Bicycle theft insurance

ndru

Hi all

I've recently (and finaly) bought myself a road bike to get to work, which is just fantastic and so much better then public transport, can't believe I've gone without it for so long.

I've been looking at many threads about insurance, but they haven't reached any conclusion really, most of them suggesting insuring the bike under the home insurance or getting a really cheap bike and forget about insurance.

Now, I've definitely bought a cheap bike (B'twin Sport 1), but I wouldn't like to part with it regardless of the cost. And if, god forbid something like this happens I'd like to be covered.

I have looked at some insurers, and at the moment I am considering
http://www.evanscyclesinsurance.com/
http://www.cycleguard.co.uk/
http://www.cyclecover.org.uk/
http://www.insureyourbicycle.co.uk/

Has anyone had any experience with these insurers? How difficult is it to claim?

Thanks all

itsbruce

No experience with them at all, but had good experience with http://www.urbancyclinginsurance.co.uk/

The LCC involvment makes a difference to the quality of the service, I think.

ndru

Thanks this one seems sensible too.

jangle

I use http://www.eta.co.uk/insurance/cycle and although I haven't had to claim yet, they had more additional bits for the price than the others I looked for.

ndru

That one looks even beter. They all seem to cos around the same money, but what they offer is very different. Also the list of locks they aprove is different.

andy83

Im with cycleguard and pretty happy as they definitely cover bikes in a shed, states in their policy. My shed is alarmed but it would be covered in there if not

ndru

Well at the moment I am keeping it at home during the night, and locked in a cycle parking near my work (Portugal street). What I want is a hassle free insurance, cheap, which doesn't require me to buy a super expensive lock (coz we all now they just slow down thieves, not stop'em). At the moment the ETA looks like the best choice - everything covered for 34 quid a year.

ndru

So I went with ETA. It cost me £34 plus £10 handling fee for a £300 bike. £25 excess and I need to get a silver rated lock.

alfablue

ndru wrote:

So I went with ETA. It cost me £34 plus £10 handling fee for a £300 bike. £25 excess and I need to get a silver rated lock.

So if you claim it will pay out a net £231 after you have taken off costs and excess - £69 equivalent for £231 cover seems like very poor value (as are all dedicated bike policies). My motor policy costs £350 per year, insuring a car worth £10000, but could potentially pay out hundreds of thousands (god forbid), excess £250).

ndru

How have you calculated that? What costs are you talking about? The yearly insurance is £34 plus £10 handling fee when you buy it. When you claim you pay first £25 they top it up till £300 plus they pay up to £250 towards replacement bike hire. They also give you a recovery option if your bike has a mechanical fault. Not mentioning they will compensate for damages and your injuries. So not such a bad deal after all for around £3 a month....

alfablue

The costs are £34 to buy, £10 handling fee (!!!!), less £25 excess. So, to get £300 you pay £69.

Good to hear they cover your injuries. What's the limit on that?

I'm not having a go at you, merely pointing out that it is poor value relative to other kinds of insurance (my car insurance, my annual travel policy, my home insurance, etc). I think this price is not something that bike consumers should be happy about - far from it, its a rip off.

ndru

I didn't feel like you were having a go, just wanted to know where these figures came from. If you look at it like this - it's true. Again - paying £34 for peace of mind isn't that bad - it could always be cheaper, but then again some people pay £5 a month to insure their mobile (which they keep in their pockets).
They pay out around £10000 for lost limb and £20000 upon death, but they also pay for any damage I cause with my bike to others.
Just out of interest - what would be the price and deal you'd be happy about?

alfablue

Well most bike insurance is based upon a minimum of 10% insured value, this is far higher than my motor policy for example. I have four bikes and it would cost in excess of £450 per year to insure them through ETA, no single bike would be insured for more than £1500. This seems like very poor value when it is £100 more than my car policy, as mentioned above, and on every count the cover is for potentially much larger sums. Alternatively, M&S home insurance will insure any number of unspecified bikes, up to a maximum of £4000 each, for no extra charge (I would be getting the home insurance for about the same as ETA charge for the bikes!). Or CIS insurance will insure a bike as an extra on a home policy, to the value of £1000 for £1.50 per month extra.

amnezia

The quote i got from urbancyclinginsurance.co.uk was £380 per year :shock:

I would of thought it would be much cheaper to get them covered under home insurance

ndru

When I was thinking about buying a small car for weekend use the price of insurance for a L500 corsa was around L1300, so the one for bicycle still isn't that bad

ketsbaia

alfablue wrote:

Well most bike insurance is based upon a minimum of 10% insured value, this is far higher than my motor policy for example. I have four bikes and it would cost in excess of £450 per year to insure them through ETA, no single bike would be insured for more than £1500. This seems like very poor value when it is £100 more than my car policy, as mentioned above, and on every count the cover is for potentially much larger sums. Alternatively, M&S home insurance will insure any number of unspecified bikes, up to a maximum of £4000 each, for no extra charge (I would be getting the home insurance for about the same as ETA charge for the bikes!). Or CIS insurance will insure a bike as an extra on a home policy, to the value of £1000 for £1.50 per month extra.

Wowsa. If I were paying less than 10% of the value of my car for insurance, I'd be a happy bunny indeed.

You don't live in London, I expect.

lost_in_thought

If you compare bicycle insurance to other cover on a premium vs value basis, it does seem like poor value.

However, looking at it instead of the other option (covering on home and contents) you have to also look at the loss of no claims bonus, and the excess.

The theory I've developed is that for a bike under £500, it's not worth paying for insurance, you're better to spend the money on a decent lock, or a few!

£500 up to about £2000 you're best off with bicycle-specific cover, and above £2000 (depending on your policy) it's better to have it on the home and contents cover - bicycle-specific cover on a bike of that value is insanely expensive. I have done maths on this, believe it or not!

Of course, it does depend somewhat on how much no claims you've built up on your H&C policy etc etc etc.

I've found Hiscox very good for covering bikes to an unlimited value at home and away from home without unreasonable requirements.

lost_in_thought

PS. On that ETA cover, I figure that if something seems to good to be true it probably is....


Have a really in-depth read of the policy docs before buying, just so you're aware of the definitions and exclusions. Maybe give them a call to talk through them. There's a lot of ways in there that they could weasel out of paying if you've made a small slip-up.

ndru

@lost_in_thought - I've had a good read of the policy and it's quite reasonable, but again - I only ever claimed my insurance when I lost my mobile - hassle free, one phone call, £25 excess, new mobile the same day. I hope it's that easy with a bike