Motorbike Insurance Excess An excess is your contribution towards any claim. Let's say you have a claim for accidental damage, and your accidental damage excess is £100. If the cost of the claim is £500 you will contribute the first £100 of the claim leaving your insurance company to pay the remaining £400 (£500 claim minus £100 (your excess) leaves £400 outstanding). It goes without saying that if you have a £100 excess and your claim is worth less than £100 then there is little point approaching your insurer as your excess would cover the total damage cost. If this page does not give you required Information please Click here Compulsory excess Along with any voluntary excess you may have selected, you may be asked to pay a compulsory excess towards any claim on your insurance policy. Compulsory excesses will more than likely be found on policies where there is a young rider or a high value motorcycle. Voluntary excesses When you take out a policy with an insurance company you will have the opportunity to contribute towards any claim. While you may think this is identical to a compulsory excess, a voluntary excess is the amount you agree to contribute on top of your compulsory excess. Let's say you choose to have a £150 voluntary excess on your policy, the policy itself may already have a £350 compulsory excess so dependant on what type of claim you have, you may find your total excess payable is £500. The benefit of a voluntary excess is that generally the more you agree to pay towards a potential claim the cheaper the premium will be - however you need to look at the savings carefully. On the other side of the coin, it may cost you £300 to insure your £10,000 car, and you are offered a £50 reduction if you forego choose a £250 voluntary excess. This is £250 you could be paying instead of £50. All in all, you need to weigh up the final cost to you. Pay a higher excess and get a cheaper premium, but risk paying more if you need to claim; or pay a lower excess with a higher premium and have less to pay if you make a claim. Only you can decide what is right for you.