A Guide to Motorcycle Insurance in West Virginia (WV)
The mountains of West Virginia are the stuff of legend, and also of the state’s official nickname, ‘The Mountain State’, and so it is no surprise that West Virginia is known as a rugged state with a love of the outdoors, and motorcycling is a very popular pastime. Before you set out on the roads of Charleston, Huntington, Parkersburg, Morgantown or Wheeling you need to make sure that you have got some cheap, but comprehensive West Virginia Motorcycle Insurance that can protect you.
In this article I will look at West Virginia Motorcycle Insurance, the state’s minimum requirements that they set down for cover, and exactly what you should consider before finally buying a policy.
What are the minimum legal requirements for West Virginia Motorcycle Insurance?
There are some minimum legal requirements that the state lays down if you want to motorcycle insurance in West Virginia.
These are as follows:
$20,000 – Personal injury liability for one person
$40,000 – Personal injury liability cover for one accident
$10,000 – Property Damage liability cover
These are normally given the shorthand of 20/40/10 cover.
Are the West Virginia Motorcycle Insurance Minimums adequate?
It is reasonable to consider whether the minimum legal requirements that the state lays down are actually sufficient, because at the end of the day if you have an accident then you want to know that you would have enough protection in place. And the fact is that you won’t be thinking at that time of the few dollars you saved by getting inferior West Virginia Motorcycle Insurance, you will instead be thinking about whether or not your policy has sufficient cover to pay out.
The reality is that the minimum requirements are pretty low even by state minimum standards, as most other states would have 25/50/25 levels of cover as the minimums. So by those standards they fall short by quite some considerable margin.
Additionally, the state standards are low in any case, and are designed to be a safety net only, and not a very big safety net at that. So you need to make sure that you aren’t leaving yourself short.
One of the best ways to do this is to get a variety of different West Virginia Motorcycle Insurance Quotes right now, and then spend some time carefully going over the different potential policies and seeing what they have in common and what are some of the ways that they differ.
Sometimes you can learn as much from the differences between policies as you can from the ways they are the same, and because these are real-world products that the West Virginia Motorcycle Insurance Companies actually DO want to sell you, you can very quickly gauge the types of cover that you can afford and those that you cannot.
Inevitably, insurance cover is as much about your budget as it is about the levels of cover that you would ideally desire, because at the end of the day all of us would like to get as much cover as possible, but for the minimum amount of money possible. And so you need an idea about what it is really going to cost you, before you can make a proper analysis, and subsequent decision about the features of the policy that you would regard as essential, and those that you are willing to forego.
Some of the other areas of cover that you can consider adding on to the basic liability cover and property damage liability cover that are standard are:
Comprehensive West Virginia Motorcycle Insurance – A fuller coverage policy like this would also include cover for theft, storm damage, fire damage and vandalism. So that if your bike was damaged in any of these ways, or was stolen, then you would be recompensed.
You may decide that you don’t actually need this type of cover, perhaps because your bike is relatively cheap to replace, and it simply isn’t economic to pay the cost of the premium to be covered for theft.
But on the flip side you may have a very expensive performance motorcycle, and so are genuinely concerned that when you park it in Charleston or Huntington and leave it unattended, that there is a very real risk of it getting stolen.
In that case you may decide that paying the extra premium is a good decision to make and that it makes economic sense.
Uninsured Driver/Underinsured Driver Cover – These types of policies cover you in the event that the other driver either doesn’t have enough insurance, or else doesn’t have any insurance. This is a big deal because approximately 15% of all the drivers on the roads are driving around with inadequate insurance, and if you happen to have an accident with one of these drivers (which is after all a one in six chance); then you are going to face financial problems. You can alleviate having to think about that by getting this extra cover.
(You can alway check legal requirements for West Virginia Motorcycle Insurance at the West Virginia Insurance Departments website.)
At the end of the day getting cheap West Virginia Motorcycle Insurance that really delivers is going to involve you in some shopping around for West Virginia Motorcycle Insurance Quotes and really comparing what is on offer thoroughly; and if you do that and pay attention to not only the similarities between the policies, but also the differences, then there is no reason why you cannot end up with a policy that really leaves you feeling safe and secure as you ride your motorcycle around West Virginia.
Inevitably, insurance cover is as much about your budget as it is about the levels of cover that you would ideally desire, because at the end of the day all of us would like to get as much cover as possible, but for the minimum amount of money possible. And so you need an idea about what it is really going to cost you, before you can make a proper analysis, and subsequent decision about the features of the policy that you would regard as essential, and those that you are willing to forego.
