Cycle Insurance (theft, etc)

Clever Pun

Currently I'm looking at renewing my buildings and contents insurance and this year it's proving difficult to get a decent price with my 4 bikes involved

Does anyone have any recomendations to cycle friendly insurers for buildings and contents or bike specific insurers that deal with theft/accidental damage etc

Original costs from £950-£1900 if that helps?

Thanks

rjsterry

Only have 2 bikes, and neither particularly valuable, but Coop have been pretty good to us for the last couple of years. They don't price match or anything, so the price they give you is their only offer, but the cover is pretty good.

rolf_f

M&S seem to be the default recommendation. I just had to change and their quote was reasonable. They don't need a specific mention of any item less than 4k in value.

markshaw77

M&S Insurance is pretty good - I don't think there is a limit on number of bikes and they cover up to £4k for each. Cover away from home is worldwide and has the same limit but is an optional extra and only covers "temporarily away from home" (which is always a grey area for commuting)

Quick extract from M&S site FAQs:

Do you insure bicycles?
Yes, and you do not need to specially mention a bicycle unless it is valued at £4000 or more.

The Contents section will cover your bicycles when it is in your home, an outbuilding or in your garden. The Cover Away From Home section of the policy will provide worldwide cover when they are temporarily removed from your home, including being taken abroad.

I have it, but have not had cause to claim so can't comment on how good or bad it is in reality, but on paper, it seems very open and flexible when it comes to cover for bikes and the rates were very good when compared to my old policy (Zurich)

HTH

Clever Pun

thanks guys I'll look into those

rjsterry

Just checked the Coop website, and cycles under £1,000 are covered automatically, with those over £1,000 needing to be listed. Unfortunately, you'll have to ring them for a quote on these items. Not the cheapest, but you do get good cover for your money.

Clever Pun

Any cycle specific insurance?? Anyone had any dealings with that

I've got a quote without bikes at £370... M&S rocks in about £630.. so I figure £100 specific on bikes is still a winner

rjsterry

Not sure how our respective houses compare, but our combined buildings + contents was way cheaper than that M&S quote - more like the without-bikes figure, so I think you are right about getting the bikes insured separately.

amnezia

Clever Pun wrote:

Any cycle specific insurance?? Anyone had any dealings with that

I've got a quote without bikes at £370... M&S rocks in about £630.. so I figure £100 specific on bikes is still a winner

Bike specific insurance tends to be a rip-off

To cover my two bikes was £400+ / year

rolf_f

Do a search - the comments about cycle specific I found here were that, aside from being expensive, they were hard to claim on (eg needing to prove that at all times the bike was locked to a secure shackle that was bolted to the Earths core etc etc). Whereas House insurance just pays up.

markshaw77

Jeez - where do you live? M&S must consider it to be crime-central for there to be that big a difference or is the level of cover and excess significantly different (M&S on Premium is unlimited for almost everything with little/no excess)

Either that or I must have been lucky - my M&S quote came in at almost parity with my old Zurich quote for B&C

Clever Pun

markshaw77 wrote:

Jeez - where do you live? M&S must consider it to be crime-central for there to be that big a difference or is the level of cover and excess significantly different (M&S on Premium is unlimited for almost everything with little/no excess)

Either that or I must have been lucky - my M&S quote came in at almost parity with my old Zurich quote for B&C

Croydon

M&S included bikes the other quote didn't

bike specific ones are in afact an utter rip

markshaw77

Clever Pun wrote:

Croydon

That explains a lot