Insurance Recommendations

Xybadog

Are E&L the only known bike insurance company?

I'm having trouble finding any other, even by googling, all I can find are motorbike insurers. :?

Shadowness

cycleguard?

P.S. Im with E&L, all I can say is that I claimed on the 28th January, and im still waiting for my cheque! Quality service?!

scottalej

Asda cover bikes home and away up to £1500 each. I believe M&S do as well.

miss notax

M&S cover bikes (and anything else!) up to £4k

nation

Most Home contents insurers will cover cycles away from the home. Usually there's a standard limit (most often £1000) you can always increase that, or specify your bike on the policy.

I looked at E&L but they only cover to the bikes full replacement value if it's less than three years old, and it was pretty expensive compared to just adding the bike to my home policy.

Xybadog

Great, thanks for your suggestions.

pauly walnuts

do you have to have home insurance for asda? or do they do bike specific insurance also?

delcol

just google cycle insurance

or mountain bike insurance there are a few companies out there who offer it.

toontra

Have a look at ETA - their insurance seems pretty much the same price as others but included in the cost is an AA/RAC-type recovery service which will take you home/to a hotel/bike shop, etc

I'm doing a LEJoG next week so took out cover with them - hope I don't need it!

charliebarrow

I just cancelled my E&L insurance. They kept upping my 'optional extras' and the level of cover was pretty limited. I.e, wouldn't cover if kept in a garage, didn't have special security tag, was the wrong colour... and they didn't do a multi bike policy. I didn't hold out much hope if I had to claim so decided that the £30 per month woulb be better spent elsewhere.
E&L didn't seem too interested in why I wanted to leave and didn't offer any incentives to stay.

GHill

See if your current home insurance provider will cover it (for an extra fee no doubt). Note they might not provide accidental damage cover if that's what you're after.

Shadowness

Im still waiting for my settlement from E&L. I sent in the form on the 28th of Jan!!

Jimbob_no5

whats the best insurance for a £4500 v10?? getting it insured once its built, smatwatered and data tagged

norfolkguy

I looked into specilist cycle insurance companies and found that they were expensive, had loads of clauses and didn't give cover if left in car or camping etc. All mine are insured on household through NU up to £1500 per bike on a new for old policy, however old the bike and in pretty much any circumstance. sadly my mtb is worth more than that but it's cheaper to take the loss than pay an expensive aditional premium. Hope that helps

Chaka Ping

I've recently insured my bikes on a household policy with Barclays - at a fair secondhand value of about £1k to £1.5k each.

hewison

My bike is insured throughy Butterworths, who are the official insurance company of the Cycle Touring Club, which means you are covered when camping as long as it's locked up. You don't need any special locks or to have the bike data tagged and you don't need to be a member of the CTC.

My bike is insured for £2000 and it cost me £172 in the first year. I've just renewed it for £154.80 for this year as they operate a 10% no claims discount with 10% off each year up to a maximum of 30%.

The bike is covered abroad and, as far as I can remember, covers crash damage as well.

Don't know what they're like when you make a claim and I hope I never find out

pauly walnuts

i've just insured my bike through evans cycles. can't think off the top of my head which company it is tho....defenatley not cyclegaurd or E&L tho.

has anybody else went through evans to insure thier bike???

norfolkguy

hewison wrote:

My bike is insured throughy Butterworths, who are the official insurance company of the Cycle Touring Club, which means you are covered when camping as long as it's locked up. You don't need any special locks or to have the bike data tagged and you don't need to be a member of the CTC.

My bike is insured for £2000 and it cost me £172 in the first year. I've just renewed it for £154.80 for this year as they operate a 10% no claims discount with 10% off each year up to a maximum of 30%.

The bike is covered abroad and, as far as I can remember, covers crash damage as well.

Don't know what they're like when you make a claim and I hope I never find out

I haven't been in the CTC for some time now but i remeber that in the past if you made a claim for accident damage you had to salvage every re-usable part and they replaced the rest.

hewison

You could very well be right Norfolkguy but that would seem only fair to me. I wouldn't expect to get a whole new bike if I'd just snapped the frame or destroyed a set of wheels.

norfolkguy

No, neither would I. I wouldn't even claim for such damage. What I meant was that if the bike was economically a write off - i.e. not just talking parts but the labour cost of repair too, they'd still expect you to salvage what you could, even if it were a stem!

badblood

having made claims for £1700 and £2.5K with seperate insurers (seperate claims!) I can reccomend both Churchill and Northern Rock home insurance, not really the cheapest but the claims were both dealt with very quickly and efficiently although I have heard good things about M&S home insurance. Avoid E&L as they have very strict policy small rpint and charge the earth

Turrican

Regarding the insurance covers, look in back of MBUK mag in adverts theres one called CYCLEGUARD, ive insured my bike with them hope this helpd it CYCLEGUARD.CO.UK

maybon

Yeti,

Don't post here when you don't know the full facts.

Cycleguard ONLY cover anything on your bike if the entire bike is stolen. If the frame remains for example but everything else is gone, then they wont pay out. This has occurred to 3 friends of mine, and is also factually consistent with plenty of posts on other forums.

Someone comes along, steals your expensive new saddle, pedals and wheels, along with maybe even your derailleur; result is: no payout, the 'bike' in it's entirety wasn't stolen.

Note to other readers: Ignore yeti, don't go with cycleguard, they're a sham of an insurance company, which is why they only have under 4000 cyclists insuring with them, although it still states 5000 on the website.

I will not recommend whom I am with for impartiality, but please please please read the small print before signing up, unlike yeti above

Turrican

Well, A: I wasnt asking people to join Cycle guard as only stateing thats who i went with, its peoples choices / decisions who they go with too. B: if they are that bad as say they are can i change insurance now and cancel the one have olny just started and C: insurance companies are out to make money anyway and theres allways a catch wether its car / house / bike insurance etc but yeah maybe should of read little print instead of just going insure my bike, hey was my first time insuring. I reckon takes couple goes to find decent insurance companies who you be happy with. So thanks for info myself a lesson learnt AND READ ALL PRINTS SMALL OR LARGE AND GET QUOTES FROM AS MANY AS CAN

dan1983

Am I right in thinking that on your home insurance you're allowed one expensive 'extra' item for free (i.e. not the usual household goods)?

Unfortunately I live at home, and my Dad decided the one expensive item should be his golf clubs, therefore I had to pay extra for the bike to be put on, but it was only a matter of £'s. I think! (Dad paid!)

zaynan

I used to recommend Butterworths very highly - however i got my renewal invitation through this week and they want to charge me over £200 more than last year! I've made no claims, live in the same house and the bikes are the same. What they have done is introduced a 'new' higher level of insurance so if your bikes are collectively worth more than £5k (which mine are) then you are in the £5-12k bracket. NOT HAPPY!

I wonder if the ctc know about this - I feel like writing to complain.

canada16

AA insurance

I asked what lock, they said dont care as long as its locked.

Its in my house as have no were else to put it, wear and tear deduction max of 4%

bike value 3000.00

150.00 a year with a platnium ring and 50,000 cont. dont get better than that

yoohoo999

I use ETA.

You need to pick an insurance company that suits your EXACT situation and requirements. That means taking a fine tooth comb to the policy documentation.

If you just pick a company that "seems" to offer quite good terms/price, then you might as well not have bothered with insurance in the first place.

The whole point of insurance is that you know that you are covered. I bet more than half of the people who have their bikes insured on this website have no idea of the terms/restrictions on their policies and are potentially in breach of them.

CanalRider

Currently with Insure, they will cover all my bikes upto 500 quid, currently we have 5 with the last
being 800 quid, they wont cover this even after i offered to increase my premium, so if anyone can recommend a bike insurer...

LDNTrailRider

Shop around and choose the cover which suits you best. There are a few companies out there if you require standalone cover (ie. you don't need home contents insurance) and they all have different conditions and policy wording. For example, some require a 'Gold Standard' lock for a £1500 bike and some only require 'Silver'. Some also require that you have locks on your windows etc.

Check the policy wording before you sign up and check the policy documents when you get them. If the cover doesn't suit you, don't buy. It's better to check first than to cry when your claim gets rejected.

Electricpics

yoohoo999 wrote:

I use ETA.

You need to pick an insurance company that suits your EXACT situation and requirements. That means taking a fine tooth comb to the policy documentation.

I use ETA as well. A policy document that's unusually clear and cover that's well suited to me, and probably a lot of other people but as yoohoo999 said, check carefully as if you've missed something that could exclude you and your individual circumastances from making a successful claim, you might as well burn pound notes.

Regarding E&L. E&L stands for Equine & Livestock, and that's where they started out, and now cover almost every area of consumer item insurance. In short, they have a reputation for providing scant cover and not paying out, using the full weight of their policies to back them up. One area where they're noted for their unwillingness to pay out is with their photography cover. I'm a professional photographer so I use professional insurance for my gear (Photoguard) but I've lost count of the amatuer 'togs whove had problems with E&L. Avoid.