Bizarre Insurance

It pays to give your insurance broker a call each year and make sure you're paying the best rates available.  In my first year of insurance I went through the best insurance company for a starting rider and paid $1250 (this is in Ontario).  I called this week to make sure everything was in order and suddenly found my rates dropping by over $200.  

It turns out that Echelon Insurance has some strange ideas about how to judge your insurance rates.  According to them if you live in a rural area (with less people and less chance to run into them) you pay more in insurance.  You'd think that most insurance companies would consider urban and city areas more accident prone because, you know, they are, but Echelon doesn't.  If you live in a rural area (I know most people don't, but I happen to), then make sure you keep looking for alternatives to Echelon.

RidersPlus checked out alternatives for me and found Intact insurance doesn't have Echelon's bizarre logic when it comes to insuring motorcycles.  Suddenly I'm paying $1015 a year for insurance on the same bike because Intact doesn't work under the strange idea that riding alone in the country is somehow more dangerous than being surrounded by distracted drivers in the GTA.

It pays to check with your insurance broker each year as you renew your insurance.  Don't just renew, have a conversation.  That quick talk saved me a couple of hundred bucks this year.