The nickname of Virginia is ‘The Mother of Presidents’, because eight Presidents have been born there. But it may as well be called ‘The Forest State’ as well, because 65% of the land area of Virginia is covered by forest.
It is surely a beautiful thing to ride a motorcycle between Virginia Beach and Norfolk, or head on over to Chesapeake, Richmond or Newport News on your bike. One thing is for sure though, and that is that if you want to ride your motorcycle in Virginia you are going to have to get some Virginia Motorcycle Insurance so that you can properly protect yourself against accidents and mishaps.
In this article I am going to be talking in detail about Virginia Motorcycle Insurance and both what the state specifically expects you to have in the way of insurance, and also the more general considerations that you should bear in mind before buying it.
What are the state minimums for Virginia Motorcycle Insurance?
The state of Virginia lays down specific requirements for motorcycle insurance in the areas of liability cover and also personal property liability.
These are as follows:
$25,000 – Personal injury liability for one person
$50,000 – Personal injury liability for one accident
$25,000 – Property damage liability
These are more commonly referred to as 25/50/25 cover.
Are the Virginia Motorcycle Insurance state minimums adequate?
The question of whether the Virginia state minimums for motorcycle insurance are high enough is important because it raises the question of exactly how much insurance you really need as a motorcyclist, and also the types of cover that you should get.
The first thing that you should bear in mind is that these are minimum requirements, and are not necessarily what you should actually get. They are simply the state of Virginia intervening to make sure that their 8,001,024 residents (as of 2010) have some clear guidelines about the absolute minimum insurance that they need to get in order to ride legally.
In order to be properly protected you really need to consider raising these minimal levels quite considerably, because although a minimum requirement of 25/50/25 cover is probably the most common amongst the states, there are several states that are much higher (Maine is 50/100/25 for example) and so you do have to ask yourself why some states have minimums that are much higher?
The answer most likely is that those states are approaching the issue more clearly from the angle of what constitutes good cover, and not merely from the idea that residents should have basic levels of cover.
Other areas of cover that you should consider are Comprehensive Virginia Motorcycle Insurance and also Uninsured Driver Cover.
The reason that these two are so important is because a basic liability policy does not protect you against theft, vandalism or storm damage. And so you should look into a comprehensive, full-coverage Virginia Motorcycle Insurance policy in order to add those elements to your policy.
Motorcycle thefts are much more common then you may realise and so it is important that you take steps not to be a victim, but instead actively take out cover that properly protects you.
You should also consider this if you have a high performance or expensive motorcycle, because the differences in cost between the bigger bikes and the smaller ones can be immense.
Uninsured Driver cover can be thought of as kind of like an insurance policy for your insurance policy! It kicks in if you are in an accident and the driver of the vehicle did not have any cover.
In that situation normally you would be in all kinds of problems, and your energies would be spent figuring out how to pay the bills generated from an accident, rather than recovering from it.
But if you have Uninsured Motorist Cover, or its close cousin Underinsured Motorist cover (which is the same principal except for the fact that the other driver has some cover, but not enough to cover the cost of the accident); then your own Virginia Motorcycle Insurance would step in to make good.
(Remember that you can also check out Virginia Motorcycle Insurance requirements on the Virginia Insurance Department's website.)
Some additional aspects of buying Virginia Motorcycle Insurance could also include your driving record, your age and your credit record, which are all factors that the Motorcycle Insurance Companies in Virginia consider when they are deciding how much they should charge you in the way of premiums.
At the end of the day the best way to really get to grips with what is available is to get a selection of affordable Virginia Motorcycle Insurance Quotes and then compare what the different policies offer. This will allow you to see the difference that adding in certain types of cover will add to the overall cost, and also which companies offer the best value for money.
The answer most likely is that those states are approaching the issue more clearly from the angle of what constitutes good cover, and not merely from the idea that residents should have basic levels of cover.
