Scooter Insurance

As with car, van and motorbike insurance, there are three different levels of scooter insurance to choose from. These are:

Comprehensive – Comprehensive scooter insurance provides the highest level of cover you can obtain in the UK. It incorporates all the cover provided under a Third Party, Fire & Theft policy, but also includes repair or replacement cover in the event that your scooter is damaged in an at-fault accident.

Third Party, Fire & Theft – Third Party, Fire & Theft scooter insurance includes the same cover as you’d find under a Third Party Only policy, but also incorporates fire and theft cover. So, if your scooter is damaged or destroyed as a result, you will be able to claim for costs associated with the repair or replacement. If your scooter is stolen and unrecoverable, it will cover the cost of a replacement.

Third Party Only – Third Party Only scooter insurance provides cover that meets the minimum legal requirement for riding a scooter on the road in the UK. It covers repair or replacements costs if you’re at-fault in an accident where a third party vehicle is damaged or destroyed, along with medical expenses to cover the cost of treating injuries sustained by third parties. However, it doesn’t provide cover for the cost of repairing or replacing your scooter.

Aside from the basic cover that is provided under a scooter insurance policy, some insurance providers include added benefits while others offer them in the form of add-ons for a small additional cost. These tend to include:

Driving other scooters – Some scooter insurance providers automatically provide cover for you to drive other scooters. However, a number of terms and restrictions will likely apply. For example, some insurance providers impose restrictions on the type and power of scooter that you can drive and the level of cover will almost certainly be restricted to Third Party Only.

International cover – International cover is offered by almost all scooter insurance providers. However, it won’t necessarily be automatically added to your policy and you should therefore check before travelling. It’s also important to note that some restrictions will apply and an additional cost may be incurred. The exception to this is European cover, which comes as standard across our panel of scooter insurance providers.

Helmet and leathers – Most scooter insurance providers offer helmet and leathers cover as an add-on for an additional cost. It’s worth noting that this type of cover will often also come with its own excess, in addition to any excess that might apply to claims made under the main policy.

Just like car, van and bike insurance, scooter insurance is a legal requirement in accordance with the Road Traffic Act of 1998, the only exception being if your scooter is SORN (in other words; registered as not being in use).

Before you can ride a scooter or a moped on the road, you’ll need to have applied for and received your provisional driving licence and completed your Compulsory Basic Training (CBT), you can do so from the age of 16. Meanwhile, if you have a full car licence, you’ll automatically have provisional entitlement to drive a scooter, but will still need to complete your CBT.

Once complete, your CBT lasts for two years and enables you to ride a scooter up to 50cc if you’re aged 16 and up to 125cc if you’re aged 17 or over. In both cases you must have L plates and are prohibited from riding on the motorway and carrying a pillion passenger.

To obtain a full licence, you’ll need to pass a theory test and two additional practical tests (on-road and off-road). If your CBT runs out before you pass, you can retake it in order to allow you to continue riding on your provisional licence. For more information, visit GOV.UK.

With a few exceptions such as zero emissions vehicles, if you drive or ride on the road you will need to pay your way in road tax. The good news is that taxing a scooter can work out considerably cheaper than taxing a car. For example, taxing a scooter with a power rating of up to 150cc will cost you just £20 for 12 months.

To the untrained eye, scooters and mopeds might look very similar, if not identical, but there are some key differences that you should be aware of:

Mopeds – Mopeds have a power rating of 50cc or under and are essentially low-powered scooters. They can be ridden by anyone over the age of 16, typically have bigger wheels and are often cheaper to buy and insure than scooters as a result of their reduced power outputs.

Scooters – Scooters range in power from 50cc right up to 125cc and can only be driven by those over the age of 17. They typically have smaller wheels than mopeds and are generally more expensive to buy and insure given their increased power outputs.

Go for a moped rather than a scooter - Power wise, mopeds are only rated up to 50cc in comparison to scooters which can be rated up to 125cc and as a result are often cheaper to buy and cheaper to insure.

Transfer your No Claims Discount (NCD) - If you’ve already earned a scooter NCD on another policy, most insurance providers will allow you to transfer it across to take advantage of huge discounts. However, in order to do this, your NCD must not remain in use on another insurance policy.

Compare scooter insurance quotes - The only way you will ever know if the price you’ve been quoted for scooter insurance is competitive is to compare it against quotes from other insurance providers. That’s what we do at One Call insurance, we gather your details and scour our panel to find you the right cover at the best price, it’s quick, simple, hassle free, and could save you a small fortune.

Don’t purchase your scooter policy at the very last minute – Purchasing your scooter insurance policy right at the last minute isn’t going to do you any favours from a pricing perspective. Some insurers load the price of their policies, making them more expensive when the start date falls within a few days of when you obtain the quote, compared to when the start date is a few weeks away, for example. With this in mind, it makes sense to purchase your policy a couple of weeks or so before the start date.

An unrated insurer is an insurer that does not carry an insurer financial strength rating given by international rating agencies, such as Standard and Poor’s 500 index (S&), Moody’s, Fitch Ratings and A.M. Best. An insurer financial strength rating ‘provides an assessment of the financial strength of an insurance organisation’ and its ability to pay claims to its policyholders.

Each agency has its own methodology, but ratings are usually organised on a scale based on letter grades to indicate the degree of credit risk. For example, an ‘A’ rating means that the insurers have an excellent ability to pay out claims, while a ‘C’ rating means that the insurer has a weak ability to pay out claims.

Some unrated insurers have been trading in the United Kingdom for many years, and so failure is not seen as likely, but this is not any sort of guarantee and such firms can fail given the appropriate combination of circumstances. However, just because an insurer is rated does not mean they cannot get into difficulty.

• Unrated insurers may be based overseas and outside the influence of UK regulation. The home state regulation they are subject to may be less intrusive, less rigorous or a lighter touch than that of the UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) / Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
• In the event of an overseas insurer failing, claims may have to be directed to an overseas equivalent of the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), and this may bring delays in dealing with the claim.
• Unrated insurers lack independent corroboration of the quality of their current financial stability. As your Insurance Broker, we carry out monthly due diligence checks on our entire panel of insurers, Underwriting Agencies & Managing General Agents and the underlying insurance provider. We are confident in the panel we choose to do business with.

• You may only be able to source cover from an unrated insurer due to your particular circumstances
• They may offer comparably lower prices than an alternative rated insurer
• There is no legal requirement for an insurer to be rated; brokers are not obligated to restrict placing business with rated insurers only