Is My Bike Insured?

How to check if your motorbike is insured

It can be easy to forget if your bike is insured, or remember when your policy runs out – especially considering the seasonal nature of biking and relatively low use for many bikers.

It's a legal requirement to ensure you and your motorbike are insured to ride on the roads or in a public place at all times.

If there's any doubt whether you are insured to ride, you'll need to check your motorbike insurance.

You can check the validity and status of your bike insurance by looking over the policy documents your broker will have sent when you bought your bike insurance. The certificate of insurance will show the time and date your policy started, and when the cover ends. You will either have been sent this in the post, by email, or both.

Many brokers now have online portals where you can view all your documents and check the expiration date of your policy.

Alternatively, do it the old-fashioned way. Give your broker a call!

But I can't remember which motorbike company i'm insured with.

If you’re asking the question “is my motorbike insured?” then you probably can’t find your insurance documents, or maybe even remember who you’re insured with. Maybe it’s the first dry sunny day of the year and you just need confirmation that you’re insured. You can’t remember whether you renew in March or May, but you’ll check the finer points and dig out the paperwork when you’ve finished that first ride.

If you can't remember who your bike insurance is with, try checking:

• The Bank: - Find larger transactions from the last 12 or more months in your online banking account or app.
• Your Email: - Search your email using terms such as "renewal", "motorbike/motorcycle/bike insurance" or even just "insurance".

Whatever your reasons for checking, there is an easy way to verify the status of your motorcycle insurance online – and best of all, it’s completely free.

How?

Simply visit askMID's insurance checker with your bike’s registration number.

If your bike is insured, you're OK to ride (but read the limitations first below). If you're not insured, you'll need to get covered:

How to use the motorbike insurance checker

• Go to askmid.com and check the insurance status of your bike by entering your registration number into the yellow box.

• Tick the box confirming you have read and understood the data protection declaration.

• Discover the insurance status of your motorbike.

When you run the motorbike insurance check, you'll get one of two possible results:

Limitations of the bike insurance checking service

By ticking “I understand” to the data protection declaration, you will be confirming that you’re entitled to the insurance status information of the bike you are checking.

This means that the bike either has to be owned, registered and insured by you or your employer (and that you are permitted to ride it), or you are a broker acting on behalf of a client.

If you use the free service to check the insurance status for someone else’s motorcycle, you may be committing an offence.

It’s also worth remembering that returning a positive “yes, this vehicle is insured” result is not proof of being either insured or uninsured – but confirms only if the motorbike you’re checking on currently appears on the Motor Insurance Database on the day of the query.

The results are a simple “yes” or “no”. The service doesn’t give are any more details so you won’t see who your underwriter or broker is, any details of the policy, or the date your cover expires. You will need to get hold of your policy documentation or contact your broker for this information.

Who provides the bike insurance check?

This free validation facility is provided by the Motor Insurers Bureau, the official body responsible for tackling uninsured riding and driving. The checker searches the motor insurance database (MID) to confirm if your bike is insured on the day of your query.

Won’t I receive notification if my motorbike isn’t insured?

It’s probably unlikely that your bike will intentionally be uninsured without your knowledge.

In the first instance, your broker should send you a renewal reminder near the time your current policy expires.

The Motor Insurers bureau also oversees a scheme called “Continuous Insurance Enforcement.” The MIB works in partnership with the DVLA to send letters to the registered keeper of a motorcycle if the bike is not on MID, and doesn’t appear to have insurance. It’s enforced by fixed penalty notices or prosecution. You don’t have to be caught riding without insurance to be caught.

What if my bike isn't insured?

It is your responsibility to ensure your bike is continuously insured. There could be times when your renewal is forgotten or misplaced, or you haven't yet received a CIE enforcement letter.

The askMID service provides a useful free tool to check the status of your bike insurance, whatever your reason for doing so.

As well as making sure that your tax and MOT are up to date, it’s vitally important (not to mention a legal requirement) to make sure your motorcycle is insured for use on the public highway. It’s also mandatory to keep your bike insured at all times even if not in use (over winter for example).

If you don’t want to insure your bike, you’ll need to declare it off the road, or SORN (statutory off road notification). You can do this online at www.gov.uk/make-a-sorn

If you need insurance, you can compare quotes and buy immediate cover at Biker Insure. Visit our home page to compare bike insurance or simply start your new quote now:

Not covered, but just need motorbike insurance for a few days? You can get a quote for a short term motorbike insurance policy via our temporary motorbike insurance page.

Can I check the insurance status of a bike I don’t own?

The free insurance checker is intended to be used for your motorcycle only. If you need to check whether someone else’s bike (or car) is insured in the event of an accident, you can do this at a charge of £10 for a single search.

How long does it take for motorbike insurance to show on the MID?

Updates to the database are not automatic - but motorbike insurance providers are obliged to supply the data in a "timely" manner.

Many providers state that they can take up to 7 days to update MID so if you've only recently bought your bike policy, it could take a few days to show.

Bike insurance check FAQ's