How to know if my bike has insurance

One of the most important elements before driving with a motor vehicle, including motorcycles, is to have civil liability insurance, which is essential and which will be responsible for a significant part of the costs in the event that have an accident In general, the easiest way to know if a motorcycle has the updated insurance is to review the documentation that the insurance company has attached to us at the time of taking the insurance, which will include the expiration date of said insurance. However, if you are asked about how to know if my motorcycle has insurance or not, read on and we will tell you some important information.

Insured Vehicle Information File (FIVA)

To know if a motor vehicle, whether a motorcycle, a car or a vehicle of another type, has insurance, the simplest way to do it would be to confirm its appearance in the Insured Vehicle Information File or FIVA, which is the official file where All insurance related to vehicles in Spain are listed. In other words, what guarantees the existence of insurance as such is the fact that a particular vehicle is registered in said file, as well as the conditions in which it appears.

However, the problem is that, due to a matter of data protection, the information contained in the FIVA is not provided to individuals except in very specific cases, such as an accident with a vehicle. In this way, although the FIVA is the most reliable source to know if your motorcycle has insurance or not, it will not be a feasible solution in most cases. However, if it is to obtain the information due to an accident and to present a part, the FIVA will be of great help to us, since it will give us the necessary information. However, the correct thing to do is to know if the motorcycle in question has insurance before using it and that you can have the hypothetical accident that involves the presentation of that part.

How to know if my bike has insurance without using the FIVA

In general, most drivers know if their motorcycle has insurance or not because they are the ones who have chosen the insurance for the motorcycle and have hired it previously. In fact, in these cases, the most common is that you have to attach documentation in which all the information regarding the type of policy contracted and the characteristics and maturity of the insurance will appear. Therefore, the most advisable and easy to do if you have the documentation, will be to consult it.

However, in those cases in which, either the documentation is not available, or simply a new motorcycle is purchased and you want to know if you have insurance or not, it is best to go directly to the sources. In the case of having lost the documentation, it is best to contact the insurance company directly and notify them. Likewise, it will be the company itself that will be able to provide a copy of the lost documents and, if necessary, inform the driver of the need to renew or not the insurance of the motorcycle.

On the contrary, in the case of acquiring a new motorcycle and wanting to know the status of your insurance, it is advisable to ask the seller directly and, if the answer is affirmative, request the insurance documentation. It is important not to give absolute credibility to the word of the seller because, although most people will be honored, there may be cases where it is not so and, in the case of driving without insurance, the penalty will be to the driver and not To the seller. Therefore, it will be necessary to request the documentation and, likewise, it will also be important to contact the insurer to change the policy holder in our name, which will help us to verify, in a definitive way, the insurance status.

If you are looking for a motorcycle that is not new, we recommend that you read here about How to transfer a motorcycle correctly so that you do not take surprises if you buy a second hand, both with regard to motorcycle insurance and other aspects.

Is it compulsory to have motorcycle insurance?

Absolutely YES, it is mandatory to have insurance for the motorcycle . The Civil Liability insurance, or also called "third party insurance", is mandatory to be able to drive with a motor vehicle in Spain since 1965. It is an insurance that will be responsible for the costs to third parties in the case of a accident and, therefore, it is mandatory. Keep in mind that this insurance does not have collection purposes, but it is a way to ensure that, in case of accident, the other people who are involved may have an option to obtain the cost of repair. In fact, until the approval of the mandatory Civil Liability insurance, the driver had to respond with his own assets in case of accident and not have this insurance, which entailed high risks when driving.