cyclesheme?

christk

Would like to ask others their experience with this scheme please.

Do you have any bargaining power with retailers, or is it a case of take it or leave it?
What is the typical final repayment and has anyone ever given a bike back?
As I have all other equipment, being a regular mountain biker I will be looking for the full allowance to go on the bike. Any recommendations? I've been looking at the Giant sports bikes.

Downwardi

christk wrote:

Would like to ask others their experience with this scheme please.

Do you have any bargaining power with retailers, or is it a case of take it or leave it?

What is the typical final repayment and has anyone ever given a bike back?
As I have all other equipment, being a regular mountain biker I will be looking for the full allowance to go on the bike. Any recommendations? I've been looking at the Giant sports bikes.

1. Yes but bear in mind Cyclescheme charge your LBS 10% of sale.
2. 5% of total cost - Your company should receive this payment but somehow Cyclescheme ask for it so there commission is 15% (no wonder they are one of the fastest growing companies) They won't take back a bike as they have no logistics to store or collect. They will charge you the 5% to keep it or scrap it.

3. Pass[/b]

Canny Jock

In my experience virtually no bargaining power as the shop pays based on RRP - therefore sale bikes and discounts are generally excluded.

Underscore

1) I've not heard of anyone being able to bargain due to the charge added by Cyclescheme. However, some shops will permit you to buy their sale bikes. Others will allow you to buy their sale bikes with a surcharge. Some rule out sale bikes altogether.

2) I've just paid £57.28 as the final payment on my Giant Defy 1, which was listed at £975 when I got it.

3) Can't give you unbiased advice but I have a Giant XtC (I have a very good LBS which is a Giant dealer), with which I'm very happy, so I'd certainly consider a Giant if I were you...

_

Rich158

Bargaining power is limited due to Cyclescheme taking their 10%, and some shops even add on a bit to cover this. Condor add 5% to cover the cost

I've had two bikes on Cyclescheme and am now on my third. I've never had to pay a final amount though.

Personally I think it's a great way to buy a bike and has saved me getting on for £800 over the last two years or so

essex-commuter

Rich158 wrote:

I've had two bikes on Cyclescheme and am now on my third.

Grrr, makes my blood boil with jealousy...my company will not entertain the scheme, full stop. Admin costs apparently :?

spen666

Rich158 wrote:

Bargaining power is limited due to Cyclescheme taking their 10%, and some shops even add on a bit to cover this. Condor add 5% to cover the cost

I've had two bikes on Cyclescheme and am now on my third. I've never had to pay a final amount though.

Personally I think it's a great way to buy a bike and has saved me getting on for £800 over the last two years or so

Its only a sabving if you were going to buy the bike anyway!

Rich158

spen666 wrote:

Rich158 wrote:

Bargaining power is limited due to Cyclescheme taking their 10%, and some shops even add on a bit to cover this. Condor add 5% to cover the cost

I've had two bikes on Cyclescheme and am now on my third. I've never had to pay a final amount though.

Personally I think it's a great way to buy a bike and has saved me getting on for £800 over the last two years or so

Its only a sabving if you were going to buy the bike anyway!

Good god, are you my ex in disguise :shock:

cee

we run our own scheme, so the company buys the bike either with a company credit card, or the shop invoices us and we pay by bacs...

so no 3rd party company taking a slice means we can enjoy the normal bargaining that you would get if you walked in with a credit card instead of a voucher.

Eau Rouge

essex-commuter wrote:

Rich158 wrote:

I've had two bikes on Cyclescheme and am now on my third.

Grrr, makes my blood boil with jealousy...my company will not entertain the scheme, full stop. Admin costs apparently :?

Have you mentioned the National Insurance savings to them?

essex-commuter

Eau Rouge wrote:

Have you mentioned the National Insurance savings to them?

We've been through everything...pushed from all angles as much as possible.

I work for a 'large automotive manufacturer', it has been said that maybe they prefer cars on the roads rather than bikes but I just put it down to bureaucracy and that the bigger an organisation is, the harder it is to do something 'simple'.

ExeterSimon

cee wrote:

we run our own scheme, so the company buys the bike either with a company credit card, or the shop invoices us and we pay by bacs...

so no 3rd party company taking a slice means we can enjoy the normal bargaining that you would get if you walked in with a credit card instead of a voucher.

If my employer didn't already have Cyclescheme I'd go bike shopping with you because if you can negotiate a 40% plus discount on bikes you'll save me shedloads!

cee

ExeterSimon wrote:

cee wrote:

we run our own scheme, so the company buys the bike either with a company credit card, or the shop invoices us and we pay by bacs...

so no 3rd party company taking a slice means we can enjoy the normal bargaining that you would get if you walked in with a credit card instead of a voucher.

If my employer didn't already have Cyclescheme I'd go bike shopping with you because if you can negotiate a 40% plus discount on bikes you'll save me shedloads!

you misunderstand...

we can do the normal negotiating thing that you would with cash.....so maybe 10% or stuff thrown in

but then make all the same savings as the 3rd party cycleshemes give you with regard to VAT, income tax and national insurance, which is where your 40% discount comes...we get that on top of any discount we can negotiate with the bike shop. because no 3rd party voucher company is in the middle, we do not have to pay them the 10% commission. We do the admin. not the cyclescheme company.

Aguila

I got my commute bike on cyclescheme and all went smoothly. The final payment was identical to all the others in my case, they just divided the cost by 12 I think.

The bike I picked was discounted from RRP and this is what was paid on the voucher so you dont have to pay full rrp.

Get an audax bike, my next scheme commuter will be the condor fratello.

kelsen

My company will contribute 10% towards the value of the voucher, so my monthly repayments is based on £720 instead of £800. When I ordered my bike from Evans, they were doing 10% off all RRPs. Then there was a voucher you could print from their website offering 10% on top of the voucher price in accessories i.e. £80. Also, because I wasn't using the full amount of the voucher on the bike, I could spend the remainder on additional accessories which I was allowed to price match against the internet!

I think I'll end up paying roughly £450 for nearly a grand's worth of kit! 8)

Tonymufc

Underscore wrote:

1) I've not heard of anyone being able to bargain due to the charge added by Cyclescheme. However, some shops will permit you to buy their sale bikes. Others will allow you to buy their sale bikes with a surcharge. Some rule out sale bikes altogether.

2) I've just paid £57.28 as the final payment on my Giant Defy 1, which was listed at £975 when I got it.

3) Can't give you unbiased advice but I have a Giant XtC (I have a very good LBS which is a Giant dealer), with which I'm very happy, so I'd certainly consider a Giant if I were you...

_

Thats a bit more than 5%. 5% usually works out at another months payment.

Eau Rouge

kelsen wrote:

My company will contribute 10% towards the value of the voucher, so my monthly repayments is based on £720 instead of £800.

You're company is abusing you
They will be claiming 17.5% of the voucher back in VAT, yet only passing 10% of the voucher on to you, so a little over half the VAT money, while they pocket the rest. My lot kept all the VAT.

Downwardi

Final payment maybe 5% + Vat.
Not sure it was £30 ish for me on £600 worth of kit.

Think I will bring up the fact that Cyclescheme are asking for the 5% rather than the company.

You buy your bike £1k.
Your company pay cyclescheme £1k + admin charge.
Cyclescheme charge LBS 10%
Cyclescheme then invoice you after 12 months for the final payment charge 5% (£50)

Cyclescheme make on a £1k sale - £1150.

Now your company own the bike so cyclescheme shouldn't charge 5% for you to "buy" the bike when they don't own it - Agree or is it just me ??

:shock: :shock:

kingrollo

Canny Jock wrote:

In my experience virtually no bargaining power as the shop pays based on RRP - therefore sale bikes and discounts are generally excluded.

Not correct.
I have queried this with cyclescheme. They issue no directive on pricing, so its all down to the shop - if they say they aren't to sell discount bikes on cyclescheme - it is their decision - not cyclescheme.

Underscore

Downwardi wrote:

Final payment maybe 5% + Vat

Yes, in my case £57.28 is 5% the list price (£975) plus VAT. This is what the example paperwork given at the start showed so it is not a surprise to me.

Downwardi wrote:

Now your company own the bike so cyclescheme shouldn't charge 5% for you to "buy" the bike when they don't own it - Agree or is it just me ??

Talking to the HR person here who deals with it, the company passed ownership of my bike to Cyclescheme, who then gave me the option of transferring ownership from them to myself for a final payment. So Cyclescheme offload the admin from the company in return for the ownership of the bike.

BTW, for those who have not paid a final payment, be aware that you do not own the bike. The C2W scheme allows the employee to continue using the bike without further payment but it remains a company asset until a final payment has been made. I didn't get asked for the final payemtn so I actually chased HR to be able to make it as I didn't want them to take my bike away if I handed in my notice!

_

Downwardi

Underscore wrote:

Downwardi wrote:

Final payment maybe 5% + Vat

Yes, in my case £57.28 is 5% the list price (£975) plus VAT. This is what the example paperwork given at the start showed so it is not a surprise to me.

Downwardi wrote:

Now your company own the bike so cyclescheme shouldn't charge 5% for you to "buy" the bike when they don't own it - Agree or is it just me ??

Talking to the HR person here who deals with it, the company passed ownership of my bike to Cyclescheme, who then gave me the option of transferring ownership from them to myself for a final payment. So Cyclescheme offload the admin from the company in return for the ownership of the bike.

BTW, for those who have not paid a final payment, be aware that you do not own the bike. The C2W scheme allows the employee to continue using the bike without further payment but it remains a company asset until a final payment has been made. I didn't get asked for the final payemtn so I actually chased HR to be able to make it as I didn't want them to take my bike away if I handed in my notice!

_

Me too - I chased up Cyclescheme for this reason and so I an start to claim expenses - a whole 10p a mile which to be honest I have never claimed as it's such a paltry amount.

the_hundredth_idiot

My company has a slightly different take on the final payment issue. After the 24 month period (my company spreads payments over 24 months rather than 12), my company allows us to continue using our bikes at no cost to us. Over time it quietly forgets about it all and no final payment is ever due. I guess if you left employment 1 month after the 24 month period ended, this might be a problem. If you hang around for a few more years, the problem disappears as the bike can more reasonably be assumed to have no value.

Perhaps, in theory, I don't ever own the bike but I can't see that being an issue in practice - I have the receipt for it which is in my name and my employer has many better things to do with its time and resources than harass employees for small sums of money. And my company certainly wouldn't want the hassle of trying to offload a bunch of second-hand bikes.

My last employer used the same approach, although at the time I didn't look into the rationale behind it.

HMRC is apparently clamping down on final payments where it feels they have been set too low - so I might find out at some point if my company's approach will have to change going forward.

Canny Jock

kingrollo wrote:

Canny Jock wrote:

In my experience virtually no bargaining power as the shop pays based on RRP - therefore sale bikes and discounts are generally excluded.

Not correct.
I have queried this with cyclescheme. They issue no directive on pricing, so its all down to the shop - if they say they aren't to sell discount bikes on cyclescheme - it is their decision - not cyclescheme.

I wasn't suggesting that cyclescheme dictate this, just that shops will often not include sale bikes or reductions due to the payment being based on RRP - it is as you say the shops choice.

UKScooby

cee wrote:

we run our own scheme, so the company buys the bike either with a company credit card, or the shop invoices us and we pay by bacs...

so no 3rd party company taking a slice means we can enjoy the normal bargaining that you would get if you walked in with a credit card instead of a voucher.

This is the way forward. We saved hundreds by doing deals with a couple of local retailers. I need need to increase my credit card limit - but the shops were happy with all they were taking.

And whilst you often hear of 5% final buyback - our local council and nhs trust use 3% - what works for the public sector is good by me. Plus Vat.

UKScooby

cee wrote:

we run our own scheme, so the company buys the bike either with a company credit card, or the shop invoices us and we pay by bacs...

so no 3rd party company taking a slice means we can enjoy the normal bargaining that you would get if you walked in with a credit card instead of a voucher.

This is the way forward. We saved hundreds by doing deals with a couple of local retailers. I need need to increase my credit card limit - but the shops were happy with all they were taking.

And whilst you often hear of 5% final buyback - our local council and nhs trust use 3% - what works for the public sector is good by me. Plus Vat.