Cyclescheme...

The Northern Monkey

Can I buy parts?

cat_with_no_tail

On most schemes no

On some schemes yes

From what I gather, it's a similar situation to topping it up with your own cash.

The Northern Monkey

I htought cyclescheme was a scheme? i'm confused!

Our work has just bought into the scheme, so i'm considering getting a play bike to get to work on.... was wondering if i'dbe able to build it myself or if i'd have to OTS.

The Northern Monkey

Oh and how does it work?

I was talking to my MD the other day about it, and he says I can tell him the bike I want, he'll give me the cash to pay for it ( :shock: )and the sort out the cyclesheme with the receipt?

cat_with_no_tail

To be honest mate, I really dont know, we cant use it here so I'm just going by what I've read on these forums.

From what I gather, there are a few different versions of the scheme, some companies choose to administer their own scheme and I *think* those are the ones that tend to be more open to this kind of thing.

I could be talking shlt though :?

TommyEss

Right - the terminology seems to get mixed up a lot - so here's what's what.

The Government introduced a tax break called Bike2Work. Any person, theoretically, who is paid by their company by PAYE, can take advantage, including self-employed people (so long as they use PAYE)

The Government/HMRC have granted a standard £1000 Consumer Credit Licence to any company offering the Bike2Work tax break to their employee(s) - which is why that's the most common price associated with all this. Should your company decide to offer a higher amount, they must apply for a higher valued Consumer Credit Licence (which I think is around £750 per annum)

Cyclescheme is a third party company that administrates the Bike2Work tac break on behalf of many companies; as such, it is the biggest of these type of companies, and has the widest reach in terms of participating bike shops. They make their profit by charging the bike shops 10% of the retail value of any bike and accessories sold. (Which is why most bike shops won't give you a further discount if you're buying on the scheme)

Technically speaking, you can only purchase a complete bike or bikes and safety accessories (including but not limited to helmets, locks, lights, hi-viz etc.) - You could, for example, buy a bike for both ends of a train journey, shoud you wish, or one Brompton to see you through the whole journey.

You cannot, officially, just buy a frame on the scheme - though I'm sure you could probably find a sympathetic bike shop should you desperately need to.

The only other issue is ownership - in the case of Cyclescheme - they own the bike and you "hire it" from them by means of deductions from your salary at source, i.e. before tax (which is where you make the saving). Once the term is complete, they may opt to sell you the bike for a fair market value.

Technically, they cannot agree a price to sell you the bike for at the start of the agreement, since this would be deemed to be a benefit in kind, and therefore not eligible for a tax break, but what appears to be happening in most cases is that when you've completed the hire period, the bikes are generally available for purchase at around 5% of the inital retail price.

Of course, you could walk away and leave them with it if you didn't like it at the end of the hire period.... :P

EDIT - Bike shops such as Evans, Halfords, Wiggle, Planet-X and some others, administer their own schemes - so depending on which one your company has gone for, you may be a little limited in which bikes you can get your hands on (although I understand that Halfords for example can order in any bike so long as it carries a CE mark (which is why Planet-X and On-One had problems a couple of years ago))

The Northern Monkey

Urgh...

Sounds like a lot of hassle for a 1k bike. admittedly could cost around £600 at the end of it, but that means paying out my wages every month without any choice.

Think i'll just stick to building my own

TommyEss

It's not much hassle to be honest - I just filled in a form, waited for them to post the voucher, went to my LBS, handed over the form and that was that.

Instead of having to make 6 payments monthly from my current account, I get 12 months with a bit less going into my current account from work - spreading it over 12 months isn't an option on a £1000 bike at my LBS on their interest free payment plan - so even without the tax savings it makes life a bit easier for me.

YMMV!

stumpyjon

In short

No you can't buy parts

(unless you know your LBS very well, hurrah for your LBS )