80 per MONTH. Clearly something is amiss. I'm old, married and boring.

The guy on the phone had no idea what a "Silverwing" is. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea of a 600 cc scooter.

I seriously doubt they could have an unusually high loss ratio in Utah. We're dead average for accident stats.

Weird.

Mickey,
I was shopping around last month and got a quote from Progressive. $24/mo. I just got my renewal from American Family. $17/mo. I live in Utah, Weber county.

You are right - something is amiss.

You guys should'nt complain. It costs me about $530 per year in Winnipeg, Canada for my 06 Wing. Going up by 25% next year. I'm not complaining because a Goldwing is close to $2000 per year and a Harley even more. Motorcycle insurance is very expensive here.

mickey wrote:

By the way: Geico refused to accept me at ANY price.

I'm completely mystified.

Something's not right. I have a Geico insurance and they just a bit cheaper than Progressive. I pay $150/year with very good full coverage with roadside assistance.

Now, tell us please, is your license revoked? Did you have 3 DYIs this month?

I live in Northern California and have a clean driving record and no claims. My first Silverwing cost $278 annually through Progressive Ins in 2006. They wanted double that the following year so I switched to Geico Ins. Geico is costing me $274 this year (I pay annually). But I'm sure that the premium will increase this next time.

Tony M
Rio Vista CA

I have a motorcycle endorsement. 1 chargeable accident in a quarter century of driving. (Demolished my 06 Honda Civic.) No revocations, no drunk driving, 1 speeding ticket in recent years.

Nothing exciting.

I'm going to have a serious heart-to-heart talk with them. This doesn't make any sense.

I think it is only about a hundred to add my Silverwing onto our insurance. I've never had a claim all these years...

Mickey .. when you visited the Insurance agency, did you take your sniper rifle with scope? Try leaving that at home next agent you talk to....
Even Tinker Bell can get insurance...

:fairy: :fairy: :fairy:

Gary

mickey wrote:

Progressive is charging me over $80 per MONTH. Clearly something is amiss. I'm old, married and boring.

The guy on the phone had no idea what a "Silverwing" is. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea of a 600 cc scooter.

I seriously doubt they could have an unusually high loss ratio in Utah. We're dead average for accident stats.

Weird.

Holy cow, I have Progressive on my Silverwing, and its only $130 per year. In New Jersey, one of the most expensive states to get insurance in.

I think your agent had no clue. Did you try setting it all up on line? I did mine that way, and had zero issues.

Wow, you must have the value of your SW at some outrageous amount. I'm only carrying 1/2 million liability on mine and it runs less than $100 a year. My Reflex also has 1/2 million liability and it runs around $75 a year. Something is amiss. You need to go to another Progressive agent and find out what the heck is going on and cancel the present policy and buy a new one from an agent with sense. God, my old $60,000 1953 Cessna 180 airplane with $1 million liability and full hull coverage ground and flight with no deductible only runs about $1100 a year. That guy saw you coming, I think. I could believe $180 a year, but a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Half million liability. $500 deductible. Set it all up online. I just don't get it.

I pay $278 a year with progressive on my 2008 Swing. I have a $1,000 deductable. For that deductable I think I'm a little high. But at $80 per month something is wrong. I live in Northwestern Ohio. The 2008 Harley Electra Glide I owned before the Swing cost $378 a year with Progressive. I would've thought I would have done better than a $100 reduction moving to the Swing.

Just so we're comparing apples to apples: I have full coverage.

Geico. Full coverage w/ emergency assistance. 250/500 coverage. $150/year.

My coverage doesn't include collision. If I add collision w/500 deductible, the price only goes up $77/year, so $128/year up to $205/year. I think they made an error, and/or your record is having a big impact on the policy. =(

Well, here's where I'm at now:

I wrote an email to Progressive asking them to explain. I got back a really stupid response that simply paraphrased everything I'd said to THEM, and then listed several of the general criteria their computers look at to determine premiums, blah, blah, blah. No help.

So I called and talked to an actual person. As usually, the Progressive person was very polite. Unlike the polite IDIOT who told me that "scooters cost more to insure" this new lady made no such claim. Instead, she looked at my policy in detail and discussed it with me.

I decided to raise my deductibles to 1000/1000. I'd never do that with a car, but with a motorcycle I now realize it's pretty difficult to do that much damage to it without dying in the process. $500 will fix a lot of bike, so there's probably no reason to keep the deductibles that low.

I also dropped by medical coverage, since I have medical insurance already. I never thought of that! Why pay twice for the same thing?

The net result was I reduced my monthly premium from $80 down to $60. That's better than a sharp stick in the eye, but still awfully expensive if you ask me.

I have a "chargeable accident" and a speeding ticket on my record. The accident will disappear in November of this year. I asked her to run the numbers without the accident to see how much my premium will be reduced. Answer: None. They're not even charging me extra for it. So much for that theory.

So I'm still mystified, but at least I knocked 25% off the premium.

Update: I got offered a policy from Geico today (the same guys who rejected me the first time around) for $200 per year LESS than the latest Progressive offer.

I'm going to take it, needless to say. I like Progressive's service, but it's not worth the extra money.

By the way: I feel like a complete tool. The monthly premiums I've been talking about are for SIX MONTHS, but the policy is good for ONE YEAR. Duh.

Geico is offering full coverage for $455 per year. Still high, but a big improvement.

In Manitoba motor cycles are way higher than scooters I pay $500.00
a 600 cc motor cycle would be $1500.00 . just goes to show they can do what ever they want .

That doesn't sound right. GEICO charges me a bit less on my SW than on my Goldwing. I don't carry collision or comprehensive on either of them since they are far from new and I'm willing to take the risk. The price I just paid for a year for BOTH bikes was $179. Previously I was paying $233 per year for the Goldwing alone. The big difference is now that the '93 GW has over 130,000 miles on it I decided to drop the collision and comprehensive coverage.

Wow that is cheap at that rate I would keep the coverage .