USA motorbike insurance
So we are off on our travels to the USA to look at options for launching a motorbike insurance price comparison website over there.
The market over there seems very different to here. USA motorbike insurance is generally administered by a few motorbike insurance companies who sell directly, rather than having the broker market as we have in this country. There are benefits and downsides to this method of working and Im going to show below the differences between USA motorbike insurance and UK motorbike insurance from a buying perspective;
UK motorbike insurance:
So in the UK there are only a couple of direct to consumer insurers, Ebike and Norwich Union, both of which only really target a really small sector of the bike market, meaning they are usually uncompetitive for the masses.
Instead what we have is 8-10 insurance companies, and you have probably heard of some of them including ERS, Zenith, Groupama, Highway, Markerstudy and a few more. These insurance companies then distribute their insurance products via a network of insurance brokers, and you see these advertising on the web or in MCN for example.
What usually happens is that the insurance company start off with one base product and then modify it accordingly for brokers that are looking to target specific areas of the market. So for example if broker A goes to Zenith and asks for a discount for riders of Honda bikes because they have a deal with Honda to replace bikes at a discount in the event of a claim then the insurer may tweak their rates for Honda riders to broker A but because broker B does not have this facility with Honda then their rates will be more expensive. This is the reason that you see big differences between brokers on a price comparison website when the insurer is the same.
Ultimately, the UK way of working provides more competition and reduces prices as brokers get more discounts from insurers and pass them onto the end user.
USA motorbike insurance:
The insurance companies sell direct to the public and therefore dont have lots of brokers trying to get a differential between their rates and those of a competitor. The big brands for insurance in the USA are State Farm, Geico and Allstate.
The brands are reliant upon their brand marketing to bring customers through the doors, rather than majoring on the price benefits.
We believe that we can change the way USA motorbike insurance is sold over there by replicating our price comparison model from the UK and introducing competition for the insurers by focusing on the price and benefits of the policy.
We will keep you informed as we find out more. As The Bike Insurer is the biggest introducer of bike insurance in the UK by a long way, we really feel its a great time to go and do exactly the same thing in the USA. Riders want to save money all over the World and thats exactly what we do!
Article by Dan
